00:00Y'all let me know if y'all think that I'm tripping.
00:02Do you still believe that Alperen Shingun,
00:06Rocket Center two-time All-Star Center Alperen Shingun,
00:10is still a franchise player?
00:13And maybe you were in the camp that never believed
00:15that Alperen Shingun was a franchise player.
00:18And we'll hear from you as well.
00:19And I'd love to know your case of why it was that you were never sold,
00:25despite the fact that he's now put together back-to-back All-Star seasons.
00:29But I'm curious from the people, and we'll hear from Seth.
00:33You'll hear my take on it.
00:34But I want to know how y'all feel about this,
00:37because Alperen Shingun, of course, we talked about this earlier in headlines,
00:40the Rockets lost last night, in case you missed it, in overtime,
00:43to what amounted to a G League-level roster
00:46that the Golden State Warriors put out.
00:49This should have been, might as well have been,
00:50the Santa Cruz Warriors that they put out there.
00:53And the Rockets, despite having all of their talent,
00:56their future Hall of Famer in Kevin Durant,
00:59their aforementioned two-time All-Star in Alperen Shingun,
01:03their physical freak phenom in Amen Thompson,
01:07their sharpshooting second-year guard in Reed Shepard,
01:11who put up a 30-burger off the bench,
01:13despite having all of these things,
01:15all of this ammunition going for them,
01:17they could not get it done.
01:19And I keep going back to what has been a common theme for me, Seth,
01:24with the Rockets, especially, let's call it, post-All-Star break.
01:28This was one of the things I was watching out for,
01:30is when do the Rockets get the return of all-NBA-level Alperen Shingun?
01:36Yeah.
01:37Even All-Star-level Alperen Shingun.
01:40The Alperen Shingun that we saw playing the first,
01:43let's call it 20-some-odd games of the season,
01:45the Shingun that so many Rockets fans and basketball fans in general
01:50fell in love with when they were watching Euroball over the summer
01:54and watching how his game had seemingly progressed
01:57just in that short time span from the end of the playoffs to summer ball.
02:02And then now, and I know he's had an ankle injury in between that
02:05and the season is long and yada, yada, yada,
02:09but it's been a while, Seth,
02:11a long time since I watched Alperen Shingun play a basketball game
02:17and felt like I was watching the cornerstone of a future championship team
02:23or potentially the best player on an eventual championship team.
02:28There was at one point that I did feel that way about him,
02:32however brief it was,
02:33and I do not feel that way, Kurt.
02:36Well, I guess the hard part for me and any of the guys in the young core
02:40who aren't developing the way you want them to
02:43or at the same speed or pace is that it's,
02:48without overly simplifying it,
02:51without an actual and true point guard
02:53and not running an actual offense,
02:56you're asking these guys to be a different version
03:00of what you thought they were going to be.
03:02And you're trying to, all of these guys are in a system
03:07that lacks cohesion, it lacks structure,
03:12it lacks a, they almost like they lack a purpose
03:15or a stated goal.
03:17And it's hard for young players, young anything,
03:20like young people in any endeavor without the structure
03:23and without necessarily the coaching on the offensive side of things
03:27to really develop into who they can be.
03:31It's like, it's almost like the smart kid
03:34that, you know, isn't forced to go to class and everything.
03:39Yeah, he's not going to maximize his potential.
03:41Or he just, he goes to a school
03:43where nobody's paying attention to him or anything.
03:46And he ends up acting out because of it.
03:49That's where I'm trying to pump the brakes
03:51on being overly, I guess, conclusive
03:56about where anybody is right now
03:58because this offense is just such a mess.
04:00Yeah, the discouraging part, really, though,
04:02there's a lot of it, actually.
04:03But all of this is happening at the same time, though, Seth.
04:07Like, no doubt about it, Alperen Shingun
04:11would be a better basketball player right now
04:14if he played with a true full-time point guard
04:19and he would be a better basketball player right now
04:22with better coaching.
04:24I'm just going to flat out say it.
04:25Like, I like M.A. Udoka and what he brings to the table.
04:28But when we talk about offense and cohesion
04:32and philosophy and intent,
04:35what are they trying to get from possession to possession?
04:38Who the hell knows?
