- 1 day ago
Could a Friday news dump be coming with any Texans updates, and what should fans be on alert for heading into the weekend? ITL keeps an eye on potential late-week moves and surprises. Plus, the Rockets fall in overtime to the 76ers, and the crew checks in on how everyone is really feeling about the team right now, all things considered.
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00:00What is the grade that you would give to the Houston Rockets last night
00:03after what looked like a pretty good first half?
00:07You were playing a close game with the 76ers team that is healthy, surprisingly,
00:11in the way that they get injured, and you end up going overtime
00:17and losing in overtime to a Sixers team, 128-122.
00:21This was rough, and there's a lot of different things that made it rough.
00:24Kevin Durant himself had a good game.
00:26As a team, you shoot poorly from the free throw line.
00:29You shoot good from three, though.
00:31How did you grade this game out as you're watching?
00:33Okay, so just for those who don't know, I have four grades on my shirts, on my fishing shirt.
00:38Grade one is the crisp, clean Sunday go-to-meeting fishing shirt.
00:43You can have a job interview in it.
00:45Grade two is fishing shirt.
00:46Don't tell me you're out here having job interviews.
00:48It's a nice, clean fishing shirt you can wear to work, but, you know, you've had it for a while.
00:52Grade three is a couple little issues with the shirt,
00:57maybe a little hook with, you know, a mark or faded here and there.
01:02Grade four is, I'm going to do yard work in it.
01:04Yeah, okay.
01:05Yeah, yeah.
01:05Grade four is.
01:05There might be some holes peeking through.
01:07Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:08Gotcha.
01:08Burns and stuff from the sun and all that.
01:10So I would say the Rockets are a grade three fishing shirt right now.
01:13A couple of Knicks.
01:15As a full team or just this game and this performance?
01:17As a full team and in this performance.
01:19Oh, both.
01:20Very good.
01:20Because there's some faded areas that are starting to fade.
01:24There's some Knicks and it just looks a little tattered, but not too, too bad.
01:30That's where I would put the Rockets.
01:31And here's why.
01:32You and I were talking about this a little bit before the game, as we were wont to do.
01:36Before the show, I think.
01:37I mean, before the show, as we were wont to do.
01:39So, you think the issue can be somewhat honed in on how they're playing, you know, some
01:50of the tactics and setups and plays and, you know, those types of things.
01:54Some of it's hopeful aspects there.
01:56I don't know what the ultimate end goal is.
01:58Yeah.
01:58I think there's a little bit of hopeful optimism.
02:00I think the issue is personnel and how it's being used.
02:04And they both point back to the same thing.
02:06And that's Emei Adoka.
02:07You know, whether it's his offensive sets, what he's doing defensively, et cetera.
02:11To me, it's a personnel thing.
02:12And last night was the microcosm of it.
02:15Okay.
02:16So much for Reed Shepard, I guess, huh?
02:18Reed Shepard, 23 minutes, 14 points.
02:21He gets into a nice little groove.
02:23There are plus six in his minutes.
02:24Not that that's the end-all, be-all.
02:26But when he was on the floor, your team won those minutes by six points.
02:30And how much did they lose by?
02:31They lost by six points.
02:32How much did he play in the overtime?
02:34That's a big old zero there, John Lopez.
02:36This is crazy.
02:38He's coming off just a white-hot performance.
02:40Again, no pun intended.
02:43You've got to stop saying that because at some point it is intended.
02:47And I think we should lean into it.
02:48It's not.
02:49I swear.
02:51And then, you know, he plays pretty well when he's on the floor.
02:54You know, even last night.
02:56You know, pretty good from three-point range.
02:59You know, the whole nine yards, you know.
03:01And then doesn't play in the overtime.
03:03And here's the one that really gets me.
03:04And I just opened up the box score to make sure I saw this right.
03:07Okay.
03:07That was the first game of a back-to-back, correct?
03:09Correct.
03:10Tonight you are playing an even more daunting Eastern Conference foe.
03:15The best team in the Eastern Conference.
