- 2 days ago
Seth and Luke discuss the Rockets getting a bounce-back win vs the Hawks last night, Şengün's "false start" on the opening tip-off, and if their expectations have changed due to how this season has gone so far.
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00:00hey it wasn't quite as big of a game but it felt like a nice bounce back last night for the
00:04rockets and a good win it was a one possession game late in the third quarter last night against
00:08the hawks and i'm sitting there thinking like ah here we go again against an under 500 hawks team
00:13missing six players tonight the rockets offense was struggling in the first half but last night
00:18almost felt like the opposite of the night prior where you know against the spurs two nights ago
00:24offense played well first half built a lead fell apart last night slow start close game and then
00:31they took off which was good to see in the last well really just the fourth quarter and they got
00:35a nice win on the road yeah really the back end of the third quarter and um but i i the first half was
00:42a slog and i just i didn't have any patience for any kind of back-to-back explanations or anything
00:48but you're playing the hawks who are missing half their guys and i i just remember yesterday i can't
00:54remember if we talked about it on air or not but you know your concern with shangun and whether he's
00:59plateaued or not but right from the the tip-off was comical i still don't know what the hell happened
01:03uh shangun had a false start on the tip-off and you know with his with his magnificent one and a half
01:11inch vertical and then i i would say shangun looks like a guy that could have used the night off on a
01:17back-to-back because he's still coming back from injury but with stephen adams out they're they're gonna
01:23have to play him and he ended up getting 10 rebounds but it didn't it wasn't a great night
01:28for shangun it was really the the capella and the capella and reed shepard combo in the third quarter
01:37ended up being one of the things that kind of ignited things but the first half was either
01:41this wasn't a late start or anything i had a hard time staying awake during the first half
01:45oh i don't blame you i was sitting there last night thinking like here we go this offense again
01:48and you know as you said i mean to credit kind of those role players durant was typical kevin durant
01:5331 points last night but it was capella and reeds came alive and reed shepard came alive at the end
01:59of the game and josh kogi had a double double with like a career high 10 rebound so that's what they're
02:03going to need on this team they didn't get that the night before and they lost to the spurs but
02:08you know as you said with shangun i mean he just got back well i shouldn't say just got back it's
02:12been a little while now maybe a month or close to it since he returned from that ankle and then
02:18he tweaked it again the other night and like you said last night three for 14 when all of the shots
02:23are around the rim they're in the lane so you already are without steven adams you're without
02:28fred van vliet we know that but now like shangun doesn't seem to be himself either with what seems
02:34to be a second injury this year uh i think there should be some concern there and and if he's not a
02:39100 then you have what you have last night where you have to rely on clink capella to have the the
02:44game of the year for you for you to uh get a road win yeah yeah that's uh i get what are you what
02:49are you hoping for what's the most realistic thing that the rockets could do between now and the
02:53playoffs to to just feel more confident in them yeah aside from obviously you know winning some games
02:59beating the mavs on primetime television that would help a lot for sure just structurally well for the
03:05trade deadline if they could add i'm still on the whole guard thing i know there's a lot
03:09of talk since the steven adams injury i'll try and replace him instead but i've been on this for
03:13months and i think the rockets went too far in that direction of the bigs and the size and still need
03:18more guard help and i think that's still the case of the deadline so that's the only thing i think they
03:22can do in terms of adding to the team but i believe i think the best thing for them is to
03:28lean into the defense right they were such a defensive team last year and i know dylan brooks is gone
03:33and fred van vliet's injured and that plays a big role and now steven adams is out but they were led by
03:38their defense last year and this year the defensive ratings like fifth in the league but when you watch
03:42the rockets they are not the same defensive team this year as they were last year defense looked
03:47good last night but again hawks missing six players but i think that needs to become the identity they've
03:54been led by their offense for the majority of this season and kevin durant i think you have to get back
03:59to those eme adoka roots especially from last year and really become more of a defensive team
04:04since steven adams has gotten injured the numbers defensively have actually improved because you got
04:10a little more speed on the floor yeah uh so we talked about a little bit yesterday i'm not going
04:14to say it's a blessing in disguise to lose steven adams but i think it's an opportunity to change course
04:20and become that defensive team again lean more into that side and try to win like they did a year ago
04:26i think the uh yeah it is interesting because i think they finished what fourth in defensive rating
04:31last year um so there's the the eyeball test is a little bit different than the actual rating
04:38and you know and then you have to go and factor it okay versus the better teams how have they
04:42performed versus just the bulk of the league because there's certain there's still times when
