Rockets CONCERNS After Kevin Durant Blockbuster Trade | Will Houston’s Gamble PAY OFF?

Rockets CONCERNS After Kevin Durant Blockbuster Trade | Will Houston’s Gamble PAY OFF?

on today’s show addressing some of the concerns that come along with the blockbuster acquisition of Kevin Durant. Like, how does KD impact the Rockets contention timeline? How will he fit with the remaining young core? And how do the Rockets look when Katie inevitably misses time? It’s all coming up right here at Locked on Rockets. This is mission control Houston. Ignition sequence start. 6 5 4 3 2 1 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, also the host of Locked on NBA Thursdays. Be sure to follow along wherever you listen to your podcasts 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, subscribe on YouTube. In today’s show, we’re going to be addressing and tackling some of the bigger concerns that come along with the acquisition of Kevin Durant, like how he impacts the Rockets contention timeline, how he’ll mesh with the remaining members of the young core, and what do the Rockets ultimately look like when KD misses time. We’re going to get to all of that on today’s show. First want to let you know that today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code locked on NBA for $20 off of your first purchase. And as always, thanks so much for making Lockdown Rock. It’s 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. And joining us now after a brief hiatus is your weekly co-host, NBA draft enthusiast, and diehard Houston Rockets fan, Madison Moore, who you can track down on Twitter, MadMan Leaks. Madison, happy to have you back in the co-pilot seat with me on the program and and I’m going to be putting you on the hot seat a little bit today. We talked about this before we hit the record button. Uh you were even joking about you were like you must have been reading my tweets and I was like I was reading your tweets because all the way back on July 9th you said the more I think about it I’m afraid of the age of KD doesn’t fit our timeline and I would have liked to see how JG responds to the playoffs. Playoffs are my final pillar of player development. So, with that being said, Madison, that is going to be a a sticking point, a big topic of today’s show. I want to I want to put you under the microscope. I want your give me your reaction to the KD trade first and foremost, and then we’re going to try and tackle some of these reservations or doubts that you have about the move. Yeah, man. Uh, initial reactions for the trade, I was just like, whoa, what do we give up? Like, you know what I mean? Like, what do we give up to like get this trade done? And honestly, from from the Rocket standpoint, I actually think they did a really good job. Um, but I just have some general reservations uh about trading for a superstar, a aging superstar, uh, at the twilight of his career that could decline at any moment now. And then you add the injury possibilities, a history of in uh injuries, even though his game is so tailor made to aging well, he still, you know, no one has beat father time, right? And you combine that with such a young and upand cominging team that was really starting to gel and and develop in a natural way. It just it it brosition for me as like, man, is this really the right choice? You know what I mean? These guys were naturally growing. Are they ready to enter a championship window? I know MA is ready. You know what I mean? I know MA is ready. I know the opportunity presented itself and the Rockets were put in position to make sure they could, you know, make a move like this. I just don’t know if it was the right move, especially with the momentum that this team had and especially after coming off a playoff run that had a lot of ups and downs. I would have liked to see not just Jaylen Green respond to playing a a different tier of basketball, right? Once you play that, go up a tier basketball, typically you learn things about yourself. You and then the regular season becomes that much easier. the game slows that much more down for you. Um, and then but not just for Jaylen Green but the other young Rockets around Jaylen Green, you know, getting that experience too and also developing in that and having the opportunity for them to now take over games as well. You know what I mean? Uh, in that process now we have head honcho. Head honcho is here. Okay. And if head honcho is here, everybody is deferring to head honcho. And he’s going to need some help, of course, right? Katie’s going to need some help. He’s not going to play 82 games, right? And there will be still opportunities for the other young guys, but I think there might be a little less opportunity than we think it is. And there might there’s still a chance that guys are just not ready to compete for a championship. And to me, those are all risk factors that I think should be highlighted, but it’s not to say that this was the wrong move. I definitely understand the move. I thought it was a good move for the Rockets. Um, you