Rockets New Schedule: Good or Bad? | OKC Opening Day! | Lakers Christmas Present?

Rockets New Schedule: Good or Bad? | OKC Opening Day! | Lakers Christmas Present?

[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, presented by FanDuel. And joining me to look at the Rocket schedule release is Rockets analyst Bryson aka Rednation Blogger. Go check him out on his YouTube channel. Find him on xrednation blogger. So much to get into in this with the schedule, but Bryson, it was two years ago the Rockets were the joke of the NBA. Can you believe two years later, the Rockets are one of four teams on opening night and they’re starting off against the defending NBA champions. I can believe it. Um this has been something that the Rocket said they were like in phase one which was tearing everything down the rebuild. Last year I would say is phase the earliest parts of phase two and now I would say we are firmly in phase three which is back into title contention having the second I believe greatest odds to win a championship. I believe they they’re going to win a championship next season. Don’t want to get ahead of myself but I’m just telling you right now off the bat. Wow. Yeah. I’m just I don’t see a scenario in which they don’t. I’m just being honest. Um bombs dropping bombs early. Just being honest with you, man. Really just being honest with you. But yeah, man. It’s it’s it’s I don’t even want to say it’s a surreal feeling because like I felt like they would get here and that that’s just simple as that. It’s as simple as that. Yeah, it got somewhere way faster than I thought. I’m not sure I’m at NBA champions yet, but uh just unbelievable. and the storylines just right out of the gate, you know, not just you’re going up against the NBA champs, but you know, KB versus his old team is kind of fun. Stephen Adams, of course, former Thunder as well. I just a lot a lot of stuff. Yeah. Jeff Green, can’t forget about Uncle Jeff. So, you know, you have all these connections and I I feel like there’s a general respect between these two teams. It’s a rivalry based on respect, of course. Uh, OKC, going back to the James Harden trade, the first at right after the James Harden trade that very same season, the Houston Rockets play OKC in the first round. They play Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in the first round with James Harden being on the Rockets team. Like, ever since then, it’s been up with that fan base. And then you can go to 2017 with the Russell Westbrook and James Harden MVP battle. And then you can go to 2020 with the Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook trade with playing them in a bubble in the first round of the playoffs. Like these teams are have been aligned. Honestly, going before my time, if you even go back to Seattle day, it’s like the Houston Rockets and Seattle had wars. This this is just one of those teams that the Rockets have smoke with and it is what it is. Yeah. We had on last week host of Topic Thunder, Matt Tyranny, who covers OKC for our Believe Network podcast. And we talked to him about some of the similarities and kind of how these teams uh have a lot of similarities and how they’re doing the rebuild. But we also talked about one of the key matchups between these two teams. Uh listen to what he says. when I asked him about SGA and the guy that will be guarding him a lot, I would assume opening night, you know, the guy Bryson is probably going to be a guy named Aman Thompson. This is what he had to say. How does Ahmed Thompson compare to other defenders on SGA from what you saw this past season and what you’ve seen from SGA and other guys and how they seem to lock him up? I feel like there was a play where it was a last minute shot from Shay. He was kind of on Shay’s hip. like Shay got by him a little bit, but then he put up sort of like Shay put up like kind of a floater and Almond was able to like come back over the top and and block it and it was one of those plays that was just like even when you beat your guy Almond Thompson can still like recover enough to to just completely deny you and as a fan that’s just so frustrating because it’s like Shay’s first step is so good and sometimes it doesn’t even matter. The other thing too is, you know, we have some really good screeners on this team with particularly with Isaiah Hardstein, uh, who can free Shay up a little bit. And I think Aman is so good at getting around that so quickly just because how athletic he is. Uh, it’s it’s not always like just screen and switch because that’s not going to work on on this particular team. I think even if it does, they have so much length that there’s not going to be a one particular weakness in this Houston Rockets defense that we can exploit. But yeah, with with Almond Thompson in particular, I think he’s also one of those guys that is so fast off of the off of a turnover. He kind of gives us a taste of our own medicine