Josh Okogie: Good or Bad Rockets Signing? | Jalen Green Thanks Houston!

Josh Okogie: Good or Bad Rockets Signing? | Jalen Green Thanks Houston!

[Music] Welcome to Houston Sports Talk with your host Robert Land. Thanks for checking into the best Houston Sports Podcast, part of the National Believe Network. And joining me to talk about the newest Rocket is Clayton Anderson, a contributor to the Battle Red blog and the Crawfish Boxes site among others. And it’s great to have you back, Clayton. Good to see the Rockets offseason news keep coming as long as it’s not bad news. No, absolutely. Absolutely. I agree. Yep. Yeah. Just uh the big news. Who’s the new Rocket? Everybody should know by now. Joshua Kogi, 2018 first round pick, 20th overall from Georgia Tech. I’m guessing he’s the first Rocket from Lagos, Nigeria since uh who was that guy again? Oh yeah, that’s uh I think they used to call him the Dream. and and that means there is the Nigerian connection as well with Udoka which I’m going to come back to later but just a little bit on a Kogi Clayton. He’s a 6’4 wing 7 foot wingspan who’s known for his man-to-man defense. Last year he played 25 games for Kevin Durant’s Suns before he was dealt to Charlotte, bounced around in the league a little bit, three teams were the fourth team. Clayton, what was your initial reaction to the AOI signing? Very random out of nowhere. Not to say I thought we were done by any stretch, but I mean if there was any more room to pick up a body, Josh and Kogi would not have been a name that I come up with, but did a little bit of digging on the Kogi. I mean, look, I think depth piece. I can ask you what you think, but some people around the, you know, Twitter space or the X space rather around the Rockers community look at it as like um you know, why would you do this or this good thing? I look, I have no idea. I just know it screams depth to me looking into the true shooting stats and all that stuff. So, but what what are your thoughts though? Aki as a 14th guy on the roster is fine, but my issue with the signing is his lack of shooting or ball creation, which is what this team needed more of. Isn’t he just Jan Aogi? I mean, it’s a replica of Jan Tate. I value roster versatility in this era and Kogi feels redundant to me. And remember, Clayton, we’re going to see a ton of Aaron Holidayiday if Van Vleet gets hurt or Shepard struggles. I’m N Van Vladen Shepard. The three main ball handlers missed 40 plus games due to injury last year. The Kogi’s best value is a spot man defender in a final second situation. That’s great to have, but Clayton, that’s not an area this team needs to worry about. So, I just don’t see the value here. No, I understand. Uh like I said, it I agree with you. In other words, basically it depends on what situation you want to use him in. The Kogi is weird because he has like a I don’t know if you remember to kind of bring us to NFL for a bit. Uh I don’t know if you remember that that one highlight that DaVon Clowny had in college where he smacked the dude for Michigan and that basically kind of got him drafted in the same way. There’s that highlight of Josh Kogi. I forgot who he locked up either Harden or someone else but locked him up, stole the ball, blocked it, something like that. And I feel like that one thing is what kind of made a Kogi who he is I guess. But that and uh Jeff Teague. But no man, I I don’t think that much of Josh Kogi. I think he’s purely a depth piece. But to your point, if he’s not in ball handling, if he’s not in offensive production. Yeah. So, I don’t know if there are any further moves. I don’t know if you roll him into another pick or I’m sorry, another trade situation. But I don’t think I think Adoka knows ball. I trust him. I just think you’re adding to your pile of wings when everyone swears around the world the Rockets have no wings. So, yeah. I don’t I don’t think there’s another move because this puts them right up against the cap situation. If they make another move, it’s the first apron. So, they’re going to keep 14 guys on the roster. That’s the plan with the Rockets at this point. It’s too bad Kogi’s such a poor shooter because he had a couple of eyepopping defensive numbers. He was third in steal percentage in the league, seventh in block percentage among NBA guards. He’s got 2.6 stocks per 36 in his career, but last year a fantastic 4.6 stocks per 36. If you look at his career numbers, they look a lot like Udoka stats when he played. And in a lot of ways, Clayton, this comes off as Udoka seeing his mirror image over there and going, “Hey, that’s my guy. I’m in love with this dude.” No, definitely his spirit animal, I guess. I don’t know, man. It’s one of those like coach got to have his guys, too, amongst others. I mean, he got Tar East, but okay. It’s weird. I don’t know. To your point, maybe the moves are done being made. I just know we we basically have taken all the wings. So if anybody needs to go wing shopping, they know who they have to speak to. So you’re telling me that like Jaylen Green, this is we are now Wing Stop. Basically basically we kept the Wings Stop. We just don’t have Jaylen. That’s exactly right. I you you said it better than I did. I was thinking, well, what other options did the Rockets have? And by the way, if if you have an idea of another option, get in the comments because I want to hear what you guys have to say out there listening and watching us. But no question there’s not a lot whole lot of options out there. Maybe Air Coffee provided a little more offense and a lot more shooting. He’s still out there. 