DEVASTATION: Rockets Season ENDED By Warriors AGAIN | Should Houston TRADE Jalen Green?

DEVASTATION: Rockets Season ENDED By Warriors AGAIN | Should Houston TRADE Jalen Green?

On today’s show, for the fifth time in 10 years, the Houston Rockets season comes to an end at the hands of the Golden State Warriors. Who showed up in game seven? Who didn’t? What went wrong? And where did the Rockets go from here? It’s all coming up right here at Locked on Rockets. This is mission control You know, this wouldn’t hurt nearly as bad if it wasn’t that team. It had to be that team, man. What’s up and welcome to another heartbreaking game seven loss to the Golden State Warriors. Oh man. 10389 the final score from game seven. And man, this is a tough one. This one’s going to sting for a while. all the emotion, all the buildup to game seven, to go down 3-1 and to fight your way back into the series and give yourself a chance on your own home court to close things out and move on to the next round. And then to to fall apart the way that they did in game seven is pretty brutal. to see how things transpired. And we’re going to get into we’re going to get into kind of what went wrong here in game seven, who showed up, who didn’t, and some of the big questions facing this Rockets team this off seasonason and the direction that this team is headed. But just looking at the game, you know, this was a game where the Rockets felt like they kind of reverted back to some of their their tendencies from earlier in the series. Felt like EA struggled and and got outmaneuvered by Steve Cerr in this game. Uh the double big lineup suffered with the Warriors five out spacing and Buddy Heield was Buddy Heield was unconscious. And as per usual, Steph Curry who only had uh three points at halftime in this game uh was getting carried by his teammates. Rockets trailed 5139 at halftime. And it was a rough rough offensive game all around. It was a rough offensive game, but the Rockets were able to kind of claw their way back in in that third quarter, spearheaded by uh Amen Thompson really trying to take over the game. Not even trying, he did take over the game for a stretch there. And Alpirin Shingun, those two guys showed up in a big way in the third quarter, kind of sparking the Rockets comeback. And they got it within three. Rockets got it within three late in that third quarter. Pardon me, throat’s all messed up. Rockets got it within three late in that third quarter off of Jabari Smith Jr. three. And then the Warriors closed the quarter on a seven-2 run. Took an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter. And then Steph Curry did Steph Curry things at the top of the fourth quarter. Had a quick layup. Hit a three-pointer on a play where Amin Thompson’s calf basically died. He he was cramping up after a fall on the other end. And you know Amin Thompson was playing out of his mind. And that moment that that play where Amen Thompson basically died trying to guard Steph Curry gave Steph a wideopen step back three and put the Rockets down 15 and that was really hard to try and fight back from and they they tried they tried in this game. They fought hard and they just weren’t able to get enough going offensively. They just did not have it in this game. Uh they missed so many shots in the paint. Something like 30 misses inside the painted area. Only attempted 18 three-pointers. That’s absurd. To put that in perspective, Jaylen Green by himself attempted 18 three-pointers in game two of this series. And the Rockets as a collective team only attempted 18 threes here in game seven. Six of 18. So, not even a terrible shooting percentage from three. They just didn’t get enough of them up. They failed to convert on the looks that they had inside the paint. They didn’t get enough threes up. They actually did take care of business at the free throw line. 15 of 21 shooting there. They outrebounded the Warriors, but so much of this boiled down to the Warriors adjustment with their five out spacing to counter the size of the rockets. And also uh the sneaky uh sub subtraction for the Warriors of losing Gary Payton II. Gary Payton II had by far been the worst player in this series for the Warriors and they lost him due to food poisoning. The second time a Warriors player this series had been impacted by food poisoning. So I don’t know what they’re feeding the Warriors but I don’t know. It’s weird um to have that happen not once but twice in a single series. and GP2 was killing him when he was on the floor. He wasn’t providing much if anything offensively and he really wasn’t uh as effective as a defensive disruptor on the other end of the floor. The Warriors were effectively able to take Jaylen Green out of the series regardless of who was guarding him. And when they did stick GP2 on Fred Van Vleet, Fred Van Vleet still cooked him in game six. So the Warriors losing GP2 was actually a good thing for them. Surprisingly, it forced them to lean more into the Buddy Heel, Brandon Pajimky minutes. And Buddy Heel gave them so much in this game. 33 points, nine of 11 shooting from downtown. This is This is Rockets fans 911. Literally