00:00So, Kevin Durant had a nice game last night against the Clippers, scored 26 points.
00:07It's not been as well for the Rockets lately as it was to start the season.
00:10They're still the three-seed in the Western Conference,
00:14and they can go into the all-star break on a nice little stretch here
00:17if they beat the Clippers tonight.
00:18They'll be 34-19.
00:20But Zach Lowe, who watches as much NBA basketball as anybody,
00:25formerly of ESPN, now he's got a podcast now,
00:29he had this to say about Kevin Durant
00:31and how he's kind of been handling his body language of late.
00:34I'm not loving some of the body language I'm seeing on the floor.
00:38Some of the Durant sulkiness is seeping back into his body language.
00:42Like, against the Thunder the other day,
00:44there were two or three possessions in, like, maybe a six-possession span
00:47where the Rockets threw bad entry passes to him,
00:49and you could see him visibly just throw his arms up
00:53and roll his eyes and all that stuff.
00:56And we've seen that movie before.
00:57And Durant's been great.
00:59He's an all-star.
01:00He's an all-NBA player.
01:01I've always been on the Kevin Durant, his historically underrated train.
01:04So, like, don't take offense at this.
01:05But I will say I've heard from agents, players, whatever, over the years,
01:09like, when he gets like that, young players revere him
01:13and are somewhat intimidated by him.
01:16And that kind of stuff can seep into the ether of a team.
01:19And they need to just snap out of it because they're really good.
01:22I thought that was interesting, Seth, because this team is,
01:26especially with Steven Adams and Fred VanVleet out for the year,
01:30and Dylan Brooks now no longer a Rocket because he went to Phoenix in the Durant trade.
01:35It really is Durant and a bunch of guys that could potentially fit that profile
01:41of what Zach Lowe is talking about there.
01:43I mean, it's Kevin, the core rotation is Durant
01:48and five guys that the Rockets drafted at some point in the last few years.
01:53Alper and Shingun, Amin Thompson, Reed Shepard, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith.
01:57Those are five guys that I feel like fit that description Zach Lowe is talking about,
02:02which are younger players who probably revere Durant to some degree.
02:06Right.
02:06And where the bad body language or the frustration that Durant has.
02:10Hell, Durant was yelling at Alper and Shingun the other night to play defense.
02:14He was screaming at him on a play where Alpy looked like he had no interest in playing defense.
02:19Let a guy walk right by him and Durant's yelling at him.
02:21I think there's that dynamic where the loss of Fred VanVleet maybe is more than just his actual play
02:28as a point guard, but that the veteran leadership had turned into something on this team
02:34that was really a source of strength.
02:35And even like Dylan Brooks, who I was skeptical of when he got there,
02:38he was part of changing the culture, et cetera, et cetera.
02:41You never look at Kevin Durant as the guy who's going to come in and necessarily drive a change in
02:49culture
02:49or create a certain type of culture.
02:52And that's not a criticism.
02:54There's lots of great players who aren't necessarily that guy.
02:57But I guess that's where the overall chemistry of a team,
03:01when it's they've been playing like a middle-of-the-road basketball team since they got off to their hot
03:05start.
03:06You know, the stats this morning, Jackson Gatlin said this, since December 1st going into last night,
03:13they've been the 15th best offense, the 13th best defense over the course of the last two-plus months.
03:18It's even worse since the beginning of the year, since January 1st.
03:21They're like in the bottom of the third since January 1st.
03:23Right.
03:24So the record is great, and they're third in the West and all of that.
03:27I get it.
03:28But they're not right now at all playing with anything that inspires confidence in the playoffs.
03:36No rhythm, yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:37Yeah, so I don't, and maybe it's just where I'm just tired of body language talk after CJ's performance,
03:44and I just want to be done with it.
03:47I guess, but there's part of it where I don't, I didn't look at Kevin Durant that needed to be
03:53the same way a quarterback is on a football team.
03:56Yeah, it's funny.
03:56You know, he doesn't need to be the alpha leader setting the tone.
04:00He just needs to be Kevin Durant and be a good veteran leader in terms of teaching guys and doing
04:06all of that, being part of the flow.
04:08But if we're at the point where Kevin Durant's body language is going to be the determining factor in whether
04:14this is a good or bad basketball team,
04:16I just don't think we're at that point.
04:18They need to be, I need to see bad body language out of Kevin Durant when they're actually still also
04:24playing like a good basketball team.
04:26Then I might worry about it.
04:27But there's enough other issues right now besides his body language.
04:30I do think this team misses Dylan Brooks and what he brings.
04:33And I think Dylan Brooks is a big reason why Phoenix is not some bottom feeder that they're actually in
04:38the middle two games back of the Rockets right now.
04:40The very team that Kevin Durant was traded from and what is one of those moves that looks more like
04:46a rebuilding move.
04:47You know, Dylan Brooks is a younger player.
04:49He's an older player, but getting Jalen Green in there, that kind of thing, like it, that's more of a
04:53move where you're not rejiggering the team.
04:55You're setting the team up to kind of go backwards to eventually go forwards.
04:59They're only two games back.
05:00They miss Dylan Brooks, the Rockets do.
05:02No question about that.
05:03As far as the, yeah, the dog factor or whatever else you want in it.
05:08Yeah.
05:08The swarm factor.
05:09Yeah.
05:09If you look at the Texans, what have we said?
05:11Is they just need more swarmy type guys on defense or on offense like they already have on defense?
05:17Yeah, I feel like Dylan, I think Dylan Brooks got described by the Rockets.
05:22And I think Dylan Brooks, in watching him, how I feel about Dylan Brooks with the Rockets was a lot
05:27like D'Amico Ryans describes Aziz Al-Shair for the Texans.
05:31Tone setter, leader, dog, all those things.
05:34He's a dog.
05:34You know who you'd rather have playing with the right kind of body language right now, Sean?
05:38Who?
05:39Mad Dog Russo, who first got his big break when he was interviewed by you and I on Radio Row
05:47last week.
05:47Yeah, yeah.
05:48Kind of put him over.
05:49Now all of a sudden I'm seeing him all over social media and whatnot.
05:51Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:53He would have the appropriate body language because he wants you to know that he is tougher than the modern
05:58NBA players.
05:59Would you send this to Ben?
05:59Yes, he is tougher than the modern NBA player.
06:02November before Thanksgiving in 2017.
06:06And I walked in there in the offseason and did an hour show with the freaking high heat.
06:12Sick as a freaking dog.
06:15And then walked in here and did a monologue.
06:18And I said, I can't take it.
06:20I'm so sick I got to leave.
06:21And I took the train home.
06:24And three days later, I was in the freaking Stanford Hospital.
06:28And the doctor said, how the hell did you survive this?
06:32And then I sat there on a Tuesday night.
06:34He sat there and operated on me for three hours to get into.
06:37Remember what?
06:39Chris Brutso.
06:40And Jared Jackson can't play in the fourth quarter in a game in February making $50 million a year.
06:48I mean, this is absurd.
06:52Oh, I love that.
06:53I love him so much.
06:55And I took the train home.
06:57What year was it?
06:59I don't know.
06:59Did you say 97?
07:00Can you play just the first part, Ben?
07:03November before Thanksgiving in 2017.
07:072017.
07:09Is when he got the appendix done, yeah.
07:10He's taking the train home.
07:11I got to imagine.
07:12That's a long...
07:13Actually, he told me off air.
07:14He lives in New Canaan, Connecticut.
07:16Yeah.
07:16That's a long train ride home.
07:18That's a long train ride home.
07:18That's a long train ride home.
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