Jalen Green’s EMOTIONAL Farewell To Houston | Amen Thompson’s SLAM Cover SIGNALS New Era For Rockets

Jalen Green’s EMOTIONAL Farewell To Houston | Amen Thompson’s SLAM Cover SIGNALS New Era For Rockets

On today’s show, Jaylen Green says an emotional goodbye to Houston. Alpin Shinguna and Fred Vanble Vleet working out together in Turkey ahead of Euro Basket. And Am Thompson makes the cover of Slam Magazine. It’s all coming up right here at Locked on Rockets. This is mission control Houston. Ignition sequence 5. 6 5 4 3 2 1 zero. What’s up and welcome to another edition of Locked On Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. As always, I’m your host, Jackson Gatlin, native Houstononian and credentialed media member. I’m also the host of Locked on NBA Thursdays. Be sure to follow along wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube. Just search Locked on Rockets, where the best way you can help us grow our show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, and subscribe on YouTube. We got a lot to get to on today’s show. A little bit later on, we’ll talk about the Thompson twins gracing the cover of Slam Magazine. We’ll run back their uh who’s who interview with Slam as well as some of the best excerpts from the written interview as well. Uh we’ll talk about Alper and Shingun and Fred Van Vleet working out together in Turkey ahead of Alpin Shingun’s participation in Eurob Basket overseas. And where we’re starting today’s show is the emotional, heartfelt goodbye to Houston from Jaylen Green written in the Players Tribune. We’re going to get to all of that. First, want to let you know that today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create account, use code locked on NBA for $20 off of your first purchase. And as always, thanks so much for making Lockdown Rockets part of your day every single day, whether it’s on your way to work, on your lunch break, in the gym. Thank you so much for being an everydayer. you know, trading players, especially players that you’ve grown, you know, as a fan base, an emotional attachment to always stings, right? And especially a guy that you drafted that was literally the first piece of the Rockets rebuild. There was an emotional attachment there for a lot of Rockets fans to Jaylen Green and understandably so. And it is still disappointing that things worked out the way that it did, that he wasn’t able to be the guy on the court that the Rockets needed him to be, that they thought he could grow to become, you know, having drafted him number two overall back in 2021, and that they couldn’t continue to build around him being their go-to guy, their number one option. They gave him four years to do it, two years in a winning system with Emeoka and they ultimately, you know, made the decision that landed them Kevin Durant. And hopefully it’s a situation where both sides will be better off for it. The Rockets now with KD a chance to contend for a title and Jaylen Green, you know, a new opportunity in Phoenix playing alongside Devin Booker. uh a fresh opportunity and uh a chance to showcase that he still can be that guy just for a different team at this stage. And you know, when trades happen like this, sometimes there’s hurt feelings, sometimes there’s, you know, resentment. Uh sometimes there’s a lot of love and appreciation for both sides. And that’s what it feels like with Jaylen Green leaving Houston. and he took the time out of his schedule to put together a Players Tribune article uh that he titled a few words from the heart for Htown. And uh I’m just going to read through the opening of this article uh his words. So keep that in mind and then uh a couple other excerpts that really stood out here. So let’s go ahead and start this thing off. Jaylen Green says, “You know what my favorite thing about Houston is? It’s really a city of go-getters. people from the outside, they don’t get it. They might look at age town as slow or southern or whatever, but if you actually live here, you understand that it’s people from all over the world down here just trying to get their piece of the pie. And that’s why this place has such an amazing creative energy. The food, the music, the way people are. Houston is one of the most underrated places in America. Bro, I almost don’t even want to hype it up too much because we got to keep our thing our thing down here. You know what I mean? I love being a rocket. For real. I almost can’t believe I’m talking about H-town in the past tense, but that’s life in the league. Listen, nobody likes to get traded. But I can honestly say that I get it, bro. This is a business and if I was up there in the executive chair, I probably would have made the deal, too. I think it’s a better situation for both sides. And I’m just excited to get it popping with book and to create a winning culture, to create that winning culture that we figured out down here in Houston. What’s that thing that