the buddy healed 911 game. Can’t even just unbelievable, man. And it sucks because this team really fought so hard in this series and it very much felt like at various points the Rockets shot themselves in the foot more often than the Warriors did things to outmaneuver the Rockets. You know, not here in game seven. In game seven, credit to the Warriors. Their defense was phenomenal. Uh Draymond Green made life hell for everybody. They were flying around the perimeter, limiting those those perimeter looks. Again, Rockets only getting 18 threes. They’re just scared to shoot at times. Warriors defense was phenomenal here in game seven. And they and they did did enough offensively to be able to pull out the win on the road in a tough environment. Not the first time they’ve done it. And you just got to tip your cap at that point. The the better team won in game seven. Not going to say that the better team won the series, but this is what this is what youth looks like. This is what a young team playing basketball for their first time looks like. And as amazing as it would have been, as awesome of a storybook ending as it would have been to be able to finally get that monkey off their back and beat the Warriors and advance to the next round, regardless of what would have happened, you know, from that point on for the Rockets season. This was an invaluable learning experience for all the young guys up and down the Rockets roster. And this is important. This series was important for Emodoka and the coaching staff, for Rafel Stone and the front office, for the Fertittas and the ownership group to be able to look at and evaluate this team and decide on the next steps and where this organization is headed and what decisions they need to ultimately make this off seasonason because there are a lot of big questions facing this Rockets team this off seasonason. Coming up, I do want to talk about some of those big questions facing this team. I also want to get into kind of who showed up and who didn’t in this game and some of the narratives that I’m seeing flying around after the game seven loss. We’re going to get there in just one hp.com/lockedonba. And continuing on here at lockedonrockets, your daily podcast, home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. All right, let’s take a look at cuz you know this is his game is tough because you know it very much felt like the Rockets kind of you know even though the Warriors were the older more veteran team and they they certainly looked wiped out, exhausted, whatever after after game six and it felt like and I had I had all the confidence in the world and it felt like the Rockets had the momentum wrestled back and the momentum was in their favor in this series going into game seven. It it kind of felt like the Rockets maybe punched themselves out of it after the effort expended in games five and six to even the series. And that’s where you go back and you think, man, if you know, if you just hadn’t fumbled game one or if you’ve been able to take care of business in game four, you know, knocking down free throws in either games three or four, like like so many little things that could have gone either way in this series. And unfortunately, the stuff that was stacked against the Rockets, the the the self-inflicted mistakes earlier in the series is what put the put the Warriors up 3-1 and put the Rockets in this position where they had to play a game seven at home and where they had already kind of given the Warriors their best shot in games five and six. you know, Fred Van Vleet emptying the clip three straight games in a row and just didn’t have it again in game seven. And not even to say Fred was bad in game seven, it’s just Warriors defense was sensational. He played 44 minutes, led the team uh in minutes played. He had 17 points, six of 13 shooting. He was three of six from downtown, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals, three turnovers. You know, did Fred did Fred tried. Fred Fred showed up. He did, you know, but Fred also isn’t supposed to be the guy. He’s not supposed to be the leading scorer of the team. That’s not was never supposed to be Fred’s role. Um, you know, and looking at how the Warriors really hurt the Rockets in this game, right? The five outspacing killed them. They were Rockets, you know, again, it felt like Emeodoka got kind of outmaneuvered in this game. Uh, the double big lineup was not as effective in this one. And at least it certainly didn’t feel as effective in this one. Rockets felt like they played better with just one big on the floor for stretches and because of the Warriors five out spacing uh and you know buddy healed going off that was tough and it kind of felt like the Rockets reverted offensively back to kind of that game one plan of just dump the ball down to Shingun, hunt for a mismatch, you know, waste a bunch of time on the clock looking for the mismatch and then just give the ball to Shingun and let him try to go to work And you know, Alpie struggled at at points in this game, right? He missed a lot of easy shots. He did missed a lot of shots close around the basket and