know, it it it was a cheer move, honestly. And so, I just think it isn’t the home run. I thought the whole fan base thought it was, but that just is probably me being a cynic. You know, I I will say, look, it’s not the whole fan base because there you are not alone in sharing some reservations, some doubts, some concerns about this move. And I think it is warranted, right? Highlighting things like the age, does he fit the, you know, I the timeline stuff. We’re going to spend some time talking about the timeline stuff because I do think that angle of consideration is a bit overblown. Not just as it relates to KD and the Rockets, but by and large, like this idea of like everybody has to be on the same timeline. you got to get everybody, you know, in the same age group, the same bracket. Like, no. Like, I think I think players can be a little separated as far as like one guy maybe being, you know, now this is like an extreme example of it because the the young Rockets are like in their early 20s and Katie’s about to be hanging up the sneakers, you know, in a few years. So, that’s like the most extreme example you can think of. So, we’ll talk about the timeline stuff in a minute. Um, as far as the initial kind of reservations and concerns, is there any one particular thing that you can that you can pinpoint because I know you know age and and you know the injury history gets brought up a lot. Is there something from a basketball perspective that that you are concerned about with the KD acquisition? Yes. And I think this rolls into the timeline. From a basketball perspective, I think the Rockets don’t have many real perimeter creators, right? And Kevin Durant’s game is really that of a finisher, not a creator in the sense that he creates for the entire team. Uh, one of the best things about Kevin Durant is that he fits in in every team and that’s because of the nature of his game. But Kevin Durant is not the type of superstar in a sense that James Harden was that you, you know, uh, he’s not a floorraer. Yeah, exact. Well, yes, he’s not a floor raiser. He’s not the type of guy that’s going to really make everybody else better. He’ll make people better in the fact that he’ll get double and triple teams, but he’s not the type of initiator that’s going to make other guys better. And to me, the Rockets did not really address that and have been left very vulnerable in that sense. And honestly, we’re very reliant on Aman Thompson or Reed Shepard or one of the other young guys stepping up in a major way as a creator in a way that I’m just not sure they’re ready for. And so that’s would be my my major reservation. I I certainly see that, you know, and that would that has been one of the glaring issues like looking at this roster, looking at how it’s constructed this offseason, talking about the need for an additional ball handler maybe or another another facilitator offensively. I I wonder though if you know between the combination, right, it’s almost like they they don’t have like a true like truly dynamic number one creator like some of the other teams in the NBA do, but Durant creates a little bit. Shingun can create and and has been a consistent focal point of the Rockets offense. At times, by necessity, he’s been the number one option. Although, I feel like his strengths still very much lie in when he is that connective tissue piece, getting the ball to other guys, operating out of the middle of the floor, reading the defense, and making decisions and and facilitating to his teammates. I think that’s when he’s actually at his best. Then you’ve got Amin Thompson who clearly they are so bought in on and they really believe in his future. So, it it very much feels like they want to put the ball in his hands more and get him to a place where he can become that primary facilitator, that primary distributor for the team. And they’ve still got Fred and you know, Fred’s never, you know, he’s never been, you know, top-notch facilitator, but he’s serviceable. He takes care of the basketball. You’re you’re you’re shaking your head. No, no, I I mean, I think Fred is the key. Like, I feel like the Rockets are not prepared to survive a Fred injury. like we’re not prepared to survive 20 games without Fred Vanble. And I think that is the crux of of this all. If we get 20 games with I think the Rockets would survive 20 games without Kevin Durant better than they’ll survive 20 games without Fred Bley right now as currently constructed unless there’s a leap taken by one of Alvin Thompson or Reed Shepard. I think I agree with you to to I I honestly Yeah, I think I agree with you and that that is that is that is a a glaring issue. I I think unfortunately you can make a I feel like there are a lot of arguments you can make for like you know if X player misses a significant chunk of time then like the team’s going to falter, struggle, whatever. I agree with you that the team would struggle more with a with a Fred absence than they would a KD absence because of kind of how they impact the game. um with