people are always saying in these moments? Don’t cry because it’s over. smile because it happened. Bro, I’m smiling. It’s nothing but love for the Rockets. I’m sorry I got to try to bust y’all ass now, but every time I see y’all, it’s going to be love. I mean, I grew up here for real. Some dudes just be saying that when they get traded, but I really came here at 19 years old still eating Skittles before games, and I’m leaving here as a father. It’s been a time, y’all. When I got here, all anybody was talking about was a rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, rebuild. doing that droopy dog thing, looking at the floor. You know what I mean? Gee, I don’t know. Might take four or five years. Just take it one day at a time. And we said, “F a rebuild.” Um, hell of an opening to that. And look, I’m again, I I’m not going to share the whole thing here. There’s one other exper excerpt that I want to talk about from this article. Um, but you know, there was truly a lot of love, you know, for Jaylen Green from the fans that Jaylen loved the city, loved playing for the Rockets, loved everything about the organization. And everything about Jaylen Green, the person was tremendous, right? He was respectful. He was accountable. He never shied away from tough questions or, you know, interviews after games where he struggled. uh he never, you know, acted like a diva like some other players do where, you know, they have a bad game and they just disappear. They don’t want to talk about it. They want to own they don’t want to own up to their struggles. Um Jaylen was never any of that, right? The work ethic shined through and all of the organization and his teammates absolutely adored him. They loved him. you know, the shortcomings that we have discussed, you know, over time here at this show were always based on, you know, expectations for him on the court. Um, expectations that hopefully he can still meet one day. You know, this is kind of like when it’s tough because it’s kind of like when James Harden got traded to the Nets. You know, I know a lot of Rockets fans were rubbed the wrong way when James Harden left, the way that he left, all that stuff. But there were also a lot of Rockets fans that still had a lot of love for James Harden, right? you know, franchise’s second greatest player of all time. You know, a lot of Rockets fans grew up in the James Harden era, right? And so, it was a difficult pill to swallow when he finally made it to another team. And a lot of Rockets fans followed James to the Nets and and wanted to watch him and wanted, you know, to root for his success over there as well. Um, but, you know, there’s a conflict of interest here because first and foremost become, you know, is the success of the Rockets in my mind. And so even when James was on the Nets, I wanted James to succeed, but knowing that the net that the Rockets owned the Nets draft picks, it was like it was tough. I wanted the Nets to fail because the Rockets owned those picks. And so once James got moved to the next team, once James was in Philadelphia, it became a lot easier to root for him again and to hope that he could find success with at that time Daryl my and Joel Embiid as well. Um, I think it’s going to be the same for me and Jaylen, right? I want him to have career success. I want him to realize his potential. I’d love for him to become an all-star. I just don’t want it to happen with the Phoenix Suns. Hopefully, it happens at the next stop in his career after Phoenix because the Rockets still have those Suns picks or just, you know, let the Suns struggle for a little bit while Jaylen gets his, uh, gets his stuff figured out career-wise. But, um, elsewhere in the article, Jaylen also shared his love for his teammates. You know, he said that he was on the phone all day saying goodbye to his teammates the day that he got traded. He says, “At the end of the day, man, the biggest testament I can say about my time here is that the day I got traded, I spent all day on the phone. I know how it is in the league. Some teams they’re not that close. Some guys they get traded and call up their one or two dudes on the team and that’s a wrap. Me, I was calling the whole roster. Started calling in the morning and it was dinner time before I said my last goodbye.” This Rockets team was incredibly tight-knit. They were close. They all rode for each other. They all loved each other. And it’s rare to find that kind of chemistry in a locker room in the league. A rare mix of veterans and young guys who all got along, who all enjoyed each other’s company, who all were ready to go to war for each other. And that makes the the departure even that much harder, right? And and again, a lot of respect to, you know, the decision makers at B, right? Rafel Stone, Emodoka, who also had an emotional attachment to Jaylen Green, who who watched him grow up over these last years, but also had to make what they thought