Alperen Sengun All-Star Chances + Houston Rockets GOOD & BAD Trends Over The Last 5-10 Games

Alperen Sengun All-Star Chances + Houston Rockets GOOD & BAD Trends Over The Last 5-10 Games

On today’s show Alper and shenon selected as the Western Conference player of the week plus a look at his All-Star chances this season then we’ll dive into some good and bad Rockets Trends over these last 5 to 10 games plus the biggest roster needs for this

Team right now it’s all coming up right here at locked on Rockets this is Mission Control Houston ignition sequence start throw it up to jayen Green chenon here in the short row oh my that’s the no look Javari for three I’m the win look at T te on of 15 seconds guidance is

Internal the Houston Rockets select amen Thompson and cam Whitmore one thing I have never done is not made the playoffs and so we want to take that step here as well 6 5 4 3 2 1 what’s up and welcome to another edition of locked on Rockets your daily

Podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball as always I’m your host Jackson Gatlin native houstonian and credential media member I’m also the host of locked on NBA Mondays be sure to follow along on Twitter at JT Gatlin and the show of course at lockon Rockets free and available wherever you listen

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Get started and as always thank you so much for making locked on Rockets part of your day every single day whether it’s on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym thank you for being an everyday or and making the show part of

Your day every single day joining us now is none other than the podfather himself Rockets wire editor and host of the logger line podcast B Duos you can track down on Twitter at Bend Duos here for a variety of rockets topics today we got a bunch buch of stuff we’re going to get

To on today’s show Ben we’re going to talk a little bit about Alper and shun winning player of the week the first rocket to win the award since James Harden so that’s been a minute he’s also the youngest player in franchise history to earn the honor there we’ll also talk

About some of the good and bad Trends with this Rockets team as of late over these last five to 10 games or so as well as what the biggest need is for this roster right now so let’s start with Alp Ben because first off he’s he’s been the Rocket’s best player all season

Long it’s been incredible to see his year three leap that he’s taken and to kind of I don’t want to say like for him to be Vindicated to like win the award but it’s just it feels good right to have a player who’s out there winning Awards and there’s tangible like results

To be like hey look at what the Rockets are doing what we’re doing is actually good and we’ve got a player that we can actually cheer for and be like hey you’re you’re doing good things and now we can reward you with those good things

By by honoring you as the player of the week yeah absolutely in some ways it feels feels like shifting to another phase in that we went into this season talking about the core six of prospects and there’s still are six core prospects but right now one of those six has taken

A leap to where we’re not just talking about potential we’re talking about someone who is a star right now and so as things stand he’s the face of the franchise and this sort of feels symbolic in that now it is Al perin shenon team now that’s not to say that

Someone else out of that core six and hopefully more than one out of those core six can’t eventually join LP at a later date in that top tier but for now he’s the guy that’s honestly been the storyline for the first 30 plus games of this season and it just feels like

Actually seeing him get that honor on a League wide scale well Western Conference but still to see him in that rare air something that hasn’t been done by any rocket since November 2019 James Harden the youngest ever to do it in franchise history it just feels like one

Of those sort of symbolic um you know shifting of phases into which we’re now at a point where yes this is Alper and shon’s team it’s possible someone joins him in that tier down the line but for now uh the Rockets will go as Alp takes

Them and that’s sort of been the story of this overachieving season to date Alper and shinon last week for the week that he received the honors he averaged 24 points per contest seven rebounds and four and a half assists per game Rockets with a three and one team record uh for

The week of uh week 11 of the season so January 1st through 7 now I do when we look at Alper and shingun right one of the Milestones one of the things that we hope that he’s able to kind of achieve this year um is an All-Star selection that would be

Something that would kind of be the cherry on top of an already you know impressive rocket season as far as expectations are concerned they’re still playing you know they’re still very much ahead of schedule Alper and shingun with the year three leap he’s looked incredible and it would be yet another

Thing to just kind of um you know reward him for his play to be like hey no this is the Rockets guy right this is the face of the franchise now he is uh kind of taking ownership of his role on this team and playing to the best of his

Ability and playing winning basketball is other thing right he’s not just a star he’s not just a talented player putting up a bunch of you know Gody stats on a bad team it’s just he’s actually putting up good stats on a good team that’s playing winning basketball a

Team that’s overachieved and to your point last week they were three and one the issue though is i i as as much as I think Alper shun’s play is worthy of an Allstar elction I feel like it the more that I think about it it’s going to be

