What Are Houston Rockets Biggest Concerns, Questions & Most Underrated Storylines This Season?

What Are Houston Rockets Biggest Concerns, Questions & Most Underrated Storylines This Season?

On today’s show what are the biggest concerns the biggest questions and the most underrated storylines concerning this Houston Rockets team we’re going to get into all of that and so much more on today’s locked 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 15 guidance is internal the Houston Rocket select amen Thompson and cam Whitmore one thing I have never done is not made the playoffs and so we want to

Take that step here as well 6 5 4 3 2 one what’s up and welcome to another edition of locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball as always on your host Jackson Gatlin native hisian and 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 lockdown rocket free and available wherever you listen to your podcast including YouTube now today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more with FanDuel right now new customers get $150

In bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks if your bet wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started and as always thank you so much for making lockdown Rockets part of your day every single day whether it’s on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym

Thank you for being in every day and making the show part of your day every single day joining us now is none other than the podfather himself Rockets wire editor and host of the logger line podcast Bend Dubose you can track down on Twitter at Bend Duos Ben here in the

Midst of NBA Allstar break this is it it’s not fun having no basketball to talk about for this week off I know I know the players needed I know they need like a break in the middle of the season but I hate this time of year because

There’s no basketball to talk about and I’m just itching to have the games back way I am but in this particular season I’m actually sort of relieved when you look at how they stumbled into the break with obviously five losses in their last six games and really things

Have been a little bit off the rails for the last month or so I think we all needed a mental health break when it comes to the Houston Rockets in particular yeah so maybe not the worst thing in the world even though again the the the gremlin and me just wants to

Have Rock it’s basketball back um what we’re going to be doing on today’s show though uh there was an interesting prompt brought up by uh Steve Jones Jr so if you’re not familiar with his work uh he’s one of the one half of the amazing Duo over there at the dunker

Spot pod him and Nikas Duncan so definitely be sure to check out their work does a ton of film breakdowns on on social media all that stuff Steve is awesome and he presented this series of questions kind of a a check-in on your your team as it were and so that’s what

We’re going to do on today’s show and the questions were as follows what’s your biggest concern for your team what’s your biggest question you have for your team and what’s the most underrated thing about your team so Ben and I are going to tackle that here on

Today’s show biggest concern well if I can stop knocking stuff over next to my next to my desk biggest concern biggest question and most underrated thing about this Houston Rockets team now Ben and I have not compared notes coming into this episode so we might overlap and I always

Think that’s fun you know to see kind of where your head’s at where my head’s at um so I’ll let you start us off Ben biggest concern about this Houston Rockets team go for it it’s can they develop a top perimeter scorer or playmaker internally that’s what’s hanging over this franchise we’ve seen

Al PR shenon take the leap this season he’s been excellent but it’s so tough to build a contender just around a playmaking big man you look at Joel embiid in Philadelphia he’s got Tyrese Maxi and last season he had both Tyrese Maxi and James Harden you look at kic in

Denver he’s got Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr in today’s NBA you need at least one guy on the perimeter that you can trust to consistently either create his own shot or and or create for teammates and with the Rockets you’ve talked about it a lot it has been an

Underwhelming year for Jaylen green I’m not out on him it’s not time to sell all of your stock in my opinion but look this is year three it’s not just about the pre-draft hype anymore at some point you have to look not just at your opinion of him on paper but also the

Results and if anyone had told you that Jaylen Green’s numbers at the allar break would be what they are if someone had mentioned that in early October we would have all been underwhelmed the efficiency just is not there the issues with consistency that we’ve talked about

In year one and year two they’re still there in year three there’s highs we know the untradeable tour less than a month ago it was very encouraging but the lows are still there as well so when you’re going towards the back half of year three and year four where there’s

An inflection point with regards to his contract status as well it can’t just to be about your it can’t just be about your opinions of his talent it also has to incorporate the results and at this point the results have been a mixed bag so Jaylen hasn’t taken the leap this

Year that a lot of us wanted it’s not that you need to necessarily make a final decision a final judgment on him now but the bottom line it’s a question as to whether he’s going to become that guy and then you look at the other Alternatives amen Thompson cam Whitmore

