- 2 days ago
ITL reacts to the Houston Rockets falling to the Los Angeles Lakers and goes back through the key questions they asked on Friday—what got answered, what didn’t, and what it says about Houston moving forward.
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00:00And it's always fun to kind of chat about the times in which you did something stupid.
00:04It's not fun to talk about the times in which your team did something stupid.
00:08And unfortunately, we've had way too many of those instances here in Houston sports,
00:13including Friday night when the Rockets hosted the Lakers in an attempt to stave off elimination that they could no
00:19longer stave.
00:20In fact, they didn't even get close. It was something like a 20-point loss.
00:24The score was a lot to a little.
00:25That's what I was because ultimately I did not take into account what the actual physical score was.
00:30You just knew that the Rockets could not score the basketball and the game was dead on arrival.
00:35And so with that, the Rockets are bounced out of the playoffs, a 4-2 series win for the Los
00:40Angeles Lakers.
00:41And going into this game on Friday, we had asked some questions about Game 6 and a potential Game 7
00:45and what would happen.
00:47I kind of want to go back and revisit how this ultimately landed for us as we begin the postmortem
00:53for the Rockets season,
00:54which I imagine it's not going to be a very cut-and-dry one.
00:58There's going to be some things in there.
01:01I think there's some shrapnel in here.
01:02Yes, there is.
01:03There's potential for we have to figure out what motive was behind the death of the body.
01:07There's a lot of things happening with the postmortem, but we start here.
01:10First of all, doesn't it already seem like forever ago?
01:13What, the game?
01:14The game, yeah.
01:14Yeah, if you had a good weekend and were able to put it behind you.
01:17Yeah, because we had a busy weekend just doing stuff around the house, whatever.
01:19But I was like, dang, that was the last time we convened, wasn't it?
01:24Unfortunately so.
01:25Remember the hope that started brimming up?
01:28They were like, hey, maybe they didn't even get close to doing it.
01:30Remember the questions we asked?
01:32They didn't even get close to doing it.
01:33Remember we're all kind of pumped up and maybe this, maybe that, you never know, and we asked some questions.
01:39Let me ask you those same questions.
01:40Okay.
01:41How did they answer them?
01:43How did they answer these?
01:45I don't know if they answered any.
01:46Well, and I'm a little ashamed that I picked Reece Shepard as the guy that will kind of carry the
01:52team a little bit.
01:53Did y'all ever feel at any point, even a hint of hope, did you ever feel like they were
02:01going to win this game, they could come back and do it?
02:02In the course of this game?
02:03Yeah.
02:04I knew that there was opportunities, but you scored 18 points in the first quarter, you scored 13 points in
02:08the second quarter.
02:09It was very evident that the offense was just not going to be there, especially because we've seen this game
02:14before the Rockets.
02:14Yes.
02:15Before the Rockets.
02:15We've seen it where they are downright inept and nothing is going down and they can't make anything happen.
02:20And so I gave up the ghost pretty early in it.
02:23Yeah, I was out early too, man.
02:26Halftime, there was no way.
02:27Yeah.
02:2831 points, there was no way.
02:29So let me ask those questions again and see, and this is kind of going to give us, it's a
02:32little exercise to give us an answer of not just what happened, but how we feel about the team now.
02:38Now that it is complete.
02:39Which Rocket could you count on the most?
02:41Remember we asked that?
02:42And the answer was a man.
02:45Was it not?
02:46It had to be a man.
02:47I mean, as much as you could.
02:48The tough thing about it for me is a man Thompson, what you were counting on him for ultimately was
02:55probably too much from what he could give you, right?
02:57He's not, he's not a shooter.
02:59He ultimately, you know, scored 18 points on fairly efficient seven of 14.
03:04He, you know, was able to get in and rebound in addition to that.
03:07But yeah, there's, he's, he's just, they asked too much of him and ultimately you couldn't get much of it.
03:14But yeah, Jabari was, was, you know, three of 11.
03:17It wasn't a good game.
03:18He wouldn't, didn't even get into double digits.
03:19Alperin Shangun was, I mean.
03:21That was fool's gold.
03:22To me, Alperin's game was fool's gold.
03:24He had some numbers.
03:25I think he was the second leading scorer behind a man.
03:27Yep, 17 points, 11 rebounds.
03:29But didn't it feel like some free throws here, some missed opportunities.
03:32He got some buckets that were sort of, not gimme's, but, you know, pretty straightforward.
03:37And it never, never really feel like that was a guy that was kind of resting control of the game.
03:41No.
03:41You know.
03:42He never felt like the star player in this game at the very least.