04:46they're out on the court versus inferior teams i'd say in the first half last night especially with
04:50all the hawks injuries you're like okay these guys are just like they're they're physically more
04:55impressed the rockets are a physically more impressive team and they're going to just bully
05:00their way to a certain level of of performance and it's uh getting above and beyond just that
05:05sheer raw physical ability or length or whatever i think reed shepherd learning how to like need less
05:12than two quarters of basketball to warm up is uh maybe maybe he needs to get there 15 minutes early
05:18for shoot around or something there's just that there's that it does feel like he just it takes
05:23forever for him to get into the flow of a game which is understandable for a young player and i
05:27think that's that's something that logically should improve between now and then given that the guys
05:33make vast improvements in their first couple years and adjust in the nba play and i know the rockets
05:38aren't in a position to necessarily be like experimenting but that's another issue i guess i've had with them
05:44all year of putting the reed shepherd development kind of on the back burner like i think you just kind
05:49of have to throw him in the deep end and let him be out there and let him figure it out and hope that
05:54you can still do enough around him to to be able to win these games but i you know i'm still i think
06:00the minutes oftentimes are too insignificant he spends too much time on the bench at times especially
06:06uh in big moments and maybe something along the way you lean more into the development of reed shepherd
06:11and who knows maybe you hit something well it's hardly tari easton being more consistent too and
06:17available i i guess i don't know if that's something that you can hope for between now and then um but
06:23there's just there's going back to the development of younger players on the core and everything
06:28it's still it's more it's more feasible that when you are still relying on young players that yeah
06:36you're going to see improvement over the course of a season instead of just you know needing to tweak the
06:41finer aspects of an offense or something which i don't i mean there's more than tweaking that needs
06:45to go on offensively right now but just by sheer improvement uh of some of those players they should
06:53be a different team a couple months from now they have the uh rockets game that we're talking about
06:57they have it on tv here in the studio this morning on the replay and uh just saw the opening tip again
07:02and it's funny because shangoon just like looks around like yeah do the play-by-play what happened i was
07:07i didn't go back and re-watch i just remember thinking what the hell what the hell is going on
07:11yeah too soon and then he didn't know what what occurred he was looking around he had a false
07:16start and i'm waiting for the flag to come out yeah wait wait they're continuing play no you have
07:21to you're supposed to you're supposed to stop player after a false start yeah that's right that's like uh
07:27the our four-year-old at home does that when we're racing cars and he's like oh you know when he
07:31doesn't get as good of a push off on the car he's like wait wait wait we have to start over he's
07:35like no sometimes that's just how it goes you just throw the controller yeah you just yeah you know he just
07:40didn't have you had the false start you weren't ready you weren't prepared um i heard them talking
07:44about this yesterday on in the loop and seth i want to ask you have your expectations changed for
07:50this rocket team at this point they're they're behind last year's win pace yeah so far and because
07:56of the injuries this year just what we've seen some of the you know i don't think it's been i don't
08:00think it's taken that next level like maybe somebody believed when you add kevin durant to already
08:04a 52 win team and i think everyone thought it'd be kind of smooth and they just take off and
08:08instead it's been more of a roller coaster sort of up and down with the injuries and what we've
08:13seen have your expectations changed now for this rocket team this year i don't i i don't think
08:18necessarily and i'm trying to be honest with myself because usually what happens is before i go enter
08:23any sports season there's things i understand rationally and logically and i'll say it hey you
08:30gotta be cautious and thinking that it's going to be as simple as just throwing a good player out
08:34there and then everything's going to be fine but then usually after i preach all that caution
08:39three weeks into it or four weeks into it i forget that i had cautioned myself about being cautious
08:45and i'm wondering why the hell are they not immediately better it's tough with the rockets
08:49because they got off to such a fast start and it felt for a while they're like oh sure path to the
08:57championship here we go but i think even you know especially the hardcore basketball people were
09:02preaching caution at that point that man you just gotta you gotta wait you gotta see into the you
09:07get into the tougher part of the schedule etc etc and i think it's borne out the way it's borne out
09:14it's been borne out the way that you probably could have logically seen it happen but it's always a
09:20question of all right you're gonna face those obstacles there's gonna be lulls it's not gonna be
09:24smooth the entire way do i still feel like this team is capable of ascending to that next level
09:31and i think the the big question is i don't know with udoka as a defensive minded head coach all in
09:38this team has been all about offensive rebounding just like last year where have you where have you
09:44advanced beyond that i just don't know so yeah i guess i it has taken a step back just in that
09:50all of those same fears or concerns you might have had about whether udoka could be the guy