They’ve been good for the last two to four weeks but they’re rookies the question is consistency you can look back to when Jaylen was a rookie really about this time two years ago from the All-Star break onward Jaylen was very good that’s why he was on the all rookie

First team he finished his rookie year with that 30 plus points per game scoring binge in his last five six games whatever it was including the 40 plus game in the finale and we all thought in that ensuing off season that Jaylen was on the paths to start him and to this

Point it has not happened so while I’m excited about what am men and cam have done and I like their talent at the same time you look at the even trajectory of jayen green and you sort of have to keep that in the back of your mind when

You’re evaluating a men and Cam and that even though there are flashes until they do it on a consistent basis it’s going to be a question for this franchise and I just think at a macro level rather than micro you go back to last offseason when the Rockets splurged with all of

Their free agency cap space they did it for high floor veterans guys like Fred Vin Fleet Dylan Brooks they wanted Brook Lopez had to settle for Jeff Green they went down that path rather than pursu a James Harden or a Kyrie Irving in large part because the Rockets wanted to give

Opportunities to their internal guys like Jaylen like a men like cam to turn into that top perimeter playmaker or scorer to this point it has not happened consistently now if it doesn’t happen internally it’s not the end of the world the Rockets do have other avenues em

Udoka is liked by players around the league they could swing a big trade down the line they’re stockpile of future draft assets it’s not great but it’s not terrible either so they would be in play for a trade to get that guy externally but the reality is look the Rockets

Already made a substantial bet with regards to how they awarded those contracts last summer saying look we don’t think we necessarily have to go outside of the organization to get that guy we can get high floor veterans and hope to have one of these young guys develop and while there’s still a case

For any of those three perimeter guys perhaps you can throw Char een in the mix as well eay is referred to him as a young kawh Leonard the reality is until one of those guys Jaylen Amin cam Maybe tari as well consistently does it and

Stays on the floor it’s going to be a question as to whether the Rockets can internally develop that guy and that’s sort of the bet that Rafel Stone made when he doled out those contracts last off season you know in a way I I I know

That the way that I teed this up was we were starting with the the concern portion of the question but I feel like the way that you kind of answered it you just turned it into a big like it’s all just kind of a big you know biggest

Concern and biggest question are kind of the same answer is the problem I realized like as I was doing this exercise I was like this is really fun and then I was like wait these are kind of the same thing um because what I’ll actually do here is what I had listed as

My biggest question for this team was actually very similar to your line of thinking here so I’m just going to 86 my concern for a second and get to my biggest question which is do the Rockets have a superstar Talent somewhere in the core six I think that is a ginormous

Question that we don’t have the answer to yet and as you kind of already alluded to right do they have a upper echelon like Wing score R Wing partner to pair with Alper and shingun which was the first part of of your answer and I completely agree here in that the

Rockets I feel like are are positioning themselves for potentially star chasing down the line with all the expiring contracts the assets all of that and I think that that can be a way to like a means to an end right to to pursue the next disgruntled asset whatever

Distressed asset that wants out of a bad situation cool we’ve talked about that largely probably being the end goal with those Brooklyn picks for a long time anyways as figuring out who you want to trade for and which star player you want to go I guess quote unquote all in on um

As far as who compliments the young core the most whatever but I think you suddenly it frees you up a lot more for subsequent moves to really build an allaround Contender um something that has long-term sustainability if you don’t have to I guess go go get your own

Star player from somewhere else right if you’re able to grow that star internally then that’s a huge benefit because you’re going to be you’re going to have that player on a cost controlled team-friendly deal for a long time you’re going to be able to figure out the pieces that mix and match around

That player and I just don’t know right now at this point with alpie and jayen in year three with Jabari and tari in year two and Amin and cam as just rookies we just don’t have enough data yet to know whether or not one of these guys still has that upper echelon like

Superstar potential we see the flashes we’ve seen flashes from all of them and that’s the part is is balancing the patience with the evaluation process and trying to know when it’s time to I guess you know cash out on on these guys um which is why you

