- 3 days ago
After a Rockets win, Lopez questions whether Ime’s approach creates unnecessary challenges and whether simplifying things could unlock more consistency.
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00:00I was hyped last night seeing a Rockets offense that looked potent.
00:05That was a win, 113 versus 108, at least once it started looking potent.
00:09It wasn't always that.
00:11Well, I mean, you went on.
00:12The most important four minutes.
00:13Yeah, it was a very important four minutes.
00:15What was that, the end of the third quarter or somewhere within?
00:175-18 left in the third.
00:18The third quarter where you get a 20-0 run.
00:2221-0.
00:23And 21-0, appreciate that, where you get yourself back into this basketball game
00:28and it's like, oh man, where has this been?
00:31And it's not just because you were scoring the basketball.
00:33It's because of one dude in particular that was helping this thing look a lot better.
00:37And his name is Reed Shepard.
00:39I am 87.5% mad at Ime Adoka.
00:44Wait, how did you get to that percentage?
00:46Let's do the work here.
00:48Let's do the math.
00:4912.5% chance that something's finally going to click with him.
00:52Okay, very good.
00:52In my view.
00:54Reed Shepard should not.
00:55I actually wrote this down.
00:57I was just watching the game, whatever, eating a snack.
00:59And I actually wrote this down.
01:01Reed Shepard should not be the in-case-of-emergency break glass guard.
01:08He should not be that.
01:09They were down 19 points with 5 minutes and 18 seconds left.
01:14That's the only reason I knew that because I wrote it down
01:16because it was making me so mad as I was watching this.
01:19And he goes, well, guess we got to try Reed Shepard.
01:2321-0 from that point on.
01:25And you can talk about, oh, I texted you.
01:28I said, oh, but he doesn't play good defense.
01:30I said, yeah, but he doesn't play good defense.
01:33You can talk all – they played pretty decent defense in the first half.
01:36They were down 10.
01:37They played pretty good defense into the third quarter.
01:40They really did.
01:41They were down 19.
01:43Then Reed Shepard comes in.
01:44He broke the glass in case of emergency because it wasn't –
01:47they were going to lose that game.
01:48Flat out, they were going to lose that game.
01:50I mean, they scored, what, 43 points in the first half?
01:53Yeah.
01:54I mean, that's not going to win you basketball games unless you're playing in 1997.
01:58Yeah, yeah.
01:59And I'm just sitting here, and I think the light bulb might go off, 12.5% chance.
02:05But if it doesn't, what are we doing?
02:08There was no more vivid, no more real an example of, you know what?
02:14We're getting our asses kicked.
02:16Let's put Reed Shepard in there, see what happens.
02:18And they go 21-0, they get down – I think they ultimately tie the game,
02:21but they get – on that run, I think they're bringing it down to whatever it was.
02:25You know, are they tied or –
02:26No, they tied the game during that run, yeah.
02:28And all of a sudden, you know, they cruise on in.
02:31My crew, but, you know, they finish the game and win it.
02:35At the end there, we should stop wringing our hands,
02:39and I'm looking at E-May too, about defense.
02:42Just stop.
02:43Just stop.
02:44You played good defense, and you're getting your butts wet.
02:46Defense win championships.
02:47Stop, Figgy.
02:48Just stop.
02:49Also, the problem is you're not playing great defense.
02:54Right.
02:54And I hesitate to say that because it's somewhere on the borderline,
02:58but you're not playing, like, incredible defense as a team.
03:01And the question then becomes, what is the cost-benefit analysis that you're doing there
03:06between how good your defense is at any given time
03:09versus how good your offense is because you're catering to that defense?
03:12And especially because of the circumstance where you don't have organizers.
03:16And I think this game also played out in a particular way where you did not have the Orlando Magic
03:21blitzing.
03:22Your best players, they were playing one-on-one, and they weren't, you know,
03:26sending double teams at Kevin Durant and Alper and Shangoon.
03:29So it didn't give them opportunities to, hey, pass, swing, swing, swing as much.
03:33Obviously, you still need to move the basketball, and that's when this offense shows up the best.
03:36But when you don't have that, what you can do to force a defense into tough places
03:42and make them have to rotate is have a dude out there on the perimeter that they go,
03:45not only do I have to guard him, I need to get there yesterday.
03:48And not only do I have to guard him, but I have to guard that big, tall, lanky fella, too.
