Houston Rockets Defensive Struggles Continue Vs Joel Embiid & 76ers + Amen & Cam Growth & More

Houston Rockets Defensive Struggles Continue Vs Joel Embiid & 76ers + Amen & Cam Growth & More

On today’s show the hits keep coming as the Houston Rockets are unable to slow down Joel embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers falling 124 115 why has the Rockets defense regressed so much since the start of the new year and how can they get back to playing the defense

That they were playing earlier this season the Silver Linings from this blowout loss though ammen Thompson can Whitmore continue to impress in the minutes that they’ve gotten we’re going to break it all down for you coming up right here at lock on Rockets this is Mission Control Houston ignition

Sequence start throw it up to jayen Green shenon here in the short row oh my that’s the no look Jabari for three and the win look at t e Here Comes has 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 six 5 5 4 3 2 1 what’s up and welcome to another edition of lock on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball as always I’m your

Host Jackson Gatlin native houstonian a credential media member I’m also the host of locked on NBA Mondays be sure to follow along on Twitter at JT Gatlin the show of course at lockon Rockets free and available wherever you listen to your podcast in including YouTube now today’s episode is brought to you by

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Day whether it’s on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym thank you for being in every day or and making the show part of your day every single day joining us now is your weekly co-host none other than NBA draft Enthusiast and diard Rockets fan Madison Moore you can

Track down on Twitter at madman leaks here to break down yet a another kind of brutal game here for the Houston Rockets it’s been a concerning Trend as of late Madison this road trip has not been kind to the Rockets a 124 115 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers but do not let the

Final box score fool you this game was not a nine-point game this was not a close game the Sixers dominated this game the Rockets LED I believe they LED once like like very early on it was uh it was 17 to 16 I believe it was when

They to they came back they took the lead uh and then it was all Sixers the rest of the way I mean they they straight up dominated they had a what was it a 19point lead uh I believe at halftime and they never took their foot off the gas they they controlled this

Game basically from that moment Midway late first quarter whatever when the Rockets got back took that lead and then it was all Sixers the rest of the way and what we’re going to talk about before we get into some of maybe like the specifics the nitty-gritty what went

Wrong in this game Let’s tackle the bigger problem here Madison the Rockets defense has just fallen off a cliff over these last you know eight to 10 games or so and some of that coincides with missing Dylan Brooks and obviously tar e as well but Dylan Brooks back in the

Lineup now and and the defense still not great back-to-back games uh since the start of the new year yeah I mean to I want to give you no sorry that was that was terrible on me I like I like paused at the worst possible time so

That’s that’s on me man I just wanted to give the defensive rating before letting you go off because I I know you’ve got thoughts about this the Rockets are currently since the start of the new year so January 1 the 20124 calendar year they are the 19th best defense in

The NBA their defense has plummeted from being what was at one point one of the best the best defense in the NBA they are now good enough for a 19th in the nine games they played since the start of the new year that is an absurd drop

Off yeah man I mean you can really see it in the first quarters of games I feel like for the most part I think this team is still paying attention to the game plan I I do I do think that they’re still locked in on the game plan but

There’s really just a lack of physicality um from this team and toughness I feel like um to me teams feel comfortable out there they feel comfortable on offense they feel comfortable with what they’re doing and there’s not enough early disruption picking up early and Dylan Brooks really

Spearheaded a lot of that so it really hurt to not have him uh for that long stretch of time but even tonight there was just a lack of physicality where where teams hey what what you mean no no no what do you mean tonight you owe a

Dollar to the jar that that Craig and Ryan were talking about during the game they had the they had the jar for anybody who called it because it was a day game and so if you ever make the slip up you said if you said tonight I

Had a tweet during the game where I said something like tonight and somebody called me out on it I was like damn it all right so you owe a dollar to that jar whereever that jar is I’ll put my Dollar in I put my Dollar in but yes

Today today the uh the guys really just have to have uh more of a sense of urgency on that end of the floor I feel like they are not locking in and uh playing with that sense of urgency until you get into the second halfes after Ma

