Fred VanVleet & Jock Landale Lift Houston Rockets In Win Vs Victor Wembanyama & San Antonio Spurs

Fred VanVleet & Jock Landale Lift Houston Rockets In Win Vs Victor Wembanyama & San Antonio Spurs

On today’s show it’s jock lale’s world and we’re all just living in it we’re going to talk about why his contributions were so pivotal in the Rockets nailbiter win against the San Antonio Spurs Jabari Smith Jr with a big time second half and so much more it’s

All coming up on today’s 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 houstonian and

Credential media member I’m also the host of locked on NBA Mondays be sure to follow along on Twitter at JTG Gatlin the show of course at lockon Rocket free and available wherever you listen to your podcast including YouTube now today’s episode is brought to you by prize Pi the easiest and most exciting

Way to play daily fantasy sports go to prize.com / locked on NBA and use code all lowercase locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 and hey as always thank you so much for making lock on Rockets part of your day every single day thank you for being

Every day or whether it’s on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym thank you for making the show part of your day every single day joining us now is your weekly co-host NBA draft Enthusiast and die hard Houston Rockets fan Madison Moore you can track down on

Twitter at madman leaks and Madison we are going to talk about Jack landale and his reign of Terror now when it comes to the NBA we’re going to get there in just a second but first right here at the top before we get into the Rockets 103 101

Nailbiter against the San Antonio Spurs their fourth consecutive Road win this season uh we’re we’re breaking barriers here with this rocket team figuring out how to win games on the road a quick medical update from the top we we got the positive news that Alper and shenon

Did avoid you know Serious injury with with you know his leg injury that sustain against the Sacramento Kings uh we have specifics on the injury now though it is a Grade Three ankle sprain uh a bone Bru in his knee and his approximate timeline for Recovery is

About 3 to four weeks um that is incredibly significant because it means he’s not going to miss months of time you know there was no no nothing broken no ligament damage that is huge for Alper and shingun so some incredibly exciting news there um something that will’ll probably unpack a little bit

Further on our next episode as well and then some unfortunate injury news we knew cam Whitmore was going to be missing this rocket Spurs game with a knee injury um he has a sprained LCL and is expected to miss about 3 weeks or so which really sucks cuz it when you when

It boils down to it he’s probably just going to miss the remainder of the season I can’t imagine that they would try to rush him back into things for the final you know three four handful of games or whatever that final week or so in April uh so three weeks out for cam

Whitmore that probably puts him out for the remainder of the Season which is really unfortunate because uh it would have been really cool to see him and a men and the rest of the young guys get a ton of run uh in the closing stretch but just wanted to hammer home those medical

Updates really quick before we got into oh my God this game against the Spurs first off Madison it felt so good to just get this dub especially based on how things went the last time this team was in San Antonio and how disappointing that loss was to lose at the end of

Regulation the the the free throws missed by Jabari the overtime loss all of that this Rockets team exercised some of their San Antonio demons in this game and they did that in big way with big man Jack landale who came off the bench the Rockets went with a starting lineup

Uh injecting Amin Thompson into the starting lineup slotting Jabar Smith Jr over the five but this was Jock lale’s game he finished a team best plus 16 in his 26 minutes off the bench 11 points four rebounds five assists two steals had a block five of eight shooting one

Of two from long distance easily his best game of the of of his Rockets career and and of this season so far yeah uh Jack landelle was incredibly important for this this Rockets win and we probably don’t get the win without Jack lale to uh tonight I think he made

A strong case for him to be in the starting lineup moving forward and I think uh his defensive impact presence activity was excellent his hustle was excellent but I think the biggest impact he had was giving this offense Purpose with his screening I think the rockets in the first quarter really struggled to

Generate good shots they were they were taking the and because they were struggling to generate to get good shots they were taking the first semiopen shot they could find in the offense which was often early and pretty bad shots it’s not the way you want to work work your

