- 2 days ago
ITL reacts to VanVleet opening up about the severity of his injury and what it means for the Rockets moving forward.
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00:00A podcast clip of one of the Houston Rockets.
00:05I mean, I think it sheds a lot of light on what they did slash did not do in this
00:10past season and what they might do.
00:11Fred Van Vliet, the point guard of this team and notably the missing point guard this last basketball season
00:18that ended up causing a lot of consternation with this team, whether it was the Amin Thompson slash Reed Shepard
00:24point guard experiment,
00:26whether it was the leadership that avoided that was created when he was not there.
00:31All of that became such a big portion of the conversation with the Rockets this past year.
00:36And all of it was due to an ACL tear that he had, obviously, that took him out for what
00:40ended up being the entirety of the year.
00:42It was conversations and maybe he could be back at a certain point.
00:44Five months, six months.
00:45Well, this was Fred Van Vliet on all the smoking of that particular injury.
00:50And adding a little, just listen closely.
00:52See if you can hear where we get a little more information on what happened with that injury.
00:56And then what was f***ed up, what probably never was disclosed was I did ACL and both meniscus.
01:03So my whole knee exploded.
01:06My knee exploded.
01:07Did you catch that?
01:07ACL and both meniscus is what he said.
01:10And I'm wondering, just to be clear, I don't think that means meniscus in each leg because that wouldn't even
01:14make sense to me.
01:15Wait, wait, wait.
01:16Hold on.
01:16Is it jumping pain?
01:17Somehow it tore the other meniscus?
01:19No, I think he means at the same time, the ACL and the meniscus, which isn't terribly uncommon in my
01:24cursory searches, apparently like 54% of the time.
01:28You knew I was going to bring you stats on this.
01:2954% of the time with an ACL injury, you could also get like a lateral meniscus tear as well.
01:34That being said, though, that is a bigger deal of an injury than simply an ACL.
01:39And simply an ACL seems crazy to say.
01:41However, what was your reaction to hearing that?
01:44No, no, no.
01:44It wasn't just an ACL tear for him.
01:46It was this in addition, and we had not gotten any information on that until now.
01:50Where do I start?
01:50Number one, lies and lying were quite prevalent.
01:56He went straight accusatory.
01:57You liars!
01:58No, they are.
01:59Mentirosos!
02:00Okay, mentirosos.
02:03How were they not?
02:04They lied start to finish.
02:06By omission?
02:07Well, lied by some by omission.
02:08There were some, you know, reports of, oh, he could be back, and Rockets feel good, and
02:14he's on the court, you know, non-contact stuff, all that.
02:18No, the Rockets lied start to finish.
02:20100%.
02:20That's number one.
02:21Number two, what the hell were you thinking?
02:23Why did you not go get a point guard?
02:25Oh, you know, well, he'll be back.
02:26I don't want to do it.
02:29Just for the sake of it.
02:30Pretty much raised the white flag from the start on this.
02:34That's number two.
02:34And number three, Fred Van Vliet, who, by the way, opted into his $25 million contract
02:40today.
02:40Yeah, the player option.
02:41The player option today, which, of course, why would he not?
02:45But number three is, what could you possibly even expect now?
02:50Well, I think the last question is really interesting, but that's a further branch.
02:54Going backwards, I don't know that this changes too much materially on last year, because the
02:59expectation was that it was likely he would miss a majority of the season.
03:02That was kind of already the thought.
03:03But I still think that, and ultimately this proves to be not the right decision for the
03:08particular season.
03:09The decision was, we are going to give ourselves an opportunity to see out the possibility that
03:14these dudes could run point.
03:16And what it does also remind me is, man, I did not love the options that you had to go
03:23and get a point guard.
03:24But I think that they probably could have made the decision on point guard sooner rather
03:28than later.
03:29It did bring, though, to my remembrance that he had an effective no-trade clause, Fred VanVleet.
03:36And I do wonder if they were at all considering the possibility that if you want to trade for a
03:42point guard,
03:42do you end up in a situation where the Astros were early this season where you can't trade
03:47the dude who's injured.
03:50And then you end up with two third basemen, right?