Has kind of chewed them out you know what I mean after he’s really gotten into them about you know paying attention and and attention to detail and I think the physicality is what’s missing most I mean also I think this may be also something that I thought about when the Rockets were playing

Really well on defense earlier I thought we had a bit of three-point shooting luck I thought teams were getting decent shots from the perimeter we were running hard we were running them hard off the line but they just weren’t really making high percentages but if you look at

Today the I believe they shot 48% from three and and and that just is a number that you’re not gonna you know win when when teams or play good defense when teams are shooting that well you’ve got you’ve got like three-point shooting lot going maybe in the opposite direction

Right where maybe early on the season Rockets were getting some you know some favorable shooting nights teams were struggling a little bit so that probably helped a little bit in the defensive side of things where it made the rockets look a little bit better with teams you

Know shooting below maybe like the you know the NBA league average or whatever whereas these past two games Boston and Philly were unconscious they just couldn’t they flat out could not miss from three Boston shooting over 50% from the three-point line again as you alluded to the Sixers

48.5% from the three-point line now the issue comes some of that is hey the Rockets aren’t being as aggressive defensive right they’re giving up some uncontested wide open looks um making some mistakes in the defensive game plan we’re also seeing and trust me we’re going to get into some of the the

Defensive the we’re going to get into the overall game plan in this one because my God was it kind of a nightmare it was a mess uh in this one we’re going to get there in the in the second segment though I don’t know how much of of what the Rocket’s defensive

Identity though is if it’s just like if it’s just guys are just playing tired if it’s again we we know and we’ve we’ve heard about in the past right coaches like Nick nurse who are so demanding defensively who want you to buy into a really aggressive defensive scheme we

Know that that is exhausting right and that might be kind of a new reality for some of these guys right not a new reality for Fred and Dylan but a new reality for Jaylen for Alp for Jabari even though those guys want to and I think are striving to be better more you

Know competent Defenders to try to Lo in on a nightly basis that’s asking a lot of those guys to be that engaged defensively to be a top tier defense and then also to have the production on the offensive side we may have finally gotten to a point where like there’s

Some I don’t want to say diminishing returns but like they’re starting to run out of a little little juice right yeah I mean I I definitely think alerin shenon has not been as good as he was in the beginning of the Season like the first 20 games I think uh in the paint

At in the paint in specific right uh you know just trying to rotate beat their own time and contest well at The Rim I think he’s really regressed in that area but it’s a really hard thing to do for for a player like Alp you know what I

Mean for him to be that mobile and cover so much ground and it really just shines a light on the lack of Rim protection we have down down low and Alp was I I think was overperforming early in the season and you can see he’s kind of regressing

To the meain so hopefully he can pick that back up because I don’t think he’s been terrible I don’t think he’s been bad but he just hasn’t been as good as he was when we were top five defense and that’s that’s one of those things right

That comes with the territory of it you know alpie is is asked to do so much and provide so much production for this team on the offensive end when you look around the league and you see other star players that do as much or have the

Usage that he does or do as much as he does for a team guys like you know whether it’s I mean shoot you can look up and down the list right all the high usage guys uh Lebron James uh joic LCA whoever you want to pinpoint that is a

High usage like arguably heliocentric guy they’re off guys who take plays off on defense right they rest on the defensive side of the ball because they are asked to do so much offensively whereas with Alp it’s just really tough because for this rocket team to work as

A cohesive fiveman unit all five guys have to be lock step on the same page defensively to make it work especially the way that eeme wants to play defense switching consistently all that stuff so then when one guy kind of wains a little bit or a couple guys lose their focus

Lose their Edge maybe it’s you know Jaylen maybe it’s Fred takes a playoff or two or just and again I don’t I don’t think that and Dylan are immune to this criticism I think they have moments where they have some defensive laps as well it’s just fewer and further between

Because those are the experienced vets they they know how to lock in they know where they can kind of Coast a little bit if they need to on a possession or two without costing the team points uh but that’s that’s kind of the the issue

Here is we’re seeing a team that I think is is maybe running out of a little bit of juice here in staying uh in staying true to their identity their philosophy the way that they played in the early going of the season so it’s going to be