38% career three-point shooter, 47% from the field. He doesn’t have a Kogi’s wingspan, Clayton, but he’s 6’7. Coffee was playing 24 minutes per game on a very good Clippers team, which emphasized defense. There are two areas where maybe the Rocket Grass separated AO and Coffee. Number one, the onoff splits favor coffee big time. And you know the Rockets analytics team were all over this. Oki plus 2.7 in Phoenix, plus 13.3 in Charlotte. Now this is bad teams, but Coffee was minus 12.1 uh in LA with the Clippers, although Coffee played a lot more minutes for more legitimate teams. The other area, number two, rebounding. Coffee doesn’t rebound, but Clayton, I mean, come on. Doesn’t this team have enough rebounding to make up for that? I mean, come on. No, absolutely. And I think if you’re going to make a strength a super strength, I would rather be more towards the offensive side of the ball as we’ve seen. They got the strength and spays on defense. So, I I look, I have no idea. I don’t know who’s in the doas here. I don’t know what the decisions are. I know we got KD. I know we got DFS, but I mean, yeah, it seems like defense and length has been where we’ve gone. But the You know what it is though? I think I don’t want to say they’re following the OKC model. I don’t. Cuz the thing with OKC is one of their superpowers was that they could just come at you with wave after wave of body. And not everybody was SJ, of course. Not everybody was Chad. Not everyone was JDub. But you had various guys like Wallace, you had um Wiggins who they weren’t the best dudes. they were more spot of shooters or just were really pesky, but they just could just throw body after body after body at you to harass you. So, I don’t want to say they’re following the OKC model by following, you know, doing a kogi and stuff like that. But I also would not be shocked if they’re at this point they’re just throwing bodies at the wall, seeing what sticks and just kind of come coming at people with the offense improvements that they do have, but then also just super uber loading up with defense and length so that way they can just keep the ball rolling that way. Isn’t the OKC model though? Guys that can dribble and shoot a little bit. I mean, yes. Yes. Exactly why I said yes, but don’t. Yeah, follow the OKC model because I like that kind of depth. I just I don’t like the one-dimensional guys, you know, especially in the modern NBA. I mean, this current era of basketball, you need as many guys as possible, but you also need guys that can dribble and shoot the basketball. And you know, Kogi is just not either one of those. Yeah. Bail LeBron’s favorite word, versatility. That I agree with you 100%. In today’s NBA, you can’t be a guy who’s good at one thing that gets you put on the bench. I don’t know where else to go with the Kogi except that, you know, I I just feel like, you know, maybe there was somebody else out there. I mean, it’s tough at this point. I mean, you you search around and maybe Amir Coffee has got some under the table deal with the team and they just haven’t signed him. You know, it’s Malcolm Brogden. That name’s been mentioned a lot, but he’s sure he’s he’s had so many injuries. He’s just never available. I saw Seth Curry’s name out there, but I saw there was mutual interest between him and the Warriors. I think I think maybe Seth Curry if you’re thinking just ball handling and shooting. But again, you’re like you’re scraping the bottom of that jelly jar at this point. Like we are literally splitting hairs. I have not heard of a lot of big impact names or at least quality depth guys that are still out there. Um Aki just would not have been the first thought that I would have had. Like you said, Broggin is a good, you know, what 2013, 2014 pick or draft, but basically a good eight years ago type of pick and coffee I think is more solid. I think there are other pieces. But yeah, this is one of those random like, okay, I guess if you got a dollar in your pocket at Walmart and you just want to spend it on something, I guess buy that bubble gum. But yeah, Seth Curry, I’ll say this, the Rockets have not valued guys that are one-dimensional shooters that don’t do anything else except shoot the basketball. Jack McVey was about as close as they got and he wasn’t somebody that they had on anything guaranteed. Sure. You know, they just haven’t valued that. I mean, the closest thing the closest thing that they’ve done to that in the last, I don’t know, 10, 15 years, you know, since Daryl my you know, became the GM was maybe Ryan Anderson and and that’s it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And and that’s about he’s about the only guy that three catch and shoot. I mean Garrett Matthews, but that was the Rockets that they weren’t sort of, you know, just get whatever they could. That that that that was desperation rockets at that point, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Yep. Just just spread out way for hard to pass you the ball and just shoot. That’s not that team anymore, but that’s literally what that was. And like a Trevor in today’s time would be awesome. I think like and Bob Muay guys that fit that kind of mold like I would definitely like that. Multiaceted Swiss Swiss Army knife guys. That’d be great. I just feel like these days you need guys that can do