later in the game, he started settling. He started, you know, there were a couple possessions where he had Draymond Green, tried to back him down, couldn’t do it, and then just settled for a turnaround fadeaway. And and I think of the two turnaround fadeaways that he took over Draymond Green specifically, I don’t think he drew iron on either one. like you know it’s it’s it’s tough but you know walking away from this game I you know there are guys that showed up in this game and there are guys that didn’t show up. Amin Thompson absolutely showed up. Amin Thompson showed up and showed why he’s a franchise cornerstone and showed why he’s untouchable. He realized in that third quarter that he could put his fingerprints all over this game and he has been throughout this series, right? After a rough first few games of the series, kind of started to figure things out in game four and he’s been phenomenal since that point, since game four. um incredible defense on Steph Curry. And then, you know, just his statline, 24 points, led the team in scoring nine of 16 shooting, nine rebounds, three assists, a steal, a block, no turnovers. Um six of six at the free throw line. Started getting downhill and just playing bully ball, dropping shoulders into guys, finishing at the rim. The incredibly tight defense on Steph Curry. Steph Curry scored more points in the like fourish minutes that Amen Thompson had to leave the game with the the cramps, the whatever than he did the rest of the outing. That’s how good Amen Thompson was limiting Steph Curry in this game. And so all it took was that one gap, that one stretch for Amen Thompson to be out of the game, for Steph Curry to to get going and to create the separation and and put the Warriors ahead. Amen. Thompson showed up. He did. And that third quarter with Amen Thompson and Alper and Shingoon trying to put the team on their back and willing them back into the game was nothing short of miraculous because the Rockets felt like they were dead in the water down 12 at halftime and Steph Curry hadn’t even shown up yet. And I was like I was like I’ve seen this story before. Steph Curry, zero points at halftime, goes off in the second half. And this time around, Steph Curry three points at halftime, 19 in the second half. This wasn’t quite the uh this wasn’t quite the statistical anomaly of going 0 for 27. But, you know, I don’t know if this loss is worse or better or whatever. Maybe I’m maybe I’m just numb to it at this point. I’m just kind of trying to navigate my emotions around this. Um, Amin Thompson showed up. He’s untouchable. The Rockets know he’s untouchable. He’s he’s a franchise cornerstone. And you I said this after the game and and received a a solid amount of push back about it, but Alper and Shingun absolutely showed up. And you can you can be frustrated with Shingun, you know, and the missed shots that he had in this game. You can be frustrated with the moments where he was settling for the turnaround fadeaways, whatever. 21 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, a steal, a block, three turnovers. 21 points on 23 shots is not great. It’s not. But to say that he didn’t show up is just asinine. It It is. It’s It’s ridiculous. If you watch that game and you’re telling me Alen Shenun didn’t show up, you need to get Where’s Where’s my EA quote? Where’s my Udoka? I know it’s here. Oh my god. There it is. Get some glasses. Open your eyes. There you go. I had to find the line because here’s the rub, right? Nobody on this team is asked to do more than Alpin Shingu. Nobody. Not a single player on the roster. Maybe a men to not even a men Thompson because his offensive responsibilities aren’t as big as as Alper and Shingun’s. and Amin Thompson is is is starting to figure it out, right? You saw it there in the third quarter kind of f that that stretch in the third quarter where Amin Thompson started to take over the game kind of felt like where where Neo finally realized that he was the one and and understood how to how to do what he could do. And and so that was a kind of a special special moment watching a dude the the driving split the defender behind the back goes up with the off hand on the other side of the basket layup that he had was just one of the most acrobatic insane plays that I’ve ever seen a player make in real time. Just absurd stuff. But back to Shingun. Nobody on this Rockets roster does as much as Alper and Shingun or is asked to do as much as Alper and Shingun on both sides of the floor. Defensively, Shingun is a big out there having to run around and chase smaller players, guards, switching, chasing guys, closing out the zone defense that the Rockets have been running with Steven Adams only works because of Alper and Shingun and how effective he’s been defensively. He’s out there crushing the glass. generate, you know, getting all these rebounds. He’s facilitating, led the team in assists, still playing stellar defense. And then here’s the rub offensively. You know, Rockets did the whole hunting mismatches thing and tried to get him on smaller players that he could take advantage of him, but he’s been banging with