00:00All right, Clint, we've now kind of watched this season,
00:04and I know I think most people, Clint and Tyler,
00:10thought the Rockets after last year, all right,
00:12you jump from year one with basically a 500 record
00:17just outside of the play-in tournament in the West.
00:21That was an improvement over the previous year.
00:24You started to see some changes.
00:25You started to see the culture change.
00:27Then next year they take a major leap.
00:30And they become the two-seed in the Western Conference.
00:33And they got a little bit of their playoff experience.
00:36They go to seven games with that championship Warriors team.
00:41And Steph and company were just too much for them to handle.
00:45And after that, the thinking was, man, the Rockets are close.
00:48The Rockets are maybe one big move away.
00:52And they thought they made, and we thought they made,
00:55the big piece and the big move by bringing in and trading for Kevin Durant.
00:59And I think most people thought they are championship contenders.
01:03I think preseason they were thought to be right behind OKC.
01:06Hell, they started the season in a game against OKC to open up the NBA season
01:11when the Thunder got their rings.
01:15Now let's look at the end of this season now.
01:17We've seen it all.
01:19How far away do you think the Rockets are from being a true championship contender?
01:23713-572-4610 on the Base Power Text Line, 713-572-4610.
01:29YouTube and Twitch as well.
01:30How far away do you think now the Rockets are from being a true championship contender?
01:36I think they're a lot further away than most think and even want to acknowledge.
01:41I mean, look, I think you've got a head coach that's a non-factor on the offensive end of the
01:46floor
01:46and is a liability in situational basketball that's created an organization
01:52that appears to have extremely low basketball IQ.
01:55You've got a superstar that is a scorer, and that's pretty much where it ends at.
01:59That can score in volume, obviously, and was injured at the most inopportune time.
02:06You can say the same thing about Fred Van Vliet, obviously, in terms of being injured all year long.
02:12They do get him back.
02:13They do get him back.
02:14They still don't have anybody behind him as a safety net, which they have to go out and find.
02:19But then you've got a young supporting cast that has regressed.
02:24You've got a young supporting cast that, again, seems to have an IQ problem.
02:31You've got a young supporting cast that seems to be almost rudderless in a sense of,
02:36sure, there's some good players.
02:37Some guys can do some things.
02:38Some guys are athletic.
02:39Some guys can shoot here, there, whatever.
02:41But there doesn't seem to be any real take-charge player in that group.
02:48Again, most importantly, they've regressed from last year with the addition of a year experience.
02:54A year more experience and an all-time great scorer.
02:58So, yeah, I think there's major issues in Houston.
03:01I think they're further away from a championship today than they were a year ago.
03:05Yeah, when it ended.
03:07Yeah, absolutely.
03:08They are further somewhat texting.
03:11And absolutely, nowhere close to a championship coming from the base power text line.
03:18They might as well blow the whole thing up.
03:21And to be honest with you, I don't know about blow the whole thing up, but Clint, with the
03:26combination of the steps back they took this year and now the questions you have about
03:31their young guys and how good they can be, the other part is, are they close to OKC right
03:39now?
03:40No, not even.
03:41I mean, hell no.
03:42Are they close to San Antonio right now, you think?
03:45No, absolutely not.
03:47Denver, do you think they're in the range of Denver?
03:49No.
03:50Minnesota?
03:52And you've got to say...
03:53I mean, what we're watching right now, no.
03:54Yeah, that Minnesota team.
03:55I mean, hey, Wimby better get it together.
03:58He better get ready in that weight room because they are...
04:01I mean, Julius Randle is trying to beat his ass up.
04:04But Minnesota, I'm with you.
04:06With Edwards and Randle and what they've got going over there, no, I don't think so either.
04:12McDaniels is starting to emerge.
04:13And you can't say they're ahead of the Lakers.
04:16Right now, we just watched them lose to them without Luka.
04:19And I know Kevin Durant was out, but they lost the one game that Kevin played.
04:24He didn't win the game they played.
04:26So, I mean, that's five teams in the Western Conference right now that you can feel comfortable
04:34definitively saying that the Rockets, you can argue, are behind those teams right now.
04:39Well, I don't know, and you'd be better to answer this question because I don't know the
04:42NBA as a whole, Ron, but I'd wonder if there's a team or two that's coming that's on an upward
04:48trajectory that's got to...