In it’s going to be incredibly difficult for him to actually get the allstar nod if only because the the West is just so unbelievably stacked right so you’ll have the five starters in the west and then you’ll have seven reserves so 12 total selections he’s not going to make

It as a starter that much is clear like it’s it’s not going to happen unfortunately turkey has done shout out to Turkey who’s done an absolutely miraculous push you know on different social channels different prominent figures trying to to gas up Alper shingon saying vote for him all that

That’s been incredible but I just don’t think it’s going to be enough for him to get the knot as a starter so there’s seven Reserve slots to pick from and I think at this point Ben there are it’s not that there’s seven clear-cut players who are better than Al brining he’s in

Very much in the discussion with those guys whether it’s uh Anthony Edwards Rudy gobear like I don’t know Damon sabonis like there are a lot of guys in that conversation who very much have their own claims to being an Allstar but where I do think we have a slim chance

Of Hope here is the reserves are selected by the coaches in the NBA and every single it feels like every single game opposing players and opposing coaches have nothing but great things to say about Alper and Shon and how difficult he makes their lives in having

To game plan for him and having to play against him in having to in just the way that he uh plays the game and I think that level of respect like peer-to-peer respect might have enough that that he might you know actually find himself in the allstar game simply

Because of the respect that He commands from opposing players and coaches we should also note that most years that 12 becomes 13 or 14 because the odds are there is going to be a late injury withdrawal for one reason or another and then The Replacements get selected I

Believe by the league office but I think there’s some consultation with the coaches and some deference to the ballots they previously put together so when we say top 12 most years it becomes top 13 or 14 so you look at the coach’s comments encouraged by that the other

Thing that makes me have a little more optimism for the Rockets being able to pull this off I love the fact that this honor of Western Conference player of the week this was submitted by their in-house PR department led by Tracy Hughes they do a great job Sean MOSI

Does a wonderful job of putting together the numbers the data and the way the player of the week the player of the month Awards work is that while they are decided by the league office it’s the teams themselves that submit on behalf of of their players and make the case

It’s sort of like you know putting together a legal argument if you will and then the judge is people or jury are people in the league office who then sort of sift through the presentations and decide who is sort of uh most deserving I suppose at least based on

The submitted data the submitted information and where this has a correlation to the All-Star voting for reasons you described earlier Alp is not going to be a starter unless he’s an injury replacement in multiple guys withdraw because the reality is the fan voting top three Western Conference

Front Court Nicole yic LeBron KD three Global Brands guys that have been MVP level players for years and years all pe’s having a great year he’s not to that level yet and that’s okay he’s just 21 years old the path is as a reserve and fan voting has nothing to do with

The selection for reserves that’s done by coaches who will go through a their own analysis and B presentations that are made from other teams I know the Rockets are working on sort of a package for sh if if you will that they will send to other teams that you know

Hopefully they’ll show to their coaches when they’re breaking down film and having these discussions in much the same way that other teams will submit things to the rockets in hopes that you know the Rockets will show it to eay udoka and they will take that into consideration so beyond the fact that

Shenon is already drawing all this praise from coaches who talk about what stands out on film when they see him and how much attention he draws each and every night for the Rockets I also think the fact that the Rockets submitted basic basically a winning presentation

To the league office for this player of the week award hopefully that speaks well to the presentation they’re able to put together to submit to teams who hopefully show it to their coaching staffs for this Allstar vote in the coming weeks because what’s going to win it’s not a populist campaign on Twitter

I know there’s been this sort of push back in recent days about are the Rockets doing enough promotion on Twitter for all pece candidacy and I do think it’s picked up of late as all piece play has gone to even another higher level over the the last week to

10 days but it’s just important to remember that important uh opposing coaches are not going to be scrolling through Twitter they’re going to be looking at it through much more of a basketball dieh hard perspective and so for the Rockets to be able to make that campaign successively to the league

Office that should give you at least a little bit of confidence that they can put something together that will also resonate with opposing coaches when they vote later this month no no no NBA head coaches get their game plans exclusively from NBA Twitter that’s what that’s at

Least what I was told uh um emok is just browsing Twitter the whole time just trying to figure out how he’s going to you know come up with this defensive game plan for the next game no I kid of course um look I think Alon has a has a

Strong chance to make it for all the reasons that we just laid out here the Rockets are doing their part alp’s doing his part he’s playing at an All-Star level it’s ultimately going to be up to the opposing coaches the other 29 teams in the association or at least the other

