Josh Okogie Lands With CONTENDER As The West Gets TOUGHER!

Josh Okogie Lands With CONTENDER As The West Gets TOUGHER!

Another move and the West just gets stronger. I’m Trevor Lane. This is the Basketball Bulletin. Make sure you subscribe right here to the channel. Turn on those notifications as well. Joining me is Donnie Freeman. Donnie, the Houston Rockets have had a great summer and it just keeps going. Now they’re adding Josh Aoji on a minimum contract. This this team, man, this team is loaded. Yeah, that’s great value for a minimum for sure. Uh especially for a team like them, you know, that is an insane level of greed. Like they they they were asked team, they were asked when building this roster, how many bigs and how many defensive wings do you need? And they said, yes, just put them all. All of them. All of them. All of them. Just put them all. So I want all the defensive wings and bigs that you have. The you know, the greediest thing they did was get uh Click Capella. I saw that and I was like, there’s no way they just did this. I do wonder how much of this is the Rockets are just playing keep away from other teams more so than they actually need these guys. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t doubt it with at least Cliff Capella because to me it’s just like dude that is crazy. You’ve already got you’ve already got like three other NBA level starter etc bigs that you have and you just added him. So yeah, Aoji though back to him. I think that’s a nice signing to help bolster their perimeter defense, especially alongside the other guys that they brought in and on the heels of losing Brooks. So, as Sean’s reported, Josh Aoji to the Houston Rockets on a $3.1 million deal. That’ll be a veteran minimum uh for Aoji, a careerhigh in steals uh and fourth in steals per 36 minutes uh last year in 40 games. So, this is a guy that can really get the job done on the defensive side of the ball. And here’s why I wanted to highlight this because Donnie, you know, Josh and Koji, no disrespect to him, but this is he’s not typically the kind of guy that we’re going to do like a a news video on somebody signing, but it’s more what this means for the Rockets in the Western Conference in general because of the fit that he can give Houston. You know, when they traded away specifically Dylan Brooks, but also Jaylen Green to get Kevin Durant, you do lose a little bit on the defensive side of the ball. Well, how have the Rockets responded to that? They went and they got Dorian Finny Smith from the Lakers in in free agency and then and now you add a cooji as well. So that defensive pressure that intensity that you lost with Dylan Brooks, you kind of get that back in the aggregate here with Finny Smith and with Aoji. And I think they’re going to make a really nice compliment in addition to of course Aman Thompson who who we expect to start uh with Kevin Durant out there on the floor. So, what they’ve essentially done is they’ve now bracketed Kevin Durant with all these great wing, switchy, active defenders and they’re going to let KD do what KD does on the offensive end. I think this is absolutely brilliant work by the Houston Rockets. Yeah, they have a couple other solid defensive wings on that roster as well. So, they they have absolutely taken that approach. I kind of like with him. I don’t know if he’s going to be our rotation player, but he is definitely going to be a break glass in case of emergency type of guy if you ever need to go to him. Um, but yeah, he’s he is a great defensive playmaker. I mean, last time we were looking at it, uh, he is somebody that is among the best at getting steals, getting blocks, all those things. And so, getting that on a minimum value, maybe even potentially the best defensive, uh, wing on the market right now. Getting that on a minimum value is great if you need to go ahead and do that. And what that does is it allows for KD to mainly focus on the offensive side of things and be a defensive helper, which I think is great for him to help take some of that pressure off of him on that side of the court so he can just, you know, man their offense. Because when I look at this roster, you know, we were talking about it briefly. I don’t question their defense because they’ve just got so much defensive talent and then they’ve also got rim protection, everything like that. There are exactly like there are some there are some points that you can maybe get to on their defense, but for the most part they’re pretty solid. Like a guy like Van Vleet, he’s scrappy, but he’s small. Like you can maybe get some points in there. But I more so question the offense on this team. I think there’s going to be a very big burden on Van Vleet, a very big burden on KD and and Shangon. But you’re if you’re the Rockets, you’re hoping for uh the infusion of offense from Reed. You’re hoping for another step forward from Jabari Smith at this point. You’re hoping for, you know, improved three-point shooting and and steady three-point shooting