more than one thing out there on the floor. I mean, I’m I I agree with the Rockets. I don’t like the necessarily one-dimensional shooters, but you know, at this point, I I would like somebody just different than the onedimensional defensive guys because it feels like plenty of that, especially for a team that’s just got guys that are out there on the floor that you just literally people dare to shoot. You know, Amen, Shenon, you know, they’ve got those guys already. And so one of the things that uh we got to hit is Jaylen Green saying his goodbye to Houston. Uh there was a first person players tribune piece. We’re going to hit that in a second. But I want to ask our listeners, did you like the Aki signing? Let me know in the comments. Is there an option again that we haven’t mentioned? You would have preferred them sign uh for that vet minimum. Let us know. If you’re a Texans fan, I just had on Houston Strassins talking about the first day of Texans training camp. Make sure you check that out. That was yesterday’s show. And let me know about what else you might want us to hit on or other guests in the YouTube comments. Just a great way to reach out to me anytime as well as X HST podcast over there. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and getting our updates on your favorite podcast app and drop us a quick YouTube thumbs up as well. All right, Clayton, what did you think of Jaylen’s farewell and thank you to Htown? Were you impressed? I was looking forward to this question. I’m not going to lie. So, I actually, not a not a plug, but I I did a video yesterday on Jaylen Green and that whole players tribune thing. Number one, usually, unless I’m wrong, Rob, usually when players drop a Players Tribune, it’s like uh LeBron coming back to a city level retirement after a lengthy career, right? you win a couple championships, you’re a grizzled veteran, and you’ve proven some things in the league and you’re stamping something like that, right? I don’t want to be that guy. But when I saw a Jaylen Green player article, first thing I thought was like, oh, because of course he would do this. Of course, four years in, uh, did he have his moments? Sure. But there’s a reason why he’s on a player article about saying about as I get it. It was a nice gesture for what it was. He says in the article that, uh, he grew up here, you know, even though he’s not even what, 25, 26 yet. So, okay, but whatever. He has a lot to say now, now that he’s out of here. I We talked about it, you know, offh hand a lot of times in Twitter spaces how or ex spaces. Well, you were looking for that kind of alpha from him, right? You were always looking for him to step up, beat his chest, like I want to be the guy. I want to be the guy. You get traded. We never hear a peep from you like that before, ever. To where now all of a sudden from Dylan Brooks’s press conference is talking about motivation. Now you’re dropping a player Tribune article talking about in print you’re going to bust us for 30. I’m sorry, but like I there’s a reason why you’re there and KD is here. Uh we appreciate your contributions. Uh you have been future endeavored. Thank you so much. Yes, he’s grew up here. He has a child here. That’s fine. But I mean, okay, look, if anything, I thought it was hilarious because I think Modoka is the perfect petty type of coach to take that article out and circle that game on the calendar and make sure that if Jaylen Green it were to drop 30, he would be on like 7% shooting for like five from 25 from the field or something like that or making sure he goes goose egg by sticking Thompson on him or making sure he doesn’t do anything in the game. That’s the kind of stuff Hidoki would do. So, I just thought it was funny. I get it. But it’s kind of like, okay, all right. I guess he said some things that seemed very self-aware, like quote, “If I was in the executive chair, I probably would have made the deal, too. It’s a better situation for both sides.” So, good for him for recognizing that. But Jaylen also said a couple things less self-aware and frankly that made me roll my eyes like when he was obviously referring to the silish years his first seasons and said quote we were playing every possession like it was life or death. You always knew Houston was going to be playing some defense. And I mean Clayton that is exactly why I was worried about Jaylen. There were too many games and too many possessions when it never felt close to life or death. No, absolutely. Uh that that’s what I’m saying. That’s what we’re saying. That’s what most of the fan base is saying outside of some uh Jaylen Green stands that will never hold him accountable. It’s just the up and down, left to right. You never knew what this man was thinking on the court or off the court. You just did not know. Even if you put him in front of a microphone, he cannot give you something substantive to say to help you quantify or even work with him on bridging that imaginary gap between what you see in the court to what you think he’s working on. It just never happened. And if there was any improvement on Jaylen Green’s part, it was marginal at best. And marginal is not good enough when you got all NBA talent on one side, you got an all-star on another side. You know, you got all these floor generals. You got a championship pedigreed head coach and whatnot and and and co-players, co-stars, and you’re still the same Jaylen Green or I’m sorry, a marginally better