Interesting to see how eoka kind of you know tries to resolve this issue right is it does he have to get these guys like less minutes does he need to go deeper into his bench and run the bench you which based on how well how horribly they played in this game maybe they

Shouldn’t run the bench unit more more burn because my God the bench was that’s where the that’s kind of where the game got lost um you know what we we’ll get into that we’re going to get into the game specifics here uh in just a moment

Because this was not a pretty game there were some Silver Linings though the play uh of Amin Thompson and cam Whitmore in specific we’re going to talk about those guys we’ll talk about some of the game plan discipline from this one uh it’s all coming up here in just one

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Uh left to be desired as far as the execution in this one uh both offensively and defensively I’ve got a copious amount of thoughts and we’re probably not going to be able to get to all of them in this very episode but I’ll let you steer the ship here for a

Moment first what bothered you the most about this game in particular I know we spent the first segment just kind of talking more the overarching defensive issues for you know to start this New Year but what bothered you about this game specifically well when I look at

Individual players I want to lay some of my issues with this game on two two particular players that I expect um to perform better who are our two most consistent players all year and that’s Fred vet and oper and shenon Fred Van vet went two of five from the field to

Uh today he took five shots in a game where we only shot 30% from three our best three-point shooter only took four threes which means he only had one other shot in this game that’s unacceptable especially especially from a team that was struggling so bad offensively tonight and we really could have used

Him in the needed him in the way that he was there the entire fourth quarter for us in the Detroit game every time that the uh this team was falling behind and needed a uh somebody to wake them up uh Fred Van stepped up and tonight I just

Thought he kind of coasted he kind of just played through the emotions of the game and he was not aggressive at looking for his shot and really forcing the other team to really guard him you know and and because of that I think he

He as the head of the snake him and oper Shon they have to to get off to better first quarters and get this team rolling offensively as well and I think this first quarter is where it got away and for me I uh Fred Van v I’ll start with

That he just he he wasn’t aggressive enough offensively for me you know and and I I fully agree with your point there and and I do think over the course of the game I think it got a little bit better but the problem was and this is

The part that that kind of confused me is they from an offensive game plan perspective embiid was just camping the paint all game long Ryan Holland was like I rate about it on the broadcast just begging for the Rockets to get him beat in motion to force him to guard put

Him in pick and roll so that he has to do something because all the possessions that resulted in just you know guys trying to ISO go one-on-one whatever and trying to get downhill against embiid without putting him in pick and roll were bad offensive possessions like I

Don’t know how many different times we saw the Rockets just try to straight up attack a set Sixers defense without getting into just all you had to do was run some high pick and roll Force embiid away from the rim because then you run High pick and roll and you generate some

Wide open shots for jayen some wide open shots for uh for Fred who could have been a lot more aggressive in the pick and roll with Al and shagon and then there were moments where if you do get embiid to to move away and stop camping

Near the basket we’ve seen Alp when he’s in motion coming off of a you know out of the pick and roll and has like a full head of steam and gets that nice little pocket pass from jayen or from Fred he finishes really well around the rim

Because he’s he’s he’s smaller he’s a little bit more quick on his feet than some other bigs and so he’s able to kind of just you know do that little crafty kind of Euro get around you know Up and Under move whatever or draw a foul because the other big is moving and

Sliding their feet and he’s so Adept at drawing fouls I just thought that was like the weirdest uh game plan decision or lack thereof because they didn’t Target em be like at all and he’s the head of the snake for the Sixers so if you target andem you a you’re going to

Generate some better offense B you’re going to put him in foul trouble probably which he wound up getting in foul trouble later in the game but by then it was it was way too late and that was because in the second half they actually did start attacking him better

Like they they actually started going at him and I do want to point out too to your point about Fred Van Von his lack of aggressiveness in this game only attempting five shots really off night for Fred I want to give a lot of credit to the Sixers defense and their game

Plan and the fact that Nicholas Batum had him like in in hell dude like Nicholas Batum guarding Fred Van vet is such a ridiculous unfortunate mismatch and that’s not a mismatch in favor of the Rockets cuz Batum is a hell of a Defender he’s lengthy there was that one

