Houston Rockets first half report card. From Alperen Sengun to Rafael Stone

Houston Rockets first half report card. From Alperen Sengun to Rafael Stone

Got to get it in DUS to Smith Jabari for three and the win he got it we’re here to fi of Rockets news this Rockets field podcast of course I’m your Co lar bankley you can always find me on Twitter X Bley hoops and you can find my

Rwork over ATB Nation or the dream shake and before we get into today’s uh player grades for the first half of the season I want to get my Co a chance to introduce himself hey what’s up y’all it’s Vader uh you can find me on Twitter

X and also Instagram at Vader sports for rackets related news and a little bit of Houston Texans all right Vader So today we’re going to be talking about play of grades even though we’ve technically already passed the first half of the Season several games ago but really it’s uh

When the All-Star break starts and after the All-Star break they really consider that the second half so today we’re going to be giving grades out uh for for everybody from raell Stone down to a couple of the main bench players like amen and Cam and uh today I want to kind

Of start with of course with Rafel Stone we saw him talk uh maybe a week or so ago he was talking about the trade deadline and kind of the state of the team and uh no surprise Rock his Twitter isn’t exactly happy with Rafel stone that kind of just goes with the

Territory these days uh when it comes to uh talking about the front office they kind of still are upset about how you know it went the past three seasons but really we’re giv grades on this past offseason and this season and as Rafel kind of mentioned like he doesn’t have a

Lot to do with what goes on in the season besides the trade deadline but we’re going to give a grade kind of based off of the off season and up until this point so I want to uh give you a chance to kind of give your grade first

U on the job ref felstone has done uh so far this season all right so I think the free agency where he brought in uh he brought in Jeff Green he brought in Jack landale he brought in uh Dylan Brooks he brought in F van so there’s some there’s

Some mixed uh there’s some mixed grades there as far as like what he did in the off season uh obviously we lost Kevin Porter Jr uh depending on if you want to blame that on Rafael stone or not I guess that just kind of depends on where

You are on that situation um but as far as um Jack Landell has to be like that’s that’s not looking like a good signing right now now obviously Jeff Green has played some some some critical minutes but I think he’s probably played more than expectation I think he was more

Brought in to be that veteran presence in the locker room so I’m okay with that signing it’s just the fact that he’s had to probably assume a role that he was not uh intended to suit to to assume when he was when he was signed and then obviously you have the Dylan brookson

And Fred Van vet who I think have been good signings um I think a lot of people were not happy about the signings initially but then I think when the Rockets got off to that that good start earlier in the season um I think you started seeing why um em AOK and why

Rafael Stone targeted those two guys um since then some injuries and things have taken place and uh the the Rockers are kind of on a skid right now if you look at the from from record from a record perspective and a lot of that does have

To do with the fact that they’re just not healthy right now uh so overall um if we’re just basing it on this past off season the guys he brought in what he in to do they were trying to set a culture and things of that nature I’m going give

I’m going to give him a b a b minus um I think the Jack landal signing has been you know objectively a disaster uh he has not hasn’t played very well at all uh we still are in need of a backup center they tried to address that at the

Um before the trade deadline by bringing in Stephen Adams but obviously he can’t play right now that’s a next year that’s a future uh signing right there and you know as of today as we record this podcast we still need a guy who can come in and and believe Yer and shenon who’s

In my opinion starting to show we and tear of the season um like his production has dropped um and and I don’t know if it’s just from fatigue or from injury I know his back uh he tweaked his back a little bit but you know having a guy who can come in and

Actually give him good minutes there and relieve aan shenon takes a lot of uh the load off of him so for me uh just and also we can’t also um not include the coach signing like he brought in Oka I think that was a good signing the only

Other guy who I would have liked uh other than yoka was probably Nick nurse Nick I would have been happy with either of those two guys so I think you know if you look at it in totality um bringing in a a veteran point guard bringing in a

Three and D Wing bringing in a good coach um I think that kind of outweighs some of the the misses uh that occurred so I’m gonna give him I’m gonna give him a B minus right now and then as I always say for me uh the Raphael Stone grade is

Kind of like incomplete right now I think we have to yeah we always want to look at everything like um and try to make it make sense right in that moment and so yeah that’s fine and and good and and we have to do that you know if we

Want to be you know objective uh you know what we’re doing but I I do want to see what what happens in the offseason and kind of see like the what not the finished product but I want to see what the what the vision is I think they made

Some moves like they said this is phase two um but I think that they I think obviously there’s some things that need to happen during the summer in order for me to maybe like I think I think he can either go to a to a a you know this

Summer or go down to a c or a d you know kind of depending on how we go into next season yeah and uh something yeah that you brought up that I didn’t kind of factor when I was thinking about this is for is the signing of emay you know

Udoka because he went out and aggressively went after em because they were there was a lot of talk about yeah they’re going to have this interview this interview this interview and they just said oh this the guy we want we don’t want to waste time because a lot

Of people thought in was going to go to Toronto he was going to take Nick Nur spot and that was kind of the talk that was going around the leag but you know Rafel and you know and Tillman they went right after him and were really aggressive about going to get him so

That definitely is a plus in this in this column but like you said the jacelle that’s been a disaster the only good thing about it is he’s not on a guaranteed contract so he probably well he won’t be back next season unless he has one of the greatest turn around the

Second half of the Season NBA history he won’t probably be back next season uh like you said Jeff Green that was an underrated sign because can you imagine if they didn’t have Jeff Green and all they were dependent on was Jac landel that would be a complete disaster so

That was a good signing and like you said he’s 38 years old it’s only so much he’s going to be able to do he’s he didn’t really think he was going to be com here playing 20 30 minutes a game sometimes so I can’t really put a lot of

Fault into sometime his play is kind of falling off because he was really coming here is more veteran leadership and maybe playing a handful of minutes you know a game or every other game so that was definitely a good signing up I know people that weren crazy about the Fred

Van and Dylan Brooks contracts but at the end of the day you had to spend the money I think people need to put that in context they had to spend the money they couldn’t just say hey we’re gonna go out there and get a eight or9 million doll a

Year guy no they had to spend a certain amount of money over 50 million dollar so you had to spend that money and Fred Van v is going to be on expiring deal next season and yes I know Dylan Brook contract is guaranteed over the uh next

Three seasons but at the same time for the fact that he’s shooting a career high and three-point percentage and even though his defense has falling off a little bit he’s still your best defensive player especially on the perimeter so to me that’s still a good deal that’s definitely going in the

Column as far as uh you know being a positive for Rafel uh my only other problem is you kind of knew for a while that ja landelle wasn’t going to be the guy at backup Center I mean I know the NBA is not like 2K where you can just

Kind of just go out there and make trades but at the same time you should have been trying to do whatever you can to bring in a backup big I know they brought in Stephen Adam but again like you said that has nothing to do with this season that doesn’t really help

Them this season and right now you’re really putting a lot of stress on aler shanon to play 30 plus minutes a game be your best offensive player and also be your offensive Hub a lot of timean that’s a lot of stress for anybody to to

Take on and keep in mind up until the season this is like the most minutes of shenon is played so that takes some time to get used to you know he had been playing 30 minutes a game for three or four years and he’s gotten used to it

This is the most minutes he’s ever played so to me that’s kind of a negative that they didn’t bring in somebody anybody uh a bomo um I know they had interest in Andre Drummond that didn’t work out I know they talking about Nur Noel right now so maybe that

Helps out but uh there’s no guarant guarantee you he even be able to get him because a lot of times these older guys are going for teams that are competing for championships so say all that I say I would give raell Stone a SE because yes he’s had some positive like to me