Jaylen Green who’s iffy at best, barely shooting for 40% from the floor, barely averaging 20 points a game. I I got so sick and tired of people citing he’s your leading scorer. You know, he averaged that barely barely inefficiently, grossly inefficient. And I’m sorry, last time I checked, one of the most uh you know uh indictment of a picture, one of the most indicting pictures I’ve ever seen before is a picture of Jaylen Green on the sidelines in that Golden State playoff game with Adoka. You probably you probably seen it where Alurn Stringon was going up against Draymond Green to end the game and you seen Jaylen Green on the sidelines posted up with the fans. That’s what I remember. Don’t give me this stuff now. I remember the guy on the sidelines looking to see his teammates carry the torch to the uh to the to the Olympics. That’s what I remember seeing. Couple more things. I loved when he talked about calling every teammate and coach after the trade. That showed some class and maturity. as an old Gen X guy, it was nice to see people still use the telephone for actually calling people. Um, which is, you know, the I think the the correct thing to do, especially if you’ve played with them for the last few years and they mean something to you. It’s fun to hear that he was sincere friends with Shangon, but he also made the strange comment that before Shangon, he didn’t know Europeans could be down to earth. I mean, he thought a whole continent of people were bougie is his words. Bougie. Yeah. The way the p the piece read, Clayton, it just came off as a 23 year old who’s still just a kid. He used bro about a dozen times. And I get it that that’s current slang, but it comes off as not a pro. If if I’m his agent or his marketing person, I tell him, “Hey, let’s let’s take some of that out.” Right. That That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I’m saying. And I’m not trying to be harsh. I get it. He was drafted at like 19 years old, but so was Jabari Smith, right? So was so so were these other guys who have just the mental side of things where it’s the mental maturity or the lack thereof. It’s the the lack of ability to and I’m not trying to get personal, but it’s like we’ve endured this for four years where we have excused this man’s behavior. Uh we’ve just been searching for the maturity on the court, his judgment, his discretion, all these things. And like you said, like the the want to to be great, the want to to be the one on the court. And even in an article, it just comes off like, okay, like I said, I think you said it perfectly balanced and rejected. In some aspects, he sounded very objective, very self-aware, very mature. But in other ways, his core shown through, right? And that and that’s just kind of where we’re at. That that symbolizes perfectly exactly why we had to make the move that we move the make the move that we did because you just could not trust him to be enough of the adults in the room and on the court to make this work. The Rockets desperately tried. They looked like they did not want to unless they were just genulecting like Skip Boss would say uh for the media so that they so that way they would not lessen their uh trade value. But I mean we all saw it. So there’s a reason why he’s there and KD’s here. There’s a reason why. And we’re not going to dump on them, but when you make a player tribute article and you just give us more things to think about and reconsider, that’s what’s going to happen. So, you’re not going to get much sympathy for me. I’m sorry. We saw what we saw. And look, I said it in my video. I hope the best for him. I hope he thrives. I do. I hope that he matures so much more uh because he’s still so very young, but it’s going to take him having to grow and to be even more self-aware than what he already is. He has. He just has to for his own sake. Yeah. It’s going to take years. I mean, he’s not close. And hopefully he gets there at some point, but he’s not close. And you know, another part of the maturity is, and look, when he came into the league, I get it. He was 19 years old. And this is something, this is something that I’m going to nitpick the Rockets for, maybe more than Jaylen, is him talking about he’s eating Skittles before a game. Yeah. This is not This is not on a 19-year-old kid. This is on the Rockets organiza. I I’m hoping there weren’t people in the Rockets organization, either players, especially coaches, you know, people on the uh staff of of Steven Silas that didn’t see that and go up to them and say, “Look, diet is huge. You’re a professional athlete. You can’t be eating, you know, you need to be eating protein. You need to be eating stuff that’s sustainable over a course of a game. Sugar is not the way to get your energy before a game and it’s not a long-term solution for you. And I mean, Skittles to me is like poison, you know, for for anybody, much less a a pro alete. So, like that’s something that I’m just like for for an organization that’s supposed to be and has always prided itself of being about the details. That that that’s a detail with a young player that should have been out of there like immediately. I I don’t know if he was saying he did that once or if he was doing that regularly. And I know people are out there listening is like, “Oh, what a nitpick. This is nuts.” and and there are people that probably think that, you know, what he wrote was really nice and we’re being too critical. He did write