Know jaylen’s future is is such a big question mark at this point because are we approaching the period where you should be ready to cash out or do you keep do you hold on do you give them through all the way through year three which it looks like they are obviously

Because they didn’t deal them at the at the deadline do you give them all the way through year four right how much runway do you give these guys right and that’s why I framed it as a concern because at least with one of those internal options for the the wing role

You’re at a point now where it can’t just be about blind optimism it can’t just be about sort of dismissing any concern and saying well he’s young he’s going to work his way out of that no by the time you get to the end of year

Three and nearly year four it has to be not just about your view of the guy pre-draft and his theoretical Talent base but it also has to be about the onc court results and so now that we’re in year three for jayen green really the last third of year three and there still

Has not been that consistent leap the way there has been for all per and shenon I’m not say saying that the whole thing is a concern but you’re getting to a point with at least one of your internal candidates to where it’s not just about a question you at some point

Relatively soon you do have to be concerned if you don’t see that leap and if it’s not jayen then you know it’s not the end of the world there are other options amen Thompson cam Whitmore maybe tar een as well but it’s just you’re getting to a point now where you

Actually do need to see some of those guys take the leap if they’re going to be able to do that internally there’s a reason you wanted so many bites at the Apple because if you miss on a couple of the bites then you’ve still got the

Other ones that may or may not uh ultimately pan out a tons of you know this Rocket’s got a bunch of swings at it hopefully one of them turns into uh a legit Superstar but coming up we’re going to keep navigating this prompt um even though it may may have gone a

Little wonky there in segment one uh biggest question for this rocket team and I’ll get to my biggest concern I guess I don’t know we’ll tackle this next bit coming up here in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel get buckets with your

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Free at linkedin.com lockon MBA that’s linkedin.com lockon MBA to post your job for free terms and conditions apply and continuing on here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball now I also Ben and I are discussing our biggest concerns questions and and you

Know we’re going to tackle the most underrated thing about this team here momentarily in segment three but we also want to hear from you guys so whether you’re listening if you’re if you’re watching on YouTube drop your thoughts your biggest question biggest concern and the most underrated thing about this

Team in the YouTube comments now Ben uh for me and I guess I guess I’m going with my my concern here is uh I am still a little worried about what it’s going to look like when this front office is ultimately tked with with making some

Moves towards I guess I don’t want to say being Allin but just the moves to make this team a contender again or a consistent playoff caliber threat again and I say that because while we saw them now navigate this previous off season and bring in the names like Fred Van vet

And Dylan Brooks that have helped Elevate this team the Rockets were also uniquely positioned last offseason to have more money than anybody else to spend and they had just come off the high of hiring a brand new coach and EM OD DOA well-liked well respected around

The league they had a lot of variables in their favor to kind of make that happen I know that we’ve discussed this ad nauseum on this podcast and and elsewhere but I think over the last few years there’s been an underwhelming level of kind of you know some of the

The moves on the margins and things like that that probably could have been capitalized on during a downtime for the organization similar to how Sam presty has capitalized on the downtime that the Thunder had for those handful of years almost kind of directly coinciding with the downtime the Rockets had during

Their rebuilding era now we’re seeing what Sam prey is able to do in Oklahoma City he has more draft Capital than the rest of the NBA and OKC internally has had has experienced a lot of growth and development and they’re playing some incredible basketball without having

Made some big splashy all-in move for a star their’s their rebuild is like the best case situation where just internally the growth of their prospects and their guys has really taken them to the next level now at this deadline they added a Gordon Hayward it’s going to be

Exciting to see what that looks like in OKC that that kind of an addition but that’s kind of where I’m at with with my level of concern is just how does the front office how will the front office operate moving forward with deals you know in the off season at the deadline

Right um are they able are they will they be able to make the hard decisions on some of the players internally like the decisions that are going to be upcoming with with Jaylen green and alrin shenon right we’ve seen this front office kind of have a tendency in the

Past with guys like Christian Wood guys like Eric Gordon maybe holding on to these guys a little bit longer than they probably should have um Jan Tate might be another one that we revisit this offseason and say man why didn’t they trade him for the couple seconds that