Fred Van has still been a positive on the team Dylan Brook has been a positive Jeff Green’s been a positive but Jac landelle yeah that’s that was definitely a disaster but at the same time he also did really good at bringing in MA even though they kind of been struggling

Lately um I think that a lot of the positives that’s happened with the Rockers this year has to start with uh coach Oka so like I said to me it’s a c it could go either way like you said for this off season because we all know that

They’re going to be trying to bring in a big- time player this off season and you know if they don’t bring in that big time player and they struggle next season we might be having a different conversation about Rafel so we’ll see how all that works out uh the next

Person we want to talk about of course is is coach uh coach OKO that we just kind of also mentioned with Rafel Stone well we going be giving out the grace for him so I’ll definitely give you a chance to start off with that yeah and I

Did also want to say before we did that though like one of the reasons I bumped him up to a B minus to was um I think he I think he kind of nailed the draft kind of giv where our position was I mean obviously we wanted we wanted uh Victor

Wi bayama I mean no matter what anybody says now I mean that was the guy everybody had their their sights on and and obviously like you can see he he is looking like a guy who might actually be a generational player people you know throw that around too too casually I’ve

Said that in the past but some of the stuff he’s doing uh out there for the Spurs is is pretty pretty ridiculous you don’t you don’t see guys you know you don’t see too many guys scoring way he can score uh with his handle at his

Height and then also be able to go out and get you double digit blocks and and all the other cool stuff that he’s doing but as far as what we were able to you know they identified a man Thompson as the guy they wanted at number four I

Think now that he’s starting we’re starting to see some of the reasons why they picked him at four and then obviously cam Thomas at um cam Whitmore I always keep on to call him cam Tom wh cam Whitmore at uh number 20 he’s kind of been a revelation whenever he’s

Gotten on the floor from from a scoring perspective uh but going back to Oka um I would grade Moka also as a b just because I think he started off the season as an a um and then I I think more recently it’s been a c I’ve seen

Some cracks in the armor as far as him getting out coached you know in certain situations by some other coaches um I also have to give him the benefit of the doubt that you know like we are running guys like Nate hiton out there no no no offense to that guy disrespect right

Disrespecting but like these are guys that were not um uh people that we you know had penciled in as being in you know rotation players for the Houston Rockets this season you know they were supposed to be either down in the g- league or maybe like end of the bench

Guys who are just kind of there to like you know practice guys guys that are there to support on the bench and stuff like that and they’re getting actual real minutes in game so I don’t think we can uh just just ignore that and be like

Oh well he you know he he should still be able to do uh the same things when Nate hiton is in the game that he can do when uh Dylan Brooks or t een or faan leaders in the game and all those guys have missed you know a significant you

Know time this season and and and that matters you know t e is a huge part of his team um to me he’s the second or third most impactful player on this team even though uh it it may not reflect in and and box score statistics but I think

You know analytically and in advanced stats like it shows Terry t e has a huge impact on winning so for me um I think YULA started the season kind of as a a you know we we saw the culture change we saw guys being held accountable we saw a

A a very marked um Improvement on defense uh the offense looked a little shaky I I even had said that a few times I kind of didn’t like the way the offense looked U we were able to like kind of like weather that and and and

Kind of mask that with with really good defense and now that the defense has kind of slipped a little bit I think more people are really starting to pay attention to hey maybe the offense needs to be Diversified a little bit but hey you can also only do uh you know you can

Also only do things that your players are capable of doing like I can’t go out there and run an offense you know Taylor Made for Luca Don when we don’t have a Luca you know what I mean we can’t run stuff you know that you would run with a

Shay G just Alexander when you don’t have a shay you know so um all those things I have to kind of that that might go back to some some of team building but for me right now yokas A be I think um they’re still and play playing consideration right now they

Obviously have to make a strong push uh to get back in those Talks by the end of the season the road record is is trash the road record is terrible um I don’t know man like they they look like a completely different unit at home and than the way they look

On the road and it’s kind of getting to the point where it’s annoying I’m like sitting there watching the game sometime and I’m like really thinking about changing the channel but and watching a different game but I I know I have to watch it because you know I need to be

Able to talk about the game after it’s over but yeah for me um yok is also like I I put him a B minus I I wouldn’t I wouldn’t grade him any higher than that right now well let me ask you real quick before I get my grade what do you think

About his rotation do you think he waited too long to play guys like cam I mean it was kind of a running joke how many times I asked him about Cam’s minutes early in the season and it would kind always went back to well you know

It just depends on they have to be consistent so do you do you have a problem with his rotation and all or how long it took him to play the young guys or it just it’s kind of part for the course when it comes to coaches just

Tend to generally trust the veterans a lot more than they do the younger guys that’s always that’s a gripe I always have because I even feel like I know I know a man was hurt a lot but even when a man was playing it he wasn’t like he

Didn’t have the ball in his hands and even right now there are times where I’m like I saw a man run a pick and roll last game and it looked good like I don’t think we scored out of it but it looked good everything about it uh was

Like what I had expected it to look like and for some reason we do not like even though when when FR van is in the game we’re pick and roll heavy right but um now that frev has been out you know you don’t see it as much a men is off ball

Not all the time he he has the ball more than he did before but it’s still to me like you have a six seven freak athlete right who has really good Court Vision I know he has some deficiencies but why not put him in pick and roll and and and

Put him in a position where he can get down heill and and like make some of these Advanced reads that we know he can make so like I question that I also I remember asking you to ask him uh why when uh he’s on the floor with fan B why

Is he always you know off ball when theoretic and you know like I said I’m not a professional NBA coach but looking at okay I have this 67 dude who can who’s really fast really athletic I know he can get in the paint and kick it out

To Shooters and Fred Van is one of our better spot up Shooters you know what I mean and so instead of like maybe putting alond on the wing or in a dunker spot you know why don’t why didn’t we see that more so yeah there are some

Little things that I question uh then the cam Whitmore situation um I had a lot of back and forth with some of my friends about whether or not he was ready and I’m like I know one thing that dude can do is sore the basketball I

Know he he has some areas that he needs to improve on he’s 19 years old right but he’s gotten up to the NBA and he’s he’s he’s been everything that like you would have expected him to be I think he is um shooting like 40% from three his

True shooting percentage is like almost like 59% if I’m not mistaken uh he’s his his um points per minute is like something really ridiculous uh so yeah like I I kind of felt like he should have been playing all along over a guy like jant Tade or or you know some of

The other guys that that bulock had even tried Reggie bulock before he tried cam but like you said I think you know coaches just you know they want to go with the guy who they kind of feel like they know what they’re GNA get from him

And you kind of know if I put uh Jason Tate in the game I know what he’s gonna do he’s gonna give me pesky hard noos defense and I think he’s just lot files a lot of Jas T is just one of those guys that I think coaches like fall in love

With he he looks like he’s doing a lot and he’s team guy and he’s he’s trying really hard but at the end of the day the NBA is about talent and and that D cam Woodmore is an amazing talent man like I I don’t know

Yeah I I do kind of wish you know and and I hope that when we get back to full strength if we get back to full strength T’s injury kind of freaks me out um that cam continues to get man I need cam in the lineup that is the only dude on the

Team right now who I feel like can go in a in a game in any given quarter he might go off for 20 points yeah yeah and I mean yeah you mentioned atar e thing that’s a topic for another podcast because there’s some concern there but

Getting back to Ma I mean I I agree with you said to me yeah I give him a B minus like you said earlier in the year yeah it was definitely a a because I mean the way the Rockets were looking they were on their winning streak they were firmly