03:45And I think over the course of the series, unfortunately, I would say he felt like the star player less
03:49than he did.
03:50And he felt like a role player of good importance, right?
03:54And that was a little disappointing from an Alperin Shangun perspective.
03:58But also some of this was you could see some of the ways in which the Lakers, you know, fought
04:02back.
04:03And wrested back some of the schematic advantage in this series.
04:07But, yeah, I don't think that there's a single dude that you could say, hey, they really stepped up.
04:11Which is kind of the point.
04:12Yeah.
04:12I'm not going to lie.
04:13There was a little bit of an I told you so moment for me where I'm looking around.
04:16I'm going, hey, you could really use a dude who just gets his own right this moment.
04:20Well, Imei said that.
04:22In fact, that was one of the questions that we had before.
04:24Did you want Kevin Durant to play?
04:26And I think Figgy and I said no and you said yes.
04:28But in retrospect, even Imei said, this is the kind of game where when we need a bucket, you know,
04:34we just give it to him.
04:35Yeah, but the sick part about it is it can't be that so many times.
04:40I mean, if I asked you to, of the how many, let's say 90-something games, or no, not 90
04:46-something games.
04:47Let's say about 90 games that the Rockets played this year.
04:50How many of them did it feel like if it wasn't for Kevin Durant, you had absolutely nothing?
04:56Too many.
04:57Yeah.
04:5820?
04:58Yeah.
04:5920 is about right.
05:00Yeah, or more.
05:0130?
05:01Yeah, 20 or more.
05:02That should not be something that shows up so consistently baked into what you have.
05:06And that shouldn't be the excuse.
05:07Hey, this is the kind of game that we really needed someone to bail our asses out, you know, if
05:13they could.
05:15That's not a good answer.
05:16Imei said it, and he's actually right in this particular game.
05:19That would have been your only hope.
05:21But you can't have a team, Reggie.
05:23You can't have a team that says, well, these guys aren't doing what we thought they do, what we expect
05:27them to do.
05:28Let's see what happens here.
05:29You can't have a team like that.
05:30Not even, you know, the Michael Jordan-led Bulls.
05:34You know, when he was the only guy early in his career, people forget about that.
05:37Yes, when he was just out here scoring buckets.
05:39And he was kind of referred to as a point-scoring merchant.
05:44Yes.
05:44That did not actually contribute to winning necessarily.
05:47Remember the 63-point game against Boston?
05:49Lost.
05:50You know?
05:51So you can't be that team.
05:53And that wasn't a good answer.
05:54It was the right answer this time, but not a good answer.
05:57Who played out of their skull?
05:59Remember I had the nerve to ask that question?
06:01Who's going to play out of their skull?
06:02This is a short one.
06:03No one.
06:04No one did.
06:05I mean, you want to go over to like Rui Hachimura?
06:09Oh, you want to go to the other side?
06:10That's the thing is ultimately you saw the Lakers have more of their role players show up on the road,
06:17mind you, than what you had here.
06:19Like no one had that signature game of anybody that played.
06:23And that, I mean, really the biggest concern is that Reed Shepard has won for 10 in this.
06:28Yes.
06:28That was awful.
06:30And he never looked comfortable with his shot.
06:33And that's kind of the series.
06:34Yeah.
06:35Honestly, he did not shoot well at all in this series.
06:37He did have, you know, a magical game five in which, you know, in the moment, he absolutely gives you
06:44what you need.
06:45But this is also part of the maturation that's going to be necessary for the team specifically as it relates
06:50to Reed Shepard is we're going to need to find a way to stabilize some of this.
06:55And this is the underlying conversation that I've had when I talk about Reed Shepard's defense.
07:00It can't simply be the three-point making because as we know in this league, three-point shooting can fluctuate
07:05a decent amount.
07:06It did.
07:06I feel like you need something else that makes you a little bit more stable.
07:08Like let's talk about a Klay Thompson.
07:10Klay Thompson was an elite defender and an elite shooter.
07:13And so the elite shooting obviously is there.
07:15But if the shooting kind of fluctuate, the defense is there.
07:18What is the thing that is the more, what is the thing that anchors Reed Shepard's game if the shooting
07:23looks like that?
07:25Really just maybe a little bit of ball handling off the, you know, off the pick and roll and maybe
07:30a little bit of off-ball defense.
07:31But not like elite.
07:33And it's, yeah, that is not sufficient and it showed up in this game with all due respect to Reed
07:38Shepard.
07:39Let me ask you this because we've talked about this in a roundabout way already.
07:43But what was the one thing that couldn't happen?
07:45We talked, we asked that question.
07:47The one thing that could not happen.