03:16Yes, the Detroit Pistons.
03:18You get to get the twins on the same floor again.
03:20But more importantly, that is, as you mentioned, the best team in the Eastern Conference.
03:23A valuable or valiant, rather, foe of anybody in the National Basketball Association.
03:28And Kevin Durant played 44 minutes.
03:31Kevin Durant played 44 minutes last night.
03:34Hell of a game.
03:36All the receivers in the league were on the floor in that.
03:38Because it's Tyrese Maxey, it's Amman Thompson, and it's Kevin Durant.
03:42And Kevin Durant played the most out of all of them.
03:45I believe so, yes.
03:46He played the most minutes out of all of the three dudes who had the most minutes in the National Basketball Association.
03:5044 minutes on the first night of a back-to-back with a guy who, knock on wood,
03:53has been prone to having to sit out, having some little injuries, et cetera, here and there.
03:59And all of a sudden, he's the only thing he got.
04:03To me, it's personnel and how you're using them with Ime Adoka.
04:06Yours with Ime Adoka right now is something else.
04:10Yeah, with Ime, I think that, well, you start talking about the read.
04:13Let's hit that a little bit.
04:15Because Reed Shepard, he needs to be a motion shooter.
04:19This is one of those things that I said.
04:20I think of him almost like a J.J. Redick.
04:22I know that he can be an on-ball guy, and he does some good things when he's on ball.
04:26Don't get me wrong.
04:27I think that you need to draw some plays up for him.
04:29And I know that some of this is the modern NBA is actually moving away from specifically designed plays and more to...
04:36It's opportunities.
04:37Opportunities, the flows that you get yourself into that create opportunities.
04:41I think that you probably need to draw up some plays or have some in these books where you go,
04:44we're specifically looking for Reed in some of these moments.
04:47He's gotten to that place.
04:48Or he's the first option.
04:49I think that that needs to be in here somewhat.
04:51I do think, though, that I did see some good things in here.
04:55One of the things I saw was a clear defensive strategy of, we know Tyrese Maxey can get after us,
05:01so we're going to switch on the perimeter to not allow him to turn the corner.
05:04That worked in the first half, and then it felt like they lost focus.
05:08On the offensive end, when they could get to their focus, they were doing a lot better.
05:13When that double team comes, especially for Alpern Shangoon, better for Kevin Durant,
05:18a little bit less good for Alpern Shangoon, pass out of it early.
05:22Let the ball do the work of creating opportunities.
05:24Swing, swing, swing, get it to the open guy, knock down the shot.
05:27And what was nice with Kevin Durant is that willingness to get it out.
05:30The ball often came back to him, and he knocked it down.
05:33But then they lost focus and did not keep doing that.
05:35See if you'll catch a trend.
05:36They get to the line, to the free throw line, 24 times in this game.
05:40Yeah.
05:41They only knocked down 12 of them.
05:42That's a big issue, yeah.
05:43That's a focus issue.
05:44This is a focus issue in a lot of different places,
05:47in addition to what you're talking about personnel,
05:49because, hey, Jabari Smith Jr., you need to stick to the podium.
05:51We need to talk about that.
05:52Maybe we talk about that a little bit later.
05:54In addition to some of the schematics that I do, like I said,
05:57I do think that they're finding some interesting answers
06:00with some of the ways that they were doing.
06:02I love what they did, putting a forward on Jabari
06:04and then having your center come over and help to force the ball out of his hands.
06:08I thought that there were some interesting schematic things.
06:10But if you're not going to be able to, as a team,
06:12have the motivations to stay locked in,
06:14and as a coaching staff, keep your team locked in,
06:17then I don't know what we're talking about all the way across here.
06:19We've talked a lot about, you know, what is their identity.
06:23We know their identity.
06:25We're past the midway point now of the season.
06:28Their identity is Kevin Durant.
06:30You know, stop the ball there and see what you can get off of it.
06:33Offensive rebounding, rebounding in general,
06:35and going through Shingu.
06:36Shingu did not have a good game last night.