03:53You know what I mean?
03:53Like, you end up with two of, like, point guards that you were expecting to carry a lot of the
03:57load as you continue to move on with this team.
04:00Now, in that meantime, do you feel like, well, screw that, just go and make your team better
04:04is the way that you go about it.
04:06Maybe so.
04:06I don't know that we could fix Shetelite on how we move forward here, right?
04:11Like, because if they were willing to wait that out, does that mean that they are fully
04:16committed to seeing him play this season?
04:19I do wonder if that's the case, because if that was the case, would you, I'll ask this
04:24as a question.
04:24Do you not feel like the way that you play Fred VanVleet moving forward, the way that
04:28his contract is situated, is you come up with some level of agreement with him and say,
04:33can we renegotiate, you opt out and we'll give you a longer contract with lesser money
04:39in order to stretch this out so that we have more maneuverability right now and build this
04:43team right now?
04:44I don't know, you know, how much you can do that.
04:47He did opt in.
04:48So there's the $25 million.
04:49You can still change things as you move around.
04:52I think the bigger question is, you mentioned omission earlier, kind of lying through omission,
04:57which is accurate.
04:57There was also inference, you know, in terms of Fred VanVleet and the hope and the carrot
05:02and all that stuff all year long, that to me is the bigger question, because number
05:07one, I really feel like, and remember, Raphael Stone also said during the course of the year,
05:13maybe it's just not our year, you know, which was making some headlines, et cetera.
05:17I think they knew in their heart of hearts, they were kind of raising the white flag here.
05:22It was going to be difficult.
05:23Now they tried, you know, reading a man, it didn't work out, but they were kind of raising
05:28the white flag.
05:29And so moving forward to, even if you can work out a deal with Fred VanVleet, how effective
05:34could he possibly be?
05:35Well, at this point, they're not going to.
05:37And the reason why I asked that question is, if you put in some like, you know, reading
05:42between the lines, which, you know, ends up being a lot of what we do here in the sports
05:46landscape, Fred VanVleet are doing things that felt a little odd.
05:50Like he went back to a tweet that he had a long time ago.
05:53And don't forget, Fred VanVleet, undrafted free agent that ended up like, you know, winning
05:57a championship with the Raptors, having a long career, becoming like a long-term veteran,
06:01which is something that is a, you know, kind of an outside chance type thing.
06:05It is, it is the American, it is the American, I guess, for lack of a better term, racks to
06:09riches with all due respect to him story that we all typically clamor for.
06:12And he had one of those types of tweets where it's like, you know, bet on yourself, which
06:15again, someone of his status and his stature, you would absolutely expect that to be the
06:19case.
06:20Small guard, all that.
06:21But he went back and like quote tweeted that over the weekend with like one of them, like
06:26note-taking emojis, which to say in a weird way feels like he is kind of putting himself
06:31in that place, which correct me if you think I'm wrong here, but does that not sound like
06:35a dude who maybe understands that the team maybe is looking a little differently?
06:39Because again, one thing I'll remind you, he opts into this contract, so it's $25 million
06:42this year.
06:43That is probably the third biggest contract that they have on their roster.
06:47And it now, because he picks up this option, he no longer has that de facto non-trade clause.
06:52Yeah, he can be traded now, yeah.
06:54Does he not seem like, especially as an expiring contract, is now a lever that if you are looking
06:59forward, you could use to move off of?
07:01And the reason why I bring this up is I pair this with some reporting that happened this
07:04weekend.
07:05I think it was Sam Amick of The Athletic making note that the Rockets are seemingly interested
07:10in Marcus Smart.
07:11Don't get me started on that.
07:12Well, sorry.
07:13We're getting started here, big dog.
07:14You know, and before we even get to how you feel about the possibility of that, Marcus
07:18Smart is a, like a tweener guard, and I don't mean tweener as like between a point guard,
07:23shooting guard, but more of a, he can kind of start for you, he can kind of be a backup.
07:28And I do want interest is to play with Fred Van Vliet and what they've done, and obviously
07:32the Bruce Thornton that they brought in, and the Reed Shepard.
07:35Or is that, could that possibly be a thought towards replacing?