where we’re very good at as soon as like someone like Caruso or even like Casey Wales does a lot where they sort of poke the ball away. They’re immediately gunning for the other rim. And I think Almond does that as well as in a oneman game where he can just poke the ball away and he’s immediately going in the opposite direction faster than everybody else and it’s just it’s just free two points that can completely, you know, shift the momentum in one way or the other. Yeah, you can talk about Chat versus Shenon, too, but that that particular matchup’s going to be fun to watch for years to come. Agreed. Uh the last I think though it was the last matchup of the season when Ahmed Thompson uh you remember when he went on that little run where I believe he held Steph Curry to like zero points really. Steph hit like a three a three-point shot. He ended the game with three points but even that three-point shot wasn’t even on our man Thompson. He had kind of a run to close the season and his defense on Shay was like incredible. It was a play where Shay kind of like got by him with a little crossover dribble. I man recovered, was right there to defend and block the shot. I man is one of those players where quick t quick twitch guys does not give him a problem. Guys like Shay do not give him a problem. He doesn’t fall for a lot of fouls. He’s really good. If you draw a foul on a man Thompson, you’re elite. He does not fall for the okey do. He doesn’t fall for the pump fakes and the tricks of the trade. And strong guys, I haven’t seen them bully a man. He’s a versatile defender. He’s one of the most athletic players I’ve ever seen. I I think that the matchup on opening night is just going to be an introduction to what Amed Thompson’s going to be next year. And that goes be beyond the defensive side of the ball. I think that we’re talking about a player that I don’t want to give you too many hot takes, Robert, but I have some high expectations for Amed Thompson next year, and it’s better than just the All-Star team. Yeah, we just need to do like a hot take Bryson podcast uh coming up about the Rocket season. One of the things that um I noticed on FanDuel our friends over there have an early 6 and a half point underdog for the Rockets against OKC. What do you think about that, Bryson? Would you lean the Rockets as a cover for six and a half? I think they could cover that. I don’t think it’s going to be a six-point game at all either way. I’m trying not to sound too boastful. I’m trying I’m trying not to sound too cocky and arrogant because I mean I’m just a fan. I watch the games. But this is just my fair observation. I I truly don’t feel like there is a team next year that just based on the personnel, based on what I’ve seen this team lack and what this team has gained and the moves that they have made this off season. I don’t see a weakness on this team. OKC is a really good team. I want to give them the respect that they deserve. I understand why they are the favorites. It’s ring night. the momentum of getting your first championship, being at home, the first game of the season, all the juice and the momentum is flowing. But I anticipate this kind of being very similar to what the Houston Rockets did at Oracle in 2017 when they went in there and they spoiled the uh the ring night for the Golden State Warriors. I imagine that this is going to it’s going to follow the exact same type of script. Yeah, there’s another matchup that everybody is going to anticipate, the Rockets Christmas Day matchup. We’re going to get to that later. But what about this NBA Cup group, Bryce? And the Rockets group C has the Warriors, Nuggets, Spurs, and Blazers. They get Jokic, Steph, and WBY. Is this the group of death, Bryson, of the groups? I mean, I’m going to sound like a broken record, Mr. Robert. I’m just telling you, I think Denver is good. Uh Denver kind of frustrated me this off seasonason because I kind of thought they were cooked. like the Undertaker at WrestleMania, they just come up from the grave. They’re able to get Bruce Brown back, who I thought was very instrumental in their 2023 championship run. They’re able to get Cameron Johnson. They were able to get Tim Hardaway Jr. from Detroit. So, they really did a good job of like retooling and not putting so much pressure on the Payton Watson’s of the world and the Christian Browns of the world. They really did a good job, but I just think that Houston is going to match up well with Denver. I think that Houston is going to be they’re going to I don’t even think Golden State is going to be in the conversation with a team like the Houston Rockets. Uh I respect the Portland Trailblazers. I the Spurs are good, but I think that they are like one year behind us. I’ve told you that before on other pods and you know Portland I believe Portland is going to be very improved this year as well, but I just really don’t see it. I think Houston is