really nice stuff about Houston. I like some of the really good things that he said about the city of Houston. That was beautiful. Like I said, his closeness with his teammates, what the team meant to him. He had nothing but good stuff about the fan, you know, didn’t have anything bad to say about the fan base. All of that was good. But there was but I think what between what me and Clayton are saying is this was obviously a guy that still at this point going into his fifth year there’s still some maturity stuff that he he’s got to work on and the stuff that worried me when he was here it was all in that article in in one way or another when Van Vleet has got to tell him after he makes three straight shots no we don’t want you passing the ball you’re making shots you’re the alpha you’re the guy you’re the guy that we drafted to be this guy. They’re putting all this energy and effort into making you the guy. You got to keep shooting. And that’s got to be his mentality. I’m sure nobody has to tell Aunt Edwards up in Minnesota. Uh even a couple of years ago, two or three years ago, they weren’t telling him, “Hey, you just made three shots in a row. You need to go attack the next time and shoot the basketball.” Yeah, that’s one of those you you can’t teach that. And to your point, I would not be shocked and I believe it fully if you were to tell me that it was an infrastructural allowance thing with him and Shangoo when they were first drafted, right? And and no people, it’s not just the Skittles. I get it. We all like Marshon Lynch, right? Eating the Skittles, Super Bowl. I get we get all that kind of stuff, but from an infrastructural standpoint, right? There’s a reason why Brady is Brady while LeBron is LeBron. Why Derrick Henry is Dererick Henry, right? Infrastructurally, and it’s not, and I really tried hard not to dump on like Steven Silus, right? I tried hard not to, but I mean, yeah, we all knew what it was. Like when MA Udoka came in, that’s a grown man’s coach. That’s the coach’s coach. A guy who sat under Pop, a guy who saw greatness up close, a guy who coached guys like Tatum and Brown and was with the Celtics. He knows what quality looks like. He’s a nononsense coach. So, it’s like you’re it’s like you’re flipping the light switch on, right? When you walk downstairs in the kitchen, it’s 3:00 a.m. You kind of, you know, you got the munch easier. You you’re hungry a little bit. Flip the light on and some roaches come scattering out. In the same way, it’s like when Adoka came in and flipped that light on, all that mess had to stop. Like whether it was Skittles, whether it was mentality, and just as soon as the accountability went like this, Jaylen Green stayed here, right? So, forget the Skittles. Like, the Skittles were just symbolic of the decision making and the organization, right? Like it was symbolic of where the organization was post James Harden, just floating and, you know, going in the wind like a leaf and not really having a firm direction or really just holding guys accountable. really that from James Hart’s years that was something that came out as like a the Rockets sometimes allowed a little bit too much to James and maybe it was just him but they were so playercentric or at least more it was to where they let a lot of things get out of hand that should not have been. So whether that trickle down effect happened in the Silus years I have no idea. All I know is hearing stuff like that I mean look you’re not surprised right he he he’s still learning what it means to be a pro. He’s still learning what it means to be a lot of things. And the Rockets have outgrown where Jaylen Green has grown. The rate of their speed increased. And he just, you know, he just couldn’t match up with that. At least not anymore. Or you couldn’t just hide that anymore. You couldn’t hide behind Kevin Porter. You can’t hide behind players like that anymore. Not when you’re expecting things, right? And again, I take offense to anybody who who talk and I know we’re not talking about this, but again, it’s just going out. I resent when people bring up the Golden State thing as though that’s the very first time that Jaylen Green’s ever shown some instability or some inconsistency or some a little bit of you can’t trust him. No, that is was not the first time. If you’re paying attention, it’s been four years of this. Golden State just stamped it and solidified the very concerns that we’ve been having for years. All they did was accelerate the conclusionary process for decision makers to say, “Yeah, it’s probably not going to work here.” And look, if you’re the Rockets, it’s okay. Sometimes in sports it’s okay to be the Brett Favre situation where if you remember he wasn’t drafted a Packer like he was with the Falcons he you know he basically his decision- making almost either got him cut or just out of the league and they sent him to Green Bay and he became what he became. Sometimes you need that team to kick you in the butt or you need that team to say you know what maybe he’ll be something but it won’t be in Rockets jersey. Thank you so much for your contribution but it won’t be here and maybe that’ll help him out. But again, the rate of speed that I think that that uh that that’s going to happen in to your point earlier, Rob, I just don’t think that’s going to line up with their timeline of what they want to do right now. And thus, here we are. And if anybody out there feels like we’re too hard on them