Offense up it’s not enough ball movement in that offense and when they tried to do a little bit more it ended up being a broken play and a random player Dylan Brooks or you know what other random player isolating and really taking a bad shot so once once lelle actually got

Into the game his screening provided the the the windows of opportunity to get to get our guards downhill and get the defense moving he also uh provided a roll Target that no one else on this team uh provided all game I was I hoped that amen will be that rooll Target and

I think there’s still some scheming for that to be for that to be available because I think Alan can do a lot of the things that Shen could do can do within 5et you know 5 to 10 feet of the basket right um but that just wasn’t here for

Us tonight you’re gonna have to learn to play together but londelle already knows how to do those things and when he came in he finally gave the offense some purpose in ways to actually generate buckets and once that happened our with combined with that defense we were able

To turn around and that’s where that plus 15 truly shines we we’ve talked about this before but you know one of shun’s strengths as a player uh on this Rockets roster is his screening ability and that’s why it was such a you know a really disappointing uh Revelation

Earlier this season when jacqu landale was struggling as much as he was because as good as Jeff Green was earlier this season before he kind of experienced his drop off he’s not anywhere near the screener or the rolling presence that you know an alperin shingun or or this

Version of a jock landale can be when you have a guy that can set a a crushing screen like that and really free guards it allows them to get downhill right it allows them to get open if you set like a high screen and roll get open for

Those you know for for three-pointers right be right behind the arc and that’s exactly what we saw with landale where before he came in right the Rockets were very perimeter oriented you know occasionally they’d get a decent you know you know breakdown you know kind of

An ISO play and then attack and drive and kick and get the defense in rotation that way it’s a lot harder though when you don’t have that initial screen to really free things up that’s something that Jabar Jr is going to have to get better at in his career if he’s going to

Play even small ball five minutes he’s got to become a better screener to be able to open up his guards to get things moving offensively loved that that we saw from jacqu landale um some of the passes that we saw from him just the energy that he really brought to that

Lineup in the minutes that he got um and his you know his postgame interview right just talking about the fact that you know the the next man up mentality all that the the understanding that you know they’ve got incredibly big shoes to fill with Alper and shingun now gone but

They’re not going to be able to do it as any one person you you know jaot can’t do it Jeff can’t do it Jabari can’t do it by himself as the fiveman so seeing him come in and I really did think that you know they did an excellent job as

Well just talking kind of some of the defensive angle here really making life difficult for Victor whama he finished the game with just 13 points only had 10 rebounds his his playmaking was pretty solid in the fact that when the Rockets did double him um they he was able to

Find teammates had six assists in this game but I think overall like the moments where Victor was you know trying to crash the glass trying to make things happen uh wasn’t really able to do so and I really thought that Jock’s physicality played a huge role in this

Game for sure yeah I think jock Jock’s physicality was excellent I thought he really anchored our defense in a way um that no one else really had could throughout the game for me I mean I thought I thought we scrambled and rotated excellently but sometimes you just can’t account for size right

Account for guys and I thought he I thought he did really well on the boards uh I thought he was really active kept kept the ball alive and overall jacqu lelle to me he is really given like you know poor man shenon like he does he

Just has a bit of that skill he even hit a couple of those little shot puts from the Lane right like that that’s the shenon shot he can finish in the lane he can make the appropriate uh pass in the lane as well he doesn’t always do it and

That’s why he’s poor man shingon but he does it enough where I think he keeps this offense alive and and it’s absolutely essential we we talk about how important screening is for Fred Van vet and Jaylen green you just talked about it earlier like we need good

Screeners for these guys because if if they don’t get good screens is you just rely on them beating their man one on-one and that’s not going to happen every play down the court and we rely on these guys to to to create open shots for everybody so man shout out to jacqu

Landelle man I think everybody should I think especially Aman Thompson uh and Jabari Smith should really get in the film room and watch how he screens and rolls off those screens watch how he is constantly in the passing Lane where he can he can be given the pocket pass and

