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The Houston Rockets Continue To Prove Everyone Wrong... · Kenny For Real

0:00
Speaker 1: The Western Conference, as always, is an absolute blood bat.
0:02
Speaker 1: We got like a week left for the NBA season,
0:04
Speaker 1: and the difference between the three seed and the eight
0:06
Speaker 1: seed is two total games. With the week left, the
0:10
Speaker 1: difference between hosting a playoff series and missing it completely
0:15
Speaker 1: potentially it's a half of a game.
0:18
Speaker 2: That is ridiculous.
0:19
Speaker 1: Some teams are playing great phenomenal basketball right now, Minnesota
0:22
Speaker 1: Temple's five game win, Street Clippers for a game win streak.
0:25
Speaker 1: They were just the nineteen not too long ago. They're
0:27
Speaker 1: the five seed right now. You got teams that are
0:29
Speaker 1: not playing so great, like the different Nuggets. But if
0:31
Speaker 1: I go up just a little bit, we got the
0:34
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets, who haven't officially clinched the two seed, but
0:37
Speaker 1: they are very very close.
0:39
Speaker 2: To clinching it.
0:40
Speaker 1: They ain't really gotta worry about this last week of
0:43
Speaker 1: the NBA season as much as some of the other teams.
0:45
Speaker 2: And I think that what the Rockets have done this
0:47
Speaker 2: season is kind of getting lost.
0:49
Speaker 1: So I kind of want to talk about it because
0:50
Speaker 1: this has been one of my favorite individual seasons from anything.
0:54
Speaker 1: But before we talk about this season, let's take a
0:56
Speaker 1: look back on last year. I know y'all remember they
0:58
Speaker 1: had that spurt in March where they went on a
1:01
Speaker 1: double digit game win street. I gotta remember if it
1:03
Speaker 1: was eleven games, ten games, whatever, and they ended the
1:05
Speaker 1: season as a five hundred team.
1:07
Speaker 2: There was a moment last year.
1:08
Speaker 1: Where people questioned it, oh, when the Houston Rockets be
1:11
Speaker 1: able to catch up with the Golden State Warriors and
1:13
Speaker 1: take that ten See, they didn't, but they showed the
1:16
Speaker 1: blueprint of what the team could potentially be. But going
1:19
Speaker 1: to the season, it was kind of hard for me
1:21
Speaker 1: individually to project what the Rockets were gonna do. Going
1:24
Speaker 1: back to that video where I was doing projections, I
1:26
Speaker 1: had them on the outside looking in because a lot
1:29
Speaker 1: of people are looking at the Memphis Grizzlies, who had
1:30
Speaker 1: one of the most injury riddled seasons ever in the
1:33
Speaker 1: history of this sport. They could have John Moran backing
1:35
Speaker 1: at Desmond bang back, and then they already discovered players
1:37
Speaker 1: like Vince Williams Junior GG Jackson. They should be back
1:40
Speaker 1: to being a playoff team. People riding the San Antonio Spurs,
1:43
Speaker 1: Victor Wavin Yama just had a ridiculous rookie season and
1:46
Speaker 1: he got better and better and better, and he could
1:48
Speaker 1: be a top ten player in the league. That might
1:50
Speaker 1: mean that the Spurs can host a playing series or
1:53
Speaker 1: playing game the Pelicans, though they lost Zion Williamson in
1:57
Speaker 1: the playing game.
1:57
Speaker 2: You just think about a man.
1:59
Speaker 1: The Pelicans are putting some stuff together and they made
2:01
Speaker 1: a trade for this jon Tey Murray. So this league,
2:05
Speaker 1: this conference that was already ridiculously tough last year, should
2:08
Speaker 1: get tougher and this young Rockets team may not have
2:11
Speaker 1: enough to really compete.
2:13
Speaker 2: Well, we were wrong.
2:15
Speaker 1: I think even the most optimistic Rockets fan going into
2:17
Speaker 1: last season couldn't have projected that they would be the
2:19
Speaker 1: two seed in.
2:20
Speaker 2: The Western Conference. That is insane.