from guys on your roster that are on the wings. And um maybe even Shenun taking another step forward. But I do question how much offensive burden KD will potentially have. So taking defense away is not the worst thing. Yeah, I look at um I look at this this team with a Koji and I think he’s a could you play him 10 15 minutes a night as a defensive disruptor. I think you certainly can’t do that. And you’re right, you’ve got other guys there. You’ve got Tari E and and guys like that that can also help fill those roles on the wings. But if you could just I mean to be able to throw a guy out there like a coochie who could get you two steals in a 10 minutes like that that matters that that he knows how to play off KD as well from their Phoenix st. Exactly. He’s got he’s got that experience with them. So I I do think that this is a nice addition for them. And you mentioned the offensive side of the ball for the Rockets. That was their Achilles heel during the playoffs, right? They were uh their half court offense was almost entirely dependent on their ability to just bludgeon teams on the offensive glass because they were just not efficient enough. Kevin Durant does a lot to make up for that, but I think you bring up a good point about Reed Shepard because you could use a bit more initiation here on this team. Now maybe Ahmed Thompson, his abilities will grow there as he continues to develop. Uh bringing back Fred Van Vleet was obviously critical. Reed Shepard is expected to step in a bigger role for this team, but the the heart of this team is always going to be defense and the glass. That’s going to be where they are going to to really make their way in this league. And so Aoji, I think, helps you at least on the defensive front uh and helps you continue to be despite losing uh Dylan Brooks, continue to be a really strong defensive team. And now if you can at least get somebody to get you into your offense and maybe that is Reed Shepard. Um, I also think we could see more of running Shangon in the high post, using uh players cutting off of him to get their offense going. And then Kevin Durant, as much as you don’t want to put the majority of the burden on KD, I think you can use KD at times in an initiator role as well. Oh yeah. It’s so like with the offensive thing, it’s not like I’m expecting them to be a top like three offense or something like that. I think they’re cool if they’re like top 11 at that point and they’re probably a top five defense, right? Yeah, that’s my point. Like they’re going to be like a top three, four defense at this point. Like that’s that’s good enough. Like I think that that’s where they’re going to, you know, hang their hat and that’s going to be the most important thing. I just wonder about like, you know, you are going to do it by committee. You are going to put the ball in Katie’s hands. I think there’s a lot on Van Vleet to be healthy. I think there’s a lot on Shepard to be healthy especially because if if those those are like the only like guards really on the roster. They’ve got a couple other guys um but that’s mostly where a lot of their guard play comes from. They’re going to slot guys there like, you know, Thompson and stuff and hopefully he’s able to play make for them and they are going to get four or five assists a game from KD. He can do it. He’s shown the ability to do so, but I wonder about maybe burning him out having him play in all those actions. And so, uh, Shenun, he is somebody that they put the ball in his hands a lot. He’s able to playmake for them. I I liken him to like a mini Jokic because he plays the same way on the offensive end. They use him similarly anyway. Um, and I really like what they have with him. But yeah, I don’t really think they need to be like a top three for, you know, anything like that. But this team is all forwards and all centers. So, I just wonder about that piece of it. So, uh, what I like about the Rockets is while they may have a little bit of a deficiency in terms of offensive creation. I do think Kevin Durant mitigates a good bit of their offensive issue. You could see it in the playoffs how badly they needed a Kevin Durant type player who can create a shot in the half court. What I like is there’s no there’s no question about what the Rockets are. There’s no question. They’ve got an identity. We’re going to be physical. We’re going to be strong. We’re going to kick your ass and we’re going to crush you on the boards. And their best offense may still wind up being a missed shot. That is their best offensive play is missing a shot because they go after it and are able to get the offensive rebound and then you’re out of position. But they’ve got a very clear identity. They know who they are. They’re going to lean into that and I think they’ve got enough versatility here across their roster in terms of the wing depth they have the bigs that they’ve got. They can play bigger, they can play smaller. Now the scoring punch with Kevin Durant and like I said, you could throw