04:49That's like San Antonio?
04:50Yeah, that's got to...
04:50But I'm talking about more that hadn't caught the Rockets yet, maybe, that's coming.
04:55And they...
04:55That's what San Antonio was this past year.
04:58Right.
04:58Like San Antonio...
04:59Is there another one of those that's coming?
05:01Because the truth is, the Rockets aren't just sitting steady and teams are getting better.
05:04They're sliding while teams are climbing, and that's obviously going to be a problem.
05:07So, I think it's a lot worse in Houston right now than I think folks want to admit.
05:14I mean, the KD injury and the Fred VanVleet injury seem to be real easy to lean into, and
05:19I just don't know that that was that big of a deal.
05:21Portland is interesting.
05:23They just made the playoffs.
05:24They won one game.
05:25They've got some young guys.
05:27They're interesting, although I don't think I would put them there yet.
05:30I mean, then it's always like, you know, how healthy is Golden State, right?
05:35Yeah.
05:35You know, they get Jimmy back, and what does Jimmy look like at this age and stuff?
05:39So, I mean, there's some...
05:41There's some there.
05:42Does Phoenix get better from this past year?
05:44I'm not sure.
05:45I just...
05:45You just look at this group, and it is insane how close it felt like they were last year.
05:54And now, this year, to me, it seems like they have to make a major move to put themselves
06:01in that situation.
06:03Because we can no longer look at this and say, all right, man, Shingun's going to grow, and
06:07next year, he is going to take a step to where he's one of the best centers in basketball,
06:12flatly one of the best centers in basketball.
06:16A man, Thompson's going to take a step where they can carry things.
06:19Like, it's hard to expect to say, that's going to change, without them having to make
06:25another major move.
06:26So, yeah, that part is...
06:30That part was concerning to where they couldn't touch that Lakers team that was injured like
06:36that, and you couldn't take advantage of that.
06:38And that's an aging team, one of the teams like that, without Luka.
06:42That was concerning.
06:44If you don't have a coach that can create opportunities for these guys, you're going
06:49to have to overhaul the entire roster.
06:51Getting Fred Van Vliet back is...
06:53I'm not going to minimize it like it's not...
06:54It is.
06:55It's big.
06:56But that's not going to all of a sudden get you a bunch of man beaters that can shoot
06:59the rock.
07:00I mean, that's just not...
07:01I mean, it's just not...
07:03At that level.
07:04I'm talking about at the playoff level and at a level where you can win playoff series.
07:07It just seems like you've got to find multiple pieces, along with get Fred Van Vliet back
07:13to be the floor general to manage situational basketball, along with keeping KD healthy and
07:20somehow overcoming whatever this offense is, roll it out there and let it play.
07:27We'll see.
07:28No, I just...
07:29There's no way coming out of last year that I would have this many teams.
07:32That's it.
07:33With KD, this many teams.
07:34That's it.
07:35Agreed.
07:35Yeah.
07:36Agreed.
07:36They're ahead of them.
07:37Disappointing as hell.
07:38I mean, he couldn't...
07:39They couldn't...
07:41Chingun couldn't solve DeAndre Ayton at times in that series.
07:44And that is...
07:45That is very...
07:46But we've talked about it...
07:48We've talked about it time and time again, right, Ron?
07:51It's like...
07:52We get enamored with these regular season...
07:55And you should when you're a rebuilding team.
07:56I'm not saying you should ignore the positives, but you get enamored with this regular season
08:00basketball and all of a sudden you bump up against even a guy like Ayton, right?
08:04I mean, all of a sudden that guy's playing.
08:08For his life.
08:09I mean, that guy's playing to win or go home, right?
08:13It's trying to win a champion.
08:14He's no longer just getting through a season.
08:15Yeah.
08:16And all of a sudden that guy's too much for you to handle, right?
08:18I mean, so that's the...
08:20If you can't rise with the teams that can in the playoff, with the playoff caliber teams
08:28in the league, if you can't rise with them in the moment, boy, it's going to be a struggle.
08:34What you got coming up?
08:35Well, it's your birthday, man.
08:37It is Ron the Show Ugli's birthday.
08:39And I think this is one on the heels of some of the changes that I made my last birthday.
08:44I think it's time.
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