Houston Rockets Extend Ime Udoka, Who To Trade for Kevin Durant and More!

Houston Rockets Extend Ime Udoka, Who To Trade for Kevin Durant and More!

what is up CSGS happy Juneen to everybody and um yeah what’s up how y’all boys been i’ve been enjoying my summer um decided to make a video to kind of speak on um you know some of the things going on with the Rockets just found out today email doa was extended by the Houston Rockets i’ll talk about that a little bit um also talk about you know the elephant in the room the KD trade rumors the implications for the team the different packages being offered who should we trade who should we not trade etc etc i’m going to talk about all of that in this video tap in right now enjoy [Music] the Rockets Chop Shop is your one-stop shop for all your basketball news for highlights analysis podcast we do it all here at the Rockets Chop Shop make sure you hit the like button on the videos that you watch if you enjoy them hit the subscribe button to get notifications from all the great drops that we have on the channel also you can visit the Chop Shop merch store and get you some of the swaggiest gear in the Houston Rockets kingdom and if you want you know you can always support the channel directly through donations and if you want you can support us through our partnerships with our sponsors the Rockis Chop Shop is made by fans for fans and we’re going to keep rocking and keep dropping that heat [Music] this is something I know i know so it’s been a pretty uneventful summer for the Rockets aside from being in the trade rumor mills um with this KD whole ordeal going on and you know I’ve been sitting back not really heavily like involved in all the reading and all that stuff from it kind of enjoy my summer um away from Rockets basketball it was a really good season and uh yeah just enjoying the summer enjoying the finals enjoying um kind of imagining what the Rockets are going to look like going forward and one person that is going to be there for sure is Emma Odoku cuz um he just got extended on his contract and the details are still pending on this we don’t know what the um actual numbers are for email it might drop by the time this video is is shared we also don’t know the actual length of time he know he’s he was already secured um you know for the Rockets I think through the 26 27 season already um but now with this new contract he’ll be uh secured going forward past that I’m sure significantly um past that I’m assuming somewhere between 3 to 5 years um outside of his original contract um and obviously welldeserved Emoka has been one of the most impactful um uh uh moves made by this Rockets front office since they’ve taken over the team um the same impact as trading away James Harden i think that’s up there as far as one inflection point was the James Harden trade uh deciding to tank and all that came with that and another inflection point is bringing on Emil Odoka being able to sign him as a head coach for the Rockets because from that point forward it changed the outlook of the franchise not only with actual basketball being played on the court but in the perception of the NBA he really gave us a facelift i think he made us look like a serious team in contrast to what we looked at look like under um Steven Silas and and that that whole regime um you know you start hearing some of the rumors that were being said in NBA uh uh media circles about uh the lack of accountability all the things that were going on in practice the disrespect um the fact that some players did not want to entertain the Rockets as a serious franchise to consider going to because of the players we had on the roster um the lack of structure etc etc you heard former Rockets like Austin Rivers have a lot of things to say all of that went super silent when I was brought into the building and uh to me it’s it’s kind of ironic and poetic in a sense that um in one ex in one day he’s getting extended the same times a great player um of the caliber of Kevin Durant is um entertaining the Rockets as one of his top three destinations to want to go play basketball so I take that as a huge compliment right is a huge compliment and I don’t think you get there if uh without Email Odoka so his contract is welld deserved now obviously um there are some things that we all wish um he would uh improve on uh yeah you know mainly offense right the offense was pretty e pretty dreadful uh the offense was pretty dreadful we we really were a team that were was historically great at rebounding and played hard defense and we were tough and that’s kind of our blueprint that we used to be able to get to 52 wins to get to pushing the Warriors to a game seven but ultimately over and over in key moments what would fail us is our offensive production the offensive efficiency the offensive play style and philosophy or lack thereof and I think that you know this is something that the Rockets are trying to address and it does tie into the Kevin Durant um trade um and we could talk about that now so with the KD thing um you know I’ve tweeted some things about it i haven’t really made a podcast obviously I haven’t made a podcast in like a month but really my feelings on KD hell yeah I want KD on the team what are we talking about here um I think there’s nuance to the KD discussion um it’s not black and white it’s not like yes at all cost or no never it’s kind of somewhere in the middle right um my stance on where we are right now as a franchise we’re done with phase one