They could have gotten from the Dallas Mavericks so I hope that we can see this front office move from a place of being very very reactive with a lot of their decision- making which it kind of feels like has been the case for a long time

Into an area where they’re a little bit more proactive in finding you know good deals creating value that other teams haven’t found and they and they’ve done some of those moves in the past I’m not saying that they haven’t ever done it um the David NOA deal with OKC the kind of

Contract shuffling to generate a second round pick out of that um they had the the deal with the Nets way back win where they with dooma and they they turned that into a second round pick so they have had moments of creativity they have had moments where things have you

Know looked promising um but those moments have been few and far between so with the fact that they they have these big looming decisions about jaylen’s contract shanon’s contract all the expiring deals that they have kind of this this whole angle where it looks like they are going star hunting you

Know do they do they swing and miss out on the available stars who knows so I just think that we’re at a point where we we don’t have a ton of data points on the front office is to like inspire a ton of confidence be like oh they know

100% what they’re doing am I cautiously optimistic sure but I think that’s where my biggest concern lies yeah I think that’s largely reasonable and it sort of dovetails with my concern which is that if the internal options don’t pan out and we know all season long really ever

Since getting Fred and Dylan in the offseason the defense has been largely capable I know it’s slipped over the last four to six weeks but a lot of that coincides with the injuries when healthy this is a good defensive team led by E udoka the question is whether they can

Be a good offensive team which they have not been all season long even when alar and shenon was at his best the first two two and a half months of the season and so the ideal path as you were saying with some of these other rebuilds is if you just develop the contender

Internally and whether it’s Jam uh Jam whether it’s uh Jaylen cam or men I think I just came up with a new nickname for Jay go no the Jaylen green uh cam pairing but yeah whether it’s Jaylen cam men tar or hopefully multiple options among those guys the ideal

Scenario is that you don’t have to go outside the organization to fill that role and you can just find your wing compliment to alar and shenon internally and move forward and just gradually improve as the years progress and as these guys get more experience but if

You aren’t able to do it internally yeah you need to be able to swing a big deal elsewhere that’s where it goes into you know it’s not that they can’t do deals move mov forward even though they’re going to operate above the cap for the foreseeable future and really it’s not

Just this offseason which raell Stone confirmed to me at his press conference last week it’s also when you look at the extensions they’re going to have to give out starting you know as soon as this summer more realistically I think a year from now this is going to be above the

Cap team unless something goes dramatically wrong so you’re going to have to make trades do they have the assets to make the trades do you trust the people making the decisions and then another part of it is just are the Rockets attractive enough with em Oka

And Rafel Stone a huge part of any Mega trade in the modern NBA is whether the star player that’s disgruntled actually wants to be in your organization so can the Rockets Make Them attract make themselves attractive enough to a disgruntled star to make that happen I think it’s absolutely possible and I

Have heard good things about how liked e udoka is around the league but until they actually do it yeah it’s fair to have some questions some concerns and I just think that hopefully the Rockets don’t have to go down that path but now that you’re in year three with Jaylen

And he hasn’t yet taken that clear leap then you do have to at least start to wonder about you know sort of the fallback scenarios which is what a big external move would be if you aren’t able to develop it all internally you mentioned there kind of in in in in the

Reply to my to my concern because again I’m trying to keep our keep our heads on straight here to make sure we don’t get these mixed up that was my concern I’ve already done my question technically I think we are on your biggest question but earlier in your answer you you very

Heavily emphasized the offense being a big question was that actually your question or okay what is your what is your biggest question then yeah I’ve got a very direct question and it’s less for me and it’s more for the organization but what the hell happened with tar een

Because the way his leg situation has been managed is very curious and let’s just be honest for this season as a whole the Rockets are 12- 10 when tar plays they’re 12 and 20 when he doesn’t his lack of availability for the last six weeks has been the biggest factor in

My opinion for why this has gone off the rails he’s so important defensively to the second unit to their culture and he’s also a nice hedge to Jaylen green we saw when uh tar was at his best in December he closed multiple games in Jaylen spot and as I mentioned earlier

