- 6 months ago
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00:00More on how the Rockets could improve the roster this offseason.
00:04How many names now have we gone through just like a month into the offseason officially for the Rockets?
00:11Giannis, Jalen Brown.
00:15Embiid.
00:15Embiid.
00:16Wait, really?
00:17Donovan Mitchell.
00:19Embiid?
00:20Yeah.
00:20He's been brought up.
00:21Wow.
00:22That's four.
00:23Whatever for clicks, I guess.
00:25I would stay so far away from Joel Embiid.
00:27He's still a really good player, but he's so injury-prone.
00:31I treat him like the player.
00:32Oh, my God.
00:33I'm just telling you what the reports have said.
00:35I get it, but I would say stay so far away from that guy.
00:38That's four.
00:39There have been at least a couple of more.
00:41There's another one coming, I feel like.
00:42I feel another one coming on.
00:44I just feel it.
00:45I feel something.
00:46But, Sean, who else could possibly be in the Rockets' radar?
00:51Well, Kyrie Irving, apparently, according to this Brandon Scoop B. Robinson fella.
00:57Yeah.
00:57Scoop.
00:58Scoop.
00:58Now, you're familiar with this person.
01:01Yeah.
01:01Okay.
01:02Yeah.
01:02How does he have, let's say, credibility here in reporting?
01:09I see he's got like 37,000 Twitter followers, but, you know, if he's unlike me, a lot of
01:16those could be bots.
01:18Like, I try to clear, like, the fake.
01:19Scoop is legit.
01:20I mean, he worked for, I know he worked for, I think, NBC years ago.
01:24He worked for Valley Sports as well.
01:26Okay.
01:26So, he's been, he's covered the, he's literally covered the NBA since he was like a teenager.
01:30All right.
01:30I'm just asking.
01:31He's from the, he's from the East Coast, but he's been around a while.
01:33I've talked to him before.
01:35Asking for the people.
01:36Yeah.
01:36Okay.
01:36So, you say the man's got credibility.
01:38He's legit.
01:38He's legit.
01:39Now, this is not like a hot take report or anything.
01:42It says the Rockets are closely monitoring Kyrie Irving's availability.
01:49And that's it.
01:50That was the report.
01:51Now, what's there to be monitored when the newest general manager for the Dallas Mavericks,
01:58Masai Ujiri, says this?
01:59You know, Kevin Durant once told me that there's only one Kyrie walking around in the world.
02:09Yeah.
02:10I think we have to figure out a way, you know, like to, you know, how Kyrie fits with our
02:18program.
02:18And I've had those conversations with Kyrie up till yesterday.
02:23And I think Kyrie will fit.
02:25You know, I said it before.
02:27There's a huge curiosity in our minds to see how Kyrie fits playing with Cooper Flagg.
02:33He's just that kind of like an incredible talent and player.
02:38And I think we owe that organization.
02:41We owe this organization that I'm sorry that it could not happen with chasing kids.
02:48He has the ultimate respect, I think, for Jason Kidd.
02:52I'm not even going to speak for Kyrie and relationship, you know, like, and I take responsibility for this decision.
03:01But my goal is to put him in a place where he's successful here.
03:06Here.
03:07That's what I heard.
03:09Here.
03:09And that he's had conversations with Kyrie Irving about being a fit and how confident he is at being a
03:17fit in Dallas.
03:18So there's that.
03:19And, you know, you've got to take it at face value until, you know, a decision is made otherwise.
03:25But what do you think about Kyrie Irving and potentially being him being on the move this offseason when you
03:33hear like, hey, Rockets are monitoring this situation.
03:35And there's reason for it to be monitored because there's been a coaching change.
03:40And the Dallas Mavericks have clearly, you know, kind of, I would say, pivoted from multiple times now from pre
03:51-Luka Doncic to post-Luka Doncic.
03:55And now they might be doing it again in, as it concerns Kyrie Irving and his future there.
04:02Well, another thing to keep in mind with Kyrie Irving is he has not played an NBA game since March
04:08of 2025.
04:10He didn't play at all this season.
04:12By the time he gets back on the court, it will be well over a year and a half since
04:16he touched an NBA court.
04:18You don't know what he's going to look like when he gets back out there.
04:20You don't know what he's still going to have.
04:22And I believe Kyrie's already in his 30s.
04:24I might be approaching his number 32, 33.
04:27No, no, no, no.
04:27He's 34.
04:2934.
04:29Just turned 34 in March.
04:31So he's in that mid-30 range.
04:33Yeah.
04:34At this point, and I'll be honest, whenever I hear a GM, team president, whoever it is that makes those
04:39decisions with those types of comments,
04:42my mind is like, okay, he might be on the first thing smoking out of there.