Draymond Green for an entire seven game series. The dude is getting fouled constantly with no whistles. Two hands on his back, shoved, pushed, hit, all of that. And the refs absolutely swallowed their whistles for most of game seven. There was it was a far cry from the amount of contact that the Rockets were getting uh you know, the fouls that they were generating, the free throws that they were getting in game six compared to game seven. Russ were letting so much contact go. And I’m not saying this to make excuses for the guy. He needs to be better offensively. And he said as much postgame. He said, “This year I really focused on my defense and I felt like my offense wasn’t as good.” Right? And it wasn’t. He his his offense slipped this season. His touch around the basket fell. Um his percentages, his TS was in the tank. And that’s all understandable. But you know why the Rockets kept going to Alp? Because literally nobody else could do anything. It’s that simple. Jaylen Green big no-show. Six out of seven games. That’s why they had to keep hammering the ball into LP. Fred didn’t have another another another heater in the bag. He didn’t. Fred didn’t have another one of those games four, five, or six. He didn’t have one ready for game seven. And and again, Warriors defense did a great did a much better job keeping him bottled up. Amen. Thompson started to kind of figure it out as the game went on, but the Rockets have never built their offensive game plan around Amen Thompson getting downhill and attacking. He just kind of took the game into his own hands and started doing things and trying to make something happen. The Rockets game plan was to give Shingu the ball and try to let him go to work because that was their only option. And that’s a failing of the coaching staff. It’s a failing of his teammates that nobody else outside of Amin Thompson and to a lesser degree Fred Van Vleet was able to show up offensively. So I have no idea how Rockets fans could watch that game. The guy who dominated for most of a sevename series. Also keep in mind his first playoff appearance too. Everybody wants to run up and down and make excuses for Jaylen Green and his potential and his talent and all this stuff, but then doesn’t want to extend the same grace to Alper and Shingun who is literally was for a majority of the series being guarded by one of the greatest defenders of all time in Draymond Green. Like what game are you what if if you are sitting there thinking that Alpening didn’t show up in the series, what game are you watching? or or even in the game seven, even where he struggled in game seven. Throw out the rest of the series, even in game seven, he absolutely showed up. Did he struggle? Absolutely. Was it a perfect game? No. Did he show up? Yes, he tried. He fought. He played with heart and he tried, man. He tried. He was gassed by the end of it all. He was gassed and he started settling, sure, but where else were the Rockets even going to attempt to get offense? Jaylen Green, that wasn’t gonna happen. So, yeah, Amen Thompson showed up. Shingun showed up. Fred did his job. Dylan Brooks was a train wreck in back-to-back games. Got benched in game six. Really struggled in game seven. And Dylan Brooks was a big big reason why Buddy Heield was cooking the Rockets in this game. Dylan Brooks was giving Buddy Heel way too much space on the perimeter. A lot of Buddy Heields threes were just flatout wide openen threes because Dylan was sagging off too far looking to help elsewhere and and there were two guys that the Rockets had to pay incredibly close attention to on the perimeter and that was Buddy Heield and Steph Curry and they did a good enough job bottling up Steph for most of the game. 22 points on 16 shots. Not, you know, not a phenomenal night for Steph. That’s pretty pedestrian by his standards. But to give up 33 to Buddy Heield, to get bounced by Buddy Heield in game seven sucks. And so Dylan struggled. And then Jaylen wanted to see something. Wanted him to show me anything here in game seven. And he just didn’t. And this the whole notion of, you know, the Warriors took him out of the series and this that and the other thing, like they weren’t doubling him, they weren’t blitzing him. They weren’t doing anywhere near the same level of stuff that they were doing earlier in the series and no ability to make an impact on the game. Just nothing from Jaylen. It’s very disappointing. Very disappointing outcome. Very disappointing first playoff series for him. And the fan base is the fan base is fully turning on Jaylen Green at this point. Like seeing Rockets fans reacting to the series, reacting to Jaylen Green’s performance. Um, you know, and it’s it’s not undeserved. You know, this was Amin Thompson’s first playoffs, too, and he struggled for the first part of the series, and then he figured it out and started being incredibly impactful. This was Alperin Shingun’s first playoffs, you know, and he was phenomenal for most of the series. He struggled in game, I forget if it was three or four, game three. And then in game seven, right, being worn out by the end of a series for everything