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00:00After last night, Rockets losing back-to-back games to the Lakers at home this week.
00:05Now just percentage points ahead of the Nuggets for the sixth seed in the Western Conference.
00:11They've lost six of their last 10, 41-27 on the year.
00:16And as we come down the home stretch, maybe it's fair to ponder
00:20if the Rockets actually made a mistake in trading for Kevin Durant.
00:25How do you look back on that move now?
00:27Now, B. Scott, I tee up the question for you.
00:30What would you say, thinking back on it, knowing what we know now,
00:33seeing how this season has unfolded so far,
00:35do you look back on that big move this offseason
00:38and label it as a mistake to make that trade to bring in Kevin Durant?
00:41No, I wouldn't label it as a mistake,
00:43but it's also hard, given the results of it all, to say that it was a resounding success.
00:50Can two things be true?
00:52It's true that Kevin Durant has been very, very good,
00:55has been borderline all-NBA level, certainly an all-star this year.
01:03And at the same time, his addition to the team has not had the expected net effect
01:12that it was supposed to have, right?
01:14So he is individually great, yet the team itself is not collectively better
01:22or noticeably better than it was last year.
01:26Now, I think the intention of what they were trying to do with this team
01:29would have been better, right?
01:31They get Kevin Durant before Fred VanVleet suffers a torn ACL,
01:35obviously before Steven Adams has the ankle situation.
01:39So the team that they imagined and that they planned to have
01:43was a much better team than the one that they're putting out there right now.
01:47But this is, it's still, like, what we're watching is still,
01:52I feel like parts of it are inexcusable.
01:56And also, Kevin Durant himself is not great enough to overcome them, right?
02:01We saw just last night the Lakers on the other side,
02:05they've got some issues as well.
02:07But they got a player in Luka Doncic that is so great, so excellent.
02:13They are individually excellent at the top end,
02:17on the top end between Luka, obviously LeBron, and Austin Reeves.
02:21They can overcome some warts, right?
02:24But the Rockets don't really have that anymore, you know,
02:28or don't have that at all.
02:29Kevin Durant did not result in that at the very least, right?
02:32And when it comes down to it, like you said, they got 14 games left.
02:36They finished last season 52-30 as the number two seed in the West.
02:42To tie that record, they would have to finish the season 11-3.
02:47And they're 4-6 in their last 10 games.
02:51So, like, what do you think the odds are that they rattle off 11-3
02:55and that they have an equivalent record?
02:56Certainly not going to be the two seed in the West this year.
02:59So, they're going to be a lower seed, probably going to have a lesser record.
03:06And they're also, I think, going to lose in the first round.
03:09Yeah.
03:10You know, which to me, taken all together, is a less successful season,
03:16even if it was the right move to want to improve your team by adding Kevin Durant.
03:22Right.
03:22Like, Kevin Durant is still a better player than Jalen Green.
03:25I don't think, and I like Jalen Green, but I don't think he's ever going to be
03:30what he was drafted to be at number two overall, and certainly not a Kevin Durant,
03:34even what Kevin Durant is this year.
03:36I don't think Jalen Green will ever be what Kevin Durant is right now at 37 years old.
03:40Agreed.
03:41So, that part I'm good with.
03:44But did it, has it worked?
03:46Has it been successful?
03:48I'm going to say, like, no.
03:50No.
03:51And not because of Kevin Durant, but I think because of both circumstance
03:56and how they planned the team.
03:59Right?
04:00Like, they could have done something other than the Dorian Finney-Smith move.
04:03You know, maybe that could have been a point guard.
04:05Since you're bringing in Kevin Durant and you've got a gang of wings on the team,
04:09why don't you bring in a point guard with that mid-level exception?
04:12You know, they could have done that.
04:16So, they're not a better team despite having acquired such a better player.
04:26Not to mention the flaws in Kevin Durant's game on top of all of that that I think are
04:31exacerbated by the fact, for fans, exacerbated by the fact that they are not as good as you
04:37wanted them to be.
04:38So, now you're looking at the addition.
04:39You're like, oh, every time KD turns the ball over, it's like, oh, man, shouldn't have got
04:43that guy.
04:44It's like, nah, man, we probably should have gotten another guy that can handle the basketball
04:48and get him the ball.
04:50Yeah.
04:50And it not be your center.
04:51Right.
04:52You know?
04:53Like, so there's a lot going on.
04:55And that's something, it's easy to sit here and say that now, but I was saying that even
04:58before the Van Vliet injury, you could go back and find, you know, all the shows are archived.
05:02You could go back and find them.
05:03I was clamoring all offseason, bring in another veteran guard because I didn't think even
05:07with a healthy Fred that there was enough guard depth on this team.