going to win the NBA Cup. Like I I’m sorry that I sound like this, but I’m not trying to be cocky. I’m not trying to be arrogant. I’m just telling you my honest opinion based on what I see and what what I feel. Yeah. Just for historical sake, the three NBA Cup winners so far uh or two, the Lakers and the Bucks. So, this is the third year of it. Neither have made it. Neither the Lakers or the Bucks made it out of round one of the real playoffs, the playoffs that matter. And not sure I really want the Rockets to play an extra meaningless game with playoff intensity and that sort of wear and tear. Bryson. Well, OKC lost to Milwaukee and I mean, you can make an argument that the only reason why they lost is because they didn’t have Cadet Homegrren at that at that point in time in the season. So, a lot of the versatility and the things that they like to do offensively and defensively, they weren’t able to do and Giannis kind of had his way in the interior. I believe that if Czech was there, they could beat Milwaukee and they would have still won a championship. I think that Milwaukee winning was just Giannis being unstoppable and Shay not having the MVP type night that we’re used to him having. But I don’t think that winning it is an indictment on your season if that per se. You know what I’m saying? Because I forgot the Lakers lost to the Pacers and the Pacers went to the conference finals, didn’t they? The Lakers beat the Pacers in the NBA Cup. I believe the first one the Pacers went to the conference finals and then the last year was the Bucks versus the Thunder and the Thunder went to the finals. So, I guess you’re trying to say the loser goes further, but I just think that every year is different. Every year is his own story. You know what I mean? And I don’t think that what happened in the past is indicative of what’s going to happen in the future. Yeah, good point. Good point. You know, tons more to hit on this Rocket schedule, but before we do, what do you listeners think of the Rocket schedule? Let us know in the YouTube comments. For you Texans fans, don’t forget the Texans play the Panthers on Saturday. Our live Texans postgame show will be 9:00 p.m. Saturday night. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube to get the notifications for all of our live shows, all of our shows in general, so you can get the updates on the content. You also want to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast app. All right, Bryson, the first thing everybody picked up from the rocket schedule was 22 of the first 34 are on the road and 14 of the last 22 are at home. Is this good or is it bad? I think it’s perfect. Every season is is it is it has its own story. Every season you learn more about different players, different teams, whether that be positive or negative. We need to find out what this used to rock his team is immediately. And this team needs to build up continuity and trust as fast as possible. The way you do that is by going on the road, doing team building events, learning, winning games most importantly. And with a coach like Emma Udoka, with the type of front office that the Houston Rockets have, with the roster that this team is and the vets, with the mix of young talent, I just think that it’s going to be a combination of young generation, older midish generation coming together, blending with really good talent. And I think it’s going to be great for winning. I don’t want to be I don’t want the Rockets to be comfortable and think that things are going to be easy. I want challenges. I you know there’s gonna be guys that get nicked nicked and that throughout the season. I want those guys to I want other guys to step up and play in those in those place in those places. So we need to learn as much about this team as fast as we can so that the Houston Rockets can be their best self come postseason when the games truly matter. There’s definitely a difference between a bunch of games on the road and the type of games on the road because if you look at it of the 22 on the road that includes 10 mediocre to bad teams, the Jazz and Blazers twice each. Raptors, Bucks, Suns, Nets, Pelicans, and Kings are among that group. They also host the Wizards, Blazers, Kings, and Suns twice all in the first couple of months. So, I would say don’t be fooled by the road heavy early schedule. The schedule’s not difficult because, and we’re going to get to the prime time games, but when you’ve got a lot of prime time games, that means those will come heavy late in the season, which means those will be the better opponents. So, in some ways, this early rocking schedule is easier than maybe it was last year. Yeah, I think I saw they were at Toronto, at Milwaukee, at Phoenix kind of early on in the season like you said. And I’m I’m not scared of those teams. And again, it doesn’t even really matter the the strength or the weakness of the of said opponent. I’m just