You know 14 teams in the Western Conference to figure out if Alp is going to be worthy of an All-Star selection and maybe a little bit of injury luck here and there might not hurt things uh if he can sneak in as a reserve this season but give us your thoughts on

Alper and shun’s Allstar candidacy in the YouTube comments coming up we want to get into some good and bad Rockets Trends over these last five to 10 games or so we’re going to get there in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel the NFL regular season

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Bus here for a second do you want to talk a good positive Rockets Trend or a bad Rockets Trend let’s start with bad because the last segment was good we talked about sort of passing the chch or moving on to this new shenon era that this player of

The week award symbolizes let’s go to the other end of the spectrum and do something not so good okay we’ll make it like a sandwich we’ll do the the good then the bad and hopefully some more good to you know on the back end of it

Um the last eight games or so directly coinciding with Dylan Brooks’s absence from the Rockets lineup uh their defensive rating has plummeted uh their defense has not looked great and now that also coincides with some absences from tar een who’s missed I believe the last four games it is yeah four games in

A row so not exactly great missing two of your easily your best defender in Dylan Brooks and then one of your top what three defenders in tar een I think you could make the argument tar is the second probably the second best defender on the team Maybe you argue Fred Van vet

Just IQ experience whatever point is those are two your best defenders on the team however I think what I’m trying to what I want to get to here is I don’t know if this is necessarily just a Personnel issue over these last eight

Eight to 10 games or so or if this is an issue that’s a little bit deeper than that where we’re starting to see you know teams maybe take advantage of some schemes against the Rockets right we’re seeing like the way the Miami Heat did how they fully exposed the Rockets

Defense and how aggressive they are in their switching scheme how teams that play with a lot of motion teams that share the basketball well and move well without the basketball have been able to expose the Rockets defensively so is this something that is of concern that

Maybe you know is something that we need to point the finger at em Oka and say hey we need better defensive game plans against teams that have high motion offenses like the Miami Heat do or is this simply just a Personnel issue where if they had Dylan Brooks and tar een

We’re probably talking about a win against the Heat instead of a loss a little bit of both but I do think that there were at least some signs of this prior to the Dylan Brooks injury which which happened Midway through the Indiana game that Tyrese halberton went

Off in my opinion one area where the Rockets were a little bit lucky to start the year if you looked into the shot luck data I would say for the first five to six weeks of the Year teams Miss shots against the rockets that they typically make or at a greater rate I

Should say and that tends to happen you’ll go through weeks where the bounces go your way and you’ll go through other stretches where teams it feels like they can’t miss against you and after 82 games It generally evens out but where I think the Rockets aside from missing the point of attack defense

Of Dylan Brooks in particular have sort of regressed in recent weeks is that as opposing teams make more shots you see a bit too much panic in my opinion and I think you especially see it from the younger guys guys like Jaylen and Jabari who end up helping far too often and so

When you get in a game like last night against the Heat where all of a sudden they make a couple of Threes And they’re constantly moving then the Temptation is to always help and be it an open three or someone cuts back door because you close out on a three too hard there’s

Always something that is there for a disciplined offense to take if the defense is that undisciplined I don’t think it’s everyone I think it’s disproportionately the younger guys but we should also mention that on top of Jaylen and Jabari being as young as they are you’re also trying to play amen

Thompson and cam Whitmore additional minutes with all of these injuries that you’re uh trying to withstand at the moment so because of that I think you’ve just seen a Rockets team going through beyond the injuries just typical bad habits associated with younger teams which is that if it’s a game like last

Night where it feels like the heat can’t miss from three then there’s a tendency to overcompensate to overh help and then that can get you beat in other areas as well especially if it’s a team like the heat that’s willing to move the ball and willing to move without the ball and cut

Straight to the rim and that it sort of puts eeme udoka in a tough spot because we can look at the per 36 numbers and say wow especially in this stretch without Dylan and without tar it’s not just the defense honestly the offense I feel like has suffered a bit as well

Because J shant Tate is just not as dynamic as Dylan and tarar he can’t make shots from as many places on the floor I know his three-point percentage this year is actually respectable it has ticked up a little bit but it’s primarily from the corners and so there

Is a bit of a hit to your spacing that does make it harder for alpr shenon to operate in particular we saw that against a very disciplined defense of the Heat and so in a perfect world you would love to throw out more shooting more athleticism of a guy like cam