two three whatever we’re done we’re a serious contender now like we’re I expect the Rockets to be a playoff contender every year going forward uh for the next half decade or more right because our players are young um your core players they’re young you were able to win 52 games off the backs of Alprren Shangun Aman Thompson Jaylen Green um with a you know inefficient for the most of the year for Van Vleet and a up and down Dylan Brooks and obviously a cast of role players including Steven Adams who also got a $39 million threeear extension shout out to shout out to bro good signing in my opinion um and most of it our team is pretty much half 23 and under right and not just 23 and under sitting on the bench this is 23 and under doing a lot of heavy lifting and so you know looking at that I expect that to keep going forward there you know we have a good coach we have a good coaching staff we have young players that are going to progress upwards so you don’t um you don’t expect that to fall off you know off the face of the earth unless something catastrophic happened so so for this team that has done that off the backs of these young guys um trying to fix the offense um shouldn’t be at the cost of of destroying your you know your outlook going forward in the future at the same time it is a glaring hole that needs to be fixed right and and you know it brings into the question of personnel you know who should you trade um I’ve seen trade packages involving uh obviously Jaylen Green um which I think from the Sun’s perspective if Jaylen Green was involved it would be to match salaries i’m not sure what all the um limitations are on aggregating salaries to trade for KD um with um I think from what I’ve heard I haven’t really been reading on this it would probably involve three teams um where you know a player goes to another team another team sends stuff to Phoenix and then we get KD um with with Jayen the Jaylen angle at first I’ll take on that first one I don’t think the Suns won Jaylen obviously him and Devin Booker are they overlap each other and they triple overlap with Bradley Bill right their issue the Sun’s issue is they don’t have a boil built team their team isn’t complimentary you have too many of the same archetype of players on your team and it’s in the position of the most uh I wouldn’t say meaningless but if you’re talking about building an a team a structure of a team um you can you can be a successful team without a a scorer per se like whose job is to just score and I think they had three guys kd was one of those guys um uh Devin Booker and Bradley Bill right you can build a functional team with you know having a distributor or a creator um having 3 and D wings that are versatile and able to play defense having a backline defender a big man that’s able to kind of anchor down pick and roll coverage that back end of the defense rotate etc with those pieces you can have a you know a 45 and up win team with just pretty much league average players right to get over the top that’s where you get the addition of the Kevin Durant the Devin Bookers and whatnot they had too many i think of it like a car if you use an analogy of a car um KD Devin Booker Bill Jaylen Green these type of players they’re rims they’re they’re 20-inch rims on a car you need engines right right if to take your car to to the car show to win the show they’re going to look under the hood to see what you got under there um if you got bad rims you ain’t going to win but you you know I mean before you throw rims on there you got to fix that engine up and I think the Suns they had an engine issue right their engine was busted lot of nice rims leather trim interior sunroof pretty car engine was uh you know you had the engine of a uh of a uh of a Toyota Corolla you feel me so you you can’t win in the NBA like that um that is their issue right the Rockets on the other hand we have engine we have an engine right and um Jaylen’s role on the team was to be the rims right and that is his role to be the rims and when they needed him to shine and glisten and spin in the playoffs he did not do that i already said this earlier um for him um I think that my personal view is that you want Kevin Durant and Jaylen Green on uh to be on the Rockets if you’re going to get KD the reason I say this is because Kevin Durant is 37 years old so ideally you want Jaylen Green as Kevin Durant insurance hoping and praying that Jaylen Green keeps evolving which you assume he will right and I say Kevin Durant insurance because of injuries kevin is 36 and um you know he’s he’s gets hurt a lot like he gets injured and then you want KD as Jaylen Green insurance right which means that if Jaylen is a player who has a psychological block when it comes to high leverage basketball then you don’t want to uh uh hamstring your team or handcuff your team to a to a personality like that so to me they can be insurance for each other the best outcome for keeping both of them on the team would be that you have maybe two or three years of Kevin Durant on the team he’s supplies you that additional need that efficient scoring in addition to the engine you already have with a man Shangon uh Fred and the rest of the characters etc uh who or whoever is here the the core players and then um KD is that that guy that you can give the ball to he can score efficiently he can generate um he can generate great shots when the uh other team’s defense is really at its peak and that’s really what it comes down to in the playoffs is can