05:10And I thought the Rockets really leaned too much into this whole, they almost became infatuated
05:15with all this size and length and they wanted to get, you know, even bigger as opposed to
05:20paying more attention or spending more resources on the guard position or specifically point guard.
05:26And then you have the Van Vliet injury, of course, and now that throws the whole thing out
05:30of whack.
05:30Um, so, but yeah, look, I've admitted, I've been talking out of both sides of my mouth
05:35all year because I did bet on the Rockets under win total, which was set, I believe 52
05:41and a half.
05:41So Vegas put it kind of right where they were last year.
05:44And I bet on a slide back because I thought even with Durant, just the fact that they kind
05:48of overachieved last year, I thought there'd be some regression.
05:51And then I also thought the Western conference would be better and there would be other teams
05:55that would win more than 52 games.
05:57Unlike, you know, just the Rockets being the second to do that in last year's Western
06:01conference.
06:01But with all that said, even betting against a step back, I am still very disappointed.
06:07And as you laid out, this feels like a step back this year, even with the injuries where
06:13you're going to win fewer games and you're going to have the same result in the playoff.
06:16In fact, probably a worse result.
06:17At least last year, they went to game seven.
06:19They had a shot this year.
06:21I wouldn't even bet on them taking whoever they play in the first round to get to a
06:24seventh game.
06:25Doesn't mean that the trade was a mistake.
06:27I think instead, you almost have to change the perspective of once the injuries have occurred,
06:32the mistake should have been, or the mistake would be that we didn't adjust our expectations
06:37properly, I suppose.
06:38And probably should have just chalked this up as like a bridge year and then come back healthy
06:44next year.
06:45Come back in full next year with a plan.
06:47Man, that's so tough to do.
06:49Bridge year talk is so tough to do when one of your best players, your best player is
06:5537 years old, right?
06:57It's like in Dallas with Jerry Jones and the urgency.
07:00It's like, hey man, how many more years does a guy got to try to relive and recapture this
07:06moment that he's trying to find?
07:07So yeah, man, I get that.
07:10And I do know a lot of Rockets fans that did say that at the front, at the front end
07:16of
07:16this, when Fred Van Vliet got injured, we're like, you know what?
07:19That's it.
07:20That's the end of contender status because they didn't get that point guard.
07:24And so this is kind of the team that we're left with.
07:27But I still thought that there was opportunity for them to, you know, lean into what they
07:33got going, lean into the youth movement, lean into the Reed Shepard experience, start
07:37him, right?
07:39Have him start games, finish games, and play starters minutes instead of doing like one
07:44of the three.
07:45Maybe he'll start a game and not finish it.
07:47Maybe he'll finish a game and not start it.
07:49Maybe he'll play starters minutes, but not start or finish a game.
07:52Let's do all three.
07:53You know, let's check all three of those boxes with Reed Shepard and see where that
07:57takes us.
07:57It doesn't necessarily mean that you're a championship contender, but I think you're better
08:00than you've been.
08:01I think it helps you win some games that you didn't win.
08:03You know, I think about the Knicks game from several weeks back, where if Reed Shepard
08:08is just left in the game or brought back in the game, that they've got a chance to win
08:13that game.
08:14We're not cratered the way that they did.
08:16But when it comes to Kevin Durant, I think there are three things that I've noticed with
08:20Rockets fans that, whether they realize it or not or articulate it or not, that are
08:25frustrating about the Kevin Durant experience.
08:28Number one, and we can actually put them in any kind of order, but starting with the turnovers.
08:33Kevin Durant as ball handler is like the flaws in it are magnified when you watch him every
08:40night.
08:41And I think that is like the residual effect of not having the reliable point guard part,
08:49right?
08:49But it still leaves you with, hey man, sometimes Kevin Durant can be loose with the ball here
08:53or there, right?
08:54Oh yeah.
08:54And so I think that frustrates people.
08:55For sure.
08:56The turnovers, I just, I think are inexcusable and it happens, okay?
09:02Also, a little bit of a prisoner of his own success of like the, so like the greatness
09:07of Kevin Durant kind of handicaps him a little bit or is like a, uses a crutch, I should say,
09:15and prevents them from doing a little bit more offensively, right?
09:18Overly relying on, hey, we can just get a ball to Kevin Durant and maybe we don't have
09:22to run a set here or maybe we don't have to have a well thought out offense.
09:25We got Kevin Durant, right?
09:27And so it kind of, kind of keeps you from being a little bit more imaginative on offense
09:33a little bit, right?
09:34And then the elephant in the room sort of awkward thing is the whole KD Files thing, the whole
09:40burner account that came up at the all-star break.
09:43And we're seeing a lot of it of folks say, man, is the chemistry off?
09:47Do they not really like each other?
