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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