all for this team getting as many reps as possible to learn. Easy wins, hard wins, bad losses, good losses, if there is such a thing. This team needs to learn. They need to know who they can trust, who they can’t trust, who can handle the fire, who can’t handle the fire, what rotations work with this. We need to get as much data on this team as possible. In order for that to happen, things can’t be easy. And and as you said, most of the time when a team has as many nationally televised games as the Rockets have, they they they put all those games in March, in the month of March. If I had to guess, that’s where all most of the games are in March. Back-to-backs are always something that you look at and the Rockets had more backtobacks than most of the NBA last year. The average back-to-back was less than 15 last year. The Rockets had 17. There are 14 backto-backs this year. But eight of the 14 are also in the same city. So basically no travel, which is excellent. And consider this. 17 backtobacks last year, three more than this year. It’s good news because they were seven and 10 on the second night of backtobacks. It’s not good when you’re playing back to backs. It’s just on average bad. It’s important, Bryson, because you wonder if Kevin Durant or Stephen Adams will even be playing in backtobacks. That’s a very good point. Uh everything that you said is that’s a very good point. I can’t dispute it. But I will say, and again, this last year’s team had is is last year’s team. I don’t think that regardless if they decide to sit Stephen Adams and Kevin Durant on back to backs or not, regardless of how they choose to handle it and they choose to like low manage these these these bets, I think that this team is just better than last year’s team. I think that this team is going to they have a more reliable score than last year’s team. So no matter who they play on that backto back on that second night of that back to back good or bad team I think the Houston Rockets are going to fare better just because we have more reliability where it matters. A man is going to take a natural jump. I feel like I don’t think Singon can finish at the rim any worse than what he did last year. Don’t hold me to that. I don’t want a mob at my door if he does end up doing that. But I just don’t see it. You said 17 back tobacks. They went seven to 10. I don’t see them going three games under 500 on back tobacks next season. I just don’t see it. Yeah. And like I said, it’s going to help them that most of those backtobacks are in the same there’s no tra I mean back to backs usually. The problem with backtobacks is usually you’re traveling, you’re exhausted because of the travel, that sort of thing. Um there are 28 national televised games. Only the Lakers, Thunder, Warriors, and Knicks, which have 34 each, are scheduled for more national television games than the Houston Rockets. The Houston Rockets are up there with the defending champion, the Lakers, the Warriors, and the New York Knicks. And Bryson, I feel like I’m the only person though who could just care less about national TV games. I’d rather the Rockets just fly under the radar. Do you care? I don’t really care. Uh, it’s nice to see national televised games. It’s nice to see social media reacting to things that they may not be able to see because they live in different markets on a nighttoight basis. That’s nice. The conversations, the memes, the videos, that’s always funny to see. I find it entertaining personally. But I don’t really care more or less if they fly under the radar, if they on top of the radar, if they got the biggest light bulb shining on them. I don’t really care for me. Like cuz like I said like for me it’s not even it’s not about any of those things. None of that to me matters. What matters to me is that this team gets as much data as possible that they learn how to play together. That the guys that I am highlighting that I think will make the necessary jump make the necessary jump and that the Houston Rockets are at the healthiest and ready to go when it’s time to play the playoffs. But 28 national televised games is really good. I I will say I I am I do like to see it though. I do. ESPN, TNT, Amazon, NBA and NBC, they bringing that back. Yeah, that’s right. I mean, I grew up on that, you know. So, I I would love to hear the theme song. Just to hear the theme song alone. I would love to hear that. So, was it Yeah. No more TNT, too. No more. You don’t like TNT? I didn’t like I think they were bad for basketball. I do. I I just think they would Well, it’s the same guys though that are going to be, you know, they’re just moving over to the other network. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know. Um I want to get your thoughts on the general schedule, but you said so before we get there, you said something that, you know, you feel like the Rockets should be better because different guys are going to be better and because of adding Durant. But I also think I think you just got to factor in that teams are going to be more ready for the Rockets this year. They’re not going to sneak up on people. I think they might have snuck up on some teams or caught some teams when, you know, oh, it’s the Rockets and oh, they’re having a sweet season, but we’ll take care of I I that part of it is is you got to play into it. And some of these, you know, the Rockets got better, but hey, the Nuggets got better. Some other teams in the West got better. Uh the East, unfortunately, we’re not in the East because that would help, but the the West is is no joke. And some of these teams got I would say the Lakers maybe didn’t get better, but you know, Luca maybe in shape Luca makes them a little bit more dangerous. I don’t know. We’re going to get to the Lakers in a second, but just overall it’s it’s tough because you think everything’s just going to play out like it did, but hey, we’re we’re better at this or that or whatever. But maybe injuries that you didn’t see happening happen this year. I I don’t know, Bryson. I don’t think it’s it’s not as cookie cutter as maybe you make it sound. I would be more worried if Houston still employed Jaylen Green. If they still employ Jaylen Green, then I would be really with you on you’re not sneaking up on anybody anymore. Teams aren’t going to say, “Oh, it’s the Rockets. They’re having a good season.” I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I don’t I don’t think it’s a matter of how good can you game plan. You’re not going to take Kevin Durant away. I’m in Thompson. I don’t care how good you game plan. You’re not taking that away. Alfred Senon, this team, the way that they’re coached, the defense, the length, the rebounding, the athleticism, the improved scoring, and it will be improved scoring in the half court. I just don’t see a scenario in which it’s a problem this year. I will be flabbergasted. I will be gobsmacked if that like it’s a problem. Like, I don’t see it being an issue. And again, I’m not trying to come off as this cocky fan, this bias fan. This is just observation. Like, who’s gonna stop Kevin Durant in a regular season from averaging 27 points per game? The only person that can stop him from doing that is himself or an injury. I just don’t see a scenario in which the Rockets aren’t a top two seed this year and where they’re not host hoisting up the Larry O’Brien trophy. In my mind, I just cannot see it. I’ve never said that. Like going into last season, I was confident as confident as I am right now telling you how I am about them winning the championship. That’s how confident I was about this team winning 50 games last year and nobody everybody laughed at me. Everybody said I was crazy and I was wrong and we had no Allstars and I was right. I ended up they ended up winning 52 games. So I I really truly believe just based on natural progression and the moves that they’ve made that that is the next step. We’re about to open up a Rockets Christmas present, but just got to remind you that if you’ve got people to hire for your company, we know finding great candidates isn’t easy. You get too many resumes, not enough candidates with the right skills or experience. But not with Zip Recruiter. They find amazing candidates for you and fast. And right now, you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/audio. Zip Recruiter’s brilliant technology helps identify top talent for your roles quickly. 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No, for sure. I I mean, I hopefully the Texans aren’t playing on Christmas. I I forgot the schedule. I don’t know. No, thank God. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. So, I my focus could be just dedicated on the Houston Rockets. Again, this is one of those games where it’s just going to be fun to watch. It’s just going to be thrilling to be watching with the rest of the world. This is our team. Watch us. And this is another game where it could go either way. Luca’s a great player. The Lakers, in my opinion, have upgraded by bringing in guys like Jake Laravia. They brought in DeAndre Aton. They brought in Marcus Smart. They did make a lot of good moves on the margin compared to what they had at center last year. DeAndre Aiden is shack compared to what they had at center last year. Alex Lynn and Jackson Hayes, give me a break. Those guys, no. So, I think that they are going to be improved with this whole Skinny Lucas stuff. It’s going to be a war. I don’t want to make any crazy predictions about a Christmas Day game. It’s a regular season game at the end of the day, but I think it’s going to be a battle and it’s going to be fun to have that prime time slot versus the Lakers. Like you said, the only thing that I would say I’m kind of a little uneasy about or unhappy about is it’s at LA. That’s the only thing. That’s my only gripe with the game. The Rockets over the