Eem has compared him to a young kawh Leonard even though we think of tar as a front Court guy he actually does have some playmaking chops similar to you know a young kawhai a young Jimmy Butler one of these jumbo Wing types so he can help you in terms of generating offense

As well when it gets sticky we’ve seen him get Second Chance points and yet this is a guy who’s played less than half of the season and now he’s missed at least six weeks and my guess is it’s going to be more than that point being

After being an Iron Man his first year right one of only 10 players play all 82 games this rookie season it’s not like this is some weird like oh he’s injury prone whatever kind of thing yeah yeah he last played on January 1 so he’s missed six weeks now my guess is it’s

Going to be more than that because they tried to ramp him up to play on that road trip before the allstar break and NE udoka acknowledged in the last home game when we were there as media members that when they tried to ramp him back up

The pain came back and so with it being because they used the John Wall ramp they should oh jeez but with it being a recurrence of uh the same injury you do have to wonder when he first suffered at in the preseason and they basically gave

Him four weeks off if they had been more conservative then and given him say eight weeks off could he have returned in December and basically had 80% % of the Year still left to play and basically can I can I even raise you is the fact that he was injured right it

Was it was the Collision it was the crash at midcourt against the Pacers and that was the game that Dylan Brooks got ejected for the nut shot on Daniel Ty and he actually so that that Collision the one that that definitely was the one that damaged his leg in the first place

He then came back and started and played more minutes in the second half of that game yes and then in the following game he played like I it was like eight or nine minutes or something in the following game against the Pelicans before they sat him because I’m guessing

He felt some discomfort pain whatever it was and they were like okay we got to stop so Not only was he hurt but then they let him play like another game and a half on that leg before realizing oh maybe we need to sit him for a little

Bit Yeah and before this latest six- week absence if you recall in December they listed him as questionable almost every single game so it wasn’t like they thought he was good to go they knew there was an issue and they let him play through it they constantly referred to

It as an issue of pain tolerance even when he went out that first week of January they initially reported it as a day-to-day thing and then it just slowly became obvious that it was much more week to week even month to month and that he had basically had a full-blown

Recurrence and I’m not going to say that em Oka is responsible this is one of those awkward situations if you recall like the Astros last year whenever people wanted more info about the injuries to Jose Altuve and yordan Alvarez Dusty Baker would be like well just ask the trainer I don’t know but

Then the trainer is never available to the media so it’s just this constant Loop that never gets answered and emay doesn’t have all the information the one thing that eay did say is that tar may have lied a little bit about how much pain he was in but honestly most players

Are going to do that especially when they’re young they’re competitors they are incentivized to get on the court and play through things so as a medical staff you have to factor in not just what the player tells you but the testing results the x-rays the MRIs whatever it may be for the specific

Injury and just know in the back of your mind that the player is going to frame things as positively as he can for him to be out on the court and sometimes you have to save the player from himself now I can’t tell you for sure what’s happened here because again you know

Medical situations are private we don’t have all the information and though we’ve gotten some updates from E udoka again he’s not really the decision maker when it comes to the medical side of things so we don’t have all the information and it’s at least possible maybe this is just you know a freak

Accident for whatever reason but when you have the same injury and and a recurrence of it basically takes him out for longer the second time than whatever happened the first time it is fair to wonder if okay if you had taken this more seriously the first time around

Could you have nipped this in the bot and then had him available for 75 to 80% of the Season as opposed to having this linger for basically the entirety of his second season in the NBA and a guy who has been very very good when he’s played

And it’s one of those situations it’s not the end of the world even if he doesn’t play again this season and at this point with the playin slipping away we’ve got to at least be open-minded to the possibility maybe he doesn’t come back we’re less than two months from the

End of the season so not saying I’ve heard that but at least you have to have that in the back of your mind and while one incident in a vacuum should not be viewed as some huge referendum on the Rockets medical staff at the same time if it continues to happen again with

Other members of the core six and you know you have all these young prospects that we’ve that we’ve been talking about throughout this show could it be a concern yeah and when we talk about external Pursuits around the league which is what you were referring to a