06:38But that's going to happen occasionally.
06:40He was the first to say it.
06:42But is that a symptom of a bigger issue with the offense in general?
06:47I think there's individual progress conversations to be had.
06:53Alper and Shingu is one of those.
06:54I was looking at another stat in their trajectory over the last few years
06:58compared to this year.
06:59Alper and Shingu, in some metrics, is static,
07:03and then some metrics is taking a step back.
07:06Jabari Smith Jr., in a lot of metrics, is taking a step back,
07:08including one of the biggest ones, which is three-point shooting.
07:12With the team that you have right now, you need guys that can space.
07:15Jabari is supposed to be one of those.
07:16He's like 34%, 35% from three, which is not good enough to be that guy.
07:20And in this game in particular, he got ten three-pointers up.
07:23A lot of them open looks.
07:25He knocked down one of them.
07:26That's a development-type thing.
07:28There's other guys.
07:29I mean, Reed Shepard, it doesn't feel like they're progressing his development
07:32in the way that they should and help it push it.
07:34No, they're hindering it.
07:35I think that these are some of the things in this game that are frustrating.
07:38So I'm in this weird place.
07:39You didn't mention a man.
07:41I didn't mention a man because I don't know where to go with the men right now.
07:44I do think that some of this is just he's having to do some things
07:48that don't feel like they help him.
07:50He's doing a decent job at them, I got to say.
07:52I think I'm largely okay with the men.
07:55I don't know how many issues I have with the men.
07:57Depending on what he's doing on the floor.
07:58Right.
07:59Yeah.
08:00Yeah.
08:00But the other thing, both of these things,
08:03whether I think it's how they're using personnel
08:04and the decisions they're making there
08:06or what you're talking about with regression is what you're saying, basically.
08:09And I didn't even talk about with Jabari.
08:11How do you look at the 76ers when they're on offense?
08:14Because I'm always trying to ask myself as a way to lock myself in on what's happening.
08:20What is this team trying to do right now?
08:22And for the 76ers, a lot of times they're trying to find a matchup to attack.
08:26And then I find when they decide, hey, we're attacking, you know who they're attacking?
08:30Jabari Smith Jr.
08:31Yeah, they are.
08:31That's uncomfortable.
08:32All right.
08:32And this is where I want to ask Figgy, because no one has their saying better than Figgy.
08:38What are the streets saying about Eme Adoka, Figgy?
08:40I don't want to say they're turning on them,
08:43but they're starting to get a little irritated with them.
08:47And I will say my good friend Walker from the Beltway Boys,
08:50he run that account on Twitter, he's been out on Eme for a couple years now.
08:54And I kept saying, come on, man.
08:55Like, look what he did in Boston.
08:57He took a team to the finals and all that stuff.
08:59Yeah.
09:00And clearly, I think a lot of people are starting to see he kind of got a certain weight to him
09:06that rubs people the wrong way a little bit.
09:08But Eme is not having a good year.
09:11Light out.
09:12Yeah.
09:12Whether it's what I think or you think.
09:14Yeah, I think that this is the place where you have to show, you know,
09:18your capability as a coach.
09:20And there's some answers that need to be found within this.
09:25And I know that we can be reactionary in the moment,
09:28so I'm willing to give him leeway to see what you ultimately come up with.
09:32But this is why last year when you were like, hey, I feel like Eme's an elite coach.
09:35I was like, I still need to see some things.
09:37Because offense was one of those.
09:38And we're still looking to see what the offense ultimately ends up looking like,
09:41in addition to some other things.
09:43This was a really rough loss.
09:44And what makes it worse is that it's the front side of a back-to-back.
09:47You're on the road again against the Detroit Pistons.
09:50And that's a tough game.
09:51That's a really tough game.
09:52Yes, it is.
09:53What a weird last month of Rockets basketball it's been.
09:56They're going to need to find some, I don't know, backbone to them.
10:00I don't know what the right word is here soon in order to demonstrate that they are living
10:04up to the expectations that they set for themselves coming into this season.
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