The Houston Rockets’ MASTERCLASS offseason 🚀 + Lakers have NO CLUE what to do?! | First Take

The Houston Rockets’ MASTERCLASS offseason 🚀 + Lakers have NO CLUE what to do?! | First Take

the first take cornet filling in for Molly Kum this morning from the new digs which I love here in New York City let’s say good morning to David Dennis Jr tim Bontmps in the flesh which I love and then Wendy’s waking up early with us there in LA after a very busy day in free agency yesterday in the association the West already loaded as we know but the Rockets they are not playing around as they snatched Dorian Finny Smith from the Lakers yesterday they signed him to a four-year deal they also added in Clint Capella and of course we can’t forget their biggest move in trading for Kevin Durant who comes over from the Suns as we remember but let’s take a look at Houston’s starting five here and what we’ve got when we look at the way this is all going to kind of shape out as of now fred Vanble there at guard amen Thompson Jabari Smith Jr Kevin Durant then Alprren Shangon there kind of rounds us out and so the Rockets were bounced by the Warriors in seven games in the first round of the playoffs they were young they were already good right but now with these moves what message could we say that the Rockets are sending to the rest of the West wendy I’ll start with you
that they’re on a rebuild pathway similar to the Oklahoma City Thunder if you look at the Thunder they started their rebuild when they traded Paul George and Russell Westbrook and they said “We’re going to go build through the draft and later on we’ll try to add through trade uh like they did with Alex Caruso and then free agency like they did with Isaiah Hardenstein.” The Rockets basically made the same decision about two years later they traded James Harden and Russell Westbrook and they began building through the draft and now they have gone on to free agency like they did with Fred Van Vleet and now through trade with Kevin Durant and just like the Thunder have built a team that is based in in youth and sustainable going forward that’s what the Rockets have done they have built in youth and is sustainable going forward now Durant he’s a different little different case that doesn’t equal exactly what the Thunder have exactly durant is a superstar in the later stages of his career but this was a team that was already built around youth and defense and has loaded with future draft assets with excellent coaching and ex an excellent team dynamic and excellent team ethos and the way they operate every single day and they’ve gone and added pieces but the most important thing about the Thunder you know about the Rockets if you compare them to the Thunder and their teams in today’s NBA you have to have depth if you look at all of the teams that had success this past season whether it was the champion Thunder whether it was the team that they beat in the finals with the Pacers they had eight different guys averaging double figures well you look at the Cavs who won 60 games you look at the Celtics who won the championship in 60 games depth look what the Rockets are doing they’re building depth and the biggest thing about the Rockets that you have to look at as you evaluate them is that this might not be their final team yes if this is a team that they bring to the beginning of the season in October they’re going to be a contender to Oklahoma City but because they have all these draft assets and all these young players they could still go out shopping for a major transformational player if one becomes available
yeah that was going to be my next question do we think that the Rockets are done which clearly the answer is maybe not just yet okay so Tim I’m go to you now in terms of what you think the Rockets have done here we could also add in the fact that Eime Udoka is now heading into year three there in Houston he has such familiarity with Kevin Durant so there won’t be you would assume much of a transition there what do you think they’ve done and what they’ve said here in free agency
i think what they’ve done and said Shay is that they are a team that is ready to contend right now they have waited to make a move like this getting Kevin Durant last year as Brian said you know our buddy Tim McMahon has talked about the phases of the development of the Rockets they were in phase two last year where they had this young core including Jaylen Green the former number two overall pick in the draft and they wanted to see what that team could do now they were a surprise second seed in the Western Conference last year but then when they got into the playoffs they played the Golden State Warriors in the first round and they lose in large part because their offense wasn’t good enough their offense wasn’t good enough because Jaylen Green wasn’t good enough he had a terrible series in the first round shot under 40% from the field shot under 30% from three what do they do they replace him essentially one for one with Kevin Durant who yes he’s 37 years old but is a guy who shot over 50% from the field over 40% from three is the greatest scorer in the history of the NBA and his ability to score at every level in a way no one else has ever been able to and now walks into into this Rockets team where all he needs to do is go out there and get buckets and have this group of long athletic players around him make up for his defensive limitations at this point in his career to Brian’s point about depth and how important depth is right now in the NBA the other thing that’s vitally important is positional size if you look back at the last several title teams Boston Denver even Golden State going back to even when the Toronto Raptors won even you need to have positional size across the board this Rockets team is huge across the board they are physical they are athletic they’re tenacious defensively and right now when you look at the way the Oklahoma City Thunder are set up the the Houston Rockets are the clear team that can go up against them in the West and give them trouble i would love to see a Western Conference Finals we’re in game one we have Kevin Durant back in Oklahoma City going against the Thunder how incredible would that be next season and as Brian said the Rockets still have all these assets to go make another move for a big star down the road so this team is incredibly well set up and we are looking at the two dominant forces in the West for a long time to come i I love how you’re already jumping to the NBA finals i’m here for all of that i mean look at the Rockets and you talk about positional size they essentially have three big men already right and we don’t know how it’s all going to form together or what the moves are they’re going to finish with here but that’s pretty impressive in itself dd what do you think