07:49Well, it was Reed Shepard, you know, not shooting.
07:51It was Shingun, sort of, like I said, kind of a fool's gold kind of game.
07:55The other thing that could not happen is, shout out to the Rockets crowd, by the way.
08:01They were actually there.
08:03They were actually there.
08:04But it was still a slow start and the Lakers had life early.
08:08You know, we talked before the series.
08:10I mentioned, you know, Hachimura was one of those guys that worried me.
08:13Well, that ended up being, he made a lot of big shots.
08:16But the Lakers got out early and you gave them life and you weren't making shots.
08:20It was tough going from the start.
08:22And did we mention rebounding?
08:24Because I know I mentioned turnovers.
08:25I think at one point somebody had mentioned rebounding, whether it was us or on the text line.
08:29You got out-rebounded in this game, which, I mean, we were talking about early on in the season about
08:35you absolutely dominating rebounding battles.
08:37That was part and parcel to the identity that this team made for themselves, which is really frustrating when you've
08:43thought about it.
08:44Anytime you come back to, our game plan is, we're just going to get the ball when we miss.
08:48That's an asinine kind of thought process.
08:50But I understand the ways in which they got there, right?
08:54And then Steven Adams, you lose him for the season and it goes from, you're still one of, if not
08:58the best rebounding team in the league, but you're just not, the gap is not as wide.
09:02You straight up lost the rebounding battle in this game.
09:05And it was lopsided early.
09:06There is no way for this team, considering, even if they were having a good offensive day, there's no way
09:11for you to win a game if you were just going to straight up lose a rebounding battle.
09:14And that was probably one of the statistics that show up the strongest for me in this game.
09:18I think you're 100% right.
09:20Especially early on, it was very lopsided.
09:22They closed the gap a little bit, but never had it.
09:25And here's the other one that was, well, actually, we're going to probably revisit this multiple times, including today.
09:30Do you trust E-May?
09:33Ooh, that's a really tough, that's a really tough conversation.
09:39I know that there's going to be some people who the answer is a flat out no.
09:42I think that that would be a little bit ahistorical and take away from some of the things that E
09:46-Mail Adoka has absolutely had that has gone well.
09:50I mean, even in this game, the Lakers win it and they only scored 98 points.
09:54The defense is still there to a solid degree, but it's very evident that offensively this is just not sufficient.
10:01And unfortunately, wherever you land on this answer, I think the thing that you have to find a little comfort
10:08with is that they've already said that whether you trust him or not, he will remain the head coach of
10:13this team.
10:13Remember, he got the extension, what was it, last offseason, and it's a pretty pricey one at that.
10:17He's at the helm of this, and he's still widely regarded, and probably fairly so, as an elite defensive coach.
10:23But this is not holistic enough for a team that has whatever expectations you believe the Rockets have.
10:28Because I think there's some gray area on where some people are in this moment.
10:32I know at the start of the season we talked about championship.
10:34Now it might be a little different.
10:35But whatever the expectations you have, this team is not built or is not currently operating in such a way
10:40to reach those expectations.
10:42And that lands with the head coach, even though he remains.
10:45So do you trust him?
10:46I do not.
10:47And there are...
10:48No, I was trying to get Reggie's answer.
10:50Oh, Reggie.
10:51Do you trust him?
10:52He said a lot there, man.
10:54Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:55I mean, the answer, if I'm being entirely honest, is no.
10:58Yeah.
10:59I think there's pathways to have some belief in him, but no.
11:02I mean, he put together this staff that does not have an answer offensively.
11:07We've seen this team at times, and admittedly, a fairly young team, especially when we're talking about the guys that
11:12actually played in this series.
11:14We've seen enough times where I go, do we know what we're doing?
11:18Are we hitting the mark?
11:20Are we hitting the notes that we're trying to play here?
11:23And I think that still comes back to E-Man.
11:24I recognize how talented he can be as a coach.
11:28But no, I'd be lying if I told you that I had full trust in the head coach.
11:33Yeah, I'm kind of with you on the last part.
11:35I just don't.
11:36I don't trust him, man.
11:38And honestly, just being in the NBA, man, you see how quick a good coach can go.
11:43And I know he's not going anywhere now, but we've seen good coaches in this league where they don't make
11:49adjustments.
11:50They're out of there, man.
11:51It's not like, oh, this is only his third year, and they won for the game.
11:56Man, these coaches are getting out of here for less.
11:59So, I just don't.
12:00To me, I felt like he should have made some type of adjustment this year.
12:04You knew you weren't going to have Fred this year.
12:07And I felt like he made no adjustment at all to that.