Man the uh there was that inbounds play that the Rockets had where where Fred was trying to get the ball in he was in the coffin corner that that oh yeah and man he tried to get the ball into Dylan Brooks and like in my in my

Mind I was thinking the moment Fred went to go take the ball out of bounds I was like could literally nobody else do that inbalance play like why did it have to be Fred in that moment because you’ve literally got Nicholas Batum moves a 6 a lengthy forward guarding you in the

Worst inbounding Corner in all of basketball you’re not going to get this ball in man and so that’s look the credit to the 76ers their defense was swarming they uh they stripped the ball from alpie so many times early in that game they he had four first quarter

Turnovers I believe I don’t think he registered the fifth one in the first quarter but it was at least four four first quarter turnovers and like two or three of them were just Defenders who came up and came up from behind him when he was getting ready to do something

With the ball and I don’t know if was like a lack of communication teammates not calling it out right letting him know hey somebody’s behind you like you know protect the ball whatever but uh it was just it was it was just a bad first quarter approach from the rockets and it

Was also a great defensive showing from the Sixers who kind of like again the rockets allowed the Sixers the comfortability of playing that level of Defense by letting Joel and be just sit in the paint and then the other four guys are just super aggressive on the

Perimeter yeah and I think uh them overloading in the paint was a consistent theme throughout and for me Alper and shenon didn’t get he didn’t get deep inside the paint the touches he usually gets where he gets some easier layups and when he finally did I thought

He kind of missed a couple easy gimmies in the first half especially um and he kind of settled for some shots that are makeable for him but not great shots for him especially when the Rockets needed points and crucial moments of in this game I mean uh Joel embiid had a incredible

First half he did it was just classic in beat he got every foul call it was you know the the works and in order for us to stay in that game we needed Oparin shenon to to deliver an All-Star performance early right to keep give us some scoring punch to keep our head

Above water while while while emid was going to be fair a little bit how how insane is it that Daryl M goes from James Harden the NBA’s league leading free throw Merchant to then getting the next NBA’s league leading free throw Merchant in Jo embiid who shoots more

Free throws than than God himself just look and and 17 of them tonight credit to embiid he understands the game he understands how to attack how to draw fouls how to get to the free throw line he manipulates the game at a very near like James Harden esque level but for a

Big man which is insane um in the first half he had 26 points and he had 11 free throws shot 11 of 11 at the line so when you have a Sixers team that is shooting lights out from three you have a Joel embiid that you cannot help to you

Cannot hope to contain in single coverage and you’re trying to double team him but you’re also not double teaming him in a smart way because there were points where the Rockets would send a double team and they were not doing it was not effective double teams right

They would send the double and then still somehow foul which was a little ridiculous um and and the way Nick nurse was running actions to get Joel and other players the ball like in motion on switches I actually thought that coaching was just excellent from Nick nurse tonight like not just defensively

You talked about the defensive game plan but just some of the ways he got uh open threes for uh for uh Harris or uh Tobias right um or in some of the actions where you just end up with uh a smaller player on Joel and and and Alin trying from a

Switch trying to come late to help it was it was really just I feel like a great offensive game plan honestly and at the end of the day here’s the crazy part is the rocket starters actually didn’t play terribly compared to the sixer starters because you you look up

And down the board and you’re like okay like yeah embiid had his monster Knight Maxi had 27 but he took 18 shots to get there eight of 18 shooting like I think that the Rockets kind of could have matched the output of the sixer starters yes embiid was racking up the points

Whatever but they were kind of in this game starters versus starters the bench was where the difference was made in this one you look up and down the Sixers bench the contributions that they got off the bench absurd from from Paul Reed Patrick had cusis it was a lot from the Sixers bench

Meanwhile the Rockets bench even though there were some you know Silver Linings in a Min Thompson and cam whitmore’s play especially just the the looks that we got to see out of them as the game progressed and we got into garbage time that kind of stuff some of the things

That we saw of them are worth enjoying in some Silver Linings because again we want to see the rookies develop and get better and and work on things so we have some positive stuff to say about them but the bench as a whole as it played in the first half