Few minutes ago look you can look at kawh Leonard in San Antonio that’s a perfect example of a situation where the player did not trust the organization to responsibly handle his medical situation it was a big part of why he asked out things can spiral to that level to where

Players around the league just don’t trust the organization enough to look out for them an example on the Other Extreme if you think back to like the end of the Steve Nash era in Phoenix you had veteran after veteran going to the Suns because they were well well

Regarded Ed for keeping their players healthy and fresh and the things they were doing on the medical side so I’m not saying we’re anywhere near that situation based on one incident with tar e but I just hope that internally even if we don’t get the answers externally because we’re not owed an explanation

And eay is not really the guy to fully give it anyway because I don’t think he’s made these final decisions at the same time at least internally I hope they have some answers for why this went down the way it did simply so that they can learn from it and so it doesn’t

Happen again in the future future because there are going to be injuries this stuff happens in the NBA but I just think that even if we don’t ever fully learn on the outside what happens internally hopefully they have a good handle on it so that you know if it

Happens again in the future with somebody else they have a much more lenar response to it that was a good sleeper pick that one came out of nowhere Ben Kudos um because I agree that that has been one of the bigger question marks as to this season and

Kind of what’s transpired so I I like that one a lot coming up we’ve got our most underrated thing about this Houston Rockets team we’re going to get there in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by eBay Motors passion drive and patience what brings home the winning

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All right Ben we’ve had a little bit of back and forth action here so now it’s coming back your way so start us off with the most underrated thing about this Houston Rockets team to me it’s how close they actually are because even with everything that’s gone wrong the

Last four to six weeks they’re still tracking to finish mid to high 30s in wins for this season and that’s with all of these perimeter options that we’ve been talking about none of them taking the leap internally that’s how high the floor is now that you’ve got some

Quality veterans and alar and shenon has taken the leap as far as your big men so you’re really not that far away from getting to a relatively high level in the Western Conference and being not just potentially a playin team but a playoff team I think back a couple of

Years ago to the Minnesota Timberwolves when you know it was Anthony Edwards rookie season 2020 to 2021 they were the worst team in the league even worse than the rockets for most of that year but at the very end that’s when Anthony Edwards seemed to find it and so they sort of

Climbed up a few runs uh I think they were like third or fourth worst and then the next year this was before Rudy goar they took a huge leap to 46 and 36 got to the playoffs and Anthony Edwards while good he wasn’t the Anthony Edwards

That he is now I went back and looked at his second season he basically averaged 22 points five rebounds four assists per game true shooting percentage of uh like 56 uh shot below 36% from three he was very good but it’s not like he was great

So the bar for the Rockets now that you have a competent All-Star level big man like Al shenon who you know if we’re comparing the Rockets now to the Timberwolves a couple years ago I guess you can say you know shenon is sort of like a Houston version of Carl Anthony

Towns now shenon better as a playmaker uh towns better as a three-point shooter but in terms of the overall impact I I think you can sort of see some similarities there and with Minnesota when they took the leap was when Anthony Edwards not even got to a star level

Just got to a very good level and that was enough between having the trustworthy big man inside and then a lot of proven veterans guys like Pat Beverly D’Angelo Russell uh Jared Vanderbilt that you could trust on those winguard rolls then that’s when the Timberwolves sort of took the leap to

Becoming not just a solid team but a very good team mid to uper 40s in the west and so the Rockets even with all these flaws and the maddening inconsistency this is not a terrible basketball team by any stretch this is assuming they don’t just completely fall

Apart going to be a season that they finish with a respectable record even with all these things going wrong so when we talk about you know going back to my concern or and your question about you know can you develop the wing option internally the bar is not super high

Like we’re not asking Jaylen green or amen Thompson or Cam Whitmore to become the current version of Anthony Edwards or Devin Booker or sgaa even if one of those guys just turns in to you know a very good player next season on a somewhat consistent basis that’s all

This team needs assuming health because we know what the defense is when this team is healthy and has all the pieces and we know what Al peren shenon can do the bar is not super high that’s why this season is so frustrating is that the Rockets you know even though they’ve