the Rocket let’s just face the Rockets right now pitching a perfect offseason which is something that seemingly was pretty much impossible in the league with the second apron the way that we’re talking about building teams every team generally goes into a new season with some sort of massive flaw the Rockets right now are pushing uh patching up every single hole that they seem to have the Dorian Finny Smith move was an absolute heist to make up for Dylan Brooks the depth that they have the coaching that they have they have all the things that a lot of these teams seem to be lacking when they’re going into a season the depth the size the defense the dynamic score in Kevin Durant who’s a 50 40 90 guy and they have maybe one of the well not maybe definitely one of the best coaches in the league and they have versatility in the way that they can move forward things you know get off a little rocky there’s an injury in October November they can make some moves and I’m with Tim here this team when they got Kevin Durant I thought their ceiling was a competitive fun series against OKC in the conference finals they are now real actual competitors with OKC they have a shot here against this team in the conference finals especially as the season goes on if people get nicked up OKC is not 100% if things fall Houston’s way in some sort of ways kevin Durant can go out there and be the most dynamic scorer in a series against this squad they can bully some of those bigs with the guys that they have down low their depth is right there with them i I think that this has been an absolute just master class in how to work an offseason and get ready to be prepared to be a championship contender
so now what we do naturally in the West is compare them to the Oklahoma City Thunder uh let’s continue talking about free agency here so now we put the Thunder back aside and we continue with the West and a team that’s been surprisingly quiet and that would be the Los Angeles Lakers the only move that they announced yesterday was a two-year $12 million deal with former Kings guard Jake Laraveia this inactivity is coming off the heels of LeBron opting into his player option and our Sham Shirania reported last night on how LeBron’s camp is feeling right now the Lakers are prioritizing the future in a lot of ways that really centers around Luca Donuch and he knows they’re going to go younger at different points they are really prioritizing two-year contracts right now they want to have max salary spa space in 2027 but for his part at his at this point in his career at his age at 40 years old going on 41 he wants to compete for a championship wherever that may be in Los Angeles or there are conversations to be had at another point the Lakers their president Rob Pelinka they’re being active they’re trying to figure out how to get a center right now in free agency try to get some wing depth lebron James is very closely evaluating essentially how this goes with the Lakers and where he would want his career to be as he winds down so my bad no no offense to Jake Larabia i didn’t mean to mispronounce his name but these are not the kind of moves as Shams just laid out that we thought we were going to see from the Lakers wendy you even said yourself you thought they’d have a center by now and they certainly do not are you surprised by the lack of moves that the Lakers have made yeah so basically they’re going to have the salary situation is interesting if this is really their strategy so basically what happened yesterday Dorian Finny Smith who was a player that they acquired last year a key defensive player who can defend on the wing can defend on the interior depending on the matchup they allowed him to leave he was a he was a one of their players that they could have extended his contract they couldn’t come to an agreement he signs a four-year contract in Houston that’s why when Shams talks about prioritizing two-year contracts that you know they I want to see all the terms of that four-year contract a lot of times we hear about length and terms and then we get the details and it turns out it’s not that but what it sounds like Shams is describing there is the Lakers looking more for stop gaps here in the short term and certainly Jake Laravia there’s a lot of teams high on Jake Lavia i talked to a team last night that was prepared to offer Jake Laavia more years than he than the Lakers offered him there was he there was multiple teams trying to get him but Jake Laravia is a downgrade from Dorian Finny Smith now maybe he’ll have a great year this year and we’ll re-evaluate that but they they downgraded at a wing position larravia is a backup finey Smith is a starter and they’re a team that when you have Luca Donic and Austin Reeves and LeBron James who’s not the defensive player used to be when you are deploying those guys and those are your three highest paid players you have to prioritize having a defensive back line and Dorian Finny Smith was at least part of your defensive back line so they needed to strengthen their defense on the interior and their defense in theory at least weakened a little bit in the first 12 hours of free agency so when Rich Paul talks about wanting to see championship moves those are not championship moves now there isn’t a player in free agency that they were going to sign that was all of sudden going to make everybody say “Oh my god they’re the favorites.” And so that’s the thing i’m not sure what Rich Paul is talking about is even doable for the Lakers but what is doable is for LeBron and Luca Donuch to be engaged in this team and for the Lakers to maximize the 2025 26 season as they tried to maximize this last season when they had the three seed and that’s the issue that we’re looking at here is LeBron going to be bought into maximizing this season and also is Luca Donuch going to extend his contract because as much as we talk about LeBron as much as we talk about the center or who’s going to play backup fourman or whatever the most important thing for the Lakers is to get Luca Donuch to do what Sheay just did a few minutes ago which was commit to a long-term contract extension that is what the Lakers need to do and so their all their priority has got to be get forget about whether LeBron is happy today what is Luca feeling and that is an unknown right now and that is not a good thing you want Luca to be known how he’s feeling about the team i feel like he just got there we’re already locking him into a long-term deal can he like get used to the LA summer i don’t know but nonetheless what do you think about the Lakers inactivity so far