you score um on a set defense right and we struggle to do that right so in an ideal world you get that where uh he’s there uh Kevin Durant performs as Kevin Durant Jaylen Green progressively improves and then you hope the version of Jaylen you see when he’s 25 26 years old after the two three of KD on the team is able to take that mantle forward while still being a productive player that’s able to play defense rebound as a guard um you know kind of secondary playmake etc etc that’s the ideal now the question is how do you get to that point um and that is going to be the question so there’s a Jaylen thing i think there’s issue with Jaylen going to the Suns because they probably don’t want him so you’re going to need a third team for that i think the Rockets probably want to keep KD uh keep Jaylen with Kevin Durant i’m sure Kevin Durant might want to play with Jaylen Green right um that’s one thing and the other angle of this the other package that’s being thrown around is going to be centered around Jabari um and uh another young player probably either Reed or Cam Whitmore with the picks i’m assuming the picks are going to be the picks right you assume the Suns are going to get the 10th pick back um you assume that uh maybe there might be other draft compensation but we’re just going to focus on the player side of it um now the Jabari angle comes in i like Jabari you guys know uh I’m a huge fan of Jabari Smith Jr i think that he is so impactful on the team uh when he’s on when he’s rebounding and doing his thing even in a tertiary role um as a supporting player in the front court uh we win right i I looked it up i think when Jabari has like more than nine rebounds uh that that’s shown me he’s active he’s getting put backs when he has more than nine rebounds the Rockets are like I don’t know like 16 and four or something like that um in those games so Jabari is important to the makeup of the Rockets even though the theory of him as a defensive player isn’t hasn’t really reached that level yet I like his progression he’s gotten better every single year um is it worth losing Jabari Smith at 21 22 years old um with you know a Cam Whitmore or whatever for a 37 year old Kevin Durant or 36 year old Kevin Durant um in a trade that you know to me it’s the same thing as a Jaylen thing like in an ideal world if you if you did let’s say you traded Jaylen the fit with KD and Jabari would be I mean that is a a very tall tall back backline right you could have lineups that involve a man Thompson Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith and Alprren Shangun that’s 67 and up and a lot of length with a lot of rim pressure coming from both um both Aman and Shangun a lot of isolation scoring coming from KD and Shangu so there’s a lot that versatility is just nuts right that versatility is just nuts um the problem with that lineup for me is or that that level of the team is that to me you would have to make a secondary trade to fill in the gap that Jaylen’s gonna leave right because Jaylen provides us a certain thing that nobody else on the team does um he his ability and his athleticism to uh to be able to take advantage of the defense in the pick and roll get downhill that is something that you know even Cam Whitmore Cam Whitmore doesn’t play in the pick and roll right he can’t read the pick and roll you don’t trust him with the ball in a pick and roll to really do much right i’m you know I’m not I’m a big like I said I’m a big basketball guy like when it comes to just reading the game I think Jaylen struggles in reading the game at the at the high levels i think at baseline he can read the game pretty much league average but if you’re going to put the ball in his hands and um forcing to read the game again so playoff defense he’s going to suck uh I don’t think Cam Whitmore can read the game i haven’t seen any indication of it not saying it’s never going to happen that’s just me i just don’t think he can read the game so um what I’m saying is that if Jaylen is the one that gets traded and you want to elect to keep keep Jabari um and whoever Reed Shepard or Cam Whitmore whoever the Suns are trying to get um then you will have to go get a a Quinton Grimes or somebody else that at least has that ability to play in the pick and roll because I don’t trust Fred to do it i don’t think a man is necessarily that type of player um I think a man is uh he can do that i just think a man has different things you want to use him more versatile than just have him on ball on ball on ball and so so it’s it’s going to be one of those if and then one of you know if you do this then this right and that was the same thing with the Giannis for Shangun trade rumors that happened earlier in the year i was telling people like yeah that’s cool like yes if you trade Giannis for Shangon then you’re going to have to remake the team because um Giannis is not a prototypical big he doesn’t do anything a big man does giannis doesn’t screen giannis doesn’t roll giannis doesn’t He really doesn’t barely rebounds um and so like even on defense he’s not going to be your your backline defender he’s a off ball defender so not only you’re are you going to have to get another center you’re going to need an entire backcourt remake to be able to play with Giannis um especially and Jaylen Giannis is not a good pairing that’s a terrible one-two pairing uh for a guard in the big so I was like you’re going to have to upgrade that position so these things aren’t in a vacuum like you can’t just