Uh when the game was actually still on the line was pretty freaking horrendous we can look right now um Jeff Green was a minus 28 off the bench in the first half Madison in one half of basketball 24 minutes play Jeff Green was a minus

28 Amin Thompson was a minus5 cam was a minus 10 Jan Tate was a minus 12 it was bad and then Fred Van and Jaylen Green’s plus minuses are also impacted because they were you know at points out there with some of the bench guys um shenon

For the game for the half he was minus two uh for the game shenon finished a minus four for the entire game Dylan Brooks only a minus six uh Jabari Smith Jr a little bit further off a minus8 Jaylen green minus s for the game so the

Starters as a whole were not that far off and didn’t like absolutely lose the minutes that they were playing it was the bench that just got demolished and a huge part of that man was this decision to guard Joel embiid with Jan Tate off the Rockets bench um I think Oka has

Done a lot of cool stuff he’s very creative he’s done a lot of he’s had a lot of great coaching moves that move Madison was not was decidedly not it um for two factors one because jant T cannot guard jool and beid and two the Rockets as a team are not disciplined

Enough and and prepared enough for a a scramble and recover defense right eay actually just kind of introduced that in the Boston Celtics game where he double teamed Tatum and brown at times and forced guys to scramble and try to recover back to Kristof porzingis or the

Other Shooters and we saw the Celtics light them up they kind of tried the same thing with Joel embiid and the second unit and it had a couple possessions where like it kind of worked where like they forced the ball out of embiid’s hands but once you do that it’s

A three on four advant or fouron three Advantage for the Sixers and they did a great job moving the basketball finding the open man getting up a quick look and the rockets just don’t have the understanding yet the capability to play that AGG aggressive style of defense and

Do it well enough to get away with it especially when you’re that undersized and then you go to the other side of the court and they settled it was like three possessions in a row right right after J Shante checked in the game it was two straight back-to-back J Shante threes

And then a missed Jeff Green three and I’m like oh my God this offense is about to sink to the bottom of the ocean floor yeah man it was it was a it was a tough watch for the bench and it and it got out of hand quick it got got out of

It got out of hand quick but yeah no Jan Tate on dwell and beid is uh was a no no um and honestly Jan Tate hasn’t been that great defensively in a while it’s it’s been a tough it’s been a tough go for him but hopefully he’ll be able to

Bounce back you know the upcoming weeks but but the Rockets got to up their physicality they they have to they have to do something I will say I thought they did much better job on Joel embiid in that second half in that third quarter in specific I thought uh the the

Refs finally stopped giving him knickknack uh calls and we were able we were able to actually get some stops on him and alar shenon has some some very good uh defensive plays against him as well absolutely that that third quarter was at least a a a positive Silver

Lining and that you’re like okay the Rockets were able to actually match the Sixers a little bit in that third quarter I always struggle though when a team is that far ahead in a game I always struggle with finding like a a moral Victory there because it’s like

Are they just did the Sixers kind of take their foot off the gas a little bit because they’re up 20 and that’s why the Rockets suddenly look a little bit better let’s let’s choose to just believe and and I think the eys matches that the execution was better The

Competitiveness was a little bit better in that quarter it’s just the game was so far out of reach at that point and they’re on the you know on the what third game in three and a half days right because you play the back toback you get the one day off and then you

Have to roll into Monday and play a noon tip off like that’s a brutal three game stretch that’s not you’ve done three games in four nights right but like that’s three games in like three and a half nights or whatever you want to call it because they didn’t get that that

Extra stretch of time that you get instead of because they had the 1200m tip off it was like it hurt it was a bad loss um there’s a reason the 76ers are a really good team Joel and beid made his return in this game because of course he

Did um and he looked like every bit the reigning MVP that we know that he is so that’s kind of it is what it is at this point but we do want to talk about a couple we’ll end on a couple positive notes here we’ll talk about the Rockets

Rookies because even though this game this season has been about wins and the rockets is more competitive uh as as a team they look a lot better the development of the young guys is still the number one priority for this organization and and for this organization to get to where they want