i thought for a second Brian was saying “You just signed a new contract.”
Jake gets confusing yeah
she’s our MVP though
i appreciate it i’m not making nearly as much money
and no and no offense to you on the mistake on Jake Larivia’s name but the fact that you didn’t know the name how to pronounce the name of the one signing the Lakers have signed is not exactly indicative of what we expect and know of the Lakers right a team that is about it’s they’re about stars right they’re about big names they’re about going out and making splashy moves jake Laavia is a nice piece he’s not a splashy move and they do not have a center which they have needed from the moment they traded for Luca Donuch back in February during that week leading up to the trade deadline they immediately traded for Mark Williams then they immediately rescended the trade for Mark Williams and ever since then we’ve said who are the Lakers going to get to play at center alongside LeBron James and Luca Donic and they still don’t have one and there’s really not an option for them to sign one now in free agency it’s going to solve their problem so as we look forward as Brian said this team is now from the moment they made the Luca Duchas trade built around and focused on the future of Luca Dodic lebron James frankly is kind of an ancillary piece now in the Lakers story that’s I think where a lot of the drama of the past couple of days comes from what is the best thing for Luca Donuch going forward how do they position Luca Donuch better for his future with the Lakers how can they convince him to sign a long-term contract extension with the Lakers which by the way there is no financial incentive for Luca Don to do that in August he doesn’t get more money if he signs now he has some security but if he had some sort of catastrophic injury next season he would still get whatever contract he wanted next summer so really in my opinion it’s in Luca Donuch’s interest to wait until next July and see where the Lakers are at and then make a decision on his future and if you’re the Lakers and you don’t get him signed to a contract extension all of a sudden you go into next season and we are on Luca Donuch watch for the rest of the year that is going to be a situation that they’re going to be very nervous about and it only is going to add to the angst and the insecurities around where the Lakers sit right now because look if we just look at where the Lakers are today they’re not a top four team in the West they might not be a top six team in the West and that is not the kind of place that Luca Donuch wants to be in this is a guy who two years ago from now was playing in the NBA finals on a Dallas Mavericks team that looked like it had a chance to be a factor in the Western Conference for years to come instead he’s now in this Lakers team that doesn’t have a center doesn’t have a lot of perimeter athleticism has Austin Reeves who could be a free agent next summer needs a massive raise like this is a team that’s in transition that has a lot of flaws does not have a lot of ways to fix them and we’re sitting here on July 1st looking around and teams are passing them in the Western Conference that is a lot of problems for the Lakers to fix and that doesn’t even begin to discuss this issue with LeBron James and not being thrown to where it’s at
yeah like in the last 24 hours we’re like “The Rockets have gotten better the Nuggets are making moves obviously the Thunder are locking up their stars and yet here are the Lakers like
Yeah we’re teetering on the worst case scenario of the Lakers since they got Luca.” When you thought about all the possibilities this team when they got Luca in February you have months later where you lose in five in the first round and then you have an off season of inactivity and weirdness how is why is Brook Lopez going to the Clippers to be a backup instead of going to the Lakers why is Clint Capella going to be part of a a mash of centers in Houston instead of going to the Lakers what is the plan here and what are you actually doing and now you’re having a situation where LeBron is facing his own mortality and own realization that this team is not really about me it’s about Luca which is something that LeBron James plans out his career he has a long-term plans and is very meticulous about how he goes about things four months ago 6 months ago all of that changed when Luca Don wound up in LA and now he no longer has a franchise that he can tell what to do that is jarring for this dude and now he’s trying to figure out what to do with these last years and they have this this Luca stuff in the mix of it trying to figure this out this Lakers team this last 36 hours has been extremely alarming and extremely weird for them and in the short term they have no centers and three and D guys and in the long term I have no clue what they’re going to do with Luca Dodis

On First Take, Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps and David Dennis Jr. break down the Houston Rockets’ major offseason moves before discussing the Los Angeles Lakers’ struggles managing LeBron James and building around Luka Doncic without a true center.

0:00 Houston Rockets’ offseason message
3:06 Rockets are contenders right now! – Bontemps
6:58 Los Angeles Lakers still need a center
8:32 Surprised by Lakers’ lack of moves?
12:24 Lakers are building around Luka Doncic

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