or you have a different opinion about what he said in the article, uh feel free to reach out, put it in the comments. I definitely want to hear from everybody. But like I don’t want to hear anybody say we’re a Jaylen Green hater. It’s not hate. It’s we are Rockets fans and Rockets fans want great players that they feel like they can win with as far as the Rockets are concerned. And that that’s what this is about. And and you have to keep that in mind when we’re talking. I mean, this is a Rockets centric show. This is not the Jaylen Green show. This is a Rocket Centric show. If you want to go listen to the Jaylen Green show, go listen to that. But we I’m a Rockets fan. Clayton’s a Rockets fan. But I try to bring real honest assessment of stuff and this is where we are on Jaylen Green. And I wish the kid luck. He seems like a really nice guy, good guy. Nothing against him personally. This is about Jaylen Green, the player. And this is what it comes down to. And that’s what me and Clayton are saying. A couple last things I want to get to. Uh NBC announced two of their five NBA analysts are exrockets. Austin Rivers is one. If anybody remembers that millisecond Derek Fiser was in Houston, the Derek Fischer era, he’s the other guy. Um, I’ve listened to Rivers on the Ringer podcast. He wasn’t bad. But Clayton, to tell you how old I am, when I started my TV career, I covered Derek Fischer in college at Arkansas Little Rock. I was working at the NBC station and we had the coaches show on our station. So, I went to a bunch of games. I was on the floor shooting Derek Fischer college games quite a bit. He knew my face so well, Clayton. When I saw him at a mall in Little Rock, he waved over at me. He had been drafted by the Lakers by that point. Oh, yeah. You just dated yourself, huh? You just dated yourself gracefully. Former Rockets. Really? Little asterric on there. I guess he his name was included in a trade package. But I guess I mean look I look I’ve watched Austin Rivers right before from all accounts from everything I’ve seen and from what I’ve observed he see he speaks very soundly and of course I mean he knows the game his father knows the game right Hall of Fame coach maybe blame either TNT or you know ESPN whatever I’m just kind of burnt out on the cycling through all these new people being commentators I don’t know who to trust I don’t know who’s going to be there next time I don’t know what kind of quadrant gift I’m going to see of whoever’s next but I mean hey hoping the best for these four specifically those two I think they got some insights. It just depends on how they mesh mesh together on the media side and the presentation side of things. Yeah, I’m not a big fan of most of the crews these days. You know, I love Kevin Harland. I think Mark Jones does a good job. A couple playby-play guys do nice jobs. Much of the analyst I’m I’m not super big into. One of the other five that NBC announced is Brian Scalabbrini, who’s super annoying. He talks like he’s from the streets of Boston or New York or something. Even though he grew up on the West Coast, Clayton, I mean, I can’t stand him. Dang. You You don’t like uh the White Mamba? Oh, Red Mamba, I’m sorry. You don’t like the Mamba, man? You don’t You don’t You’re not down with Scala. I I mean, you know what? It’s funny you say that. He’s a perfect like social media personality. Like, in terms of like going on the street, playing oneonone with people, like busting guys heads like that. That’s great. But dang, I I didn’t know that you were against the mamba like that, man. I didn’t know. I I hope they these uh new new people in the NBA spaces, the TV you I hope it’s it’s it’s a little bit stronger than it’s been because, you know, I know a lot of people love TNT. I mean, I think I think I’ve said this on here before. I can’t remember you and I have talked about this in a space or not, but I just I was not a big fan of what had happened to the TNT crew over the years. I think once Shaq moved in, it just became so little right more personality. I I just I wanted like people that actually knew basketball and right cover the game. Yeah. Chuck Chuck being dumb is one thing. He’s kind of like an outlier and Chuck being Chuck, but when you combine him with Shaq and both of them just sit there and literally tell you we don’t know anything about what we’re talking about as far as the NBA and we don’t we don’t follow, we don’t care. we don’t like it. I mean, just way too much of we don’t like stuff in the NBA. It it just that that always rubbed me the wrong way, too. Sure. And look, let’s be clear, cuz you know, in today’s hyper sensitive time, you got to clarify everything and overexlain what Rob is saying, guys. He’s not saying that Shaq doesn’t know basketball. He’s not saying that Barkley does not know basketball. We’re not saying that at all. We’re saying stylistically in presenting in presenting the game of basketball in terms of X’s and O’s and analytics. Fine. whatever feelings on analytics, what not just on being able to whiteboard the game of basketball for the average viewer, making it, you know, uh, edible for the average viewer. That’s kind of what we’re saying. Ernie has that, Kenny Smith has that, but it it seemed like the show became too much of a parody of itself and more about the bells and whistles and less about the actual game. That’s kind of what we’re saying. But all four of those men or five or six or 80, I don’t know. But all