In the playoffs and then of course there’s a lot of factors in that there’s a lot of factors going positive for him and a lot of factors going against him the positive part was the Rockets had a ton of practice time they had the crazy schedule with the End season tournament

Where they had some they were playing like three or four days in a row where they were able to get two or three practices in and as you know in the NBA getting two practices in in a week is like rare it rarely happens you pretty much never get that during the season

There Rockets had a ton of practice time they faced a lot of teams that didn’t even have their best players um again but the Rockets were playing playing really well at the same time so it was kind of Fool’s goal a little bit to where we thought where they could be I

Think where they are right now it’s a little bit closer to where they probably be for the rest of the season but at the same time it’s kind of hard to say that because like you said tar een is a huge loss for the rockets and he has been out

For several weeks now I mean he is a major part of just their overall team and not even just talking about defensively he’s one of their best Shooters and know a team that doesn’t have a lot of Shooters that’s a big deal but kind of just going back to Ma and

Kind of how he’s coach this year um the Rockets also had more wins than they’ve had in the previous three season already before the allstar Break um so you definitely have to factor that in even though yes we know that they were tanking or pseudo tanking the previous

Three seasons but again you still seen improvement from them this season and at the very least you majority of time then could go out there and embarrass himself majority time yes they have struggled at the beginning of the games but they also have played hard and fought back in

Those games so at the very least you know the rockets for the most part are going to play hard every single night that’s usually what at the very least you want to see from a a a team coach uh by uh you know any coach in the league

But you know definitely somebody that you just brought in on a big contract like you brought in with Ma so like I said yeah I definitely give it a B minus they’ve had some really good things that they’ done this season even though you said the defense has slipped it’s gotten

A lot better this season um but at the same time like I asked you the question about not playing certain players earlier than they should I do have a problem with that I think they definitely should have been playing uh cam a lot earlier like you said amen was

Dealing with injuries so that’s a little bit more trickier but at the same time um like you said some of the offense that they run uh like having like you say having amen off ball not not really the best decision especially when we know that this his limitation is outside

Shooting even though he is really good in the dunker spot so sometime I understand why necessarily he would be off Ball but like fr is probably their best spot up shooter second best spot up shooter behind uh Dylan Brooks so you definitely want to integrate amen with

The ball in his hands more and maybe that’s something we’ll see in the second half of the season because like you know we haven’t really had a chance to talk about that but mention that there might be some changes coming up soon and you know what lard too that’s another issue

Too like they spam the same stuff with FR van v so much like when you lose F van B the team is kind of like in disarray they don’t know what to do yeah yeah and so I think I think and and we had said this like way earlier being

Overly relying on fan Le was probably a mistake and so like that goes on him because and then like playing him so many minutes you we had even said on this podcast that he can’t withstand that amount of minutes like he’s a 5’11 dude who is out there amongst Giants

Throwing his body around there’s no way he’s going to make it in an entire season without an injury um at his age especially and and and sure enough you know he got hurt and and I and we weren’t the only people who saw that and

So like I know he you know it’s kind of like hey you know he’s a veteran point guard he’s a steady hand he’s an extension of the coach and you feel you know it may have to feel super comfortable with with Fred out there but

At some point you know just you know at your you know at your own better best interest he should have take his minutes down he should have uh slowly get giving a man more responsibility in that offense and then maybe Fred wouldn’t be hurt right now I mean that’s just can

That’s just you know speculation or whatever but you know yeah there’s some there’s some things you know that we we could like look at yoka and critique him for I think um the way he finishes this season for will determine whether or not

He’s a c for me at the end of the season um I I obviously want to see how he’s going to handle um rotation minutes moving forward not just with Cam Whitmore but with guys like Jaylen green and um you know like different different in-game coaching situations I kind of

Want to see how he handles those like one of one of my things that I laugh at when I watch the game is like we seen the challenge stuff that is like clearly G to his challenge record is is not great and we do not challenge the play

I’m like that’s obviously like you know that’s our call like challenge that and we don’t challenge those and I know in some of those situations it’s because you’re saving that challenge for later in the game but then like we save it for later and then we use it on something

That is like we we have like zero percent chance of winning so yeah like I I feel like he’s like for me right now he’s a B minus and I’m kind of like uh hoping that he can get up to a good solid you know B+ by the end of the

Season but like there’s there is a there’s an Avenue where he’s a SE for me when we do this again you know at the end of the season yeah we also got remember he’s he’s a young coach as well I mean this is really his second really

Second full season as an NBA head coach and yes they Boston did great but I mean at the same time you have Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown to start with that’s a pretty pretty good foundation for any coach but I will say that the I would

Say at the very least just being in the locker room in the silus year and then in a ma year it’s definitely a different vibe a different culture even though they’ve been struggling I would definitely give him credit for that that it’s definitely a more professional um environment around the Rockets right now

So I guess you got to start with a foundation like that and kind of build your way up because like you said there’s only so much you can do with the players they have right yeah I mean you have Fred Van he has his limitations he’s been great he’s we’re going to talk

A little bit more about that actually next he’s actually the person we’re going to talk about next but I mean he’s has has a career high and assist he’s still shooting a a fairly decent percentage from three-point range um so F Le has some limitation but he also has

Some things he does does well you know at the same end but you only have so much you can really do I mean Dylan Brooks is Dylan Brooks he has been great you know as far as what he’s bring as far as what he can do and what he can’t

Do but at the same time there’s only so much you can really do with the players that you have on this team so I don’t care how great of a coach you are we see with papovich you know the one of the greatest coaches of all time when the

Last time the Spurs had a winning record even with wiim beama this year like you said generational Talent they’re still one of the worst teams in the league so at this end of the day it’s only so much a coach can do it really comes down to

The players you have on your team and the talent that you have on your team that really determines whether you’re going to be you know a mediocre team or one of the best teams in the league uh and so I kind of want to move in to that section

We talk start talking about some of the players on the team and of course we’re going to start with the starters for the Rockets and the first person we’re GNA be talking about it’s Fred Van vet so I want to get your grade on Fred Van vet

All right so Fred is a guy who like when we brought Fred in he wasn’t like I wasn’t jumping up and down about it I but I knew like the value that he brings as a veteran leader as a as an NBA champion with the Toronto Raptors um I

Know he was a good shooter you know um we had the guy on from from locked on rappers to talk to us about you know like some of his strengths and weaknesses and I think he was pretty much spot on like I don’t like Vivic that was his name um he’s pretty spoton

As far as like the things that he told us so like when I do these grades I’m grading on based on like my expectations so like you know this is all subjective but like based on what I thought we would get from fre ble as far as um you

Know leadership shooting uh being able to like run the pick and roll uh being able to be a guy who was going to be able to like get the ball to Aon shenon in different situations um I think he’s been as advertised I mean he yeah you

Might want to say he’s overpaid but I think that I can’t I cannot honestly think of a thing that he has not done that we expected him to do you know what I mean yeah I don’t think he’s an like he’s not an a player to me like right

He’s not a like he’s not like a All-Star perennial All-Star type guy who I I would say you know is is a Max contract guy which is what he’s playing on um but I think based on what they thought they were gonna get as far as like shooting

Uh like you said he’s having like a career year and assist numbers um his defense has been pretty much as advertised as well I mean I think he’s been an a um he has his weaknesses like he he’s 511 six feet tall and he’s like I said he’s out there with giants so

Like there’s just certain things he cannot do he’s physically not able to see certain guys in certain areas on the floor and make certain passes um I hear people like complaining a lot that he does not make a lot of like skip passes that he makes a lot of like really easy