12:10To me, the answer is an absolute no, because it's about three things once you get to the postseason.
12:14Really, the postseason is what it's all about, as we all know.
12:17So, it's about, you know, it's about development.
12:20This team has not developed.
12:21The individuals have not developed.
12:23It's about adjustments.
12:25There was a little bit of an adjustment offensively, but by and large, J.J. Reddick, you know, coach circles
12:30around him.
12:31And it's about the culture in the locker room.
12:34Are they all pulling in the same direction?
12:35We're going to get into that, because there's some news on that.
12:38Is this locker room all behind Ime Adoka, all pulling in the same direction?
12:43The answer is no.
12:44So, the three things that I think are most important for a coach to be successful, particularly in the postseason,
12:49he is not only not done, I think they've gone in the wrong direction.
12:56Adjustments, the culture, and development.
12:59Have any of those gone in the right direction?
13:01I mean, not in a magnitude that I could say, yeah, without any level of bickering or argument.
13:06Right?
13:07Like, that's, I think there's places where you can maybe have some level of reasonable discussion, but it should be
13:13fairly clear.
13:13And when you talk about development, from when he took over, sure.
13:17But have you reached a plateau is a question that you always have to ask yourself.
13:21Even individually.
13:22Even individually, some of these players.
13:24Jabari had a decent series.
13:26He had a good run.
13:27But has he developed into the No. 3 overall pick, which you expect?
13:30You know, obviously we've talked about Reed Shepard.
13:32I think that that picture of Jabari Smith Jr. is probably gone.
13:36The idea of, like, him being a consistent role player who can be a part of what you're doing.
13:43I think he's still available.
13:45And you see that sometimes.
13:47I think the frustrating thing is you see flashes of it.
13:51But this is the time where you want to see less than flashes.
13:53You want to see more than flashes.
13:54You want to see more consistency.
13:57Cade Cunningham had a really, really good.
13:59Average 36.
14:00Really, really good series there.
14:01That's development.
14:02Yeah.
14:03That's a player that is taking it to another level.
14:05Yeah.
14:06I ain't going to lie to you.
14:07I was kind of a little bit underwhelmed with Amin Thompson this year, man.
14:11I thought he was going to take a bigger step.
14:13And it seemed like he kind of just had the same type of year.
14:14I think you can argue, Amin.
14:16But the one thing about Amin, and just last thought here, just on what happened.
14:20And we're going to get into some other things, of course.
14:21I was trying to decide, like, who on this roster in this series showed that they've got that something that
14:29you want to trust
14:29and you can't trust in the postseason.
14:31And Amin might be the only, maybe, maybe, I was going to say Reed, but there's so many shortcomings there.
14:40Just his offense.
14:40Like, that dude I can take to the postseason and I know what I'm getting.
14:44I think Amin might be the only answer.
14:45Yeah.
14:46I think that's fair.
14:47That's a problem.
14:48For sure.
14:49Yeah.
14:49I mean, without question.
14:50There's growth of development.
14:51It's still absolutely necessary on this team.
14:53Mm-hmm.
14:54Yeah.
14:54And so, yeah, I see you 7-1-3.
14:56Before Coach Ime Odoka came, this team was not in the playoffs.
15:00Absolutely.
15:01Mm-hmm.
15:01Like, that is something I wanted to acknowledge, right?
15:04This is a team that has gotten better.
15:06Is that growth continually, is continuing to happen?
15:10We just saw Jamal Mosley.
15:11I think it was today they announced Jamal Mosley, head coach in Orlando, was fired.
15:15Mm-hmm.
15:16Jamal Mosley helped grow that Orlando Magic team.
15:18Right.
15:19They took the number one seed to...
15:20Three straight playoff appearances.
15:22Right.
15:22They took him to seven.
15:23At some point, you reach a point where you go, hey, have we reached where we can go with
15:27this coach?
15:28Clearly, Ime Odoka will remain here, and I think that there's pathways forward, but you have
15:32to make sure you hit those because you're quickly coming up on, are we stagnating?
15:36And that's crazy that that's happened at this speed.
15:38Mm-hmm.
15:39No.
15:39You're 100% right.
15:40Yep.
15:40And like I said, it's the NBA, man.
15:42Like, Jamal Mosley, he was there.
15:44Like Reggie said, that team...
15:45Five years, three straight playoffs.
15:47Yeah.
15:48Yeah, but also three straight first-round exits.
15:50Yeah.
15:51Yeah.
15:51And they want better.
15:52I thought their team was going to be better this year.
15:54Mm-hmm.
15:55And, unfortunately, you got to try to look somewhere else.
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