that he’s responsible for for this team on both sides of the floor, he was just gassed by the end of it, you know, but he showed up and it was his first playoff series, too. Even Jabari, who Jabari struggled in this one, just three points, one of five shooting. Tari struggled. Um, the entire bench unit kind of struggled for the Rockets in this game, unfortunately. But, uh, it’s just tough, you know, and this this Rockets team has they’ve they’ve got something figured out with the defense and how they were able to get to the two seed and win 52 wins, but you cannot make the same mistake that the Sacramento Kings did a couple years ago and run this exact team back the next season. You can’t. Complacency is a killer and you can’t just be complacent about this team. And I don’t know how anybody looks at the performance of this team, not even just throughout this sevename series, but also throughout the regular season and all the problems and all the issues that plagued this team offensively for so much of the regular season. I don’t know how anybody can look at that product and think, you know what, yeah, let’s run it back one more time. No major changes. That would be a mistake. Um, and that that plays into a lot of the big questions facing this Houston Rockets team this off seasonason. I want to talk about some of that coming up here in just a moment. Kind of where this team is headed. Uh, what are the next steps for this team? We’re going to get there in just one moment. First, today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment costs, it’s easy to lose track. That’s where Monarch Money comes in. 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So, sorry about that for being a Debbie Downer, but you know, this just sucks. It does. It sucks. But the way that this ended, the game seven loss going toe-to-toe with the Warriors, right? The the the final pieces of this Warriors dynasty with Steph and Dre and Steve Cerr and Jimmy Butler added to the mix. Like again, you couldn’t have asked for better experience for these young guys. And it does not, and I want to make sure to reiterate this, it does not take away from what they accomplished this season, right? To go from missing the playoffs entirely last year, just barely, mind you, right? 41 and 41 to becoming the two seed in the Western Conference, earning homecourt advantage, drawing an incredibly tough opponent in the first round, going down 3-1, and then showing the resiliency and the resolve to fight and claw your way back to give yourself a chance in game seven. This Rockets team deserves so much praise and love for and just adoration for what they’ve for what they accomplished this year. They accomplished more than anybody thought that they would accomplish this season. That that’s just that’s just facts, right? Nobody thought that this Rockets team would be one of the best teams in the NBA. Nobody thought this Rockets team would be a homecourt advantage team in the first round. Nobody would have thought that this Rockets, even even after the first round was set, everybody picked Warriors and six. Every national analyst, every pundit, everybody had Warriors and six. Warriors and six. And the Rockets still, despite kind of shooting themselves in the foot at times, still managed to force a game seven and give themselves a fighting chance and a shot, a 50-50 coin flip, right, to move on to the next round. And this experience is going to go such a long way for the guys up and down the roster to be able to learn from, to grow from, to come back even stronger next season and understand, you know, now, okay, we know what playoff basketball is like. We know what the intensity is like. We know how we can be better this next time around, but now it’s going to be up to the Rockets coaching staff, the Rockets front office to adjust the roster accordingly to look at the data points and make some pretty big decisions about what they’re ultimately going to do. There is a laundry list of things that the Rockets have to do this off season. Uh Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari E are both up for rookie scale contract extensions and that’ll probably be something that similar to Jaylen Green and Alpore and Shu will probably drag out all off seasonason and and maybe all the way up until the start of next regular season just like Jaylen Green and Shingunit. Although because those guys are not necessarily your star players, maybe it’s easier to facilitate those contracts and they’ll happen sooner rather than later. So, we’ll see what happens there. um Fred Van Vleet with his team option on his contract. And the funny thing is most of these team team options uh the the trigger date is usually the end of June. Fred Vanble’s contract stipulates the Rockets have to make a decision five days after his final postseason game. So we’re going to know by Friday, Friday or Saturday. I don’t know the specific timing on it, but f by Friday or Saturday, we’re going to know whether or not the Houston Rockets have declined or picked up Fred Vanble’s team option and what that means for him and for the organization moving forward. And