Reads and things like that Al yeah Hees he does not throw the alley very well um but we knew that when we brought him in like all this stuff was on film like none of none of this is is a surprise uh Raptor fans told me that he struggled

Finishing at The Rim uh Vivic came on this podcast and told us that he struggles finishing at The Rim he told us that he struggled getting his three three off he had extend his three-point range so like as far as what I was expecting to see from Fred eny as a

Player like I’m not disappointed because he’s doing exactly what I expected him to do I just think he’s been overused so I’m gonna give him I’m gonna go ahead and give him a because I I can’t really think of what he’s done that’s disappointed me as as far as what I was

Expecting him to be yeah I think that’s kind of what you have to go by I don’t really factor in how much he makes per year because at the end of the day that’s not his decision that’s the front office front office decid they want to

Pay him that that’s what they end up paying him so I don’t really factor that into how he’s playing on the court and like you said when he came here um he’s yeah he’s given us pretty much exactly what we expected from him when when he

Was brought in uh he’s gonna be a a really good floor leader a really good in the locker room he’s he is the the voice at least on the offensive end he is the coach on the floor um just like Dylan is the coach on the floor on the

Defensive end uh he’s shooting the U 37% which is above the league average from three-point range and on a team that’s as bad as the Rockets are from three-point range I mean he honestly may as well be shooting 50% because that’s that’s he’s one of the better Shooters

On the entire team and then also you look at his assist number career high and assist over eight assist a game he’s still averaging one of his lowest totals of his career even though he’s handling the ball even more this season in uh turnovers as well just a little over one

Turnover a game and it’s been some games where he had 15 assists and zero turnovers and again a team coming off the last three season the Rocks were one of the worst teams in the league when it came to turnovers per game so to bring in somebody that you know is a steady

Hand we’re starting to see that even with uh amen being great doing giving your double doubles Rockets have had several games where they’ve had 15 or more turnovers um just because they don’t have that Steady Hand out on the court but well like you said he’s guess

He’s going to have his limitation he’s not he’s probably one of the lower end guys when it comes to finishing around the basket in the NBA again like you said that this has to do with his height and his size there’s only so much he can

Do when it comes to that uh alyu passes I think we’ve seen more Aly passes from the rocks in the last several games just because we’ve seen players like am in throwing those Aly passes instead of Fred Van v which is not a huge deal because you’re not gonna have a lot of

Those per game but at the end of the day when you want to get out and run with the athletic players that the Rockets have like Jaylen and am man and with Cam you want to be able to throw those type of passes um you want to be able to see

Those type of passes so yeah he’s not really great when it comes to that his defense has has been good this season even though like just the rest of the team is falling off and I think that has to do a lot like you said with the

Amount of minutes he playing at one time he was leading the league in minutes per game which is just shouldn’t shouldn’t have been happening and I know I asked ma about that he said yeah we want to try to get uh Amy more minutes on the

Court and cut down Fred minutes but that at that point I think it was almost a little bit too late because right after that that’s when he got hurt and he’s been out ever since so um some of the stuff you know we expected that you know

He wasn’t G to be able to do and some of the stuff I think he exceeded as far as when it comes to you know his being able to get hand out assists and not turn the ball over uh so at the end of the day I

I I’ll give him a b um just because I would give him an A but the some of the limitation that he does have even though we did expect it I think that’s some of the reason why the Rockets have struggled lately so that’s why it’s kind

Of hard for me to give him an a right now um but as far as just overall grade I can see him give him a b because even with the way I’m in is playing the Rockets you could tell they definitely miss Fred I hope people realize that now

They see okay yeah Fred wasn’t doing this wasn’t doing that but we need his leadership out on the court because a lot of these slow starts has to do with the fact that the Rockets just have a hard time getting into any type of offensive set they have a hard time um

It just seems to just being able to run just basic plays and we’ve seen that like the last several games the Rockets have been down double digits in several of those games in the first quarter and once that happens at the end of the day it’s just going to be a fake comeback

They gonna lose a game which they’ve done a lot lately they haven’t won back-to-back games since the beginning of January so speaking of that have you noticed like a man plays more aggressively like towards the end of the game and Rockets play better like I think to me they more they’re passive

They seem really passive in the first quarter for some play like that at the beginning of the game and then maybe they wouldn’t get any deficits and it’s not on all on him obviously because he’s just one of the pieces but like you were talking about Fred uh being missed and I

Think like you know Fred doesn’t really have Rim pressure you know a lot of the stuff he gets is Created from that pick and roll or whatever but a man has shown the ability to blow by his man I don’t know why he comes out um you know some

Of these games and he’s not uh aggressive because then you look up and by the end of the game dude has a double double he’s averaging a double double as a starter um I didn’t check what it was uh after this last game but I know going

Into that game he was averaging like 11 rebounds per game almost 12 rebounds per game also like 12 points and you know the assists and Steals and blocks and all of that but you know for some reason at the beginning of the game I think we see like a little bit different version

Of him than what we see at the end when he’s really like locked in so I think that’s one thing that they could um I don’t know if the if the coaches have to kind of be like hey you know you have the keys to the Ferrari right now like

You know don’t crash it but like you know you you like going under the speed limit you know when we start the game and we need you to like go fast and I’m hoping like you know if Fred isn’t back you know I’m hoping that that I’m in

Kind of like is more aggressive at the beginning of the game yeah I think that a lot of that has to do sometime was trying it’s deferring to the right I don’t know if you can really call like alprin and Jaylen veterans but they’ve been around longer

Than all man sometimes deferring to them and also the rock is trying to run the offense maybe through Alin more just because they don’t have Fred there and also Dylan Brooks has taken a lot more shots since Fred has been out so that’s another Factor you have to kind of throw

Into it um and as actually kind lead us to our the next person we’re gonna talk about is Dylan Brooks um and we’re gonna kind of give our grades on him how he’s been this season we’ll do that after the break so please stick around and welcome back to Rockfield podcast

Presented by the believe network and on today’s show we are going over the first half grades for the Houston Rockets we’ve already talked about of course uh Rafael Stone we talked about uh em we talked about Fred Van vet and now we’re GNA be moving over to Dylan Brooks the

Other big free agent signing for the Houston Rockets uh this past off season uh and a Vader like like I said we want to start with Dylan Brooks and what’s kind of your grade of course I know you’re basing it on what you expected from him so what’s been your grade so

Far on what Dylan BR has brought to the Rockets all right so like I said based on what I expected him to do um come in be a guy who was a three and D you know three and D Wing um he started out as an

A I’m not going to lie to you he was an a at the beginning of the season when the Rockets were winning uh when they were fairly healthy uh I think more lately he’s been kind of a c to me and so like I’m I’m gonna put him in the

Middle at a B and that’s because I am thinking like when we get more healthy and guys start coming back he will uh you know he will resume the role that he was playing before I think he’s kind of with with Fred out and with tar out and

Some of the you know other and you know Ain missed a game here and there I think I think he’s kind of take put it on his own shoulders to uh shoot more and we we saw what that looked like in me looked like in Memphis right so when when Dylan

Brooks is like playing within the confines of the offense and you know he’s locked in he’s he’s doing all the little things on the floor he he’s amazing and that’s what we saw at the beginning of the season I think more recently he has been um kind of

Reverting to some of his old habits B bad shot selection there was a shot he took last game that I just kind of like yeah you know people talk about my boy cam cam about his top selection this was a very um this was a very cam