years though get up for the Lakers matchup. FanDuel has this as a one and a half point dog. Rockets against the Lakers because it’s in LA, I’m sure. But any injury to that Lakers big three between day one and Christmas Day and the Rockets might be the favorite by the time it rolls around might be worth jumping on. Might be worth jumping on a little Rockets action right now. Bryson, for sure. And I mean, even if those guys are healthy, like Houston could could beat them. And just like with Houston healthy, the Lakers could beat the the the the Rockets. I I really just feel like Luca is the biggest headache. I’m not really scared of like LeBron, but Luca, the headache with him and DeAndre Aiden in the pick and roll and DeAndre, I’m not one of those people that’s low on DeAndre. I understand that he’s had some bad moments in his career. He’s had signs of unprofessionalism, but DeAndre Aton, if the lob isn’t there, he has a nice little 12 to 14 foot jump shot. He can shoot that. He can face up and get his own shot if need be. Now, he’s at his best, I would say, team impact wise in the pick and roll in the pick and pop game, but he can do some things. He’s offensive. He’s offensively gifted. Let’s not forget D was the number one overall pick in the same draft that Luca was in. So, mistake or not, he was talented enough to go number one. You know, I think it’s going to be a fun matchup. I think it’s going to be really, really fun. I will say this about DeAndre Aton. You know, you could say he’s much better, but DeAndre Aton, he picks and chooses how hard and how much he wants to play. He also is not always that into rebounding. And against a Rockets team that will rebound the ball like a crazy person every single night with all of their size and all of their length and all of their rebounders, I I feel like the Rockets would are going to beat up this Laker team on the boards. And so, yeah, I I like DeAndre Aiden. I I I’m just not scared of De like if that’s their big improvement this year, if that’s what they got. And, you know, you you also take away Dorian Finny Smith in the the equation. True. True. you know, they they had a couple of other guys that they brought in, but I mean, I looked at what they did in this off season and I Yeah, I’m not I’m not worried about the Lakers right now. Unless Luca, like if if he still looks like this in a couple of months and all of a sudden you got Luca that’s serious about playing defense and he’s playing an all-around game, that that changes the Lakers a little bit, I think. But like LeBron at some point, I don’t know if that ever happens, but at some point maybe he loses just a step, a little of a step. Oh, he’s already lost. He’s already lost he’s lost steps. LeBron has lost like three or four steps. He’s just so great that he’s able to supplement, you know, and still be a very, very highly productive player. Productive enough to still crank out all NBA teams. But it’s no way I watch LeBron in 2015 and say that’s the same player in 2025. Yeah. Yeah. But I’m talking about just like a little bit more like a 40year-old. Like just a little bit more like a 40 like Vince Carter. Yeah. Oh yeah. No, I don’t see that. Maybe at 52. Maybe at 52. Yeah. And one of the things I also noticed is just prior to the Lakers Christmas game. There is a Clippers game in LA that starts at 10 p.m. Central on December the 23rd. It’s the latest start of any game all year and the latest non Rocket start I should say all year and the latest nonplayoff start that I can remember for the Rockets in decades. And also Bryson there are no homestands or road trips and this is better news. No home stands or road trips longer than five games. Last season they had multiple homeands and road trips of six or more games. And the home stands, I I don’t care that they don’t have any long home stands, but the road trips, those longer road trips can absolutely cause wear and you see the Rockets wearing down at the end of those road trips for sure. And last year, one of the big narratives of last season was like, “Oh, I can’t wait till they get to the All-Star break. This team needs the Allstar break. This team needs allar break.” I got tired of hearing it because I feel like every team in the NBA needed the All-Star break and it didn’t affect their play so much. I think with last year, just as much as teams are not going to let the Rockets like sneak up on them as they did last season, I think this year, Houston is not going to let the season, the rigors of the season sneak up on them. I feel like what I don’t I’m not talking about like KD, I’m not talking about Fred Van Fleet. I’m talking about the Singons of the world, Iman Thompson, Tara East, Jabari Smiths. I’m talking about those type of guys that now understand like, okay, night in and night out, this is what we have to do to be professionals. This is what we have to do to win. We know how to do it now. We We have