Whitmore but then there’s the trade-off defensively are you willing to in in pursuit of Greater offense greater shooting are you willing to give up even more defensively and lean in even more to these trends that I was just describing so that’s sort of the delicate balance for the Rockets I just

Think that besides just missing in terms of x’s and o’s Personnel the point of attack defense I also think you’re just seeing some habits that are typical of young players especially if you’re in a stretch which which it feels like the Rockets largely have been of late where

Opponents are making their shots against you yeah the Rockets defense over these last eight games specifically has uh plummeted to they they would be at 117.5 defensive rating uh which would be good enough for bottom 10 21st of 30 over these last eight games specifically so a far cry from the

Top two top three defense that they’ve kind of um you know held down for a majority of the season and again that identity it it’s not that the identity has completely gone away I still feel like the identity is there they are a defense first team it’s and I will agree

I do think it’s partially Personnel right you’re missing Dylan you’re missing tar um but great point on the young guys right it it it felt like so many times in that Miami Heat game where you would see jayen or Jabari cheating over and trying to scramble to help on

Another man or even you’d see Alp at times closing out because he’s just trying to get to you know the next shooter and then he closes out to the wrong guy unfortunately leads to a wide openen Corner three because he’s closing out to the wing instead there were just

So many Mix-Ups defensively and that’s what a team like the Miami Heat does right if you don’t have good game plan dis discipline defensively about what you’re supposed to do who you’re supposed to stay home on all of that then it’s going to come off the rails at

Some point point and the rockets were able to kind of counter that a little bit with their shot making in the first half 10 of 23 Point shooting in the first half of that game going to halftime tied but then when the well dried up offensively and you were making

You know some of the uh unforced errors defensively then it led to the loss that we saw unfortunately I also say that on top of missing the point of attack defense I also think not having T’s length has been a little problematic because you don’t really have that weak

Side Rim protection that at times tar with his length and instincts can give you because this is a Houston team that does not really have a rim protector we know what LP is in terms of his style of play and then beyond LP it’s typically Jeff Green as your backup center ja

Landale didn’t work out so there’s no traditional Center at all when LP isn’t on the floor and so because of that you really need some long rangy types with good instincts which T een typically is to sort of um prevent those backd door cuts from from being as damaging whereas

When T’s not out there and you don’t have the length and you don’t have a backup center and you don’t really have Rim protection to begin with then a team that’s very disciplined about making those types of cuts and knows how to move the ball can punish you over 48

Minutes and especially the minutes when Alper and shenon isn’t on the floor plus just T’s rebounding in general I mean having having another guy out there who soaks up the boards the way that he does is always a huge Plus for any many second possessions yep yeah um I want

You so if you’re you’re listening to the show remember those that we brought a couple key points here right the lack of shooting the lack of interior size when Alper and shingun goes to the bench keep those points in mind as we get to one of our final topics on today’s show biggest

Roster needs right now but coming up we’re going to get to the good Trend as of late we’ll talk about Jaylen Green’s shooting percentages here uh the three ball falling at a better clip but is it is it real or is it fake and that’s what

We’re going to talk about here in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by better help around New Year’s we get obsessed with how to change ourselves instead of just expanding on what we’re already doing right maybe you finally organized one part of your space

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Basketball all right Ben we’re shifting gears back to a positive trend at least what what looks like a positive trend I say it looks like because and and I already I can already hear it now on the Twitter streets people CL crying clamoring he’s a hater he’s got an

Agenda against Jaylen all of it I can hear it now but look Jaylen Green’s three-point percentages over these last 10 games he is shooting just under a hair under 39% from Bri these last 10 games so 387 all right that’s a really respectable number that’s great now

Let’s dive into let’s let’s get a little bit deeper into this right let’s go through some of these game logs and look at the numbers three of seven against the Dallas Mavericks 0 of four against the Pelicans 0 of three against Indiana six of 12 against the Suns five of nine

Against Philadelphia five of nine against Detroit three of nine against Brooklyn four of eight against Minnesota one of six against Milwaukee and then two of eight against Miami so I get it that these are percentages and that over the course of an 82 Game season if Jaylen green averaged out to 39%

Shooting that would be a godsend that would be incredible but what I’m seeing when you actually look at the game by- game numbers is you’re still seeing the pendulum swings from one game he’s hitting all his threes the next game he’s missing all his threes and then