those guys know basketball. They played it. They’re Hall of Famers. We get it. Rings, no rings. Count the rings, Chuck. We did the whole thing. It’s just stylistic. So, I just hope that they just don’t over analyze this, right? Keep the analysts that are good. And of course, you can transition away from the ones who don’t add to the game. Stop just going with personalities that people see on social media. That gets old very fast. And you have people who actually want to hear basketball. Again, not saying these guys don’t know ball. It’s just we’re good on just picking random names out of a hat and picking popular social media influencers. Like, we miss the Mark Jacksons. miss, you know, all these years like that of like being fed the game and being entertained at the same time. You can’t do both. I’m saying Barkley and Shaq didn’t know what was going on in the game. They didn’t know the players. They weren’t watching. You could tell that they literally weren’t watching teams play. You know, you could tell when you listen to people, you know, if they actually know what they’re talking about because they’ve been watching the games. And I I’m sure they were watching the games when the games were on their channel that night. But I’m saying like it just didn’t sound like they knew what they were talking about as far as like in general what’s going on with particular teams and stuff like that. Barkley never knew who was, you know, who some of the guys were. I mean, you know, I’m I’m not saying I know back of the bench guys, but he didn’t know how to pronounce most of the Rockets players. He would screw up pronouncing the names. Like this is like all you have to do is watch any NBA show and the Rockets were going to come up. They were a second seed last year and and those guys just they you know Barkley would I would watch them screw up three of the four names for the Rockets players on how to say the actual you know Shenon they never figured out how to say his name. He was an all-star last year. I mean come on. He’s one of the best young players in the NBA. They had a whole game tongue and cheek I’m saying this. They had a whole game where they said guess what team they play for. I don’t know if you remember that. They had that whole thing. So, it’s stuff like that where it’s like, again, we’re talking about ratings being down and people not locking the modern game. Well, I mean, it doesn’t help that the guys talking about the game are openly just saying like, “Yeah, this is trash. I don’t even know who’s on what team.” Blah, blah, blah. You can have your opinions, I guess, in like a back room somewhere. But again, you’re trying to market the product and and be a bridge from the old school to the new school. That’s just what they started doing. So, I mean, you know, and I’m an old school guy, but, you know, I also feel like the game is better than it’s ever been in my lifetime as far as, you know, the styles and the different way the game’s played, how much more open the court is. And, you know, three-point shot has helped. Oh, yeah. Despite what Charles and Shaq might say about that, it’s like all of that stuff has made the game as good as it’s it’s ever been. Um, speaking of the old school, speaking of a a guy that Barkley played against back in his day, um, I don’t think they were ever on the same team that I recall, but you definitely played against him. Earlier this week, I happened to drop a classic Rockets interview that I did with forward Rodney McCrae, who started on the Rockets 86 Finals team. So, make sure to check it out if you haven’t. But uh just as a sample, listen to what McCrae told me when I asked him about the John Lucas suspension in ‘ 86. Now remember, Lucas was the starting point guard that season when they went to that finals. Does McCrae believe it could have cost the Rockets championship? How worried were you about John Lucas? I mean, how that you guys went through a lot with with the situation with him in ‘ 86 going into 87 as well. Were you concerned about his well-being as all that stuff is going on? Well, at first being a young guy in the league and not knowing what you know now, first to come to mind is how could you do this to the team? You know, we had great chemistry. We had a chance to do some great things together. But that that’s the selfish way of thinking, knowing what you know now that it’s addiction and that people need help. You think about the well-being of the person more so than winning championships. And we talk about that now when I see him and he he comes up to me, he’s like, “Man, I’m with you guys, man. We got championship. We got more than one championship if I, you know, would taken care of what I need to take care of.” And and I always tease him. I said it’s not guarantee we would have got to the final cuz you know you didn’t play a lick of defense, right? So we lost a great basketball player, but I tease him about his defensive inabilities, but he’s uh turned it around. I’m happy for him. We talk about it and you know older and more mature now. I’m just glad that he he was able to turn it around. And do I think that we probably would have won the championship had he been with us? Absolutely. Yeah, it was good stuff from him. And this is interesting, Clayton, because you heard him say at the end that he felt like they would have won the championship. One of the keys that season in upsetting Magic’s Lakers in the Western Conference Championship