2:23
Speaker 1: And when I say things are getting lost when you
2:26
Speaker 1: look at where teams are right now. I've seen a
2:29
Speaker 1: lot of conversations over the last two weeks like, hey,
2:32
Speaker 1: being a playing team, being one of those seven and
2:34
Speaker 1: eight seed teams is not that bad because if you
2:37
Speaker 1: win that game, you get the Rockets in the first round.
2:39
Speaker 1: And a lot of people are looking at the Rockets
2:40
Speaker 1: it's like, I don't know, this team that's gonna get
2:43
Speaker 1: dominated by a more experienced team like a Minnesota or
2:46
Speaker 1: one of these seven to eight matchup teams and though
2:49
Speaker 1: that might be the case, I think that really diminishes
2:52
Speaker 1: what the hell or who the hell the Rockets have
2:54
Speaker 1: been this season, last year, emy Udoka, Fred van Vliet,
2:57
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks, Jeff Green, all of the veterans, the new
3:00
Speaker 1: coach that they brought in really set the identity of
3:03
Speaker 1: the hug Houston Rockets being this gritty, defensive oriented, get
3:07
Speaker 1: all in your face team, right, and this year they've
3:10
Speaker 1: taken it to a whole new level as they're tied
3:12
Speaker 1: for the second best defense in all of basketball.
3:14
Speaker 2: Right.
3:14
Speaker 1: The thing that is shifted this year to make them
3:16
Speaker 1: get to the point where they're winning fifty plus games,
3:18
Speaker 1: which again it's crazy to say all out and you
3:19
Speaker 1: think about what this rostere is is that the offense
3:22
Speaker 1: is starting to catch up to what that defense is
3:24
Speaker 1: and they're doing it in an untraditional way. They're one
3:26
Speaker 1: of the few teams in basketball is top ten in
3:28
Speaker 1: offense and defense. It's okay, see it's Houston, It's Minnesota,
3:31
Speaker 1: it's Boston, it is Cleveland and Memphis.
3:34
Speaker 2: That's it.
3:34
Speaker 1: Those teams are top ten on both sides of the ball.
3:36
Speaker 1: Houston is the first example I bring up when people
3:38
Speaker 1: talk to me, when people find out that I talk
3:40
Speaker 1: basketball for a living. Specifically some of the older dudes.
3:43
Speaker 1: They talk about how uniform the game really is. Everybody's
3:46
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. Everybod's chocking up threes, everybody's doing this.
3:48
Speaker 1: I say, go watch the Houston Rockets game, because they're
3:50
Speaker 1: one of the teams that we say the eighth best
3:52
Speaker 1: defense in basketball or at eighth best offensive basketball while
3:55
Speaker 1: not being one of those teams that's getting up a
3:57
Speaker 1: ton of three point shots. And it makes sense, right
3:59
Speaker 1: they if you look at the rosters some of their
4:00
Speaker 1: starting units, you look at and be like, yeah, there's
4:03
Speaker 1: not many plus shooters on this team. One of my
4:05
Speaker 1: favorite things about the Rocket season, and this basically happened
4:08
Speaker 1: over the last month or so, is the double big
4:10
Speaker 1: lineup between Alprinshin Goon and Steven Adams. That lineup has
4:14
Speaker 1: dominated teams, and we're gonna talk about that in a
4:15
Speaker 1: little bit. But the showcases that, like every team in
4:18
Speaker 1: ball is not playing the same way. Hell, even some
4:20
Speaker 1: of the other double big lineups and basketball we talk
4:23
Speaker 1: about the Cleveland to the Oka Seeds of the world,
4:25
Speaker 1: they have at least one of.
4:26
Speaker 2: Their bigs b like a guy that can hit a
4:28
Speaker 2: three pointer, right.