Back and forth and back and forth it’s not like he’s suddenly a reli a like two of five three of six every game kind of shooter it’s some nights he’s on and some nights he’s really off and so I don’t know if the the positive trend of the three-point shooting is is suddenly

Like this new development where oh he’s a great shooter now he’s still really streaky unfortunately is what I’m seeing and the other thing that stood out as you were reading off the game log is the three-point attempts this goes back into the idea in my opinion that Jaylen is

Something of a rhythm player and that when he feels the game out and things are going his way he’s going to put up more shots he builds confidence what’s tricky on this particular team where the foundation is Al per in shenon and to a slightly lesser extent Fred Van Fleet is that

Ideally you want Jaylen to be you not want to say a third wheel but someone who can function off ball and space the floor and you can just see that when the threes aren’t going his way in a given game the Miami game perhaps an exception to that he becomes reluctant to take

Them and now I know there’s a little bit of a chicken or the egg because you can also point out that well it also might make e udoka less likely to play him so it’s sort of goes hand inand there but the bottom line it ties in with the

Season long theme as I see it which is the first couple of years of Jaylen Green’s career Steven Silas ball which was basically no structure just Tribble the ball up the court your turn my turn whose turn is it to cook you know the mams and Jaylen got into the habit of

Just being able to shoot his way out of a slump and maybe it didn’t happen in a given game but over two three games he would typically find it and he was going to have enough shot attempts and the team needed him to score that much that

Over the course of 82 games he was going to average you know 22 plus points per game and he would have enough hot stretches to where the efficiency would look pretty decent as opposed to now that he’s not the foundation that he’s your I would say probably third option

Amongst the starters in terms of usage the question becomes how do you get him to be efficient if he can’t feel his way into a game through dribbling the ball through putting up a lot of shots that’s the trick and I think it’s something that we probably underestimated going

Into this season as something that was going to be difficult for him whereas the first couple of years he could dribble the air out of the ball if he wanted he can put up as many shots now if things aren’t going his way there’s more pressure for the Rockets because

They’re trying to win to turn to other options so beyond the fact that he his makes tend to come in bunches and that he’s a little streaky I also think it’s tricky for him if it’s not his game can he you know switch gears on the Fly and

Eventually find it I think that’s been difficult for him now the upside because this stylistically is very different than the first couple of years we can’t really say that we’ve had two and a half years of trying to get Jaylen to play this way no we basically had not even a

Half year so there is still time for him to I guess adjust to this Dynamic but right now I think that’s really what he’s struggling with yeah I and the whole adjustment period for him that’s that’s where that’s where the whole argument kind of comes in is just you

Know you can make the argument sure this is jaylen’s having to adjust he’s had the biggest adjustment I think of all the of all the Rockets young guys right you look at shenon you look at Jabari Jaylen has the biggest adjustment to make of all of them because of how much

Of a leash he had during the Steven Silas era of basketball and now he’s got a completely different role he’s being expected to do a lot of different things he’s expected to actually put forth energy on the defens side of the basketball e odoko wants him to be a

More well well-rounded player and we’ve seen him take steps in the right direction we’ve seen him improve in a variety of different ways you know in his game the playmaking the defense all of it it’s just it really does kind of boil down to his role on this team

Offensively he’s expected to just knock down open shots and there’s some games where he’s knocking down the open looks that he’s getting and it’s great but then there’s games like highlighted in that list of just again the last 10 games alone right there are some games where he’s a knockdown dead ey

Three-point shooter and then there’s other games where he doesn’t even hit a single three out of his four or five attempts so it’s that it’s that high degree of variance unfortunately where some games he’s good and some games he’s really bad offensively from three and that’s what is kind of the issue here

When you can go to a guy on the bench like an Aaron holiday or you know at times Atari een even when he’s available or now you’ve got cam Whitmore breathing down Jaylen green neck right right behind him in the in the hierarchy in the pecking order whatever as an

Upcoming two guard who had cam has zero issues when it comes to his offensive game he knows he’s a bucket he’s shoot he’s shooting lights out right now and he’s doing it in a very small amount of of run so if you were to you know theoretically scale that production up

For cam Whitmore would he be able to give you 20 points a game right now on good efficiency probably not he’s a rookie he’s going to make mistakes but when you’re seeing the flashes of Cam and you’re seeing what the other guys can provide that becomes the whole