KD being more that ceiling razor, right, that elite finisher. Um whereas, you know, without Fred, right, we saw what happened when Fred missed 16 games this past season. Yeah, we saw some growth and improvement from Jaylen and Amen as as the primary creators in that stretch, but things look rough without Fred Van Vleet out there. And so that is a little bit of like the training wheels on this squad. And hopefully, you know, fingers crossed, knock on wood, Reed Shepard is ready to step up and deliver as, you know, the backup point guard this year and we can start to see maybe some glimpses of him maybe being able to someday take the reigns uh of that starting spot from Fred somewhere down the line. So, I agree with you with that being a concern and kind of one of the one of the biggest glaring issues with this roster. But I will also back I will also try to you know tamper that a little bit by just saying you know I think that Fred look for year one played 73 games only missed nine. You know this this last year he had that the the ankle sprain kept him out 16 straight games. Um he missed a few other games here and there. He got rested at the end of the season. So it it was what it was. I think that it’s tough because I don’t have an answer for that one unfortunately. Right. I mean, I think they’re they’re going to have to really rely on Am Thompson and Reed Shepard. Yeah, exactly. And it’s and to me, it’s like, are they ready? We don’t know. And that and I feel like in in a alternate situation, they would have had the leash, you know. I mean, they would have they didn’t have to be ready. They could develop at their own pace until they got to those. Amin is an amazing player. He might take the leap. He might get his ball handling uh together and he might become a real initiator after after he’s doing great work with the guard whisperer this off seasonason, but we haven’t seen it yet. Can that guy uh initiate a offense every time going down the court, you know what I mean? It’s it takes time to do that and you know and it just you can really see a real structure issue this team is going to have if Fred Vanble goes down and he’s not getting any younger and he’s going to miss time and and and to me that this team is not as deep as it was last year. That’s just point blank. Okay. All right. That’s you know what we might have to revisit that conversation at some point in the future too that talking about the depth stuff. But I do want to get to talking about the timeline concerns with adding, you know, 37y old Kevin Durant to what was one of the younger rosters in the NBA. Still has a lot of youth on it. Still a lot of young talent. Uh but we’ll talk about that as well as other angles from the KD acquisition. Concerns, doubts, what have you. We’re going to get there in just one moment. First, today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Look, we’ve all been there. 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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NBA for $20 off of your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem code locked on NBA. That’s L O C K E D O NA for $20 off. 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. All right, Madison. So, I I teased it a second ago in segment one, but talking about this timeline stuff with KD, you know, my thing whenever we hear about timelines and, oh, this player is not on this team’s timeline, so they shouldn’t trade for him or they can’t trade for him or whatever. You know, I I’ve never really bought into that because I in a weird way, especially now with the way that the CBA works and everything and how, you know, certain players at certain stages of their career, they’re getting paid more, less, what have you. I think that one of the most intricately beautiful things about this KD acquisition is right, it’s obviously a win now move. You know, you open up a title window for these next two or three years with Kevin Durant, but I really don’t think the Rockets by any stretch of the imagination have robbed themselves of their future because they still have so much young talent on the roster. And the, you know, the the angle here that that they have to consider is, okay, when K two years, three years, however many years from now, whenever KD is ready to call it quits and retire, and two or three years might be, you know, underelling it, right? I mean, LeBron’s playing into his 40s and we have Steph Curry who’s still playing well into the, you know, the latter stage of the of the twilight of his career, right? KD not really showing any signs of slowing down. We are in a new era of basketball where it used to be like, you know, 20, 30 years ago, man, once you hit the wrong side of 30, it was like, “Oh, man. This guy, he’s he’s washed. He’s got a couple years left in him. That’s it.” We’ve got guys playing highlevel basketball well into their mid30s, late 30s. is like I you know we we have so many advances in medical technology and not to mention load management and sports science and all this stuff that