4:29
Speaker 1: You think about Evan Mobley's three point progression over the season,
4:31
Speaker 1: or Chet Holmgren, who's always been a guy that can
4:33
Speaker 1: hit threes. The Houston Rockets n they're double big lineup
4:37
Speaker 1: that they've been throwing out there randomly in games. They
4:39
Speaker 1: are legitimately sitting in the paint, and they're pairing that
4:43
Speaker 1: with im and Thompson, who is also not a shooter,
4:46
Speaker 1: not a spacer. But they're one of the best interior
4:49
Speaker 1: passing teams I've seen since like I don't know, two
4:53
Speaker 1: thy fifteen San Antonio Spurs or something like that. I
4:56
Speaker 1: have now watched back their game versus OKC multiple times
4:59
Speaker 1: because I thought it was one of the most phenomenal
5:00
Speaker 1: games of the season for them. Of course OKC run
5:03
Speaker 1: and check and Hartenstein, and then the rock has decided
5:06
Speaker 1: to start both of their big together. The spacing on
5:09
Speaker 1: the team again is not gonna be good. You think
5:10
Speaker 1: think about how teams are I'm and Thompson. This is
5:13
Speaker 1: the guy. I'm sorry, right here is the guy that
5:15
Speaker 1: is a signed regarding Iman Thompson, like how much space
5:18
Speaker 1: is here? But one thing I'm in Thompson has done
5:21
Speaker 1: so phenomenalous season is eat up open space as Shingun
5:24
Speaker 1: beats his guy and Adams caru so Hardenstein has to
5:27
Speaker 1: come over or it's an easy layup, and then Steven
5:29
Speaker 1: Adams doing his best box out and boom, it's an
5:33
Speaker 1: I'm in Thompson finish right by twenty twenty five NBA standards,
5:36
Speaker 1: This is ridiculous spacing. First of all, what the hell
5:39
Speaker 1: is Jalen Green doing? First of all, but forget about that.
5:42
Speaker 1: He's been playing great ball, so we give him a
5:43
Speaker 1: bass here. But we have basically four offensive players sitting
5:47
Speaker 1: in the red area and all the defenders being there
5:50
Speaker 1: as well. Well, look what happens on his play, big
5:53
Speaker 1: good passing man. This is just a passing Steven Adams
5:56
Speaker 1: doing everything he can, again using his size.
5:58
Speaker 2: I think Stephen Adams.
5:59
Speaker 1: I love Stephen Adams, is always has but Steven Adams,
6:02
Speaker 1: this is not something that he'll ever get credit for
6:03
Speaker 1: in the box score or something like that, but him
6:06
Speaker 1: doing this, Hey, Shingoon is about to get a shot up.
6:08
Speaker 1: I'm gonna box out Isaiah Hartenstein, not just in case
6:11
Speaker 1: Alprin Shngngong misses, but it eliminates Isaac Hardenstein's ability to
6:14
Speaker 1: help on this play defensively at all, and it leads
6:17
Speaker 1: to Alprin schen Gooon scoring again. I could go on
6:19
Speaker 1: and on. This was something that happened in the third
6:21
Speaker 1: quarter of last night's game versus the Warriors. The Warriors
6:24
Speaker 1: have been one of the best defensive units in basketball,
6:27
Speaker 1: especially since Jimmy Butler trade. Right, this is this right
6:31
Speaker 1: here is just beautiful hoops.
6:32
Speaker 2: Right.
6:34
Speaker 1: They're gonna run Jalen Green off of this screen from
6:37
Speaker 1: Fred Van Vliet. Everybody's expecting this handoff, right and you're
6:41
Speaker 1: gonna do You're gonna see Alprin schen Gooon do something
6:45
Speaker 1: that Draymond Green has done to defenders for fifteen years
6:48
Speaker 1: or have at loon.
6:49
Speaker 2: Draymond Green been.
6:49
Speaker 1: With Steph Curry where you know, you think, like like
6:52
Speaker 1: this is Jalen Green playing Steph Curry right now where
6:55
Speaker 1: he's a threat. He's so much of a threat. Where
6:58
Speaker 1: Kevin Looney's like, I gotta help man. John Degminga is
7:01
Speaker 1: what three steps behind him. We gotta make sure he
7:04
Speaker 1: don't get this because if he get this, he's just
7:05
Speaker 1: gonna pull up for three. And in this game he
7:06
Speaker 1: had it going from three. Right, Nah, I'm just gonna
7:09
Speaker 1: take it for what I can. There's the help, Freddy
7:12
Speaker 1: is wide open, right, Yeah, that's a frev Vliet Trey ball.
7:15
Speaker 2: Who's back here, Who's back here?
7:17
Speaker 1: Baseline run and it's always I'm in Thompson again, just
7:20
Speaker 1: showing my overall fascination of this, this double big lineup.