To be down the line the young guys have to find ways to develop and so seeing some positive steps from Amin Thompson and cam Whitmore even if they are in garbage time uh at times it’s exciting stuff to be able to talk about so we’re going to talk about those two guys and

Any final thoughts we have coming up here in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by Jason medical look I know we come to sports to escape from some of the crazy realities of real life but can we talk for just a minute about

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Now if you’re listening to this podcast if you’re watching on YouTube I want you to take a deep breath do it with me Madison come on do it with me let it all out it’s going to be okay all right it’s going to be okay guys the

World the sky is not falling the Rockets have had a r rough go of it on this road trip it’s okay there’s a reason that the Rockets are a team that have aspirations to just make the play in tournament and there’s a reason the 76ers have the reigning MVP and have Championship

Aspirations there are different classes of team in the NBA and the rockets are on the upswing yes and things look better but we need to also reign in our expectations a little bit stuff like this is going to happen over the course of an 82 Game season and the rockets I

Think I think this road trip has been a nice little reality check at times for the Rockets especially with the schedule there’s it’s it’s not just the Rockets there’s been a slew of blowouts across the league yeah because of the playin uh mixup of these these back-to-back nights

And these all these traveling and early starts it’s it’s just been a very weird and tough things a lot of schedule of losses across the League this is not just happening to the the Houston Rockets right now it’s happening to a slew of teams a lot of people are

Getting blown out in scheduled losses so guys just we’ll get it together all right well where are we going first for our two silver linings to wrap up this episode amen Thompson cam Whitmore who are we talking about first Madison yeah so I think we got to go Cam man we gotta

We gotta go our guy cam with more um cam continues to impress and because he continues to impress his minutes continue to go up I know we had some garbage time minutes tonight but it’s clear that Cam is getting serious minutes and to me it’s starting to seem

To surpass uh Almond’s minutes you know what I mean even in second halfes getting more minutes and of course the crunch time minutes in the uh Chicago game but as of this game one of the things that I noticed uh that uh cam got that I’ve been waiting to see more of is

A creation rip a pick and roll creation rep I he he had one very good pick and roll creation rep where he actually I think scored in that play it was the mid it was the midi that he P up right so he he got the screen from LP he dribble he

L it looked a little funky I’m not going to lie like he kind of looked a little like he wasn’t sure what he was going to do it was like he he hadn’t gotten a pick before so he was like where am I going he it’s on me yeah all like all

All his plays to this point have either been catch and shoot threes or like transition plays or like attacking off the catch where like he creates all his own offense right and he’s been really good at that but then he gets like the screen from Alp and he kind of like

Dribbles into it like oh how am I navigating this pick and roll elevated from about like you know free throw line area you know mid-range uh and it went in he he knocked it down so yeah I mean I just think cam has that innate ability

To just he knows how to get the ball in the hole when all this feels I’m going to pull up and it’s a very good chance going to make it because I’m talented enough and he just had that shot making a early in the first half D he had like

A soft like one-handed floater from like free throw line range like it was kind of far out and I kind like the moment he shot it I was like is that a bad shot like I don’t but then he made it and I was like I if it goes in it could maybe

Still be a bad shot but like that’s kind of the crazy thing about cam is he has different Tools in his bag that he hasn’t really had a chance to like showcase fully yet but he’ll pull out he’ll have moments like that like when he posted up Damen Lillard right on on

The mismatch he has little wrinkles to his game he’s not just your your stereotypical like you know bucket getting score or whatever he has a lot to his game yeah and he also had a very very nice kickout to I believe uh Aman Thompson in the corner I think he I

Believe he missed the shot but it was a very nice kickout in traffic where he where he was uh down low deep and he drew a lot of Defenders and was able to uh make that pass and that’s the type of development we need to see from him if

We want him to become a a star in the future he’s going to be able to have to be able to make those passes and like you and like we were talking about with that with that rep he had in the pick and roll it was a funky rep you could

Tell he wasn’t all the way comfortable but I think him pulling up in that situation was the right decision because they did not leave operan shagon oper and shagon would have been his release man and they stayed home on a lot of those Shooters and that was the actual