was the best decision for the franchise moving forward, their best chance to get this team to a place where they could win a title, and that was the move for Kevin Durant. It doesn’t sound like there’s any um ill will that Jaylen Green is holding. you know, he he certainly uh is going to be motivated to try and score and have big games against the Rockets going forward as he should be, right? We we played back his interview or we talked about his interview during Vegas summer league where he highlighted the fact that you know talking about motivation for himself uh you know when playing the Rockets and that it gives motivation to try and uh to try and you know come out and cook Houston. So, the end of the article, the way that wrapped up, and I’ll put a link to the article in the uh episode description, so you can check it out. Uh Jaylen goes, “I got a team out in Phoenix who wants me to be me. I got uh I get to play alongside one of the best in the game in book. It’s another opportunity to build a winning culture. Another opportunity to show people how deep my love for this game really is. And another opportunity to shut up y’all petty ass haters, too. I see everything and I thank you for it.” So, I’ll miss Houston and all my guys down there, but I’m smiling, man. I get to play basketball for a living. How can I have a bad day? Every day I’m hoping is a good day. Htown, thank you for the love for real. Thank you. And if I bust your ass for 30 next season, just remember the good times. Sincerely, Jaylen. Hell of a way to sign off. I do got to say though, I with this Rockets defense and with a men Thompson putting clamps on Jaylen Green, I don’t see him dropping 30 on the Rockets next season or anytime soon for that matter. Um maybe he proves maybe he proves us wrong or maybe he proves me wrong. But uh it’ll be it’ll certainly be a fun battle between these two teams uh whenever they revisit next season both in Houston and on the road in Phoenix. Kevin Durant’s return for the Suns and then Jaylen Green’s return here in Houston. Not to mention Dylan Brooks also coming back because he’s certainly going to want to be playing with a chip on his shoulder as well. But uh go check out the whole article. Um it was really heartfelt. Uh, you could tell there’s a lot of love there from Jaylen Green for the city of Houston and for Rockets fans. Um, and again, not every player takes the time out of their out of their schedule to do this kind of thing when they’re on the uh the bad end of of a trade like this, getting moved for a star player. Uh, so a lot of respect to Jaylen Green for for, you know, going this far to share that love to Rockets fans in the city of Houston. Um and hopefully you know wishing him the best in his career post Phoenix Suns at this stage. Uh but coming up we got to talk about Alperin Shingun and Fred Van Vleet getting work in in Turkey ahead of Eurob Basket and Amen Thompson gracing the cover of Slam Magazine. We’re going to get there in just one moment. First, today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ball game with friends or family? Maybe it’s game day and you suddenly realize you want to be in the stands. That’s exactly where Game Time comes in. It’s the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress. 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Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And continuing on here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. Let’s get to our next bit of Rockets offseason news here, and that is uh Alpurn Shingun and Fred Vanble working out together in Turkey. Now, I will say really quickly on the Fred Van Vleet front, actually a different piece of news for him that we haven’t had a chance to get to here yet on the show. Uh Fred Van Vleet uh recently elected as the new president of the National Basketball Players Association, the NBPA, the Players Union, succeeding CJ McCullum, who was the most recent president, concluding his four-year term of the MBPA. Uh, Van Vetle was voted MVPA president during the board of player representatives meeting and will be begin a four-year term immediately. Uh, McCollum, who served as president for the past four years and previously was an executive vice president from 2018 to 2021, led the NBA in negotiations to complete the seven-year collective bargaining agreement in 2023. So, this is an important role for Fred Van Vleet. And it makes sense because, you know, Fred Van Vleet goes from being an undrafted player to becoming the highest paid uh player in NBA history as an undrafted guy. You know, to go undrafted to then win a title with the Toronto Raptors to leading this Rockets team out of a rebuild and, you know, being such an important part of the turnaround of this organization. I can’t think of a better voice to have in that president chair and President Van Vleet has a certain ring to it. So, uh, congratulations to Steady Freddy for