07:38No, I think that's absolutely one of the thoughts, you know, which again, ties in with, well,
07:44a couple of things, you know, the insincerity of the whole Van Vliet, you know, story, so
07:49to speak.
07:50But also, Marcus Smart, you know, we can manipulate these guys and move them around for salary
07:56purposes and, you know, maybe getting and bringing in a veteran, et cetera.
08:01But how does that, let's talk about the competitive thing here.
08:04Sure.
08:04You're not good, you're good, but you're not at the highest level, you're not making
08:09moves to contend, you know, going back to something we talked about last week.
08:13Marcus Smart is a 33-year-old rotational guy that can't shoot.
08:18He's a 33% career three-point player.
08:21Yeah, well, he's a weird dude because he has upped his three-point shooting at various
08:25different times, like in...
08:26Not last year.
08:27No, not last year.
08:28I will admit that.
08:29With the Celtics, he was, he shot better, like in the right circumstance, he can't shoot
08:32better, but I don't want to, like, belabor the point.
08:34You're right.
08:34Like, he's not, by and large, a shooter.
08:36He's maybe a better shooter than those numbers indicate.
08:39Yeah.
08:39But he's a friend of Eme's.
08:41Yeah, he has worked with Eme, defensive guy, can run offense.
08:44And I do wonder if, not necessarily like the one-for-one, but really just my point was,
08:50is it possible that they're in a place where, if you're talking about moving and changing
08:53what's happening, especially for those folks that look at this and you go, is Fred Van
08:57Vliet coming back the big change?
08:58Well, what if Fred Van Vliet is the agent that you use to change?
09:03No, I think that's very much on the table.
09:05I do.
09:06Does that get you anywhere for someone who I know, it looks at this raucous team and
09:10is like, hey, you need to make some shifts, right?
09:12If it's not going to be Alpern Shangoon or Jabari Smith Jr., although he could be paired
09:17with Fred Van Vliet in, like, a deal.
09:18Like, let's say that they want, they're interested in Kawhi Leonard.
09:20You pair those two contracts together and then maybe a little bit of draft capital and
09:24you could end up with Kawhi Leonard.
09:25Again, not talking about the trades themselves.
09:27We can dig into those later.
09:28But does that at all interest you in the possibility of finding something that is above just playing
09:33around the margins to make a change to this raucous team?
09:36Rearranging deck chairs is what hits me.
09:39You are rearranging deck chairs.
09:41There's a bigger conversation here about the general manager, but I'll just tease it by saying
09:45this.
09:45I think we have the answer on who's the worst general manager in this city.
09:52No, no, we do.
09:52We do.
09:53I mean, just from the way they handle it.
09:54This man is really loving this five series win streak by the Astros.
09:59I see you.
10:00From this, from the Fred Van Vliet thing, how they handled it, to again, the rearranging of
10:06the deck chairs.
10:06Marcus Smart is a good player that can't shoot, but he's 33 next year.
10:11What are you really doing?
10:12You're kicking the can down the road.
10:15This is self-preservation.
10:18This is self-preservation for whatever moves you're going to make for him because you do
10:23have those draft picks down the road.
10:24You do have some young players.
10:26You can maybe sort of rearrange it, rearrange everything to try to have this illusion of
10:35trying to get better.
10:36But are you really?
10:37No, you're not.
10:38I'm definitely more to examine here.
10:40I think, obviously, the big thing that you said there was the idea that Rafa Stone, the
10:44worst of the three major general managers.
10:46Over Dana Brown.
10:48Yes.
10:49Look at what he's done.
10:50What about anything that he's done in the past year has excited you about the Rockets?
10:54I mean, he's actually built the team, though.
10:56Or at least...
10:57How's it going?
10:58I mean, the team, he's actually built this team from not being in the playoffs at all
11:01to being one of the better teams in the West, even if you do not feel like they are
11:05contending at the same level.
11:06We'll talk more about this in depth because, obviously, it requires a level of conversation.
11:10Lopez won all the smoke, man.
11:11He does.
11:11He does.
11:12I'm happy to jump on that podcast, man.
11:14It brings us full circle now, does it?
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