Watch how he rolls hard to the rim if if uh Jabari and amond has to go on a crash course on how to screen and get open after the screen so they can make plays for others and so they can become just as effective as he is in order for this

Offense to flow there were two really impressive screens that really stand out when you think about you know how uh impactful he was there was one where he opened up Jaylen green for like a wide open three-pointer just set a crushing screen on jaylen’s Defender and

Then there was one later in the game where jock had wimy on him and he set the the initial screen for Fred vanite to get downhill towards the rim and then set a secondary screen in the paint kind of it’s almost one of those like borderline like illegal screens like I I

I I don’t want to call it like a ghost screen or something but it’s one of those like slightly moving screens where the bigs kind of get tangled in the paint and so the refs can’t really call it and that gave Fred Van Fleet like Fred was almost surprised that he didn’t

Have wimy like shadowing over him and was able to go up he didn’t finish the bucket he got fouled that’s the the one where he got smacked in the face but he got to the free throw line and that was um just a couple of examples of how jock

Has you know been able to or was able to unlock the Rockets offense in this game but speaking of the Rockets offense Jaris M Jr had a goose egg in the first half put up 15 points in the second half a huge second half from him we’re going

To talk about how the Rockets maintain their composure and were able to close out this game in San Antonio as well as jabari’s big second half and other thoughts from this game coming up in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by eBay Motors passion drive and

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For everything Houston Rockets basketball now Madison the Rockets were able to pull out this win in San Antonio very different than what happened the last time this team was in San Antonio all it feels like years ago that this Rockets team the second game of the

Season way early on all the way back in October two very different basketball teams here um but this game was probably a lot closer than it necessarily needed to be um some of that had to do with the fact that the Spurs just had you know some contributions from guys like

Apologize like Tre Jones who has not shot the ball well on the season from long distance and yet in this game he managed to go four of seven from downtown I believe it was four of four in the first half from from long range and then just kind of down the stretch

Of this one right they they had some really kind of unnecessary fouls especially from like Dylan Brooks uh you know picking up the uh the foul there late in regulation uh his six foul getting you know not ejected from the game but fouling out of the game uh

Giving Jeremy soan that and one to pull the game within one point uh I believe it was 9989 or sorry 99 98 at that point um and then it just became kind of a free throw battle down the stretch but uh unlike the last time where Jabari

Smith Jr missed his two free throws in San Antonio Jaylen green went to the free throw line with a one-point lead drained both free throws ice in his veins and then you know a possession later Aaron holiday same deal gets to the free throw line the Rockets were

Able to burn some clock at the very end of regulation kind of just the free throw battle going back and forth Oka electing to go with the uh fouling strategy rather than letting the Spurs try and attempt a three-pointer to tie things up and honestly man I I get the

Math I get the idea behind the strategy it stresses me out though especially because the Rockets have been so bad at inbounding the ball and they’ve also been really bad with their free throws so it’s like yeah I get you’re trying to play the percentages but there’s a part

Of my part of me in my heart that’s like maybe these percentages aren’t in favor of the Rockets when you’re doing it this way yeah but we I I feel like we lost a game on a on a crazy three that tied it and went to overtime this this year and

I and I just feel like that’s sitting in M’s head so uh so I understand why he did it but yeah I absolutely hate it I mean I feel like it’s a a coach’s philosophy thing like it’s one of those like what do you do that or like what

Does chicken come first the egg of the chicken you know it’s one of those like things for coaching philosophy and I really hated it’s nerve-wracking and then it’s really tough when you put a young team in that situation who who isn’t experienced uh winning games and being poised down the stretch but we

Give the Rockets credit that’s this has been a weakness of them as of late they’ve been playing excellent basketball for like the last you know since since we came back from the allstar break and the games that we have lost we have lost down the stretch uh

Not being very poised so it was good to see them even though it was against a struggling Spurs team this Spurs team has played more inspired lately and they and they were in this game and they were making it tough and we were down a couple very good players so it was very