being able to, uh, apply his steady hands to not just the Houston Rockets, but also, um, you know, the players union. Uh, look, he’s he’s widely regarded as such an important leadership voice here in Houston and for this Rockets team. now he gets to use that leadership voice um for the betterment of the entire NBA and all its players. So, love this opportunity for Fred. He’ll probably kill it honestly in the role. Um, and where that leadership is shining through for Fred Van Vleet this off seasonason is he has become uh I believe unless I’m mistaken here the first Rockets teammate of Alper and Chingu to visit him and spend time with him in his home country of Turkey as there have been videos surfacing of these two guys working out together in Turkey this off season getting you know running drills doing all sorts of practices together um and it’s reported that Fred Van Vleet will be staying in Turkey to support Alper and Shingun during the upcoming Euro Basket tournament. Uh taking place a little bit later this offseason. It starts up I believe August 27th is the first match, the first official match. There might be some friendly matches before that. Um unless I’m mistaken. But yeah, so be on the lookout for that because Eurob Basket without branching is certainly something that we’re going to be talking about here at Locked on Rockets. Um, the tip off times are weird because it’s, you know, overseas. Uh, and, uh, so I mean, there’s going to be some games that tip off at like 5:00 a.m., you know, local Houston time, and then there’ll be some games that happen like midday, mid-afternoon. It’ll be kind of a weird schedule. I’ll try to keep you guys posted for as much of that as possible. Um, but shout out to Fred for, you know, again, you know, staying true to that leadership role and and visiting with Alp and working with Alp out there in Turkey. We know that there have been reports um that Alper and Shigun has really been prioritizing working on that three ball out in Turkey and some of the workout videos that we’ve seen of these two guys. Alper and Shingun has hitting all sorts of shots, working on all sorts of mechanics. um especially working on like you know quick release catch and shoot type looks um where you could envision you know if Shingun is able to really you know spend a good chunk of this offseason working on that three ball you know it’s he’s got good touch like that’s the crazy thing right is it’s not that he has that he’s a bad shot that he doesn’t have touch that he can’t be an outside threat I think a big part of it and Eay Odoka talked about this a lot last season about Alpin Shingun being a spacing big, you know, and potentially running those double big lineups with Steven Adams, which they wound up doing even though Shingun isn’t really a spacing big yet at this stage in his career. He talked about it being more of a confidence factor with Alpie and less about the touch that they know that he has the touch that he can be a good outside shooter and it’s more about the confidence factor that sometimes that he’s out there at the three-point line and he’s pumpth thanking nobody and then you know it gives the def it gives the defender a chance to set their feet and you know stonewall him on a drive or whatever that he just needs to be confident in those shots and just pull the trigger and seeing you know the the the drills that Shingun is going through the three-point shooting drills as well as other shooting drills in and around the painted area. Really working on his touch from the elbows. Um working on little floaters to be able to get over the top of the defense. Uh really refining some of the moves that he can get to in the paint as opposed to just having to rely on his patented little push shot, right? You know, adding a little bit more to his bag. That’s going to do wonders for him this next season. And it’s kind of funny to think about, you know, Shenoon has hit a decent number of threes in his career, right? He’s never been a great three-point shooter. Um, but especially when he’s got it going, when he’s feeling himself, right, he’ll knock down a couple threes in a given game. It’s not a crazy stretch to think that between the two of them, between Alpen Shingun and Amin Thompson, that Alpen Shingun could be the first of those two guys to get to a stage where he’s actually a a consistent outside shooter or at least one that you have to honor on the three-point line. And if again if Shingun can get to a place where he’s you know 33 34 35% from three enough to where the defense has to actually guard him at the three-point line that opens up a lot of spacing offensively for the Rockets to allow right amen Thompson to be that downhill threat um to open up driving lanes for Fred Van Vleet for Kevin Durant you know different angles for guys to work with and watching these you know these workout videos seeing the shots that Shingun’s up this off season. First