Whitmorees shot that he took man there was uh he like he like was gonna drive in I think he did like a little spin there was two guys on him there was somebody open at the top of the key and he shot that thing anyway yeah I was

Like whoa okay so that is uh that is not the the version of Dylan BR that I like to see um but like I said I feel kind of like he he is a guy he’s a gamer right he’s a guy who wants to um take the take the challenge right and

So I think when with guys out he kind of puts more on his own on his own plate and uh sometimes he puts a little too much on his plate and I think we seen that a little bit that recently but I’m GNA give him a b man I think uh some of

The stuff that we’re seeing from him is just a product of uh him just trying to do too much and I think once he gets back into um his natural role just defending the best player the best wing on the other team uh spotting up at three knocking those down you know you

Got to put up with an occasional heat check shot from him you know maybe one or two a game but I think for the most part you know to start the season he’s been doing exactly what they wanted him to do so I’m gonna give him a

Be yeah and we’re I was thinking of B minus and just because only minus is like you saying um some of the shot selection is kind of sketchy sometime and also some of his antic Sometimes some B League or he’s pretty close to it yeah

He’s lead league in Tex but also also at the same time I brought em eem also leads the league in Tex for coaches so kind of kind of hard for sometime for E to say something to him but at the same time I want to Factor on the the good

Thing and why I want to give him definitely give him a b he’s definitely not a c but give him a B minus um he career high and field goal percentage career high in three-point percentage and also a career high in free throw percentage so his shooting I think has

Been a a you know has been even better than as advertised because a lot of people you know thought that you know before he was even sign with the rock a lot of people were talking about he may be out of the league that’s how bad people were um

Talking about Dylan Brooks coming into this off season so the fact that he’s one of the best three-point Shooters in the league I don’t think anybody outside of Dylan Brooks thought that was gonna be a possibility so that is definitely a huge Revelation when it comes to Dill

Brooks his defense has been as advertising dope it’s also slipped off a little bit lately but I think that has a lot to do with like you said he’s having to take a lot more responsibility on the offensive end something that I don’t think necessarily that he always wants

To do because I think he wants to be able to focus on playing really good defense and just spot up three point shooting that’s when we saw him at his best and I think you’ll see that once Fred is back once Cam’s back which I think you’ll see both of them back on

That February 22nd game against the Phoenix Suns um so you’ll see Dylan kind of go back to where he was more towards the beginning of the Season where he wasn’t taking 17 shots a game like he did last game and he can kind of focus more on just being a a really good

Defender and also kind of occasionally taking the open three-pointer I think you’ll see uh the Dylan Brooks kind of go more towards a Dylan Brooks instead of the B minus I think he is at right now again B minus is not bad considering what how bad people were talking about

Him at the beginning of the season so I think that um what he’s brought to the Rockets has been more a lot more positive than negative and that’s kind of why I want to give him the B minus the only reason I gave like said I gave

Him the minus is just because of some of the Antics sometimes and yeah some of the shot selection isn’t always that good especially when it’s coming from a veteran player but I think if I had to guess if he’s going to go more towards a

C or go close to a a I think it’s going to go closer to that a once you start getting a lot of those players back that you’ve been missing the last several games uh the next player I want to talk about is actually guy actually played

Last night in the RIS of star game and that is Jabari Smith Jr um so what do you uh what have you seen from Jabari uh Smith so far this season and what grade would you give him all right so Jabari is a tough one for me

Because he was um I mean if we’re being honest he was probably one of the worst players in the NBA last season you know the beginning of the Season he gets some somewhat of a pass for me because he was 19 for the the entire duration of of his

Ricky season very young guy but he was the third pick in the draft so uh the expectation is there for you not to be the worst player in the NBA right this season um he has looked really really really good at times and then there are

Too many games to me where I feel like he is not he’s disappears right there’s inconsistency there and you know he’s a 20 he’s 20 years old so there’s inconsistency and I think um with a lot of other guys on the team that that need touches and need the ball he probably

Doesn’t always have an opportunity to kind of get in his rhythm and find you know his place in the offense but I just like I see the talent there and I just want to see more from him you know when he gets the ball I want to expect him to

Make the three you know what I mean uh when we drafted him we drafted him as a guy who would be a like knockdown three-point shooter and a guy who’s going to be able to defend you know and and pretty much lock up somebody on the

Other team right and so we see glimpses of that at times there was that game against the Bulls earlier in the season where he like really made it hard for Demar de Rosen and then we’ve had the the big scoring games and all of that

Kind of stuff but I want to see more from Jabari man like I know it’s in there and I I want to give him a b so bad because of where he came from from last season but based on my expectations he’s at a C+ for me right now because I

Just know there’s there’s more untapped potential there there’s so much more he could do I want when he catches the ball for defenses to be like oh shoot like you know like when we’re playing Denver and Jamal Murray is open or if Michael Porter Jr is open even Keegan Murray for

The Kings like they’re guys who like when they’re wide open you pretty much count it like even though it’s not obviously it’s not automatic we’re talking about guys who probably shoot like in the 40% range but that’s to me that’s where I want to see jabari’s a

Three-pointer is in that in that you know 40% range and then I also want to see him like I know I I se seen him working on his handle his handle is is so much better than it was last season um his his postup game is really good

Like so I I just I just want more for Jabari and that’s that’s the reason I’m not giving him a B I mean based on where he came from from last season uh objectively he’s probably a be but for me I’m gonna give him a C+ because I I

Want I want Jabari to lock in and go out there and get more buckets be more consistent and lock dudes up on defense yeah yeah and you said yeah he’s probably one of the more trickier ones out of everybody because he’s had some really good moments he’s been a much

Better rebounder this season actually all his shooting splits are actually up this season from his rookie season but like he said his rookie season especially at the beginning of the year was definitely a struggle to say the least so it’s kind of hard to say hey yeah I’m gonna give my higher grade

Because he’s shooting better because he was shooting pretty bad last season so he he he pretty much had no choice but to go up but he’s had some really good games he had some really good rebounding games he does a lot of the dirty work that he wasn’t doing last season so I

Would definitely want want to give him credit for that um but like you said he hasn’t taken a huge step forward when it comes to just his overall offensive game um I don’t know how much of a Improvement you’ve seen from his like you said with his ball handling with

With his being able to get to the basket with him punishing smaller Defenders it’s been there but not as much as it should be and of course I don’t want to compare him to Paulo banero but it’s kind of hard not to because I mean they

Were in the same draft and for the most of the you know we’re not GNA go back in to the whole history but a lot of you know Rockets fans thought that Paulo was coming to Houston so you see Paulo you know becoming an All-Star this season

After over 20 points a game and yes I know they have different games and you know Jabari may never be a 20 25 point a game scorer but at the same time you do want to see kind of start seeing those those steps forward start seeing those

Leaps forward and right now he’s just kind of he’s been he’s been okay and that’s why I give him a c because he’s been okay he hasn’t been you know great in just one area and horrible in another area he shouldn’t 36% from three which is League average he’s a much better

Rebounder this season so I’ll definitely give him that but he’s only averaging maybe like a0 three points more per per game than he did in this rookie season and yes I know that he doesn’t take as many shots because you know you have Fred here and you have Alper taking a

Lot more shots this season but he’s just been okay this hasn’t been anything one way or another where I could just say like oh yeah he’s been really horrible he should be getting a d or oh man he’s been really great he should be getting a

B it’s just been it’s just been okay that’s just kind of how he’s been for most of the Season he did have that really good stretch he had that really good stretch like you were talking about with the rebounding and like I was oh he’s turned the corner and you know