realistically with KD and his skill set and how he plays the game as a strictly perimeter jump shooter type player like I I think he could very easily age pretty gracefully into his 40s depending on how long he actually wants to keep playing. Now I’m not saying he’s going to be the number one option the Rockets best player for the next 5 years. I think he can clearly still be a top 10, top 15 guy for the next at least probably two, three years, injuries pending, health permitting, all that stuff. And that’s where I get into the, you know, I don’t really see the concerns as far as the timeline stuff cuz yeah, you’re going to need somebody to eventually, you know, pass the torch to if you’re KD, right? Like Shingun has to be that guy or Amen Thompson has to be that guy or Reed Shepard, whoever, right? Somebody’s got to step up and be the team’s best player at some point when KD’s ready to release that mantle. But I don’t think it’s necessarily a concern right now. Your thoughts? Yeah. So for me the timeline thing is a huge issue. I mean like I think what you have expressed is the best case scenario. That’s the best case scenario. You you hit me hit me over the head with the worst case scenario. Then I don’t even think it’s a likely scenario, right? What has history told us about aging stars cha chasing championships? You know what I mean? We we we’ve done this before with Charles Barkley. We’ve we’ve done this over and over again with many with Carmelo Anthony, with many of stars. Um as they get older, I do think Kevin Durant has not shown signs of slowing down. But that’s the thing about age. It all it takes is that one injury that you can never really come back, that nagging calf, that you know what I mean, that those it those issues that just never go away, not being able to stay on the floor because of your age, right? Um the the it also it’s it’s father time, man. One day he’s just not going to be able to run up and down the floor and and keep up with guys for 36 minutes a night, right? And so you already got to load manage him, you know, prepare him. And so that really limits you to around to me realistically two, maybe three. You you you’re lucky if you get three years of still superstar level play out of Kevin Durant. I think we have one to two, right? And so when you think about it like that, right, we got a one to two year range to get this done because we’re in championship window now. We just traded for win now championship player. Okay. And I think that championship I don’t know if our young guys are ready for that level of play. I think it’ll be good a good developmental tool, but the the Rockets were already playing highlevel playoff basketball, right? We were already doing that with the young guys that were we were building with. And to me, winning a championship is much as much as it’s about winning the championship, to me and for me, it’s also about the journey, the the the watching these guys grow up together, uh, take the mantle, understanding their, you know, their strengths, overcoming adversity, adversity together, and being ready as a unit together. And I just don’t know if those windows are going to intersect enough for us to get a championship. And if we don’t win a championship with Kevin Durant, the argument is is he taught them how to win uh by playing high leverage games in the playoffs, which to me is not that strong of an argument because we were already doing that. And I think that is the risk the Rockets took. It’s a risk. It’s not It’s a risk. It’s just a risk. You know what I mean? I hear you. I I I will say we only saw them make it to the playoffs the one time right now. A big part of it is you could have just left this team alone and you could have banked on continuity which was that big buzz word we heard a lot of from the front office which to out to turned out to be total BS. Um but could have just you know counted on continuity all the young guys getting better another year of growth and development. But the problem is, you know, the West, I think there’s an argument made the Rockets might have overachieved a little bit this past season relative to, first off, they flat out overachieved relative to expectations, right? We thought like, okay, like maybe they’ll be, you know, top end of the playin tournament bracket. Maybe if things break really well, they’ll be like the the fourth or fifth or six seed and then they came out and they were one of the best teams in the NBA all season long, right? They took that jump as a collective group, as a team. And a big part of that was the identity, the defense, the rebounding, everything that Emodoka has preached, the identity that this team has has cemented for itself. So, I think there is a difference in highlevel basketball being played if you’re consistently getting to conference finals and finals appearances versus your ceiling as a team being, okay, we’re competitive, nice regular season team, but we get to the playoffs and there are glaring issues on the roster that are preventing you from