off, part of it’s editing. Sure, that’s certainly part of it. But, you know, he just looks a little bit more fluid in the mechanics, right? Getting, you know, getting shots up quickly, doing them off motion. So, you can imagine maybe, you know, Shingun hitting some pick and pop actions next season with Fred Van Vleet or Amin Thompson or Kevin Durant, you know, sets the screen, flares out to the three-point line, knocks down a quick three-pointer or potentially as the trail big coming up in transition, right? That’s where, you know, other bigs, other legitimate sharpshooting bigs like Carl Anthony Towns really make their money is, you know, they they come up as the trail big on the floor and the opposing defense is getting set and they lose track of Cat because he’s not really in the action yet and you just get a pit, you know, you pitch the ball back to him right there at the three-point line and he steps into a three-pointer in rhythm and cans it. Like, you know, Shingun is more than capable of potentially being that release valve for the Rockets offensively. I’m not going to bank on Shingun having like a heater come into this next season, but after so much of the development and growth for Shingun under Emodoko was was focused on the defensive side of the basketball, really making sure that he was up to par defensively, really making sure that he could be the defensive backbone as the five for this Rockets team and going from being a top 10 defense to being a top five defense this past season. It it feels like hopefully the focus has reshifted back to the offensive side of his game so that he can reestablish his touch in and around the basket and get to a place where he’s an efficient player around the rim like he was the first three years of his career. And then also really trying to hone in on that three ball because that’s the one thing that’s really preventing, you know, him from ascending even further in those kind of baby Jokic comparisons is if he can get to that place where that three ball is is north of 35% the comparisons are going to come back full steam and deservedly so with how he plays and how Jokic plays and some of the similarities in their respective games. So really exciting to see those two guys working out together, spending time together. Um just another feather in the cap of a great kind of veteran leader in Fred Van Vleet. And also shout out to Alpin Jingun. It’s his birthday. Um he turned 23 years old. A lot of people forget he’s still incredibly young. Um you know was an all-star 22 and still an incredibly bright future ahead ahead of him moving forward. So very excited to see what we’ll get out of him uh in the Euro Basket tournament uh coming up a little bit later this off seasonason. But we’re going to get to our final segment here next. Amen Thompson and his twin brother Assar Thompson gracing the cover of Slam Magazine. We’re going to get there in just one moment. and final segment here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast, home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. All right, let’s get to uh the very awesome exciting news here because within the span of like 6 months, the Rockets have now had two different covers of Slam Magazine. Now, unfortunately, the first cover of Slam Magazine, the shirt that I have floating around here somewhere, uh half of that cover, Jaylen Green and Dylan Brooks, got traded for Kevin Durant. Um, so I guess maybe Slam felt like they need to come back and do a Rockets redux. Um, but, uh, Amen Thompson, Assara Thompson, gracing the cover of Slam magazine. Really awesome to see that. Uh, some great representation for the Rockets there. Uh, let’s run back. They did a an interview with these two guys called Who’s Who between Amen and Assara Thompson. Uh if you’re listening on the podcast feed, it’ll be fun because you can try to you could try to figure out who’s who uh in the interview because they sound very similar. Uh I will be there’s going to be little captions that I’ll try to read out as we’re playing back the video. It’s about it’s about a three two and a half minute video, three minute video of them just having some, you know, fun trying to uh figure out who’s who between some iconic pop culture duos. So uh we’ll run that back. And then there’s also some really good excerpts that I’ve got for for us from the uh written interview that they conducted with the twins as well. So, let’s go ahead and run that back right now. I’m a man. I’m a Sar Thompson. We’re playing hoops. You You got to go first. I’m a man. And I’m a Sar Thompson. We’re playing hoops with Slam. Who’s who? Oh, we’re playing Who’s Who? Who’s Who with Slam? With Slam. Yeah. Okay. I’m a men Thompson. And I’m Asar Thompson. And we’re playing Who’s Who with Slam. Can I finish saying what I said first? Let’s go, man. I’m a man Thompson. And I’m Assar Thompson. And we’re playing Who’s Who with Slam. I’m real. Who’s