Unfortunately for him I think that he has not looked as good since he came back from that ankle injury um but like I the flashes are there um it’s just like you said uh based on and I hate to do this but just based on where he was

Picked in the draft and what I expect to see from him when he steps foot on the court I think I see it sometimes and sometimes I don’t see it and so that’s why even though I want to give him a b I’m not GNA give it to him yet I want to

See how he finishes this season yeah and like I said I I said definitely want give him all the credit in the world for you know being a much better rebounder because he doesn’t have to be like some players that were definitely drafted where he is that not getting the shots

That other top draft picks are getting they may not be they may be like H you know what I’m not going to go down and crash a board and bang with guys that are 610 250 when I’m barely 200 something pounds I I’m probably not

Going to go down and do that but he has been rebounding a lot better this season so I definitely want to give him credit for that but like you said there’s other avenues or other areas that he definitely needs to you know show more of an improvement on and right now

That’s kind of where he is where in you know in the sea territory and maybe it’ll get better or maybe he’ll just kind of stay where he is but we’ll kind of see how that plays out for the rest of the season uh the next guy guy I want to get

To um is somebody that I know a lot of rockets fans are gonna give a certain grade to and then that they won’t be happy if it’s anything but AB but I want to talk about aler shenon and you know what he’s brought this season uh so I

Want to start with you Vader and you know what you’ve seen from Ain you know he had the great start to the season um he kind of fell off a little bit lately and again maybe because of injury maybe because of some other factors but what

Do you want to give uh as far as a grade when it comes to Al so all the way up until like the allar voting came in he was a he was a solid a plus because like we were hyping him for All-Star Game and

All of that kind of stuff um ever since then I don’t know I know he sustained that back injury that that kept him out um and then like he’s he shoulders such a huge burden offensively you we don’t have a lot of Shooters around him uh he’s he’s garnering double and triple

Teams so I’m going to leave him at an A and and the reason being is because like even though his production recently has kind of gone down I I do attribute some of that to the to the fatigue and and the subsequent injury of probably having

To like play more minutes than he needs to play and and take such a huge responsibility on the team offensively um he’s really like it’s really hard for him to get easy baskets on this team the way it’s constructed right now because he draw he draws so much attention and

He’s really down there kind of getting getting it out of the mud so to speak because um teams going into the game with the idea that we need to stop Al and shenon and I think a lot of what you’re saying too recently is like we’ve not really adjusted to them taking away

Al shenon and and our offense has suffered a lot so I’m gonna leave him at an a um he was at a A+ for me at one point in time I think more recently he’s kind of dipped down maybe a B+ but like just overall if I just look at it and um

Not penalize him for some of the stuff that’s kind of happened more over the last maybe week and a half I’m I’m gonna leave him at a a I think he’s I think he’s earned that you know just from the fact that he has been pretty much the

Only guy on the team All Season who you know we could even look at and say hey that guy probably deserves to be be in the allstar game this season yeah and I’m I’m pretty much at the same spot like he was a A+ for majority of the first half of the season

And he kind of like you said dipped a little bit because of injury because now teams are at the beginning of year teams weren’t double teaming Shang gun as much as they are now they are running at him hard as soon as he gets the ball to the

Point where they’re forcing the ball out of his hand because they know like at the beginning of the year the Rockets were a much better shooting team they were like middle of the league even at some point they were like closer to top 10 in shooting believe it or not but

Since January they’ve been one of the worst teams in the league in shooting and if you’re a coach on the other team why in the world you gonna let Aon Shan go one-on-one when he’s their best player when you know you got people outside of him shooting 29% from

Three-point range I’m going go to double team Shang goon every single time so you can’t really blame Shang goon for that one thing you can kind of put at his feet is that he’s still not a better shooter from three-point range because if he was a better shooter then that

That definitely spands his offense and it’s a lot harder to double team him so that’s the one knock I have against him why I don’t give him a A+ because his shooting is still around 29% from three-point range nobody suspecting him to be a a car Anthony towns from

Three-point range but at the same time you want to see him be able to at least be around 32 33 34% somewhere in that range to where he is at least a threat from there because right now teams don’t even guard him out there and he’s still

Kind of hesitant on taking that three so that’s really the only knock I have against him because even on the defensive end where people were giving him you know were uh were criticizing him in previous season he has gotten a lot better on defensive end especially with his verticality verticality when it

Comes to when players are trying to drive into him he plays straight up and down he doesn’t get in foul trouble nearly as much as he did in previous Seasons so his defense has definitely gotten a lot better he’s never going to be a shot blocker he’s never gonna be a

Rudy go bear under the basket or anybody like that but at the same time his defense is not a liability now to where teams can just take advantage of him on the defensive end so that’s why yes his shooting hasn’t been as good but his defense has gotten better so that’s why

I definitely keep him at a a you know even though he has strug a little bit uh uh this last part know two or three weeks but that has to do a lot with his injuries being tired and also not having Fred on the court because they were

Really good in the pick and roll even though teams had start to you know Blitz that pick and roll and try to take that away as well but you also have to factor in that you know Fred and Ain they had a really good connection when it was uh

Time to run that pick and roll something you haven’t seen from a man because like you mentioned for some reason they don’t run that pick and roll as much with a man for whatever reason but yeah I definitely want to keep appering at a

And I mean to be honest with you as far as the starters he’s going to be the only a because he’s been the best player on the team this season so uh a couple players I want to get into real quick before we wrap up the show I’m not gonna

Go through the whole bench because I really want to talk about the two main guys for Me Off the Bench so far this season and we’re GNA leave tar off and give him an incomplete just because he’s been hurt from majority of the season um but the way he was playing he was

Definitely you know trending towards that a uh category with Al but he’s been hurt for majority season so it’s kind of hard to really give him a a grade on that but the two guys I want to talk about real quick and honestly we can kind of lump them together because they

Were drafted in the same draft it’s am man Thompson and cam Whitmore um just as far as overall their impact on the season uh what do grades do you give uh both of those players honestly they they are like two of my favorite players on the team right now just because the

Excitement Factor when they come in the game so yeah um you know as far as scoring goes like nobody on the team is a better scorer right now like if you look point for Point minute for minute than cam Whitmore that dude is amazing and like he’s doing it inside he’s doing

It outside um he’s a bully in the paint his dunks are like ridiculous and his his three-point shot has been even better than you know I was expecting it to be I think there was some data out there that showed that he was a 40% spot up three-point shooter at at villain

Nova that’s pretty much translated to the NBA I think he um he has he isn’t taken a lot of stuff um you know on movement or off the dribble or whatever uh but so far so good looks and and the sample size is only growing like he looks really good

Obviously he needs to become a better passer um he’s shown flashes that he can defend like when he’s when he’s you know focused and paying attention so I’m I’m happy I’m very happy with Cam Whitmore this is a guy we got at pick number 20

I’m G give him a I’m gon give him a B+ man just you know uh based on his Menace and His production in those minutes I think he’s a B+ for me and then am man Thompson I’m going give him a B I think um he is a guy who I think has

Opportunity to be very special because he can do everything except the couple things that he can’t do and I’m when I say he can do everything he can um you know he he rebounds he block shots he gets steals uh he can score but what he

Cannot do is shoot right and and then like his his uh ball handling has been a little you know more shaky than I thought it would be people were telling me you know pre-draft that his hand handle wasn’t wasn’t that great and I

Think we kind of see it but to see a guy going out there and you know I think what did he do last game like 19 points and 12 rebounds and this is a guy who is only scratching the surface of his potential just imagine if he gets you know what