making a deeper postseason run. And I think that the move that the Rockets ultimately made, right, getting trading essentially trading Jaylen Green for for Kevin Durant, right, they feel like that raises their ceiling enough right now to not only make them legitimate title contenders right here, right now for the next two, three years, but even if they don’t win a title, right, worst case scenario, because worst case scenario, they don’t win a title, like you get KD at this stage, you trade for KD, a title is the expectation at this point for this team. it is. But even if you don’t win a title, if you get a finals appearance or two, if you get a couple conference finals appearances, I don’t think there was a guarantee that that would happen if you don’t make the trade, right? That would be the hope. That would be the the optimistic outcome, right, for the young guys that they all develop and that they’re good enough to get there. But now with KD on paper, there is no question this team is good enough to get there. That is where the bar is. I think the bar for this team next season is a conference finals appearance against one of the Thunder or the Nuggets most likely. Right. Let me ask you, what if we don’t make it to the conference finals? I think it’s a disappointment. I think I I think I think it’s a is a disappointment. Now, I’m not again I’ve already pushed back on this. This is not a championship or bus situation because they still have a bright future. They’ve still got a ton of young talent. They’ve still got a ton of assets and there is life after Kevin Durant for this Rockets team. There is there is an there are options to go trade for another star or one of your current young guys will grow into that star the future face of the team and then you can put the right pieces around that player which is why I’m not so concerned about the timeline. It’s like it’s the inverse of the two timelines approach from what the Warriors did, right? They had their aging stars. They tried to inject some youth and it kind of backfired miserably for them. this Rocket team had the youth and then they might have jumped the gun a little bit on going for an aging star in Kevin Durant. But assuming it works out, right, like with the the production, his scoring ability, you can’t deny, right, he addresses a lot of the biggest issues that this team had last year. Oh, yeah. I mean, we gonna talk about because this y’all, we we ready to compete, you know what I mean? And we’ll talk about that in the third segment. I I do want to get into that because I am excited about this season. I we’ve been kind I’ve been kind of like a Debbie Downer to the Rockets fans. I apologize guys, but it is what it is. So, but I want to change your name from you from Mad Man least to Mad Man wet blanket. Like I I I think what I struggle with is it’s all a gamble. We all we already know that it’s all a gamble, right? Um and to me, the Rockets are still struggling within their young core to find the superstar, the guy. Okay, we got a bunch of guys that are great candidates, right? Great great amazing candidates, right? But without us getting one of those young guys, not Kevin Durant, but one of these young guys to become that that star, I think that this experience with KD, it’s it’s a less likely that we’re actually win the championship. And I have trouble with not seeing the development of Jaylen, which is one of those bites at the apple. I’m not saying Jaylen is going to be that guy, you know what I mean? He’s just one of those bites at the apple, but Jaylen has at least displayed the higher tier potential to become one of those guys. He just has consistency issues, right? And and show up in the playoffs issues. But those are things that we know to be uh seen in young players, right? And so it’s like, am I gonna throw that potential away for a maybe championship, a maybe conference finals for the next years? What what you said, right, you said it was a gam you said it was a gamble, it was a risk, right? It’s two sides of the same coin because after what they saw out of Jaylen and knowing the inconsistencies, know and even even him being a young player, right? knowing that young players struggle. They and and especially his archetype, right, sometimes tends to be a little bit more of like needs a little bit more time to get to that to to his his maximum potential. They did their, you know, risk analysis, right? And they valued Rafel, EA, and company. They valued the proven commodity of Kevin Durant. The because what Kevin Durant isn’t a question mark, right? We know what Kevin Durant is capable of. the risk with Kevin Durant is the age, the health, the timeline stuff, but assuming that like and not assuming, but you know, hoping that that stuff is handled, taken care of, and we talked about, you know, load managing KD, keeping his minutes down, the Rockets have depth to be able to survive the times where he’ll miss games next season because he’s certainly not going to play all 82 games. But if you can get him down to like, you