imagine if they need a stop or imagine if they just want to create havoc late in a game and they need a turnover and you can throw Finny Smith on the floor with a cooji with Aman Thompson with Kevin Durant. I mean good luck. Like really good luck bringing the ball up the floor. Yeah, that’s going to be insane. The the ability of for them just to unleash an army of long limbmed wings to to shut down teams, especially if they wanted to put some type of fullcourt press on. I I’m not saying they would do it all the time. I’m not saying we’d even see it on a nightly basis, but they’ve got so many different options that they can turn to, at least different styles they can play defensively that I think if they’re anywhere near the top 10 offensively, this team’s going to be a real threat. Oh, yeah. So, like I raised the concerns as I think those are valid, but I don’t I don’t question what this team is. Like you brought it up, we know what this team is and what they’re designed to be. Uh especially on the heels of last uh season for them. And I expect them to still be incredibly good. Uh with good health, of course. I expect this team to be a really, really good team. Obviously, absolutely a championship contending team. Um, and KD will help insulate them from the problems that they had in the last postseason run because he is basically like if you could craft anybody to put based on their needs onto the roster, I think it’s KD at that point. My only thing was that there’s just a lot of offensive burden on like four or five guys and that’s the only problem is that like if you start having some of these guys go down while you can rotate some of these guys in and out. Um, then ultimately though, I think that may become a bit of an issue. But I think that if this team is anywhere near healthy, they’re going to be amazing. So, I I love what they’ve done. This is a really athletic, great defensive team. Got a nice blend of young and veteran guys on this roster. And it’s it’s crazy, too, to see what they’re doing because it feels like they especially prior to last season anyway, it feels like they’re still like maybe a little bit ahead of schedule, but they said, “You know what? Screw it. I’m gonna go ahead and and get these other guys because we were so good anyway. Like their their main core pieces are still really young. Like Shenun is 23. Thompson is 23. You know, they didn’t even get to play Shepard much last year. Look at Tyler is 24. He’s underrated. I mean, like exactly like it feels like they’re maybe a little bit ahead of schedule, but they they were they were amazing last year. So, I can absolutely understand trying to go all in and and see that maybe you could potentially win the chip, especially if if um you know, you get the favorable matchups or maybe who knows what happens with OKC at that point, but maybe you uh match up well with them and you go from there. But I wanted to ask you with this team, I think we’ve already mentioned his name, but who do you think is I asked you this yesterday, the X factor for this team? I I personally think it’s Reed. Um, I think they’re they are really really bookmarking a very big role for him and they’re going to need him. They are absolutely going to need him and his creation. He was good in summer league, didn’t shoot the ball well, but showed the statistical production that you would typically expect from a secondyear player and they shut him down as a result. But I think it’s him. I think that’s a good call. Um, just to to shout out somebody else since you picked Reed Shepard, I’m going to go Jabari Smith Jr. uh they paid him this summer and if you’re going to be able to take off some of the offensive burden on Kevin Durant uh and and with a somewhat similar skill set uh Jabari Smith Jr. I think we’ll have to be we’ll have to take a step forward here for this team and so he’s another guy that I look at uh on both sides of the ball. Can he be a little bit more than he was last year? Can we continue to see growth from him? I could definitely see him as an X- factor for this team. But the great thing is that they still have a bunch of those Suns picks. So they could potentially flip if they decide, hey, we need more playmaking or we need more whatever. They could also be a team to make moves midseason. So the Rockets, they’ve had a great season. The Rockets red glare. The bombs bursting in air. Well, that’s opposing offensive sets getting blown up by this Houston defense. They’re going to be absolutely fantastic. Everybody, we appreciate all of you for joining. Please make sure you do hit that subscribe button right here at the basketball bulletin. We’ll keep you up to date on everything going on around the NBA. Till next time, see you and stay safe.

In this video on the basketball bulletin donnie freeman and trevor lane cover the new signing of Okogie with the phoenix suns, talk about his impact and how much better the western conference will be in the nba

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