04:46I don't think he's going to be there for long.
04:48I think he could be out by the trade.
04:50If he comes back and he plays well, I think Kirby could be out of there by the trade deadline
04:56next year.
04:56Yeah.
04:57I don't see him there for the long run because this is going to be Cooper Flagg's team.
05:01Let's just be honest.
05:02This is Cooper Flagg's team moving forward.
05:04You know that whole opinion you had about five minutes ago on Joel Embiid?
05:10Yeah.
05:10Oh, yeah, same thing.
05:11Hold on.
05:12I wouldn't want Joel Embiid.
05:13The guy can't stay healthy, blah, blah, blah.
05:16Dude, Kyrie Irving.
05:17Kyrie's not as bad, but he's been pretty injury-prone the past few years.
05:22Maybe not as bad, but what's bad?
05:24Yeah.
05:24He's played in 60 games one time since the 2018-2019 season.
05:3120, 54, 29, 60, 58, and then 50 the last time he played, which was in the 24-25 season.
05:40I'm sorry, but I'm not in the business of doing what the Rockets said they were not doing with Kevin
05:50Durant, now in 26-27, upcoming season, doing with Kyrie Irving, which is trying to go out and get one
05:58guy and go all in, you know, championship or bust kind of a thing.
06:04And they said that, clearly, Rafael Stone did after the fact, well after the fact, in a sit-down with
06:11Vanessa Richardson, I believe it was, or it could have been in the podcast that he appeared on with Ryan
06:16Russillo.
06:17That's who it was.
06:18It was the Ryan Russillo podcast.
06:19Maybe a couple of weeks ago now that Rafael Stone said, you know, that was never our thought.
06:25That was never our goal, championship or bust, bringing Kevin Durant in.
06:29It was about a process.
06:31It was about a window.
06:32And that window that exists still because Kevin Durant is still a Houston Rocket and this nucleus is still intact.
06:41In fact, how much will it, how much of that will be left, you know, when the dust is settled
06:48this offseason?
06:49That's really the question.
06:50But it sounded very much like that Kevin Durant wants to see this thing through.
06:55They want to see it through with Kevin Durant.
06:58And I don't think that means that they're going to bring one of his old teammates back from the Brooklyn
07:03Nets in which that thing failed famously.
07:06Also one of his buddies.
07:07Like, they're pretty, you know, they're friends, or at least they were friends off the ground.
07:10I don't know about now, but I'm pretty sure they still are pretty close off the court.
07:14Yeah, maybe so.
07:15But, yeah, at this point with Kyrie, you know, maybe three, four years ago, you still take a shot at
07:21Kyrie Irving.
07:22But at this point, to bring him back in and what you would have to give up to get him
07:26most likely,
07:27what Masai Ujiri would want, some of the young pieces he would want from the Rockets to get him, to
07:32me, it's not worth it.
07:33No, and that's a great point, man, because when you're a team like the Dallas Mavericks,
07:40you're building right now.
07:42You've got a young guy in Cooper Flagg who's definitely the real deal,
07:46and you'd like to put some, you know, good young pieces around him and build.
07:50What are we watching right now?
07:52Two teams that built.
07:53Exactly.
07:54That built these rosters up through the draft primarily.
07:57A little bit of free agency, and the Spurs made a trade for De'Aaron Fox, who's injured right now.
08:03But other than that, these are mostly two homegrown teams.
08:07You know, for the Thunder, you've got Caruso, who they traded for, who was a big piece last year in
08:12their championship run.
08:13But primarily, these are two homegrown teams.
08:16So you know the teams in the West, they've got to, you know Dallas, Masai Ujiri is watching these teams
08:21to see what they, you know, looking at what they did and how they did it.
08:25Absolutely.
08:26Now here's the thing, contractually, let's understand that first and foremost.
08:32When we're talking about Kevin Durant, who's on a two-year, $90 million deal with the Rockets
08:38that has a player option for the 27-28 season.
08:42Player option for the 27-28 season.
08:46He'll be a Houston Rocket next year so long as they don't trade him.
08:50Kyrie Irving, he's currently on a three-year, $118 million contract with the Mavericks
08:57that runs through the 27-28 season that has a player option in that final year.
09:04So...
09:05Does it say how much that player option is?
09:06Doesn't matter.
09:07Do the math, right?
09:08It's going to be a lot.
09:09It's going to...
09:09Yeah.
09:09Both of them, it's going to be a lot.
09:10You know that.
09:11It's going to be a lot.
09:12I mean, $57 million, you know, is the AAV thereabouts, right?
09:16Yeah.
09:16And here's why I say it doesn't matter.
09:19There's no way in hell the Rockets are going to do this.