know, 32, 33, 34 minutes tonight instead of, you know, like where he was leading the Suns in minutes per game at 36 years old, which is ridiculous. If you can, you know, lessen his burden on a night-to-ight basis, still rely on Shingun and Amen, then you might be able to get, you know, 65 or 70 games out of KD, he could have played 70 games last season, but the Suns just kept him on the bench after his last late game late season ankle injury because they were already out of the playoff running. There was no there was nothing to compete for at that point. He could have hit 70 games last year. So, I think that it’s kind of two sides of the same coin there because it would have been a risk or a gamble to trust that Jaylen Green could get past that that hurdle developmental wise. Mhm. And it’s just like it’s a risk to bet on 37year-old KD. The only difference is KD has a proven track record of being that elite number one option, whereas we don’t know if Jaylen will ever actually get to that point. That’s and that’s where you’re evaluating which one which one do you want to try, right? and the Rockets made their choice and they went with the KD option. And and my reservation just to end it here is it’s not the proven commodity of KD as a superstar. It’s does that proven commodity win a championship for my team in the next two years over the risk of Jaylen being a superstar because to me it’s it’s not quite worth it, you know, throwing one of those things away if we don’t win the championship. You see what I’m saying? Like that. So, so for me that’s how I kind of feel about it because you you throw away one of those things, one of your developmental tools and one of the ones that is the one of the furthest along of in development. You see what I’m saying? And you throw that away for the proven commodity. But the ultimate goal with that proven commodity because we don’t have a timeline to enjoy this over time and watch this grow into something beautiful. You know what I mean? like the the growth with James Harden when he was traded here of having what what do we have you know 10 you know eight nine years of just you know inspiring basketball thinking we’re going to win every year those two years you’ll be surprised how quick they go and if he does not win a championship with this team you know what I mean and god forbid Jaylen becomes a player like Jaylen didn’t doesn’t even have to be a superstar to me he could be a Zack Lavine level player in MA’s system with all these other uh allstar-l like players and you could have a Detroit Pistons like team, you know what I’m saying? Modern day where there are no superstars, but you just have the this team that works together. You got a bunch of borderline like all-star caliber guys. That that stuff’s done, y’all. So, I don’t want to I don’t want to belabor it, but All right. No, we we we hit on some of the doubts. We hit on some of the concerns. If you’ve got doubts and concerns about KD, this is your chance. It’s a safe space. Let it out in the YouTube comments. Tell us how you’re feeling about it. Coming up though, we’re going to get to some of the excitement around this deal, cuz Madison is still he’s still a Rocket fan at heart. He’s still excited about being able to root for a top 10 player. Uh, however many years KD might have left as a top 10 guy. We’re going to talk about that here in just one moment. and final segment here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast, home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. All right, Madison, let’s flip the script here. Let’s be a little bit more positive in this final segment. What excites you most about the KD trade? The thing that excites me most is going into every game and expecting to win like that. That is that you know. Wait, hold up. You didn’t expect to win every game last year cuz I certainly did. I was No, sir. I did. Okay, we’re young players are highly unpredictable, man, as you know. Oh, hey, what excites me most is uh uh a Kevin Durant uh Houston Rockets Warriors first round series round two where Kevin Durant gets his revenge, the Rockets get their revenge. That’s what excites me most. No, no, no. Wipe that away. It’s got to be Rockets Clippers first round series where the Rockets eliminate James Harden and Chris Paul with KD in a Rockets jersey. That is the new hotness. Forget about the Warriors. I don’t care about that team anymore. They’re they’re old and dusty. Okay, forget about them. I want to see the Rockets punch out Harden and Chris Paul now that they’ve reunited in a Clippers jersey. I would not have had that on my bingo card in a million years. No, man. We can’t do that. We We can’t do that, man. James is still our guy, dog. Hey, look. Only one team Oh, look. Look. I got a lot of love for James. Only one team’s making it out of the West. And I’m not hoping for the Clippers to make it out in place of the Rockets. Okay. So, at some point, they’re going to have to go down in flames. And I would rather the Rockets be the one to to knock him out