7:24
Speaker 1: So far they've played one hundred and forty four minutes together.
7:27
Speaker 1: They have an offensive rating of one to twenty seven
7:29
Speaker 1: and a defensive rating of ninety three. Small sample size
7:32
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty four minutes is not that you know,
7:34
Speaker 1: not that large, but it's this number that stands out
7:37
Speaker 1: above all where the offensive rebound rate, I'll round up
7:40
Speaker 1: for you. At one point it was fifty percent, but
7:42
Speaker 1: now it's down to forty seven percent, which means that
7:44
Speaker 1: for every two shots they take, about one of them
7:47
Speaker 1: their offensive rebounding. And that's how you get to the
7:49
Speaker 1: offensive rate of being so damn good without the adequate
7:52
Speaker 1: amount of spacing. Ebayu Donk has done such an amazing
7:55
Speaker 1: thing and one of my favorite wins from them again
7:57
Speaker 1: this season is when they played against ok See where
8:00
Speaker 1: they straight up just bullied Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein out.
8:04
Speaker 1: All those two teams played against each other five times
8:06
Speaker 1: a season, so it's hard to really figure out what
8:08
Speaker 1: should you take away from this game?
8:09
Speaker 2: What shouldn't you take away from this game? But just
8:10
Speaker 2: taking that game at.
8:11
Speaker 1: Face value, those two big shouldn't going and Adams just
8:14
Speaker 1: work very well together.
8:16
Speaker 2: Let's talk about i'm and Thompson. My boy, i'm in.
8:18
Speaker 1: I mentioned this before, but i'm In Thompson is the
8:21
Speaker 1: type of prospect that I would give up so much
8:24
Speaker 1: for my favorite team to have on on theirs. You know, Like,
8:27
Speaker 1: of course everybody wants to win these or the generation
8:29
Speaker 1: of the Lebron's or generational talents, of course, but having
8:32
Speaker 1: a guy like i'm and Thompson on your roster just
8:35
Speaker 1: changes the trajectory of your team because, like I mentioned,
8:38
Speaker 1: he's one of the best baseline.
8:39
Speaker 2: Roamers in all of basketball.
8:41
Speaker 1: He's one of the best defensive players in all of basketball,
8:44
Speaker 1: and he's the best athlete maybe ever in this whole sport.
8:47
Speaker 1: Like he is the perfect kind of player to have
8:50
Speaker 1: on pretty much any team, right, And you think about
8:52
Speaker 1: the lack of jump shooting, and maybe the jump shootering
8:54
Speaker 1: never does end up happening. But you're seeing him on
8:57
Speaker 1: a team at twenty one years old that he does
9:00
Speaker 1: not have spacing and still end up being ultra ultra effective. Right,
9:03
Speaker 1: So if he ever just becomes let's say, league average shooter,
9:06
Speaker 1: I don't even know what to say his ceiling ultimately
9:09
Speaker 1: can be because if I was projecting, he's going to
9:11
Speaker 1: make an all defensive team this season and he's twenty
9:14
Speaker 1: one year He's twenty one years old, y'all, he'snna make
9:16
Speaker 1: it all defensive case this season, and I think that's
9:19
Speaker 1: gonna be the case for the entire y of his career.
9:21
Speaker 1: That guy and his brother care about stops and that
9:25
Speaker 1: is a unique for somebody that yard and getting back
9:28
Speaker 1: to the original point of it, kind of getting lost
9:30
Speaker 1: and like what the season really is, Like you think
9:33
Speaker 1: about the Detroit Pistons, Right, the Detroit Pistons had one
9:35
Speaker 1: of the biggest total points jumps ever where I think
9:38
Speaker 1: they were the first team to ever quad triple triple.
9:41
Speaker 1: I wanna say quadrup that would have been crazy triple
9:44
Speaker 1: the amount of wins that they had the previous season.