Taken a Leap Forward relative to their own performance the last few years they’re so close to being better they’re so close and that’s what I think outside you know people are going to look at this team and say yeah you know they took a step forward but you know there’s

Still a ways to go not really I mean you’ve got a lot of high upside guys internally as is you know the Rockets have taken some big swings the bites at the Apple as you put it earlier if even one of these guys can take not even a

Leak to Super Start them just a leak to consistently very Goodville let’s call it then that in and of itself could be enough to make you a play in or even a playoff team as soon as next season so as frustrating as it’s been to me I don’t think people externally realize

Just how close the Rockets potentially are they have a lot of pieces and they’ve addressed the floor they’ve got the veterans to surround a young core with if any of these perimeter guys develops to compliment aler and shenon this thing can come together a lot more quickly than I think people on the

Outside uh give it credit for I just want you to know that I am putting consistently very Goodville as a drop on the soundboard as soon as we are done with this episode because that is now going to be like like the moment somebody has like an okayish game I’m be

Like consistently very good Ville like there we go um and you know this this is the one where I I think your concern my question had a little bit of overlap earlier uh I’m actually I I I wrote down specifically here my my underrated thing was that this team is still on schedule

Despite all the adversity that they’ve faced this season with obviously missing tar for more than half the season the injuries to Dylan Brooks then missing Jabari now missing Fred I think that you have to still be incredibly encouraged and optimistic about where this team is headed based on what we did see when

This team was was healthy so this overlaps a lot with a lot of the points you’ve already made about this team but the big one there was you know we know what this team was earlier on when they were healthy and when they were healthy this team was a number one defense in

The NBA a top three defense at minimum with with all the right pieces around alperen shingu so I think that kind of addressed okay can can alpie actually be a you know a good defensive big on a good defensive team and he absolutely could right they were they were one of

The best defenses in the NBA for the first couple months of the Season before those injuries started to really take their toll so I think that the early season success and this was also part part of your answer in there that early season success I think almost in a way

Skewed the perception of this team to where Rockets fans themselves and I know I struggled with this I don’t know if you did but just that early success kind of led to oh how good can this team be this year right and then when the team started to kind of come crashing back

Down a little bit and come back down to that to where they are right now I still think they’re on schedule right now is the crazy thing it’s just we got our hopes up based on how good the team had looked early on and so I do I fully

Agree with you there that you know maybe they don’t necessarily need one of the the other cors we’ve seen Alp right take these steps and he’s playing like an All-Star at this point so he’s taken that that leap we still don’t know how much more he has left right how much

Better can Alp be than his current version of his of himself um but if you even have one of the other coric turn into like you said consistently very Goodville or again you know take start to take that leap in a similar vein to Alper and shenon having two Allstar

Level kind of building blocks is a great place to be organizationally because just having the structure that they have now with the additional veteran support of Fred Dylan Jeff those guys plus the internal growth from the young guys has this team on trajectory to you know again it looks like they’re probably

Going to miss the play in this year but if you were to if you were to change even a couple of the variables I think the biggest one the tar e situation if just tar was healthy for this team this year I think they’re easily like four to

Five maybe six wins better than they currently are right now and then they firmly in the play in discussion for one of those seven to 10 seeds instead of being on the outside looking in and I think that’s a huge differenc maker so I’m glad you brought up that point there

Um but yeah they’re just they’re on schedule they’re a lot closer I agree with you Ben they’re a lot closer than I think people think that they are um versus you know a team like the Brooklyn Nets who wants to try and pair a superstar with male Bridges as their

Their path to contention their P their rebuilding path forward which is all kinds of ridiculous and that’s actually a perfect name to reference in this context because a lot of people have been wondering why would you consider including Jaylen green in a package for male Bridges and there are pros and cons

But it gets back into the same Dynamic which is that you do not actually have to have a superstar for this to be a consistent playoff team they are closer than you think and that’s what I think it’s lost in the discourse when we talk about developing these young players I

Think sometimes people around the league think that Rockets fans are expecting or wanting Jaylen or amen or Kim to turn into what Devin Booker or SGA or Anthony Edwards are now and that’s not really the case that’s why I mentioned year to Anthony Edwards who was a very good player