03:52So you have both those guys out on the perimeter, Durant and Shepard,
03:56and that was a game-changer.
03:57It looked like a different team.
03:59And I'm not even, you know, caught up in the moment here because we've seen hints of this yesterday.
04:04You know, people were texting, you know, settle down.
04:06That was just the Kings.
04:07Give me a break, man.
04:08You can give me a break with that.
04:09Give me a break with, oh, he doesn't play great defense.
04:12Give me a break with defense is our identity because it's not.
04:15And we saw that in Vivid Color, in Living Color last night.
04:18In Living Color.
04:19You could easily argue he was the most impactful player on the floor last night.
04:25And I know Durant had 40.
04:27No, I'm not.
04:28But would you disagree?
04:30The most impactful player on the floor last night was Reed Shepard.
04:34It's, I get where you're going for, and I'm not going to harsh your vibe here because I think the
04:39point that you're making is worth making.
04:41I also want to talk to, because you're saying it was just the Kings.
04:44I mean, Durant had 16 in the first half.
04:45I don't think you could say it was just the magic here because of the way that you started this
04:50game
04:51and because you had to work your way back into this game, it was close in the fourth quarter.
04:55And you were able to pull this out in part because Reed Shepard is on the floor.
04:59There's a point in time where you're down 103.
05:01Oh, yeah, he closed out too.
05:02How about that?
05:02You're down 103, 100, and there's a kickout to a trailing Reed Shepard, top of the key, knockdown.
05:09I mean, when he crane-necked that, right, when his hand, you know, snaps as he releases that, I'm like,
05:14that's good.
05:15Yeah.
05:15And it absolutely was.
05:16That ties the game.
05:17This is an Orlando team that has been good.
05:20Yes.
05:20Not okay, good in the clutch.
05:22I think Craig Ackerman was saying this on the Space City Home Network call yesterday that Orlando has the most
05:30wins when they were leading or when they were something towards the fourth quarter.
05:36They were really good in the fourth quarter when it was tight.
05:40And this has been that.
05:41I went and double-checked it myself.
05:43In the clutch, they've got, I think, their top five in win percentage when it comes to clutch games, which
05:49if you're not familiar, the way the NBA designates that is games within five points in the final five minutes,
05:54which this was one of those games.
05:56Orlando typically, more often than not, I think two out of every three times they win that basketball game, you
06:04made sure to win that in a way that you have not actually been all that great in the clutch
06:08recently because Reed Shepard is on the floor there.
06:10This is something to take into account.
06:12Now, I will acknowledge this is also Reed Shepard that was knocking down shots again, seven of 11, five of
06:19seven from three for 20 points.
06:21If Reed isn't going, that changes the dynamics.
06:24However, when you give him time, more often than not, he has knocked those down.
06:28In fact, in this moment, I kind of want to look up what is his shooting percentage when he gets
06:32a chance to play over 25 minutes.
06:34But let me respond to what you just said because the threat of Reed Shepard alone, even if he's not
06:40knocking them all down, makes you a better offense.
06:42Just the threat versus a Kogi versus, you know, whomever on the perimeter.
06:48So, yes, you're right.
06:49You know, he knocked down five of seven.
06:50Well, it's what he does.
06:51And even if it was two of seven, the threat of him knocking down makes the defense, you know, scramble
06:58and spread.
06:59And I think that makes them a better offense.
07:02It's just really – it was a great win.
07:06By the way, just in terms of good wins this season, that was a big one for them.
07:10Because we were talking about one of the things – I don't want us to lose this.
07:13We were talking about this yesterday.
07:14You played at home.
07:15Yeah.
07:16Relatively late.
07:17This is a game on the second night of a back-to-back where you had to get on a
07:20flight.
07:21Yeah.
07:21You went to an earlier time zone.
07:24And you played earlier in the day than you had the night before.
07:28And you delivered that performance.
07:30Yeah.
07:30Late when it was tiring, when it was grueling, you showed up in that way.
07:34That is a big win.
07:36And that is a level of encouragement if you take the lesson that Reed Shepard needs to be involved more.
07:42He plays 31 minutes.
07:43And one of the things I loved is this is not because Amen Thompson wasn't there.
07:46Amen Thompson played basketball in this game.
07:49They just distributed the minutes a little bit better.
07:50He played 28 minutes in this game.
07:52And I think that –
07:53We talked about that yesterday.
07:54We did.
07:55Because he had been playing 37.