09:22I don't see it happening.
09:24For multiple reasons.
09:25One, the monies.
09:26Two, the ask.
09:27It's a great point, and there's no question that the Dallas Mavericks would be asking
09:32for the kitchen sink.
09:34And the kitchen sink would be, I think, far more than what the Rockets would like to give up,
09:39even though the reports have said they're willing to part with some of their future draft capital.
09:45They don't have the future draft capital, I don't think,
09:48that the Oklahoma City Thunder have.
09:49The Oklahoma City Thunder have a bleep ton of first-round picks in the future.
09:53Rockets have their share.
09:54But there's no way in hell the Rockets are doing that and paying the money.
09:58Because then it turns into literally what Rafael Stone said it was not going to be.
10:03And that is a sort of a rental type of situation.
10:07And a go-all-in championship or bust type year.
10:10Because that's what you're doing when you have two guys, two superstars, future Hall of Famers,
10:15in their 30s.
10:16Making $50 or $60 million a year.
10:18And I hate to say it, but two guys, two, maybe literally on their last legs.
10:24You don't know what you're going to get from them.
10:26There's no way in hell you're going to do that.
10:28But for a team that has said now for four years running, they like the whole building process
10:34and they like whom they're building it with.
10:37It's about putting the veteran pieces around them.
10:40I think it's far more about that than addition by subtraction.
10:45That would be the biggest knee-jerk reaction to go out for the Rockets,
10:49to go out and acquire Kyrie Irving at this point.
10:53That just, it's just ridiculous to me.
10:56I'm not saying that Scoop doesn't have, you know, his, because he has connections.
11:03Maybe they are monitoring.
11:05Maybe he did hear that the Rockets are monitoring the situation with Kyrie Irving and the Mavericks.
11:10Yeah, and there could be multiple reasons why they're doing it.
11:12Exactly, but that doesn't mean they're actually going to go out and trade for him.
11:15I just don't, I've been wrong before, but I just don't see it happening.
11:18I just, I can't see why you would essentially blow up what you have.
11:22Yeah.
11:23You're blowing up what you have.
11:24Absolutely.
11:24You're getting rid of probably at least two to three young players to bring him in.
11:28Probably more.
11:29You know, probably two and then draft capital is what I would suspect.
11:33Definitely first-round picks.
11:34You know, definitely.
11:35But, you know, at least two and then two guys that have to make the money make sense.
11:39Yeah, exactly.
11:40And who are the two guys that the money would have to make sense for that you'd be parting with?
11:46I mean, is that a Fred Van Vliet?
11:49Is that, and look.
11:50I mean, he's not a young guy, but it might be a Fred.
11:52I mean, for the money, yes.
11:54It would have to be almost.
11:55And that's the other reason why I bring it up.
11:56He'd have to be one of them.
11:57Your money guys are Fred Van Vliet.
11:58He's not trading Durant.
11:59So, that's how it is.
12:00Your money guy is Alpern Shingun, Jabari Smith.
12:03Those are your money guys.
12:05That's three right there.
12:07Yeah.
12:07And I threw Fred Van Vliet in because, well, what's Kyrie Irving going to play when he comes here?
12:14Most likely point guard.
12:15Yeah, it ain't going to be Fred Van Vliet.
12:19So, there's something there.
12:21It's going to be interesting.
12:23I just don't think it has anything to do with the Rockets actually being interested in Kyrie Irving's services.
12:28I would be shocked if they went out and got him.
12:30I'd be disappointed.
12:31I really would.
12:31I'd be disappointed if you're a Rocket fan and you hear that.
12:34I really would.
12:35If it didn't work the first time, what makes you think it's going to work again?
12:38And they're not in a situation where they have to run anything back with KD's old buddy, you know, at
12:44this stage slash age.
12:47The Rockets should not be panicking.
12:49To me, that would be a panic move almost.
12:51Yeah.
12:52To just, all right, let's get rid of our young core.
12:54Let's split up our young core and go get a guy that's 34 going on 35.
12:58It'd be a waste of time.
12:59Coming off a really bad injury where he didn't play a whole season.
13:02You know, never mind panic, but just, it'd be a waste of time having to use brain power to even
13:08think to call about a 34-year-old Uncle Drew.
13:13Uncle Drew!
13:14It's a complete point for you.
13:16I mean, they didn't even want to go out and get, like, the cheap, the cheaper option of a former
13:21teammate via the Brooklyn Nets and Spencer Dinwiddie this past season.
13:25And that guy actually said, hey, I want to play.
13:27Yeah.
13:28Pick me, pick me.
13:29Yeah, playing for the Rockets would be cool.
13:31And that didn't happen.
13:32Nope.