They can do with the offseason with his kid tighten his handle up a little bit he’s probably never going to be a great outside shooter but he’s he’s a willing shooter and if he can even just get a floater man like um he he’s going to be

Really special so like for me he’s he’s probably a VB plus as well I think they’re kind of on a similar kind of trajectory right now as far as what I expected to see from them and what I’m actually seeing so um I’m not nothing

That I’m seeing from either of them is a surprise so I’m not disappointed so I’m going to leave them in that in the in that range yeah so real quickly from me um as far as am Thompson the reason why I’m giving him an A minus it’s just because yes his

Shooting definitely needs work but if you just go look at his last several games even the fact that he’s not a good outside shooter like we were talking about with Al Shang he has shot over 50% every single game the last five games he just finds a way he his basketball IQ is

Just so high that’s another factor for me as far as giving him an A minus is he knows his limitation and he doesn’t go beyond what he knows he can do he’s not out there trying to you know take three or four threes a game just to prove that

He can shoot he gets under the basket he rebound his last five games as well he’s had double digit games rebounding except for one in that one game he had nine rebounds I mean to me those numbers are just insane and I know yes you have to

Base on the entire season but at the same time it’s not really anything he can do about injuries it’s not anything he can really do about Coach not necessarily trusting him enough to play him in the amount of men that he’s playing right now but just his overall

Game he does so much outside of just being a really good rebounder he’s a he’s a good passer he’s um also good at get to the basket uh he’s hustles he’s still I mean to me just his overall game is the reason why I give him an A minus

As far as just basing off of what I expect from a rookie point guard in the NBA that didn’t even start the season off playing that many minutes I mean to me he has been like definitely one of the revelations of for the Rockets this season is somebody that I expect to see

A lot more minutes for in the second half you know what I’m thinking too you you kind of winning me over because you know one thing I did not you know one thing I didn’t think of his defense yeah like his his defense has been I don’t I

Don’t like to throw spectacular out there too too too Loosely but there were situations where he was he looked like a better defensive player than Dylan Brooks like when he was guarding certain players in the past couple games and I I’d see them you know cross you know

Cross Match or whatever um there was some instances where I’m like man he he might along with tar een they might be like the best like P point of attack you know on ball Defenders on the team like he was making it very difficult like I think one of the examples I’m thinking

Of is Jaylen Brunson like when when Dylan Brooks was on Jaylen Brunson yeah he made Dylan made him work you know he’s Dylan Brooks but he seemed like he had a whole lot you know more difficult time getting around alond Thompson than he did Dylan Brooks and so like yeah you

Something like the things that he is already good at he’s really good at him and so just imagine just imagine if if he adds that shot and and gets a um you know a more functional uh dribble he’s gonna be crazy yeah and real quick on cam Whitmore because there’s one more player

I want to talk about I know people may have thought I forgot about him but I haven’t and I left him last for particular reason but real quick on cam more yeah I definitely want to give camore a B+ um he’s for what he what you

Need him to do he excels that you need him to be a scorer because the rocket really lack scoring just overall team but definitely coming off the bench and like you were saying with the points per minute at one point he was almost at 110 minutes played and and like 105 points

Scored just insane numbers that you don’t even see from the best players in the league and yes I know he’s playing limited minutes and he’s officient and he’s efficient and I don’t think a lot of people expect him to be as good of a shooter as he is he already one of the

Best Shooters on the team and he’s just like you saying what I mean he’s just scratching the surface and then you factoring the fact that he plays Above the Rim something else the Rockets don’t have a lot of players that do on a consistent basis um I’ll give him a B+

And reason why I don’t give him a is because on the defensive end he doesn’t really give you a lot and he’s not I mean he’s has he has some fancy passes but he’s not necessarily going to go out there and give you three or four assists

Per game as well so for what he brings he does really well and that’s the scoring but there’s other categories I know he’ll approve on because he’s still he’s one of the youngest players in the league so he he still has time to develop being a better secondary passer

Being a better uh Defender so I’ll give Ken Whitmore a B+ um just you know for all the stuff I just said one more player we want to talk about before we wrap up the show um of course it’s Jaylen green and the reason why I left Jaylen green last because unfortunately

He’s one of the most polarizing players on the entire team um I’m not going to go into all the Twitter drama that happened because I’m sure all y’all know that by now but just overall every single year there’s one player that you for some reason it seem like people

Really either love what he brings on the court and expect him that he can do more or they really hate him for whatever reason and that’s unfortunately this year that’s Jaylen green so where do you see Jaylen green this season what grade do you of Jaylen green and kind of just

What you saw from him so far so I’ve told you this before like coming into this season Jaylen was my best my favorite player on the team because of the fact like and and and this is this still the most bizarre thing about Jaylen green he had he had that triple

Double and he had some really good games you know pretty recently he flashes some of the Highest Potential on the team but he also simultaneously flashes some of the lowest floor on the team when when we’re talking about those core young six guys where Jabari cam uh tari

Alrin uh amen and himself like out of all of those guys like I see that he can do some things that like none of those guys can do but at the same time I also wonder if he’s ever going to actualize that potential and that’s kind of where

We are right now um coming into the season uh what we saw what he what he was doing offseason in the workouts with uh Fran Leed we saw him working out with Kevin Durant we saw him working out with Devin Booker you know what I mean he

Seemed like he was really focused he had a coach for the first time he seemed like he was going to be in a structured uh system for the first time I thought to me I thought Jaylen was going to come in and probably average at least 23 24

Points a game four rebounds four assists on League average efficiency minimum right uh and he has been so far away from that that I’m I’m not questioning whether or not I think he can be that kind of player I’m just questioning at this point whether or not the Rock will

Be patient enough to wait for him to do it here and um that’s kind of where I’m at with that because like you get to a point where you like and people have been saying this you got to start making decisions on guys um as far as contracts

And things of that nature and so like if he is like hey I’m not going to accept this amount of money and they’re trying to pay him at lower than what he thinks he’s worth you know he may not be a fit here and right now like if we’re being

Honest he has not earned a Ricky Max he hasn’t he hasn’t earned a Ricky Max he and so if he’s a guy who’s going to go into negotiations and ask for that and we don’t know that this is all just conjecture then I don’t think he has a

Place here uh because he hasn’t earned that you know you got you have to you know it’s a business and you have to earn you know you have to earn that kind of money um so for me just like I said I’m I’m basing this on expectations he’s

A d for me D not just because um it is you know D disappointed um and like I said I want to reiterate that I still believe J green is be a good player um I just think he needs more time he’s he came from a you know AA

Culture he’s a guy who just kind of like got by being faster more explosive and and and just like being just a freak athlete he never really had to learn how to play in a structure system even going to G League at night in retrospect was probably not what was

Best for him and then we sure as hell know like the first two years uh here in here in Houston uh you know the more that comes out about how things were were ran and operated you know it didn’t do him any favors either and I’m not here trying to make excuses because

Obviously I just gave him a d on the season and the F but like I think he has improved in certain areas um but like he was not drafted to be like this super rebounding shooting guard right he’s improved at rebounding he’s gotten a little bit better defensively he’s he’s gotten

Better to me as a passer I’ve seen him make skip passes this year that I hadn’t seen him make we know he can kind of do stuff in the pick and roll a little bit with with you know pocket passing and things of that nature but like they

Drafted him to be in the lead score right and then maybe he could like develop some of these things along the way and the one thing that he’s struggling with the most right now is scoring efficiently yeah so for me that that’s that’s kind of where I am with

Him I haven’t given up on him I feel like I’m one of the few who vocally are like no I still believe in Jaylen green because I do um but yeah I i’ I’d just be a Stan and a homer if I didn’t say that I didn’t have any concerns right