9:46
Speaker 1: And at that is the darling story of the season,
9:48
Speaker 1: which it should be, like the Pissones have been one
9:50
Speaker 1: of my favorite teams to watch. But because the Pisses
9:52
Speaker 1: did that much of a jump, it's just kind of
9:54
Speaker 1: neglected that the Houston Rockets have a young core as
9:57
Speaker 1: well and also playing great basketball. And I'm projecting a
10:00
Speaker 1: little bit here, but like right now, there are eleven
10:02
Speaker 1: games better than they were last season. We're at five
10:04
Speaker 1: games left, So let's say they end up thirteen total
10:07
Speaker 1: wins better than last season. That is a ridiculously impressive
10:11
Speaker 1: jump considering all the factors that we talked about going
10:14
Speaker 1: into the season. And then we get to talking about
10:16
Speaker 1: projections in the playoffs, and as I mentioned earlier, a
10:18
Speaker 1: lot of people are hoping that their favorite team sees
10:21
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets. A lot of that conversation ends up
10:23
Speaker 1: being that the Rockets and pretty much every series that
10:27
Speaker 1: they go in, won't have the best player on the court.
10:31
Speaker 1: And again, you think about who they could potentially go
10:32
Speaker 1: against against the Clippers, they won't have the best player.
10:34
Speaker 2: Of the Warriors, the Wolves.
10:36
Speaker 1: I mean, you can make the argument for the Grizzlies,
10:37
Speaker 1: I guess, but I probably wouldn't make that argument. So like,
10:40
Speaker 1: they will be going in without having a one to
10:43
Speaker 1: a guy. And that's one of the major criticisms of
10:45
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets, right when it's going down to the
10:48
Speaker 1: nitty gritty, how can they score in the clutch? And
10:50
Speaker 1: there have been times that I've watched in this season
10:51
Speaker 1: and I question that as well. I think about their
10:54
Speaker 1: game versus the Lakers from last week where they went
10:57
Speaker 1: through the stretch in the fourth quarter where they put
10:59
Speaker 1: up zero made field goals. It ended up looking really
11:02
Speaker 1: really ugly, and I think that's a warranted like critique
11:05
Speaker 1: of the team. Right, all these other teams we mentioned,
11:07
Speaker 1: like hey man, they got a one a superstar or
11:09
Speaker 1: somebody very close to that. They're like, give that guy
11:12
Speaker 1: the ball and he can make something happen, whether it's
11:14
Speaker 1: win or loss. We trust Anthony Edwards, Steph Curry, Kawhi,
11:17
Speaker 1: Leonard Nicola Jokins with that ball, and the Rockets don't
11:20
Speaker 1: really have it. The best thing they have too that
11:22
Speaker 1: is like a Jalen Green as far as a premier
11:24
Speaker 1: shot creator or a shim Gun who does close out
11:28
Speaker 1: games as well. But obviously those guys aren't at the
11:30
Speaker 1: same tier of closers as some of the other guys
11:32
Speaker 1: I mentioned.
11:33
Speaker 2: Just a couple of seconds ago, and all. That's cool.
11:34
Speaker 1: You can have those conversations, and I think, again, some
11:37
Speaker 1: of that is definitely, definitely warranted. One of my least
11:39
Speaker 1: favorite things is that so many people neglect or devalue
11:43
Speaker 1: regular season success. I'm a guy that can recognize that
11:47
Speaker 1: championships and playoff series wins, all of that is very,
11:50
Speaker 1: very important. But I think Green Coach has gone so
11:53
Speaker 1: far that it prevents people from really appreciating and laying like, hey,
11:57
Speaker 1: so and so this team or this player was really good,
12:00
Speaker 1: even if they didn't end up winning a championship or
12:03
Speaker 1: even if they didn't have a really far a playoff run.
12:07
Speaker 1: In my mind, I look at rings as nothing but
12:09
Speaker 1: an additive to a player's resume. Oh this guy was
12:12
Speaker 1: a bucket. He was really good, and he ended up
12:14
Speaker 1: with two championships. But I never look at a player
12:16
Speaker 1: and say, ooh, that guy was really good. No championship,
12:20
Speaker 1: so he couldn't have been that good. You know, it's
12:22
Speaker 1: always a positive and less of a negative when someone
12:25
Speaker 1: doesn't do it, because there are so many individual factors.
12:28
Speaker 1: And the reason I'm bringing it up for the Houston
12:30
Speaker 1: Rockets again is that I do not believe that them
12:32
Speaker 1: being a two seed in the Western Conference, that they're
12:34
Speaker 1: going to go out there and win.
12:35
Speaker 2: A championship and that would be okay.