than another team. That’s all I’m saying. No, I’m with you. I I hope we get them both. I hope. Okay. There. You know. All right. There. Warriors round one, Clippers round two, Thunder or Nuggets in in the conference finals. There we go. That’s the pathway. Yeah. But, you know, I want I want to crush them old dusty warriors, and I finally believe that we can do so with Kevin Durant and this team and this defense. Uh, so I’m I’m super excited about about being a being able to compete at such a high level. Um, I am also excited about what Kevin Durant’s daytoday work ethic teaches our young core. I think that is something you should have argued argued against me in the first two segments, but that is going to be invaluable for getting a real uh gym rat in the on the court showing guys how to be a superstar level professional. There’s one thing all these guys are in the NBA. All of them work hard. All of them work harder than you. You don’t make it to the NBA. Exactly. You don’t you don’t but there’s a different level that superstars reach and guys are literally trying to find out how they’re doing this and they’re going to have the blueprint with them on the dayto-day and I think it’s super important for Ammon uh to look at that and super important for Shingun to look at it as well as resheper of course right and I think Ammon is crazy enough to do it. I I think Almond in his mind, the basketball junkie that he is is Kevin Durant. And that’s why you can’t really put limits on Almond. It his limitations don’t project well to me. But his mindset makes me believe that he can overcome anything. You know what I mean? His work ethic makes me believe he can overcome anything. So, I can’t wait to for him to show those guys how a superstar closes games. what what types of things you need, you know, what type of mentality you need to have, what type of confidence you need to have, what type of mentality it takes to be that level of star. And I think it’s most important, it’s going to be most crucial because I believe the guy who’s going to take that and soak it in is Almond Thompson. And so that in and of itself might be the thing that’s more important than everything. Honestly, yeah. No, first off, you’re right. I should I should have brought this point up. I kind of didn’t see a I guess a pathway to include it because it’s certainly something that we’ve talked about, right? Is the idea that, you know, bringing in a guy who is a proven winner at the highest level, who’s been a league MVP, who’s been one of the best players in the league year in year out for the last, you know, 15 years. Like having his, you know, I’m going to call it leadership, right? A lot of people knock KD for not being a good leader because he, you know, he’s not a a bleeding heart, you know, emotional, you know, rah rah kind of leader, but he’s a lead by example kind of guy, right? He’s a guy who absolutely has the work ethic, uh, you know, and you don’t become one of the greatest, most gifted scorers to ever touch a basketball by being lazy, right? Like his work ethic is second to none. And so you’re right, like the young guys being able to learn from him on a day-to-day basis, having him in practices, having him at shootarounds, having him, you know, there while they’re breaking down film, having him to rely on in those crunchtime situations, like you said, seeing how a superstar attacks certain situations, how he handles double teams, how he’s able to get the best out of his teammates, teaching Shingun, teaching Amen, teaching Jabari. That’s the That’s the one I’m most excited for, man. Is Jabari getting to learn from KD. He was just on a pod the other day, a young man in the three talking about, you know, how growing up KD was his favorite player. How or or you know, he loved watching KD because, you know, all the tall guys who could shoot watched KD, right? Because they were like, “Okay, how do I how do I take from his game? How do I copy what he’s doing?” And we’ve even seen, you know, KD and Jabar or sorry, uh, KD and Jabari working out in the offseasons together previously. And so now he gets that every day during the season, right? practices, shootarounds, pregame, postgame, like all of that. He’ll have KD in his ear telling him, “Hey, look, when you get to this spot on the floor, if he’s guarding like this, don’t make this move, do this instead.” I really think that of all the Rockets young players, the one who will actually benefit the most from the addition of KD is going to be Jabari. You know, he was almost a number one overall pick for a reason. I know that some Rockets fans have been a little bit let down with what Jabari has kind of been to this point in in his career, but of all the young guys on the roster, I think he’s the guy who has the most untapped potential still. We’ve talked about that a lot here at this show. You know, Shingun and Amen have been given opportunities to really showcase their talents and been and they’ve been made focal points of the team, whereas Jabari through this point in