04:40It damn sure shouldn't be Shingun post-ups
04:43from the three-point line and that kind of,
04:46and hey, let's just hope for a double team
04:48and a decent pass and kind of go for it.
04:50And oh, by the way, we can't hit shots.
04:51We don't necessarily always knock down open shots.
04:54So he would be a better player if he had these things
04:58and he doesn't have them right now.
04:59Of course, Fred VanVleet is injured.
05:02Reed Shepard, they're still, like, tinkering with his role.
05:05It seems like they still haven't figured out
05:07that that is their point guard.
05:08So that's a coaching issue.
05:09That's a personnel and a coaching issue.
05:11But even when we just isolated to Alperen Shingun's
05:15individual performance and the things that simply cannot be,
05:19the things that he can't abide by no matter who else is around him,
05:25it's the inefficient shooting.
05:27It's the poor shot selection at times.
05:30It's the turnovers.
05:32It's the free throws or the poor free throw shooting.
05:36Like, all of these things are coming together
05:39to work against Alperen Shingun.
05:43Like, man.
05:44And the part, yeah, and I think it's the part, too,
05:46where, look, when I try to make those excuses for him, I guess,
05:49or at least explanations,
05:51I don't think any of that really excuses the issues
05:54on the defensive side of the ball.
05:55Yeah, and then the defense.
05:56Yeah.
05:56So if you were playing the same level of defense,
06:00then I might say, well, clearly this is just a matter
06:03of not having the right structure, et cetera, et cetera.
06:06And then if I'm going to make excuses for him on that side,
06:09okay, well, maybe it's these lingering injuries.
06:11Maybe it's the big ankle sprain from last year
06:13that still just has some kind of lingering issues
06:16that are fueling more injury issues.
06:19But then, you know, you get to a point where you're like,
06:21okay, how many excuses can I make for this guy?
06:24I could do this with every player in the NBA
06:26who's not meeting expectations.
06:28I could come up with a bunch of excuses.
06:30At the end of the day, he's not the same guy he was last year.
06:32Yeah, and that's the issue.
06:34I mean, he goes, last night he goes,
06:36and a loss again, he goes 8 for 20.
06:39So that's 40% from the field and 0 for 3 from 3-point range.
06:45Okay, why is he shooting any 3s?
06:48He's shown that he can't shoot 3s, and he shoots 3 of them.
06:53That, I'm sorry, is at least 2 too many and probably 3 too many.
06:58And so, and then there's a second part to that.
07:01When you have demonstrated that you don't have an outside shot
07:05and certainly aren't a threat from 3, now this means this shortens
07:10or makes your margin for error all the more slim
07:14because now you've got to be efficient if all you take is 2s.
07:19If all you take are shots that are around the basket,
07:23either in the paint or the elbow or from the block,
07:27like everything is close range and the touch isn't there,
07:31the efficiency on 2s isn't there, you cannot be, in 2026,
07:36you cannot be the best player on a winning team
07:40but be an inefficient player from 2 who is of no threat to speak of
07:46from 3 at all.
07:48These are just player profile characteristics that cannot exist.
07:52He can still be a good player.
07:54He can still be a contributing player to a winning team.
07:57He can still make some all-star teams.
08:00Maybe he makes an all-NBA team before it's all said and done.
08:03But the best player on a championship team,
08:05the centerpiece on a championship team,
08:08something is going to have to change if he's going to be that.
08:10Either he's got to go back to being a lot more efficient from 2
08:13or he's going to have to develop a 3-point shot,
08:16which I'm far less optimistic about because we are now here in year 5
08:20and he still can't shoot the basketball.
08:23So there are a lot of things, I think, working against him,
08:26some of which are not his fault
08:28and others, I think you just have to hold him accountable
08:31and even aside from that, just have to be real with yourself
08:34about what is an honest and realistic expectation of this guy going forward
08:40because at some point you've got to start thinking about life without Kevin Durant
08:43or life past Kevin Durant.
08:45That's what the whole idea of the young core is supposed to be.
08:48And right now, if Alperen Chagun is supposed to be the best non-Kevin Durant player,
08:53the best young player on this team,
08:55I feel like the Rockets are a little bit of trouble
08:57or in a little bit of trouble
08:59if he does not make some improvements or some adjustments to his game.
09:03Yeah.
09:03Yeah.
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