09:49You know, I've seen former players from Kendrick Perkins to Vernon Maxwell speculate that this
09:55could have more to do, like those things could have more to do with the Rockets sort
10:01of downslide, if you will.
10:03And I don't buy into that as much really at all, but all of that is out there and leadership
10:10is being questioned, camaraderie is being questioned.
10:14I mean, I asked KD a question about, like, the disconnect between how they're playing
10:20against the good teams versus the bad teams, and I think he misunderstood the entire question
10:26and thought I meant the team was disconnected, because he answered it with something like,
10:30well, a disconnected team doesn't play defense like this, and like, hey, man, I didn't say
10:34you were a disconnected team, but I think he's feeling that, because he is still chronically
10:38online, you have to believe, even if he's not tweeting as much.
10:41And so he's got, he's like wearing that, you know, this conversation of, man, you messed
10:46up the mojo and the camaraderie of the team.
10:48So I think all of that combination of things, the turnovers, the over-reliance on him on
10:54offense, and not having more answers, and then this idea that there's a leadership vacuum
11:00with him in there, and certainly that he's not feeling that leadership vacuum.
11:04Yeah, I don't disagree with any of that.
11:05It almost reminds me of back in the day what they used to say about Magic Johnson, of like,
11:08he's too tall to be a point guard.
11:10He's going to turn the ball over, and now it's like, well, you know, 45 years later
11:14or whatever, they're kind of right if they were saying it about Durant.
11:17Like, he's too tall to be, he's too free with that basketball to be the point guard.
11:20Yeah.
11:21You referenced Vernon Maxwell.
11:22Here's actually what Vernon Maxwell said.
11:24I think this was on some sort of podcast, but here's what he had to say about the Rockets.
11:28The Rockets, man.
11:30Like I said last year, all we needed was KD.
11:32We got KD.
11:33You got to roll the ball out to get you a bucket.
11:35But now everybody's standing around watching KD, and I mean, I mean, it's just, I mean,
11:41I don't know.
11:41They said something about some secret page KD did and talked about some of the players
11:48on the team, and they split the guys up, and guys don't like to high-five each other no
11:55more.
11:55No motherfuckers.
11:56I don't want to bump chances no more with each other.
11:58Everybody just split up the whole team.
12:01So, I don't know, man.
12:03There's a lot of s*** going on out there in Houston, but Houston, y'all need to get
12:07me back after that motherfucker, though, or I can change this s*** around and talk to
12:10some young motherf***ers out there.
12:12Got it?
12:13Jesus.
12:14Got that?
12:15He is so familiar, man.
12:17What a potty mouth.
12:18He is like literally everybody I'm related to.
12:22That is basically what it sounds like.
12:25Hey, what's the holidays with B. Scott like?
12:29Vernon Maxwell.
12:30Well, that sounds pretty fun.
12:32This is literally what it sounds like.
12:33It's like, dang, he didn't switch it up at all.
12:37No.
12:38Not even a little bit for the broadcast.
12:40Oh, so I can tell by the, mm-hmm, that that's the Matt Barnes podcast.
12:43I don't know what it's called, but credit to Matt Barnes.
12:45All the Smoke.
12:46Okay.
12:47Got to be right.
12:48All the Smoke.
12:48NBA courtside?
12:49Oh, wait a minute.
12:51So, he doesn't do All the Smoke anymore with Steven Adams?
12:54Oh, I don't know.
12:55Or Steven Adams.
12:56Steven Jackson?
12:57I don't know.
12:57Maybe it wasn't Matt Barnes.
12:58Maybe I'm wrong, then.
12:59No, I think it was, because I saw this.
13:01I think it was with Matt Barnes, but Matt Barnes might be doing his own thing now.
13:04Oh, wow.
13:05I'm not up on what they're doing individually now.
13:07Yeah, I can't keep up on all these different podcasts.
13:09I'm sorry.
13:10So, Matt, it was on your podcast, whatever it's called now.
13:13I know we got to hit a break, but real quick, our guy, Rob, I thought brought up an interesting
13:17question.
13:18He said, I don't think the trade was a mistake, but I think it shows that Eme Udoka was given
13:21too much credit for changing the culture when it was clearly Dylan Brooks.
13:26Well, I think it was a combination of, like, Dylan Brooks is an Eme Udoka type of, like, I
13:31think that's kind of the same thing.
13:32Dylan Brooks, Eme Udoka, Fred Van Vliet.
13:37So, the culture changed with them, but I think you lost a lot with Dylan Brooks.
13:44I am.
13:44And you lost a lot with Fred Van Vliet not being out there.
13:48So, you're missing, effectively, the Eme Udoka culture personified, if you will, or exemplified
13:56on the basketball court between Brooks and Fred Van Vliet, neither of which have played
14:01for you this year.
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