Argument is how much of a leash does jayen green get this year right do you sacrifice the wins in order to continue to give Jaylen those developmental reps um yeah and I don’t I don’t know because everything you kind of described Ben when you were highlighting hey jaylen’s

A rhythm guy he needs to feel the ball in his hands maybe he gets going maybe he doesn’t all of these things all the ways in which we kind of describe jaylen’s game right now feels like the descriptors of a sixth man at Le at least right now and I

And I hate I hate that that’s kind of where we’re at right now and I don’t want it to be like Oh I’m you know I’m completely out on Jay I I would love for him to turn into an All-Star I would love for him to figure it out and become

Like a you know an All-Star Superstar whatever caliber player I just haven’t seen enough of it right it’s just this is kind of this has kind of been the book on Jaylen green to this point in his career and maybe he is a sixth man

And if that’s what his role is if that’s who he is as an NBA player that’s okay there have been other players who have been drafted as like high you know top overall picks who have not quite lived up to the standards of where they were drafted but then still made you know

Made themselves into quality winning NBA caliber players because they carved out a role for themselves and at least right now I just don’t see how J like jaylen’s skill set doesn’t exactly complement the rest of the rocket starters it feels a little dicey at best and that’s that’s

Just kind of where it feels like things are at with this team well in the Miami game he was better as facilitator with six assists but the the trick with that and where it gets difficult even if he’s better as a facilitator he’s not as good

As Fred or allp in that area so there’s a point of diminishing returns I mean it’s nice that he takes strides but at the same time it’s not something that you’re going to lean on all that heavily especially when you get to crunch time because there are better options the

Thing you could always use from Jaylen is the shooting the floor spacing and that’s something that will sort of buy him minutes if he can just shoot at a respectable level and space the floor that’s going to buy that’s going to give him so much of a longer Leash from eme

Udoka that it will give him the time he needs to develop in these other areas so that’s why I’m really watching the shooting that’s the intermediate step it feels like something he can do in the interim just to provide value at all times and perhaps as the weeks the

Months the years progress then he develops in some of those other areas but to the point on him being a rhythm player two games that really stood out to me from this recent stretch you mentioned Phoenix where he was six of 12 from three and I believe he was pretty

Good against Minnesota on Friday those were two where the Rockets were largely uncompetitive for most of that game and so because of that it’s a lower leverage situation and so that those were the closest games that sort of felt like last year or the year before that and

That because it’s lower leverage then the rockets at times went out of their comfort zone it wasn’t just spamming you know Fred and Alp pick and roll you were sort of desperate and so because of that he got to take few more you know jayen shots from the first couple of years and

He made them and that’s great but the question is how does that eventually translate into a structure where at least for this season all p and Fred are the focal points and that again that’s still very much a work in progress I’m not out on him because again it’s a

Little bit of a disservice to Jaylen what happened the last couple of years I think he’s really in his first year being asked to play This Way in this particular role so there’s hope that it comes in in time but yeah I I’m with you like it’s nice that he’s clearly bounced

Back from a bad December there have been positive steps but in terms of whether it makes sense for the Rockets within their starting lineup and if it can contribute to wins at a high level that’s still very much a work in progress I would say yeah um man we we

Talked about doing good then bad and then more good and I kind of just completely pump faked us into another bad segment so I apologize for that but um final thing here because I I I did remember you I remember asking our our listeners to kind of uh you know earmark

The the two points we made earlier the lack of shooting on this roster which we kind of already highlighted again talking about jaylen’s shooting struggles um and whether the shooting is real or not as well as uh the lack of interior presence uh when Alper and

Shingus go Alper and shingun goes to the bench so Ben in your eyes right now what do you see as the biggest roster need for this team because part part of is just like if they could get healthy I feel like they’d be better like you know

Missing Dy and Atari sucks but even with those two guys are healthy I feel like this team is maybe a piece away from being a well-rounded competitor you know a a you know bottom end playoff caliber team with this the stride that shingon has t or the strides that shingon has

Taken this year the young guys getting better game by game it feels like they’re missing one more piece if you could it doesn’t have to be a spe specific player but like what skill set are you eyeing if you’re Rael Stone looking at this roster me it’s clearly a

Backup big because I think you have to consider not just what you’re adding to the roster but also what you’re subtracting in terms of minutes and while they could certainly use more shooting at the same time I’m not willing to decrease minutes for someone like Jaylen green or even cam Whitmore