Now yeah so it’s a it’s a weird situation with Jaylen it’s like you can see how he should have a low grade and then it’s at the same time like some of the stuff you just mentioned about I kind of want to give him a c but

I’m kind of like I don’t know and and path because I think he has gotten better at a lot of things but the the fact of the matter is we thought and maybe he still you know achieves this and realizes this potential but like we you know they were even saying during

The draft cycle that this is a guy who is going to lead the league in scoring one day this is a guy who is gonna be a 30 point per game scorer and like we see the the flashes that he can do that but he’s just so he’s so dang inconsistent

And I do think that you know some of the things in the offense are probably not like suited tailored for him or whatever you know he probably would look you know Mike Dan Tony for example was a guy who kind of like figured out how to like get the best out

Of every single player however um when it comes down to like you’re missing open open threes and you’re missing layups you know and that kind of to me that kind of goes to you and we had that conversation about Jabari last year you’re like you’re missing open threes

And you’re not finishing around the basket and and and that’s kind of on you yeah yeah I mean it’s like I’m leading C minus I’m leading D I’m leading it’s like I’m almost in between those two grades and I don’t really know if that’s there’s no such thing as a grade between

C minus and d right but I mean if if I had to just say it now I would just say a C minor just because he’s had stretches where he’s had really good like three or four games in a row like he just looks like the jayen green that

Everybody was expecting but then you have games where he doesn’t even show up at the beginning of the game and he doesn’t even play in the fourth quarter because coach because ma doesn’t believe that he’s given the best chance of winning and for you to be at that

Point with your second overall pick in the third season that’s concerning I can’t lie I can’t step in and say that oh yeah Jaylen Green’s gonna be fine I have no concern no I have major concerns when it comes to Jaylen green because you see it where he has a triple double

And he looks great he’s making shots he’s not just relying on taking step back thre on 30 feet he’s driving to the basket or he’s rebounding he’s assisting then you see games where he’s you don’t even know he’s on the court and it’s just like it’s really a lot of time

There’s no in between with Jaylen you see he’s either really good or he’s really bad and so that’s why I’m kind of like in the middle of where I want to give him the grade and that’s kind of where I settle on cmic and that might be

A little bit High because it could easily go to a d demonish really easy this season if he doesn’t you know start to string together more games where he’s actually playing a really well and I I don’t think anybody’s expecting him to go out there and be a 30o scorer this

Season we just expect him to go out to be more efficient and be a positive on the court and not somebody to where it may is feeling like well I gotta play Aaron holiday over you because I think that Aaron holiday gives me a better chance and just to be honest some games

That’s actually the truth that Aaron holiday gives him a better chance of winning games in jayen and that’s definitely a concern but at the same time you see the talent you see that if he puts it together that that he can be the key to the Rockets actually still

Fighting for a play in spot cuz let’s be honest if this team is going to go where Jaylen takes him this season next season we’ll see who they bring in but this season if Jaylen takes that next step and can be more consistent they can

Fight for a play in spot but if he continues to go down the road where he doesn’t play fourth quarters because the coach coaches can’t depend on them and the rockets just going to kind of just fade you know into the 12th and 13th spot and that’s where they’re going to

Stay so he’s really the key on to where they can go from either actually really fighting for a playing spot because right now they’re like three games out or just being a 12 or 13 seed and being in purgatory like they kind of were in

The Kyle ly days back in the day so that’s why I’m kind of leaning I say C minus but I can absolutely see people that are saying yeah he’s definitely lower he’s a he’s a DD minus player at this point so he’s really at the breaking point I think of his career to

Where it can go either way it can go the the route of him being a career bench player or being a really good player that maybe one day can can kind of slide his way into Allstar consideration I didn’t say Allstar but All-Star consideration so I think right

Now is a really really really critical time for jayen and like you said because with his contract is coming up really soon I think next season the Rockets are going to you know they’re going to you know match the deal or pick up his his rookie deal he’s going to make around 12

13 million next year but that’s when they really have to make a major decision because after that he becomes a restricted free agent and there’s no way right now the Rockets gonna give him a max deal that’s not going to happen during this season or during the off

Season there’s zero chance that’s gonna happen so he’s really at a Breaking Point in his career right now it can go either way right now I just like to see him stop shooting as many threes I think the games where we saw when he was really like effective he was

Relentlessly attacking the basket that’s what his strengths as a player are right now you are faster than pretty much everybody you’re more athletic than most get to the basket and I know his frame maybe he’s not I don’t know maybe he doesn’t feel like he’s strong enough to

Consistently do that but like the games that you were just talking about he was going to the basket like he was super aggressive he was taking guys off the dribble he was dunking on people like he had that ridiculous dunk uh on uh de Jon Murray like the these are the things

That this man can do and it’s like stuff that most other players in the NBA cannot do and then he’ll come out the next game and like all the stuff that you saw him do the previous the previous night like he doesn’t do it again and

It’s kind of it’s kind of confusing you know as a as a fan sitting there watching in and somebody is trying to analyze what they’re seeing um seeing him come out and absolutely dominate NBA players um just through his his physical athletic gifts and then come back the

Next night and be passive is some something that concerns me and I wish he would just like like before probably his Ricky season like he was really uh dependent on his hot three-point shooting in order to like go off so to speak and have a really good game like

He’s not like that anymore he can get to the basket he can get to the free throw line um I think yeah I think he should focus Less on on shooting threes and just attack the basket and then I feel like once he starts getting once he gets

Hot like in in that area I think you start seeing his three-pointers start falling more I mean your confidence is up you’re kind of cooking and you know you get out there and you shoot a three like you you know like you’re way more likely to knock that three down than you

Are to probably knock you know a spot of three down at the beginning of the game yeah and the only reason I didn’t give him a d because he has improved on defense and he has gotten better as far as not letting the ball stick to him

Kind of being a secondary pass getting the ball away faster so that’s the only reason I didn’t give him a give him a lower grade but like I said it could easily go that route because he’s right in between that range to where he is really having great games three or four

Games and then he has three or four just horrible games so he’s just like right in the middle of being a productive player and being a bad player he’s right there right now so that’s just that’s just kind of where he is um on this team

And it’s we’ll see how if it changes in the second half of the season um that’s going to do it for today’s show I hope you en enjoy the grades definitely leave us some uh leave us your grades in the comments if you think that certain players should got a higher grade or

Lower grade or the coach or the general manager definitely leave in the comments and let us know what you think of course Vader I want to appreciate you as usual jumping on being the co-host today thank you man I appreciate you and all the hard work you’re doing on the YouTube

Channel yall tap in with everything that he’s doing the short videos the interviews all of that thank you ABS absolutely we’re going to continue to put that out even though the Rockets won’t be playing again to next week I will be out at the OK OKC game on next

Sunday uh when the Oklahoma City Thunder come to Houston so that’ll be an interesting game especially coming off of uh the games against the Phoenix Suns that they’ll be playing before that uh so we I’ll be out of that we’ll have all the coverage all the pre and post game

And like I said V say we appreciate all the support we are up over uh now, 1500 uh 1,570 subscribers so we’re still growing fast we definitely appreciate everybody that gives us likes and also that subscribes to the channel make sure you continue to do that because that

Helps us with the algorithm that helps other people see our videos so we definitely appreciate your support and make sure you check out the next episode of rockets fuel Podcast

Lachard Binkley and Vator give our their Houston Rockets grades for the first half of the season.
Let us know what grades you would give out for the Rockets so far in the comments.

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