Correct choice you could just see it kind of churning the decision making churning in his head and it it to me there’s there’s something there to build off of and I like that we’re starting he’s starting to find a couple of reps in in the flow of the game in a similar

Way that Jabari Smith has been finding his his rhythm and ways to get some uh some isolation reps within the uh Rhythm of the game and I think that’s the next step for him now that his minutes has gone up can we get two or three

Possessions where we let out what we let cam initiate to see what he actually has in that department and what he needs to work on to get better you know I’m torn because yeah like you know I kind of think the reps that cam could benefit from are not maybe necessarily reps

Where he like walks the ball up and initiates the offense right but but just like the occasional kind of like what Dylan gets right like the way that Dylan will occasionally get like a screen you know screen roll opportunity coming off the wing or whatever um maybe you know

They run the initial action right so that kind of thing so uh yeah not initiate as a point guard but I I feel like when you initiate the pick and roll you you know what I mean I feel like that’s an initiation re for sure no for

Sure you’re right we’re we’re on the same page there sorry I don’t know why like I started kind of Miss I just start to think like run off no but um no and again it’s it’s that’s that’s the delicate balance here for this Rockets team because they’ve got the rookies

They’ve got young guys they’ve got you know Jaylen and Jabari and alpie and uh tar is still currently out but they they’ve got these young guys who they want to work on and refine their skills and grow them but at the same time they’re trying to win basketball games

So it’s it’s how how much you know if you’re looking at as like a VIN diagram right how much over La AP can you get between the two Circles of hey we’re trying to win games we’re also trying to develop these guys as much as possible because the moment you start putting too

Many eggs in the developmental basket that’s when you start to see you know too many mistakes being made and suddenly you know a couple guys have an off game because you’re you’re sacrificing reps to them and you’re not winning basketball games and that’s when you’re sliding too far in One Direction

But then you also have those moments where if you’re prioritizing the Vets over certain young guys and certain lineups then you know those guys aren’t going to get valuable on court rep reps to actually get better and I think that’s why we saw such a a loud section

Of the fan base kind of championing for minutes for cam Whitmore because he’s shown us a lot in very limited run and now he’s at a point where these minutes are helping him right like he we’re seeing him get better on a game by game basis and that’s been really exciting

Stuff to witness happen in real time so love what we’ve seen from cam Whitmore he really has kind of like stepped in that role and his skill set right is a little bit more tailor made to step into an ancillary role than say Amen Thompson

Is which is why I think at this point you’re seeing e start to trust Cam and provide him with even more minutes at this point then am Min Thompson is getting because Amin’s role is just a little bit different right like he he has moments where he’s able to initiate

And run the offense but there’s also large stretches of time where he’s on the floor and he’s being used in an off ball capacity or he’s being used as like a three and D Wing but minus the three-point shooting which is not great for offensive floor spacing and he’s

Still making the most of it right he has games where he walks away with a hand like offensive rebounds he’ll get some tipin he had one in this game right so he does good things on the floor uh but it’s just a lot harder to get those Reps

For amen than it is to get the Reps for cam yeah it’s a lot harder when you are you’re you’re when you are a non-sh shooting Wing right and and that’s because that’s not his position he’s supposed to be running point guard he’s just not ready for that that is that

Requires a lot more responsibility than what we’re asking cam to be in that ancillary role but but I will want to I do want to praise Alan Thompson’s uh defense I mean amen Thompson’s on point with his rotations um I think he’s really uh impressive defensively he uses

His length well when he gets switched on to uh to to better primary Defenders I think he’s held up really well and over the course of him and cam have gotten better on defense and limiting their mistakes especially cam had a lot of off ball mistakes when you know guys will

Just uh cut back or he’ll get he’ll get lost in the the scrum of the play the game was kind of mov or a little late on a switch that kind of thing cuz those those are those are like rep things where it’s just again you you do it

Enough times it becomes second nature right it becomes okay cool switch is coming I know that I’m hitting this switch right that’s why when you see the starters out there the starters obviously log the most minutes together so the starters by and large look pretty cohesive at times defensively because

They have all those reps playing with one another they understand you know Jaylen and Dy are getting ready to do a switch they understand exactly who’s switching where how we’re guarding this certain play cam hasn’t had those opport yet but to your point about a right I