contract stability. We know Amin is coming up. Jabari has his contract. Tari, you know, who knows if he when if and when he’ll be extended. So, I think that these guys just knowing and like they’re another year into the league. I just feel like it’s going to be a lot more comfortability and guys knowing where they’re supposed to be with Eay Odoka going into year three. That’s just that’s just how I see it. So, I think they’re going to be ready. Anything else from the schedule that you saw that you thought might be interesting or just your general thoughts on the schedule, the schedule drop in particular? Bring it on. I’m ready for the NBA. 68 more days. 68 more days. Bring it on. I’m again I I want to be the first person that you hear say this. And maybe I’m not the first person that you hear say, but I want to be the first person said on your platform, the Rockets will win a championship this year if they stay healthy, which duh, they have to stay healthy. But they’re going to win a championship this year. I don’t see any team in the NBA beating this team. Sorry, that’s just me. All right. What do you guys think out there? You agree with him on this? Uh he said it a couple of times. He’s putting emphasis on it. Um I love it. I I love the boldness of it. Uh I don’t know if I’m there yet. I feel like that there’s a little bit more of the process that you got to go through, but look, it always comes down to multiple things. And one of those things is how healthy is OKC in the playoffs this year because you know they were relatively healthy in their playoff run. Are they going to stay healthy on their playoff run? We know the Nuggets have had issues in their playoff runs with injuries. Can they stay healthy? So those are key factors. And that second run, that second championship run is harder. Remember the Rockets were fantastic in 1994 and then it looked like it was all f falling apart with virtually the same group in 1995. They had to make that Clyde Drexler trade on Valentine’s Day when they were going for that second championship and they were the six seed and they had to fight through all that just to get there. So that’s how hard it was for them to do it a second year in a row. So just because hey it looks obvious everything looks obvious that OKC won. They’re getting better. These guys are young. they should play better that they they maybe not have the injuries during the regular season with the two bigs like they had last year. You never know. So, it’s that’s it’s all huge. Um, last thing I want to hit on is um just where we can find your stuff on uh social media, obviously Red Nation Blogger, YouTube. Uh anything else you want to plug on your channel? Not necessarily. I do want to make one last point. You said that you felt like the Rockets had like more steps or more work to do before they get to that level. OKC was a play-in team. They lost in the playin. Year two, they lost to Dallas in the second round. Year three, they won a championship. They didn’t really go through any rigorous playoff battles and these big failures that is advertised to us growing up that you have to go through continuously before you win like the old guard did. Immediately won when they But they got to the second round last year and the Rockets haven’t even got there yet, you know. True. Very true. But we had Jaylen Green, man. Like, we had Jaylen Green. Like, I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but we all know what that man did in the playoffs, man. Like, we had Jaylen Green. The Rockets could have gotten past Golden State if they just got like 12 points from Jaylen Green in some of these games, and they got like eight. We could have got to round two. That’s all I’m saying. But I don’t want to keep kicking this back in. But yes, you can find me on YouTube, uh, Red Nation Blogger. Uh, very easy, just how it sounds. You can find me on Twitter. Same thing. Instagram, same thing. Tik Tok, same thing. And that’s it, man. Thank you for having me on here, man. I appreciate it. Always fun to have you. For sure. 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 Bryson AKA@RedNationBloggaabout the Rockets new schedule. Is it good or bad? What are his thoughts on OKC on Opening Day & the Lakers on Christmas? Can the Rockets win the Championship? Today’s show is Presented by FanDuel!
(:35) Rockets vs. Thunder Opening Day!
(3:00) Amen vs. SGA
(6:33) Can Rockets cover 6.5 spread vs. OKC (FanDuel Spread)?
(7:54) Is Rockets NBA Cup Group the ‘Group of Death’?
(11:17) Worried about Rockets Road Heavy early schedule?
(14:27) Too many Back-to-Backs?
(16:27) Excited about all the National TV Games?
(18:39) Are Rockets really gonna be better?
(22:46) Lakers vs. Rockets on Christmas!
(24:31) Are Rockets a good bet on FanDuel for Lakers Christmas?
(27:50) No Long Road Trips?
(29:25) Final Thoughts: Rockets Championship Prediction

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