take one player swap them out and say like “Oh yeah that’s you know that’s the fix right you have to look at it holistically from the point of view of the team.” So basically you have two outcomes I think that are realistic um I think one it’s it’s going to be Jaylen Green going to a third team um because I don’t think the Suns are necessarily that high on him especially with the overlap with Devin um and I think that probably in my opinion I think that is less likely to happen um I think what’s probably going to happen it’s going to be one of Jabari or Tari likely Jabari um a another young player an aggregate of salaries to make it work from the team uh going um and then KD coming in for that and it could still go through a third team i’m not sure what the rules are about um him being traded for multiple players i don’t know what however it works they can figure it out um but I think those are mainly going to be the two options for that trade to happen what I would prefer is for us to be able to keep Jaylen i would I’m sorry uh if it came down to Jabari and Jaylen i know y’all are It’s kind of a weird thing like I understand like if anybody is low on Jaylen Green and wants him traded I get it and you know I mean you know those thoughts cross my mind like but I still think that um there is the talent is there i think that we’ve have to change our his role definition on the team and especially if you bring in a player like KD then you can just have Jaylen play the role of um kind of a secondary two guard to KD as the prominent scorer we see what Jaylen can do in stretches month two-monthl long stretches of just being consistent and we saw it this season i love that his consistency was was really there and I I know we want to define a player by one playoff series i’m not going to do that um I think you have to look at it from a macro view and in the macro he’s taken strides every single year to improve especially under Eoku who they just resigned so if if we’re going to keep the trend of him improving then I think that that is still there now if he is not our closer that’s fine i still think he provides a lot of value at what he does and that’s why you go get another player right that’s why I’m not the type to abandon players based on their their GL you know if they have a glaring weakness if you’re building and constructing a team you have to be able to supplement that so the team has a weakness in scoring right um obviously guys are going to get better once again they’re so young um Shangun’s going to get better more efficient um Amen is going to get better jaylen’s gonna get better Jabari’s gonna get better etc um and then when you supplement some of those things you bring in a score that could help kind of bridge the gap as they are developing out into what you want to do and I think that’s kind of the the what the Rockets are trying to look at it uh from a standpoint of um I think one of the other factors with this is you know contractually you start thinking about if you can get KD on a you know a two plus one or something like that or a oneplus 1 i’m not even sure what the rules are going to be when he turns 38 i think there’s certain limit i think you can only do a oneplus 1 i mean you could really look at that and that kind of gets you out of having to make a commitment on the Jabari Atari um class of players on giving a big contract out and you free up space for possibly you know another star player that’s available on the market that you may want to look at and sign so there’s some some value there um you have Jaylen locked down um and yeah so I think personally for me if I had to pick a starting five it would be uh Fred Van Vleet and I’m going to talk Fred needs to be on the team if you’re going to get KD even if he’s not starting I don’t care fred’s leadership is so important because KD is not the rahrrah leader type he’s going to lead he’s going to lead by example work ethic all that great stuff but when it comes to motivating your players challenging them um and being a consistent presence I rather have Fred Van Vleet on the team than leaving that up to KD as my vet because that’s a that’s a disaster waiting to happen right so to me the Warriors model of KD is the best model of KD meaning he’s there as a just rims bro some really nice rims right he’s just there some really really throw to use Houston slang some throw rims right on on a on a on a car like Katie’s there’s rims you don’t need him to be your engine he can just score efficiently get buckets close out games for you make big shots do all the stuff that you want from a closer without having to rely on him to carry your team and just like the Golden State Warriors um when they had him on there he was just all right bro fourth quarter here bro go do your stuff right we’ll get you there you just close it out you put this team away and I think for the Rockets if they can get that from him um with what we were where we are currently to me at baseline 50 plus win team playoff contender I think a lot of matchups that we could have got we would have won i think Golden State I told y’all is probably the worst matchup um but you get a vet like that to come in to me is a done deal right you’re going to get advanced second conference finals like that should be the expectations for the Rockets um if if they able to do them i don’t know what’s what it’s going to turn out to be i think right now the stalemate you’re seeing you got Miami Houston and San Antonio and Minnesota kind of in