his career has been kind of, you know, he’s an ancillary piece, right? been, you know, slotted into that 3 and D role player kind of role and he’s embraced it. He hasn’t, you know, he could have, you know, pissed and moaned and been upset and thrown a hissy fit and been like, “Trade me. I want to go somewhere else where I can be the guy.” He’s been a trooper. He’s been a team player the whole way through. But I really think that he has a chance to be something special, you know, and KD can help him get to that place. I think I totally agree. Jabari, I completely missed Jabari in that little spill I had about KD teaching because he has the skill set of Kevin Durant. And I think one of the things that Jabari that has been good for Jabari and actually detrimental to Jabari is his ability to fit in just in a role and do whatever the coaches asked him to do. That is an incredible strength of Jabari and to do it well. He talked about an old man in the three doing the things that you that the coaches ask you to do and doing it very well. But when you if you don’t start to work on the potential of being a superstar, if you don’t start to work on those initiation, try and get those initiation reps, really start to take over in those types of instances, you you’ll never know what your true potential is, right? Unfortunately, Jabari didn’t get as many opportunities as uh uh Jaylen and Opera and Shenon got to really go out on the fly and create and make mistakes, right? Um and he’s kind of slow rolled his development and into a role player. But I my hope for Jabari is this year understanding that the team is going to need somebody to to to be a scoring threat, a triple threat scoring threat. And that is what Jabari can be. Jabari can put the ball on the floor. Jabari can go get his own shot out of the mid post. You Jabari has the skill set. He’s working on his handle, right? He has the skill set to be an a a creator, a Kevin Durant level creator. And I’d like to see Jabari lean more into that. It’s something he leaned in towards the end of the season as he was coming off the bench becoming more of a creator. And that’s something I hope Jabari does not put himself in a box and just consigns himself as a role player. He is still one of those bites at the apple that I was talking about and I’d like to see him go for it as well. And so that’s that’s what I’d say about that. And I and I think Kevin Durant will help him do that. We’re definitely g we this is not going to be the last time we talk about Kevin Durant and the Rockets and how this is all going to look next year. We got plenty more content coming your way this off seasonason, but we wanted to hit on some of those doubts and concerns that Madison was harboring. Uh I you know hopefully it’ll all be good vibes going forward. And look, I I I want the look, the Rockets are going to come out. I think they’re going to prove I not no offense to you Madison. I think they’re going to prove the doubters wrong. I think they’re going to come out and they’re going to kick ass next year. That’s just how I’m feeling. But maybe I’m maybe I’m uh drinking the Kool-Aid a little bit too much. But um I’m bought in on this game. We going to be good as long as we health. We going to be good as hell. I’m sorry. Hey. Hey. All right. There we go. You know what? Like how long are we going to be called? But I I’m excited. Hey, man. That that that’s a hell of a way to end the pod. Look, we want your thoughts in the YouTube comments. Let us know how you’re feeling about the team moving forward. Uh Madison, you know the drill. Let me know where to track you down at. You can find me on Twitter, MadMan Leaks. Come talk Rockets basketball in the NBA draft. That’s going to do it for another edition of Locked on Rockets. As always, thanks so much for checking out the show. 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. We look forward to having you back right here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball.

Rockets CONCERNS After Kevin Durant Blockbuster Trade | Will Houston’s Gamble PAY OFF?

Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets: Game-changing move or risky gamble? The blockbuster trade sparks heated debate among fans and analysts alike.

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) is joined by weekly cohost and NBA Draft enthusiast Madison Moore (@MadManLeaks) to discuss the KD acquisition, exploring its impact on the Rockets’ championship aspirations and young core development. They analyze Durant’s fit alongside rising stars Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson, while questioning how this affects the team’s timeline for contention. The discussion covers roster construction concerns, potential mentorship benefits, and the delicate balance between win-now moves and future growth.

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of how Kevin Durant could reshape the Houston Rockets’ future and potentially fast-track their path to NBA glory.

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