07:56He's averaging 37.
07:57Yeah.
07:57And I don't know if this is exactly the split that you need.
08:00But I think this says a little bit more of what you probably need to be doing is having a
08:05little bit of a better balance in those minutes.
08:08Especially if it's Reed Shepard playing something like 30 minutes.
08:11But if you just kind of parse this game out in thirds, first third, middle third, and last third.
08:17The first third, I mentioned it.
08:19You were playing good defense.
08:20Kevin Durant was – I think he had 16 or 18 points in the first half.
08:24He was scoring.
08:25Obviously, Boncaro and Desmond Bain were doing their thing.
08:28But you're still down 10 despite all that.
08:31Then you get into the middle third.
08:32And through the first part of that, you end up down 19 points or – yeah, 19 points at one
08:38point.
08:39And then all of a sudden, the light bulb goes off.
08:41They break the glass and put Shepard back in.
08:44And all of a sudden, you take the lead and the crowd is dead and the Magic look disjointed.
08:50And then you go to the last third.
08:51Oh, by the way, Reed Shepard ends the game and you close them out.
08:55What have we been talking about for the last week?
08:57You know, they don't close out games.
08:59Ime Adoka's teams are just notoriously bad at blowing fourth quarter leads.
09:03Yeah.
09:04Not only did you not blow fourth quarter lead, you came back, as you said, in a tight game.
09:07And you win it relatively comfortably in the last couple of minutes.
09:11Yeah, I mean, this felt very evident.
09:13And I wrote down in my notes as I'm watching this game, this absolutely felt like a game –
09:19or this felt like, to me, the lesson – or one of the lessons is,
09:23Reed has a certain situational gravity that has to be used.
09:27And for me, at the absolute worst, Reed has to be used as a changeup.
09:30And I think when I say that, I was thinking quite literally about a pitcher where most pitchers,
09:35your fastball is boom, right?
09:38But I was going to say curveball, but curveball can – depending on the pitcher,
09:42it could be your tertiary – your changeup is like, all right, that off speed that I'm going to use
09:46in tandem.
09:47I think that that's the way that this has to go.
09:48Clearly your fastball is if a team is going to be out here and they're going to let Kevin Durant
09:53cook
09:53and they're going to let Alper and Shang-Goon cook, we'll play through our best players.
09:57Secondarily, Reed Shepard has to be a secondary part of the way that you go about playing basketball for the
10:02rest of the season.
10:03I'll just keep it simple the way I put it earlier.
10:05Even just the threat of him, that's kind of what you're talking about.
10:08Even just the threat of him makes you a better offensive team.
10:12And it did yesterday.
10:13I mean, he knocked down – what did he knock down?
10:15Three three-pointers during that – three or four during that 21-0 run.
10:20And even when he wasn't knocking down shots, the Magic were still doing the same thing
10:24and the offense was still clicking.
10:26Somebody said, Yudoka doesn't want to lean on the white boy.
10:28Hey, that white boy got motion, baby!
10:30Because you can see also the confidence growing him.
10:33That's another thing that we haven't talked about as much, but it's the undercurrent of this.
10:37Also, you give him an opportunity to be this guy because he plays with a level of confidence as it
10:43grows and develops.
10:44You can see him – did you see him heave that heat check, walk over half court and just,
10:50I'm going to shoot this 28-footer.
10:51I thought I had a chance.
10:53I really did.
10:54Why wouldn't you in the way that he was shooting?
10:56And I think that that is something that you can never get an opportunity to see if he doesn't get
11:00minutes.
11:01Yes, he might not have that going every night, but how can you find out if he's stuck on the
11:05bench playing 15, 20 minutes?
11:05And he had a pump fake drive for a layup in the middle of that run.
11:08Yes, he did.
11:08That's another thing.
11:09As much as I like Amman Thompson and his capability of getting downhill, when a defender can already sit five
11:17foot back on you before you drive.
11:19If Amman pump fakes, they're not going to move.
11:20Right.
11:20Reed has actually had a pretty decent opportunity to drive into the lane, and that creates drive, kick.
11:26And you saw Josh Okogie benefit from that.
11:29You saw Jabari benefit from that.
11:32And I think those are some of the things that you very much add from Reed Shepard.
11:36And hopefully, this is a lesson with back-to-back games in adverse circumstances that has to be heeded.
11:41Has to.
11:42By E-May Udo.
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