09:55to really extract the maximum potential out of this offense very much remain right now i'm going
10:01to speak out of both sides of my mouth because my expectations have changed when they brought in
10:05durant i thought it's got to be western conference finals at least yeah i thought first year you don't
10:10have to make it to the nba finals but can you at least be one of the final two teams in the west
10:14uh and now i don't feel that way now i feel the same as last year's team like just win a playoff
10:19series and that'll be good enough for me like that'll be a surprise and that'll be a victory
10:22but why i'm going to speak out of both sides of my mouth is because i also bet under on the
10:27rockets win total this year because i did believe there'd be some regression this year so now i guess
10:32i shouldn't be surprised here we are heading into february where it hasn't gone as smooth because i kind
10:37of bet on that this offseason and yet i'm still complaining or i'm still surprised it wouldn't be
10:42it wouldn't be as gut-wrenching or as stressful if kevin durant were a younger player if kevin if they
10:49pulled off the trade which obviously you're not going to be able to pull off that trade
10:52if kevin durant is 30 years old the it would have been ridiculous the reason you're able to pull
10:58off the trade was because kevin durant is approaching 40 and that's the the window is so
11:05narrow and you also and it's not just okay how much longer is kevin durant going to play and how
11:11much longer is he going to be good it's that man if this ends up being one of kevin durant's
11:15healthy seasons where he plays the vast majority of the games and can you really bank on getting
11:21that for the next two years and it's it's probably unlikely if you know in a three-year window with
11:27kevin durant you got to account for well probably one of these years he's going to miss a huge chunk
11:32of games because of injuries and i i don't i don't want to squander this i don't want to be able to i
11:37don't want to be sitting here at the end of the season and thinking like well gosh i kind of wish
11:41kevin durant had gotten injured this year so he could have that healthy year i know this isn't
11:44the way it works but if uh i don't know maybe if he'd gotten it out of his system last year
11:48then he'd be okay and then we could be we could be we could be making excuses for him and everything
11:52for the team but i we're we're squandering a healthy kevin durant season right now it's a good
11:58point uh that that adds to the pressure because the window is only so big i mean maybe he'll continue
12:03to score 30 points well into his 40s who knows like he did last night went for over 30 but
12:08the expectation is you only have a few years here to try to hit it with durant leading this team
12:14appreciate everybody waking up with us uh on youtube uh listeners saying rockets have been
12:19disappointing so far considering the ceiling going into this the season so expectations yeah uh they
12:24say they're closer to the floor at this point than the ceiling and another listener said drink the
12:29kool-aid with the rockets just like i did with the texans i'm choosing to wait and see if i'm still
12:34expecting championship series yeah it's almost that boy that drinking the kool-aid is so because i
12:41don't know you know you're doing it when you do it you're drinking the kool-aid everything feels good
12:45you can foresee nothing but greatness but we're at that point in the season when you realize oh this is
12:51uh this is artificially sweetened kool-aid this was this was kool-aid with saccharine not even the good
12:57artificial sweeteners the old just uh the the the the really old nasty versions of the of the
13:04artificial sweeteners and it's not you it leaves a taste in your mouth it's not fun i gotta be honest
13:09with you we were more of a crystal light household growing up oh yeah you drank your whole okay so you
13:14don't even know about uh you crystal light yeah that's a crystal light's a saccharine sweetened wasn't
13:21it i think so it's kind of you ever get that okay this is where i am with like coke zero versus diet
13:28coke yeah there's something about drinking a diet coke is i like that it doesn't taste as much like
13:33the real thing because it i can delude myself into thinking yeah this is a health food i'm doing right
13:40by me yeah sure this this kind of sweet tasting beverage plus whatever other chemicals are getting
13:47pumped into my body right now i'm doing the right thing when i drink like a coke zero it tastes so
13:52much just like normal coke that i feel like ah no this is this is definitely unhealthy i even though
13:58they're nutritionally should be about the same i like having a little bit of that sour taste i do agree
14:04with you i can't i think coke zero is terrible uh i really yeah i think it's disgusting i can't do diet
14:11coke thinking i'm doing something right i really have a hard time with like once i i pretty much got
14:15rid of refined sugars in general and now i'm that annoying person that will say things are too sweet
14:20uh when i do eat it i'm like oh that's just too sugary for me and i hate those people yeah so i try
14:25not to say it out loud but i do i even when i'm drinking coke zero i'm kind of like yeah this is just
14:31yeah this is just goopy this is a goopy mess i don't know you had a birthday party just throw down
14:36the cake where is your crystal light yeah hey crystal light was good stuff and my mother was a personal
14:42trainer so i think she would water it down oh yeah but no crystal light doesn't that's the whole thing
14:46about crystal light it's always it's it's zero calories oh it's a better alternative no wonder
14:51you guys they don't call it crystal light and then load it up with three three cups of sugar you know
14:56yeah no kidding
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