12:38
Speaker 1: I think I could still look at a fifty two
12:39
Speaker 1: win team that average age is this and say, hey,
12:42
Speaker 1: that team had a phenomenal season and it was one
12:46
Speaker 1: of the most fun teams to watch all season long,
12:49
Speaker 1: and that can be okay. It's just too much fake
12:51
Speaker 1: one seed, fake two seed, fake this seed, and all
12:54
Speaker 1: of that conversation.
12:55
Speaker 2: I just I just never really understood it, like, are
12:59
Speaker 2: you are you?
13:00
Speaker 1: Are you watching these games and having fun with the
13:02
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets. Did one thing that got neglected throughout all
13:05
Speaker 1: of the steven A. Smith versus Lebron James stuff and
13:08
Speaker 1: before that, is that there was a time of the
13:09
Speaker 1: Rockets were on a ten game win streak. Not a
13:11
Speaker 1: single person said, have goddamn worried about it? Nobody cared, no, nobody.
13:15
Speaker 2: Cared at all.
13:17
Speaker 1: And people that did talk about it's like, oh, they
13:19
Speaker 1: was a win against this team and this team, and
13:20
Speaker 1: those teams ain't very good. Will they just beat the
13:23
Speaker 1: OKC thunder who are on pace to be one of
13:25
Speaker 1: the best regular season teams ever ever. They're on pace
13:29
Speaker 1: to have the best regular season defensive rating ever relative
13:34
Speaker 1: to the competition.
13:35
Speaker 2: That's how good of a defensive team.
13:36
Speaker 1: They just beat them again, and then they win against
13:38
Speaker 1: the Warriors, who basically the Warriors were undefeatable. With Steph
13:40
Speaker 1: Curry and Jimmy Ball and Dremongre in the lineup together,
13:42
Speaker 1: they went against the Warriors and won that game as well.
13:46
Speaker 2: This team is really good. It really fun to watch
13:48
Speaker 2: as well.
13:48
Speaker 1: Man, And though again some of these people beneath them,
13:52
Speaker 1: I might take in the seven game series. I'm not
13:54
Speaker 1: looking at the Rockets as a team that's just about
13:55
Speaker 1: to beat this pushover like some people might be looking
13:57
Speaker 1: at the mask.
13:58
Speaker 2: But I do think this playoff will be in pot right.
14:00
Speaker 1: A lot of people are trying to mock up the
14:02
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets acquiring a one to a player so like
14:05
Speaker 1: they can be in that conversation hypothetically they go out
14:07
Speaker 1: and get Vina Reant, they go out to get the
14:08
Speaker 1: Death Book, and they got to get somebody else that's
14:09
Speaker 1: on the market. That's really really good. You look at
14:11
Speaker 1: that rocketing, Oh now they have a closer mmmm. But
14:15
Speaker 1: I also think there's a world where they don't do
14:16
Speaker 1: that at all just looking at the progression of the
14:19
Speaker 1: players that they've already seen in this roster. Oppris Shon
14:22
Speaker 1: goons an all started season, a warrant it all started season.
14:25
Speaker 1: I'm and Thompson is everybody's favorite young player in basketball,
14:29
Speaker 1: right And maybe there's a world where they just say, no, no, no, no,
14:32
Speaker 1: we're completely okay because y'all might be bugging on what
14:35
Speaker 1: y'all want for Kevina RTT right now, you know what
14:38
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So we're okay with continuing to be a young,
14:41
Speaker 1: exciting and good team and see where our current players progress.
14:44
Speaker 1: They got good people in charge, I trust to figure
14:47
Speaker 1: it out. You know, you do look at it and say, like, oh,
14:49
Speaker 1: guys like him whitmore, reed Shepherd. These younger dudes and
14:53
Speaker 1: the roster that a lot of people believe in don't
14:55
Speaker 1: really get enough time, and that maybe that is a
14:57
Speaker 1: reason to consolidate and go out to get another dude,
14:59
Speaker 1: which I can understand.
15:00
Speaker 2: But overall, I know I've been all over the place.
15:02
Speaker 1: This season has been so great for the Houston Rockets,
15:05
Speaker 1: and I hope I'm hoping y'all watch it and appreciating it.