was 6’8. Robert Reed’s defense on Magic Johnson. Keep in mind the 69 Magic Johnson would have worked Lucas in the post. Trust me on that. Lucas was a small He might have been six foot, but I don’t think he was. But necessity being the mother of invention, Bill Fitch had to start Robert Reid, who was more of a forward in those days at point guard. But Clayton, he could handle the ball just enough to start at point guard and and he was the guy that, you know, helped slow Magic down during that Lakers series that they won four games to one. It’s something about listening to uh the old guard talk about the game of basketball. It just feels different. It felt like these guys took that personal, you know, like these defensive matchups, offense, whatever, Birds and Reeds now, uh, Magic, like it just it just something about watching those old clips that that gets you reminded about why you like the game of basketball. Yeah, just good stuff. That whole interview with him. I mean, this is somebody uh if you don’t know, if you missed the interview, this is a guy that played three final fours for Louisville, won a championship at Louisville, played against a what’s considered one of the in one of the great NCA college basketball games of all time against UFH. So, it was the doctors of Dunk versus Famjama. You also had him winning a championship later in his career with Michael Jordan. And so, you know, you get a little bit of, you know, him telling you in that interview about playing with Jordan, comparing it a little bit to playing with Hakee and what he thought of like as far as the Akeem Jordan comparisons and stuff like that. So, yeah, it’s it’s really good stuff. Go check it out if you haven’t already. And I’m going to pull off some more stuff that I’ve got in the old archives. Uh, had some classic interviews in there. Rockets, Astros, Texans, uh, Houston Oilers, uh, Houston Cougars, lots of different stuff in in the archives. Um, just want to remind everybody that Clayton’s at 713 Sports Talk on X. You’ve written a couple pieces recently, Clayton, tell us about that. So, I am a contributor for the Crawfish Boxes. So, I’ve been writing pieces. I’ve been doing postgame recaps for them, focusing on Bryce Matthews in particular recently, right when he helped in the sweeping of Arizona. Uh, I do uh write up for Battle Robblock as well, but I’m kind of still in a fan post section. I have written some Rockets articles for the Dream Shake. And I enjoy what I do, right? It look, we talk sport. I talk sports for free. I would do this just because I enjoy doing it. I’ve been annoying my wife for years. But I finally been able to put pen to paper and been able to just take a passion and something I do for free and just build relationships, network with people like Rob who’ve been instrumental. I tell Rob a lot off camera, like how much he means like his work ethic and just being genuinely who he is. I’m not just saying that for fluff. Like I mean what I say. So that inspired me to go and just, you know, do what I’m currently doing. So yeah, I write up things the mo and it’s organic. Like the moment it comes to me, I try to put it on paper. The the hardest thing for me is the formatting. That’s the that’s the biggest thing. But the thoughts, the words, like we watch the game, so it just comes. I don’t have to make it up. But I do have to give people proper credit, references, hyperlink, all that good stuff. But uh no, it’s been definitely enjoyable. The guys at Crawfish Boxes have been great in receiving me. Uh, oh, I’m actually doing the post game tonight of uh Astros A’s. So, that’ll be cool. Yeah, for everybody that uh is listening, you also hear Clayton’s kids in the background. So, the family is they’re up and about and I guess excited about Joshi coming to Houston. Sure. Sorry about Hey, look, I’m sorry. Got three young ones. I’ve tried. Okay. I almost threw a pillow at one of them, but you know, they’ve helped out. They’ve been they’ve been, you know, holding it down for me. So, but yeah. Yeah, there you go. Right there. So, on uh yeah, thanks for doing this. Uh appreciate the kind words and we’ll talk again soon, Clayton. All right, brother. Thanks for having me. You’re listening to Houston Sports Talk. Hey, don’t forget to support us by subscribing and commenting on YouTube. You can always listen to us on Spotify, Apple, or your favorite podcast app. Tell your friends about us and share our show links on social media. Spread the word everybody. Thanks for listening. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Bleav Host Robert Land asks Rockets Analyst Clayton Anderson about the Rockets signing Josh Okogie and what he made of the Jalen Green Players Tribune piece thanking Houston and the Rockets. Plus, NBC hires a couple ex Rockets as analysts & Rodney McCray on the missed 1986 Rockets Championship.
(:34) Reaction to Okogie Signing
(1:49) Was Okogie mistake?
(3:44) Okogie’s elite defense & Udoka’s connection
(5:05) Was Amir Coffey better option?
(7:53) Other options besides Okogie?
(11:23) Reaction to Jalen Farewell to Houston?
(13:33) Does Jalen Farewell show why he failed with Rockets?
(15:53) Maturity & immaturity from Jalen
(18:55) Rockets Organization nitpick on Jalen
(25:52) Ex Rockets Derek Fisher & Austin Rivers named NBC analysts for NBA
(32:44) Rodney McCray on why Rockets should’ve won ’86 Title if not for John Lucas suspension

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