Who’s shown flashes of late for the sake of a guy who can give you a short-term bump yeah it might help you steal a game or two this season but ultimately you’re not going to win a title this year anyway and so that’s why I am willing to

Experiment with Jen and Cam and to give them a little bit of a longer leash and so when we talk about potentially adding shooting I mean there’s a reason why the Rockets even though they have Reggie Bullock a guy who was a productive rotation player as recently as last

Season and he’s not really in this rotation because the Rockets are trying to balance not just now well they’re trying to balance now with the future and to try and make sure that it makes sense on multiple timelines and so that’s why we’ve seen cam Whitmore not Reggie Bullock get these opportunities

As tari has unfortunately ran into uh injury issues again in recent days so because of that especially with the Rockets I’m guessing unwilling to trade a future first-run pick my guess is with the Brooklyn uh picks increasing in value based on the net struggling I think the Rockets probably hold on to

Those first- run picks unless it’s a true Superstar and I don’t know who that would be at this deadline so my guess is you sort of push that back a little bit and as far as a deal at this deadline you’re looking into sort of consolidating all those second round

Picks you have this year because you won’t be able to roster those guys anyway I just think in terms of not just what this team needs but also who you would subtract minutes from I think adding a rim protecting big who could give you minutes in matchups where Jeff

Green love the guy but you know there’s certain matchups that are more Suited for him than others he’s also he’s also he’s also 37 years old and so there’s potential if the rocket shoes him this way all season that maybe his play falls off so to me reallocating some of those minutes

From Jeff to someone that can fill a different role and also a different role than Alp let’s be honest I mean there’s certain matchups that can even be difficult for Alp a stylistic difference yeah a stylistic difference to me that’s the clear upgrade the Rockets can make that wouldn’t have negative

Repercussions in terms of who the minutes are taken away from I saw somebody float the idea of a trade the other day um Reggie Bullock for Jackson Hayes because the Lakers need shooting rockets need a little size Jackson Hayes is fallen out of the Lakers rotation over these last four or

Five games or so pardon me so I wouldn’t hate that trade I mean Reggie Bullock I wouldn’t either you know I I love the signing at the time he really hasn’t had a place in this rotation he’s played some spot minutes here and there I wouldn’t mind having Jackson Hayes on

The bench because I think he gives you that stylistic change gives you a lengthy big someone who can play over the top a uh a lob threat if you will lob threat so uh and again a stylistic change away from Alp away from Jeff Green because then you could still you

Could still use Jeff as like a four as a three at times you can you know we’ve seen the we’ve seen eeme get creative with how he deploys Jeff Green but I do think another piece behind Alper andun is probably the biggest roster need I would say a better more established NBA

Backup point guard guard for Fred would be right up there as far as the list of needs goes but that also directly inhibits the run time for a guy like a Min Thompson who you want to be able to get those developmental minutes so it’s like okay do you really want a Band-Aid

Fix and have like a A tyus Jones on the roster for 10 to 12 minutes a night and then a Min Thompson’s not getting any run not getting to handle the basketball you got to live with some of those lumps unfortunately for the long-term goals of

Getting him in to a place where he is a starting caliber ideally down the line a star level point guard but on that note Ben you know the drill let everyone know where to track you down at yep benjos on twitters uh the rocket and the logger

Line on the same and rockets. US today.com for all your daily Houston Rockets news coverage and that’s going to do it for another edition of locked on Rockets as always thank you so much for checking out the show if you haven’t done so yet please consider subscribing wherever you listen to your podcast

Apple Spotify The Odyssey app or on YouTube just search locked on Rockets be sure to like comment and subscribe let us know your thoughts on the Reggie Bullock for Jackson Hayes trade would you be up for that one do you have another Target in mind for the Houston

Rockets give us your thoughts on the entire episode Alper and shanon’s All-Star chances the Rockets concerning lack of Defense as of late Jaylen Green’s shooting numbers let us know all your thoughts in the YouTube comments but as always thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening

And we look forward to having you back right here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball

Alperen Sengun All-Star Chances + Houston Rockets GOOD & BAD Trends Over The Last 5-10 Games

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) is joined by weekly cohost Rockets Wire Editor Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) to discuss Alperen Sengun earning Western Conference Player of the Week honors, what the award symbolizes, Alpi’s current All-Star campaign and his chances to make the team, good and bad Rockets trends over the last 5-10 games, including a regression on defense and Jalen Green’s hot three-point shooting, as well as the roster’s biggest need right now.

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