Batman and who’s Robin? For real, bro. I’m Batman. I’m I’m Batman. Okay. So, it’s not real because think about this. When we were at OTE, I played him in the championship. I beat him, right? He came to my team. We won together. Is Robin beating Batman in the championship? I do not think so. Okay. When we played together, I would say I was Rob. Yes. So, he he’ll be Batman. I’ll be Batman. Nah. When we played together, I feel like Can there be I was like the right side of Batman. He was like the left side. We just merged together. We were like Siamese twins. Batman. Batman was too nice. Exactly. Who’s Martin? Who’s Marlin? And who’s Dory? Look, let me tell you why. I if we’re being honest, I’ll say I’m Dory and he’s Marlin because he’s a nag. He’ll he’ll nag if you if you like if if you got to leave at 1 second and you and you leave early but you’re not there at the exact second he wants to leave, you’re going to hear about it. He’s going to be like, “Oh, you you just you just don’t you just don’t look like you’re like you’re ready.” Like he’ll say you don’t I’ll be fully dressed. He’ll be like, “You just don’t have the mentality that you’re ready.” Like you don’t look like you’re ready. You don’t look like you’re about to leave the house, bro. Yeah. So that’s that’s Marlin cuz you know Marlin Marlin be getting on Dory about everything. I’m I’m for sure Marlin. Hey yeah hey that’s that one’s a tough one cuz I don’t know they all kind of tough I think I think I’m Shaggy because No, they both eat. I think I’m Scooby cuz I’m a dog. You know he he’s like a dog pound. Dog pound. Exactly. Hey, you’re Scooby, bro. You’re I’m Scooby. Bro, I’m not going to lie. I’m thinest cuz I tried to come up with plans and like I tried to come up with plans yesterday and this guy was just looking at his phone, not answering on some FURB stuff. Literally on some FB stuff. So, I’m definitely sending Let me tell you, try to come up with a great plan. Have make everybody have fun. And only reason he’s not Ferb is cuz Ferb would have cooperated a little bit. He just he’s like the nonverbal part of Ferb saying. I I’ll give myself Ferb because Ferb is like a like he’s like a sneaky just smarter than Phineas. They just don’t know cuz he doesn’t talk. But Ferb what I heard was that Ferb really comes up with the No, I’m Phineas. He’s fur for sure. I’ll take first. It is so funny watching those two could just cut up with each other because you could tell like there’s so much brotherly love there but also some competition and u just like watching them just kind of act like kids together is so funny. Um and it’s it’s wild like having kind of watched a men grow up a little bit in his NBA career because when he as a rookie he was so like like just poker face so much of the time like just and occasionally he would let like a smile loose or laugh or crack a joke whatever. Um, and it wouldn’t quite land sometimes because he was so serious all of the times that like when he did make a joke sometimes like we didn’t know how to take it and so we’d be like, “Is this like a joke?” And then he’d like start to smile and be like, “Oh, okay. It’s a joke.” um his year two as a sophomore, like he became so much more, I guess, confident, comfortable, whatever, just animated, cracking jokes, uh really, you know, I I don’t want to say letting his guard down, but becoming more comfortable in, you know, media environments, settings. Um really just like he and are very animated, and you can tell when they’re together, it kind of unlocks and they then they both just kind of like riff off each other a little bit. Um I’m also I got to apologize, I messed up there. I got like the first two, I think, and then I was unmuting the wrong microphone cuz I have my manual mute button on my soundboard and then I have the software mute button in the software and I wasn’t unmuting myself in the software. So, I apologize. Um, but you get the gist of the clip. There’s like five more minutes of that video. Uh, it’s like eight straight minutes of them just comparing iconic duos. Uh, some of the other duos that they got compared to or you know the who’s who, if you will. Uh, Perry the Platypus and Dr. Dofen Schmmerz. uh Shrek and Donkey, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, Naruto and Sasuke, uh and a few more. So, uh I’ll put that link in the episode description as well if you want to go check that out. Uh there was also a written article that Slam did about the twins and uh one of the best quotes from the article is that apparently every game against each other that these guys play, uh the opposing benches are yelling, “You’re not the real AT.” And that’s got to be hilarious. You can imagine the Rockets bench yelling at Assar when he’s down on their end of the court. You’re not the real AT. Um and then uh I don’t know just like some great little lines from the from the article. Uh Amin Thompson said when they were talking about