it’s worth noting that after the game, Emeoka was asked about, you know, Fred’s contract and whether they want him here or whether they want him back. And he said, you know, basically was like, “Yeah, we want him here, right?” You know, and you know, we like him and we’d love to have him here. And so it’s kind of coach speak and you know Fred commented on it as well but Fred was like I’m not going to discuss the contract stuff but basically saying paraphrasing that you know when Fred was originally signed here it wasn’t under the guise of some short-term thing. It was with a long-term vision and that they’re right on track and that they’re actually ahead of schedule of kind of where they expected the team to be at this point. or maybe he said right on schedule. But either way, um you know, Fred being in Houston long term would not be a bad thing and it would certainly probably be a good thing, but it’s just dependent on whether or not it it it revolves around them picking up the option on that contract or declining the option and resigning him to a friendlier uh average annual value kind of deal. Stephen Adams is an unrestricted free agent. They got to figure his situation out. Adams has been invaluable to this Rockets team and based on the contract that he’s making right now and and the teams that are likely to want to pursue him in free agency, the Rockets are probably going to have to spend a little bit more than the MLE to be able to retain him. But I think keeping Stephen Adams has to be an absolute top priority for this team moving forward. Jun Tate, unrestricted free agent. J Jeff Green, unrestricted free agent. you know, are these guys that you want to bring back parts of the the stay ready crew? Do you bring them back on more kind of team friendly contracts, especially with the extensions for Jaylen Green and Alpar and Shingun kicking in this off seasonason, or do you sign them to, you know, kind of more midsize kind of contracts to be able to have some tradable salary to be able to use down the line um to be able to make moves to improve the roster. So, we’ll see what happens with those guys. Rockets pick is currently sitting at number nine in the NBA draft lottery and the drawing is uh exactly a week from today by the time you’re listening to this. If you’re listening on Monday uh May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, then the draft lottery will be May 12th. And so we’ll find out whether or not that pick jumps up, stays in place, slides back a little bit, um all that good stuff. And so that’s going to have some serious ramifications for what the Rockets are able to do in this draft. Do they do the Rockets maybe come out of this and win the Cooper flag sweep stakes? Like that’d be kind of crazy. Um, in fact, I guess, you know what? We should we should for funsies just to we should do a tankathon spin just because I’m right here. Might as well. All right, let’s do a tankathon spin really quick. Sim lottery and nothing. It fell out of 10. Okay, well I tried. My bad, guys. Um, all right. So, draft lottery and what happens with that pick? That’s going to be a big one. Uh, Rockets have their non-t taxpayer MLE available in free agency to potentially add an impact player, maybe add another rotation piece. Um, there’s a lot of potential trades on the horizon, a lot of smoke surrounding Kevin Durant, Giannis and Tedakmpo. Um, you know, we’ll see what happens and if the Rockets decide to make a push for a star level player. Uh, and literally easily the biggest one, the biggest one, the biggest question facing this Rockets team is what happens with Jaylen Green because I don’t think you can come back next season. And you know, I I maybe maybe I jumped the gun a little early in after the game four because I was I was crashing out kind of hard after game four saying that the Jaylen Green experiment should be over. But I don’t know. You know, I don’t know how you look at this series and think anything else other than, you know, things have to be different. They do. And maybe it doesn’t maybe the Jaylen Green experiment doesn’t necessarily need to be over, but I don’t think you can come back into next season with Jaylen as in the role that he’s occupying right now. You can’t come in expecting Jaylen Green to be your leading scoreer, to be your lead guard, to be your dynamic perimeter creator, um your primary ball handler, and the main compliment to Alper and Shingun in the twoman game. And that’s something that I should have mentioned there when I was talking about Shingun in segment two, right? Shingun is not best served as your number one option, your go-to guy. Dump the ball into him at the post and let him go to work. That’s not his best role. His best role is as a secondary or tertiary option and really leveraging his playmaking and his facilitating and his gravity as a playmaker. And in order to do that, you need to pair him with somebody who can score. You need to pair him with a dynamic guard. How many times if you’re an everydayer, if you are an everydayer, which shout out to I I should have done this earlier in the episode. Uh but shout out to uh