the wings um I think the way to me the serious teams in this cuz I think San Antonio’s already indicated that they’re not really looking at KD so I’m going to take them out the mix i think it’s Miami and Houston right we have the assets so we’re sitting um we’re sitting pretty right now when it comes to this it really comes down to what does the market offer and what is Houston what is Houston’s limit on what they want to up the ante to so um we’re just that’s all you have to do is just wait right now Houston you start off low give them a low ball which I’m sure they did some crazy uh Jacqu Landell and Tate and picks something stupid like that and then you just wait and see like whatever the market does because ultimately we own their draft picks we have the young assets and players we have the uh future draft picks as well um and it just you have to set a marker for where you think Katie’s value is and if it if you’re able to outbid somebody by getting or below uh getting to your marker or getting below it you pull the trigger if it gets too expensive you walk away because he’s not the end all beall of the Rockets right there’s a high chance they just run it back and that is totally fine that’s totally fine for running it back because you assume your players get better right you could still make lower-end moves um by bringing in other role players that are able to supplement some of your weaknesses like shooting and and shot creation and ball handling uh you could you could make those moves that to get those players in and you expect a many leaps from the Amen Thompsons the Shangoons of the world to improve and get better at the some of the things they struggled at you expect Jaylen to improve on some of those things and if you keep everybody together who knows what Jabari turns into maybe he’s uh 60% of what Kevin Durant is and at his age maybe that’s better maybe you get him on a cheap contract and still are able to uh sign a player in the future that is not Kevin Durant that’s a better younger version so there’s multiple outcomes i just don’t think this is a situation where Rockets fans should be having any type of anxiety about um regardless of which route they take it doesn’t disturb the core core uh of this team right because um that’s one of the benefits of drafting so many good players is that um you still have your identity and your core if these players are swapped out because it just gives you more uh variability in which route you want to take to get there right and that’s ultimately what you want to do as a team is give yourself opportunities to win as much as possible and um I think that they’re doing that and I trust that they’re going to make the right decision whatever that is and you know as long as the core is together as long as we have our coach um and and the same identity we have I think ultimately we’re going to be a better off team um after this summer regardless even if they run it back just because you expect development so yeah that that’s my take on that um we’ll see how it goes hopefully I know the draft is in like a week so I expect a decision to be made either by the field by the Heat or the Rockets between that time if I had to guess I would say KD is a rocket um if the Rockets wanted it to happen like he can be a rocket if the Rockets wanted it to happen he wants to come here we have the assets that’s pretty much all you need at this point it just comes down to what the what the counter offers are out there in the NBA and whether the Rockets want to match those offers or surpass those offers and if that those offers are too rich for them um and they’ll make that decision i think they’ll make a wise decision i do want to I do say that you know there are some ties to the Rockets and Kevin Durant with coach Roy Royale Ivy um on the on the staff he’s known KD since KD was in I think they over overlapped each other at UT um obviously Odoka is familiar with Kevin Durant through Brooklyn um Team USA etc um and so I think they have pretty good relationships katie’s worked out with several of our players ironically the ones they want to trade him for um and yeah so so there’s some ties there uh the Miami ties I really don’t know what the the ties are with Miami i think they’re just banking on Miami as a city and the culture um but you know um if if the Rockets want to do this they can they can and we’ll see whether they land uh land him this summer um I think to me I I want him i want him on the team because that makes us a um honestly a championship contender immediately uh because you have the youth you have the you know I haven’t even gotten to the I’ll probably talk about the basketball stuff i’m not gonna waste my breath on that until we get him once we get him we’ll talk about the basketball stuff but y’all let me know y’all let me know in the comments and in the chat uh what is the outcome that you want to see do you want to uh get KD and if you if you do want him on the team who are you willing to part ways with are you going with the um Jabari or Tari and Reed or Cam package is it Jaylen and and uh salary where where do you stand on that let me know in the comments and in the chat if you’re new to the channel make sure you hit the subscribe button if you like this video make sure you hit the like button keep rocking with the chop shop we’re going to keep dropping that fire [Music]

Houston Rockets Extend Ime Udoka, Who To Trade for Kevin Durant and More!

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