their uh their onc court swag, their on their onc court drip. He said, “I used to do the undershirt too until I had to start tucking my jersey in and then I felt like I looked like Urkl. So then I switched it up after that. I’m not going to lie.” Um, and this is maybe my favorite part, uh, or one of my favorite parts from the article. I got two more excerpts that I wanted to share before, uh, wrapping things up. Uh, on and off the court, the connect the connectivity across state lines has been fueled by a two-word text that gets sent out 40 minutes before tipoff. Go kill. Uh, it’s probably like a 71game occurrence, Assaar says. One, because sometimes I truly will forget he’s got a game. It just doesn’t count if you send it during the game. Like if he’s playing on the West Coast, I’ll think the game’s at like seven o’clock and it’s really at like nine. Or he’ll go from the West Coast to the East Coast and I’ll think his game was later and it’s really earlier. So then I won’t be able to send it in time. But I do text him that before every game. I try at least. The Twins interpret the phrase similarly, to be as aggressive as possible on both ends of the court, to play every game like it’s possibly your last. To give it your all, to dominate in any way, even if that means there are only nine points next to your name in the box score. Let your presence be known out there. Amen says. So, what’s on the Thompson? And then this this is the the closing bit that I have. What’s on the Thompson twins revised vision boards after spending the past two seasons putting the league on notice? Championships. They both say in unison. And then Amen. Thompson says, “But you’re not on the Rockets, though, so how are you going to win?” I love I love the banter between the two of them. Uh and the whole like, “Who’s Batman? Who’s Robin?” Uh it’s it’s great. It’s great to see and uh it’s exciting times, man, because you see some of the there’s been some offseason workout videos of Amnen Thompson out there. There’s he’s working with the Guard Whisperer. There’s a video of him uh playing some one-on-one with DaVon Mitchell. And DaVon Mitchell is a absolute dog defensively. And it’s not like either one of them are going like full game speed in these one-on-one workouts. But to see the comfortability and ease with which with which Amin Thompson was getting to some of his spots on the floor, pulling up from mid-range, hitting threes, uh getting downhill to the rim, faking out a good defender like DaVon Mitchell, uh the year three Amin Thompson leap is going to be pretty absurd, I think. And I I don’t even know I don’t even know if I’m ready for it. I don’t know if Rockets fans are ready for how good Amin Thompson is about to be this next season. Uh, but I’ll put the links to both the video from Slam as well as the written article from Slam in the episode description for you to check out yourself. Uh, ton of fun stuff there. Great job by Slam Magazine. Um, and yeah, that’s going to do it for today’s episode. Uh, I want your thoughts on Jaylen Green’s goodbye to Houston. How are you feeling about Fred and Alp working out together in Turkey? Uh, what are your expectations for Alp Euro Basket? What do you want to see out of him in Eurob Basket? Uh, and then how do you feel about Amen Thompson on the cover of Slam Magazine with his twin brother, Assar? Give me your thoughts in the YouTube comments. But as always, thank you so much for checking out the show. Uh, remember, the best way to help us grow the show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. But as always, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening and we look forward to having you back right here at Locked OnRockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball.

Jalen Green’s EMOTIONAL Farewell To Houston | Amen Thompson’s SLAM Cover SIGNALS New Era For Rockets

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) shares Jalen Green’s heartfelt Players’ Tribune article, highlighting the young star’s love for H-Town and his teammates. The discussion covers Alperen Şengün and Fred VanVleet’s offseason workouts in Turkey, with VanVleet’s recent election as NBPA president adding intrigue. Amen Thompson’s SLAM Magazine cover appearance with twin brother Ausar takes center stage, offering insights into the rookie’s competitive spirit and potential impact on the Rockets’ future.

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of these pivotal Houston Rockets developments and their implications for the upcoming NBA season.

#Rockets #NBA #Basketball

JALEN GREEN GOODBYE: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/jalen-green-nba-basketball-houston-rockets-phoenix-suns

AMEN & AUSAR WHO’S WHO VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ipParwnvY&ab_channel=SLAM

THOMPSON TWINS SLAM ARTICLE: https://covers.slamonline.com/ausar-amen-thompson

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