Hani Zion, a couple friends at Alcon. Shout out to you guys and shout out to my guy Connor who I saw at game seven. Sorry that we didn’t get the win, guys. But if you’re an everyday or I’ve said it all season long, right, the recipe for success for the Rockets is one of Fred or Jaylen has to show up offensively. You pair that with Shingun’s work in the middle and that’s what makes the Rockets dynamic, right? That’s that’s the should be the bread and butter for this Rockets offense is the twoman game between a dynamic perimeter player and then Shingun in the middle. Expecting Shingun to be your number one option is that’s going to that’s going to result in failure more often than not. And that’s not an indictment on Shingun. That’s just not his archetype of player. That’s not what makes him special on the basketball floor. If Shingun can give you 20, 10 and five on a nightly basis, but if you’ve got a guard that can put up ideally a solid 20 to 25 on on hopefully decent efficiency and then those two guys play off of each other to make life easier for one another instead of the defense being able to constantly load up on Shingun or the defense constantly loading up on said guard, that’s the beauty of what Shingun’s game provides to this Rockets team And so they they need to figure out the Jaylen Green thing. Maybe they move him to the bench. Maybe they trade him. But if this Rockets team comes back next season and Jaylen Green is still the starting two guard for this team, brace yourself for disappointment. Cuz I I do not see a world where things are going to suddenly magically change overnight. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence, and it isn’t just this series. It’s not just game seven. It’s not any of there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that through four years now and again you can even throw out the first two years of the Silus era that Jaylen Green is not it. He is not the guy. He’s not him. And he shrank in the biggest moment of his career. He shrank and was invisible. And that’s not the guy you want as your franchise cornerstone. That’s not the guy you build a team around. That’s not the guy you make roster decisions around. It’s not. The guys you make roster decisions around and build a team around are the Amen Thompsons and the Alpin Goons, not the Jaylen Greens. It’s that simple. And hopefully the Rockets front office can realize that can accept that they missed with the number two overall pick and that they can re-evaluate and assess and make the proper decisions going forward to give this team the best chance to compete next season. That’s all I’ve got on this one. I will say with another season coming to an end, I appreciate you guys so much for tuning in, for listening, for all the everydayers, whether you’re Houstonbased, Texas based, United States-based, all around the globe. You know, this Rockets fandom and Rockets fans are the best in the business. They’re passionate. You guys care so much about this team and the players and and what’s going on. And this show wouldn’t be what it is without you guys, without the hounds, um, without everything that makes this show special. So, with another season coming to an end of me doing this show, I just want to say thank you for the support, thank you for watching, thank you for listening, and we’ve got a mountain of offseason content coming your way. So, don’t worry, the train doesn’t stop just because the season’s over. There’s going to be no shortage of different things to talk about this off season. Um, and I look forward to being with you guys every step of the way as the Rockets navigate what comes next for them organizationally. With that, appreciate you for tuning in. Give me your thoughts on the end of the season. Give me your thoughts on game seven. Give me your thoughts on Jaylen Green in the YouTube comments. But as always, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. And we look forward to having you back right here at Locked On Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball.

DEVASTATION: Rockets Season ENDED By Warriors AGAIN | Should Houston TRADE Jalen Green?

What will the Houston Rockets do after their Game 7 loss to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA playoffs? With star players like Alperen Şengün and Amen Thompson under the spotlight, the Rockets face critical offseason decisions that could reshape their future.

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) breaks down the Rockets performance, highlighting the challenges posed by the Warriors five-out spacing and Buddy Hield’s impressive 33-point game. He examines Amen Thompson and Alperen Şengün’s significant contributions and questions Jalen Green’s role moving forward. The discussion also covers potential roster changes, including contract extensions for Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason, and Fred VanVleet’s team option.

Will the Rockets make the necessary moves to improve next season? Tune in for an in-depth analysis of the team’s path forward and the pivotal decisions that lie ahead.

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