Think at this point aen is probably further along where I thought he would be defensively because he really is a great impact player on the defensive side that’s why he’s still earning minutes that’s why eem is still trusting him out there on the court kind of in

That pseudo Wing role uh and then I think he’s maybe a little bit further behind offensively but it’s not necessarily his fault it’s more just the minutes that he’s getting again if he was drafted to the Blazers or something and he was given 30 plus minutes night

To be the point guard and run the team and have four Shooters around him he’d probably be racking up like 20 and seven on a nightly basis I I I I I feel like pretty confident in saying that it might not be a super efficient 20 and seven

But I’m telling you like the the moments where we’ve seen a men drive and kick and recognize where his Shooters are and get the kickout passes one Rockets just can’t shoot worth a damn right so like there’s a there’s a plenty of times he kicks it out makes the right read gets

It to an open shooter and you Clank like so that’s problematic um it’s just it’s going to take a little bit longer for him to really be comfortable running an NBA off top to bottom which is also kind of why it’s beneficial that he does have a Fred

Vanet next to him who is a guy that can play in either the on ball run the offense role or you shift him a little bit more off ball and get them in those reps yeah ultimately But ultimately we like the progression of what these these young rookies are have been showing us

And they are getting better we’ve seen them incrementally get better and more comfortable if it’s in switches and in off ball play as well as Aman uh starting to initiate more and uh uh uh pass the ball a lot as well as you know get some steals out and get out and

Running in transition I mean I when amen gets out in transition you know I feel really good about the decisions he’s gonna make at that point so you know that’s what we want to see from our young guys and his finishing in this game too was on another level he missed

His one three-point attempt that he had but he was seven of seven inside the arc he had that one little like midi pull where he kind of Hesed and then pulled up from the free throw line and then aside from that everything else was at

The rim and he hit every single shot a career high 14 points for am Min Thompson in this game so some positive stuff definitely to be excited about with him and and the last Point here that I want to Echo before we shut things down is just again the the kind

Of the stakes of this season I think have have skewed some of our perception of what this team needs to be right now or what they should be or what should be happening on the floor we should be incredibly excited that with the production that we’ve seen from a men in

Cam because they are productive players that can help winning right now as rookies that doesn’t happen a lot I think that there’s you know if we were to compare if we were to compare like amen and cam in their rookie Seasons right now to the rookie seasons of guys

Like jayen or Jabari those guys were not ready to help winning at a high level as rookies they were given a different structure right or lack thereof um but they were given all the all the room in the world to just make mistakes and do whatever they wanted to do and seeing a

Men and cam actually be functional viable pieces of a team that can play and has played very high level basketball now they’ve struggled as a late they’ve struggled on the road trip yes but those two guys are really exciting for that reason alone that as rookies they’ve been able to be you know

Impact winning at a decent level as rookie players which does not happen a lot so I just wanted to make sure we made that point before we shut things down but any final thoughts Madison before we wrap up no just looking forward for the Rockets get get a couple

Days off a day or two off get some rest and you know come back with a more attention to detail more effort on thought you come back with a win against the Knicks come on let’s speak it into existence back with win win against the Knicks we’re going to look like such

Dumb asses when that does Happ all right on that note you know the drill let everybody know where to track you down at man yeah man uh follow me on Twitter or X madman leaks come talk Rockets ball with me 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 you listen to your podcast Apple Spotify Google The Odyssey app free and available wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube just search locked on Rockets like comment subscribe all that good stuff

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 lockon Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets Basketball

Houston Rockets Defensive Struggles Continue Vs Joel Embiid & 76ers + Amen & Cam Growth & More

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) is joined by weekly cohost and NBA Draft enthusiast Madison Moore (@MadManLeaks) to discuss the Houston Rockets 124-115 loss to Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers. Concerns with defensive regressions since the start of the New Year, are Rockets defensive issues personnel-based or deeper than that, offensive and defensive game plan issues vs Sixers, silver linings in Amen Thompson’s career-high 14 points and Cam Whitmore continuing to earn valuable minutes and more.

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