Consistently very Goodville if you want but certainly not an upper echelon star at least not at that point and that’s where there is some temptation to the male Bridges path I can understand the organization’s interest in him because it’s not like this team is so far away that they just need that Transcendent

Superstar to get them to the next tier no even just a very good player be it one of your young guys developing into that internally or acquiring one from outside the organization that’s all it really takes when you when you combine that with what alar and shenon is doing

With these veteran row players like Fred and Dylan and some of you know your high floor guys amongst the prospects guys like Jabari and tari this team is not that far away and so that does sort of explain some of the Bridges interest it’s not so much that the Rockets view

Mel Bridges as a superstar no he’s not but the point is they don’t need a true Superstar to actually take that next step now maybe they eventually need a superstar be it you know acquiring one externally or someone internally developing into one to actually become a legitimate title Contender and win a

Championship a few years from now maybe but in terms of getting to that next step that a lot of people were optimistic that maybe they’ already done earlier this season which is get into the play and even the playoff mix and be a consistent winning team in the Western

Conference you don’t really need a true Superstar to get there this team is not that far away so be it internal development or an external move I don’t think people around the league appreciate just how close they are and that’s actually a good reason why they would consider a move such as male

Bridges and so one of the points that you were making earlier right is as the Rockets are progressing as they’re you know navigating this rebuilding trajectory being an attractive destination right if you if you build yourself into a team that is you know quote unquote one piece away from True

Contention then you suddenly become an attractive destination externally for other star players who are maybe looking at the rocket situation maybe you’re maybe you’re floating around like that four to six seed range and there’s a player and they’re like you know what if I got traded to that team or if I sign

With that team I’m the piece that takes them from being you know the you know steady playoff appearance you know first second rounde exit whatever I’m the piece that takes them to legit finals bound or or you know Championship like I I open their Championship contention window and that’s the position you want

To be in it’s not it’s not Boomer bust it’s not oh you’ve got to build a contender with the pieces you have right now and if you’re going to trade a guy like Jaylen green oh it’s got to be for a superstar no right now M Bridges is a

A much better player than Jaylen green there’s no way you can argue that any other like he’s a much better player than Jaylen green right now and would Elevate the Rockets quite a bit right now now was it the right time to do the trade obviously not or maybe the Nets

Are so hellbent on building around male bridges that it didn’t happen and so now we see how these two teams are going to navigate the situation but that was the the entire argument is if you can take those those steps incr incremental steps towards relevancy towards getting back

To being a competitive team then you take those steps right and again that’s why the Rockets have a front office and a lot of guys who are smarter than me or supposed to be smarter than me running the show to figure out okay when do we

You know how do we evaluate these guys right when do we cash out on a young Prospect when do we make the move when do we start consolidating assets how do how many moves at the margins do we need to make to be able to have these you

Know extra assets to make for a big trade further down the line all these little things all these little things that kind of all kind of uh packaged together that we’ve talked about on this show are all very relevant ideas and Concepts to have to consider when when

Thinking about this team but we want your thoughts I asked for them earlier but let us know in the YouTube comments your biggest concern your biggest question most underrated thing about this rocket team let us know your thoughts about everything we discussed on today’s episode Ben you know the

Drill let everybody know where to track you down at yep uh Ben Duos on Twitter the Rockets wi and longer line onx and rockets. usatoday.com for all your daily Houston Rockets news coverage that’s going to do it for another edition of locked on Rockets as always thank you so

Much for checking out the show if you haven’t done so yet please consider subscribing wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube but as always thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening and we look forward to having you back right here at

Locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything h hon Rockets Basketball

What Are Houston Rockets Biggest Concerns, Questions & Most Underrated Storylines This Season?

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) is joined by weekly cohost Rockets Wire Editor Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) to discuss the Houston Rockets biggest concerns, biggest questions, and most underrated storylines this season, including whether or not they have a superstar player within the core six of Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, Amen Thompson, and Cam Whitmore, how will Rafael Stone and the front office navigate the next stages of the rebuilding process, the curious situation regarding Tari’s injury maintenance, how close this team is to being consistently good again and more.

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