Good to see the rockets work their way through this win and and stick to it and show some Poise finally so I I just want to give our guys credit for that absolutely it’s grow it it is growth and then look again you know winning four in

A row on the road that’s important right this is a team that has struggled on the road and so for them to be able to start stringing together some wins here we talked about it on our last episode with bendu Bose but just you know this next

Little stretch of about it’s next six games now right can kind of have a pretty solid sample size of like what the post Allstar break Rockets kind of look like and is it is this team more so the team that we saw for the first one-third of the Season or are they the

Team that was kind of the team that struggled there in the middle onethird of the season um and I think I’m leaning more so towards you know this team is really getting back to some of that early identity that they had earlier in the year even without some of their key

Pieces even without tar een now without Alper Inu now without Cam Whitmore this team is playing some really good basketball I think and and they’re really kind of figuring out how to get back to the success that they had early on and a guy that had a lot of success

In this game that we got to talk about Jabari Smith Jr um 15 Point well he had a lot of success in the second half let me let me backtrack there a little bit um kind of a I I don’t want to say non-factor in that first half but it

Really felt like he did show up in a big way especially offensively there in that third quarter I believe he had if I’m not mistaken 10 of his 15 points in that third quarter um it it really felt like he started to kind of just find his

Little spot within the offense and there was one possession uh late in the game in the fourth quarter where Rockets got a good defensive stop Jabari had the rebound he was looking for the outlet to Fred Van vet and instead you know it wasn’t there I don’t know if he was like

Covered up or what um he just elected to bring the ball up himself and nobody stopped him right nobody checked him nobody picked him up and he just dribbled directly into you know a midi right around the free throw line where we’ve seen Jabari hit that you know

Dribble pull up at the free throw line you know a thousand different time maybe not a thousand but we’ve seen him hit that shot a lot it’s a comfort shot for him and Ryan Holland said something that I thought was so important is Jabari was playing like a basketball player he

Wasn’t playing like a robot and I think that sometimes Jabari can be a little robotic in how he plays um and it really felt like that second half he was kind of just settling in and just playing the way that he needs to play to be effective yeah I definitely agree with

That I thought J I think the best part about jabari’s offensive game is to me Jabari always lets the game come to him and he knows where his spots on the floor are he is he understands his game very well uh and and a lot better than

Most of the young players on our team uh uh I thought that Jabari took the opportunities that came to him and he had some good shot shot creation mides like you said the mid the the mid-range and the uh in transition and I and those are just shots that Jabari works on

Every day he knows that no one very little people can actually contest those shots and he shoots them with confidence and knocks them down you can tell he’s in the gym working on those shots over and over again even uh last year when he wasn’t knocking no shots down you could

Tell he knew that that is what he wanted to be his bread and butter and when he and when he and when you know that and when you work on that type of stuff it comes through in your game and so it was nice to see him get going in uh in that

And still take threes confidently there was one big three hit uh uh when there was just a misdirection on the play and it left him wide open at the top of the key and he immediately stepped into that three and took it with confidence and I’m just that’s the type of stuff we

Want to see from Jabari um I thought defensively he was he’s been really really good um much better since the Clippers game and I thought he was I thought he was active he he rotates and he switches very well and I thought he was good all all game rotating and

Really making a good effort on that end and I think his activity and hands have continued to be good in in the paint so I’m really proud of Jabar in all of his work I just need him I don’t know what’s going on with him and uh I like to call

It is sometimes it’s just a lack of focus with uh some of these passes man he he has about two or three a game but it’s not just the passes like last game he was like standing out of Bounce one time when we passed him the

Ball he was like he caught the ball and he’s out of bounds he just forgot where he was on the floor and it’s like it’s like those are the type of things that just happen sometimes right but for Jabari I feel like they’re happen a little bit more than they need

To like like he’s having but but offensively and today it was it was one where he was just running down the court and he didn’t realize Jaylen basted to him because he was open streaking down the court right and he just didn’t look and it goes out think that kind of goes

Into it maybe even less so like I think it’s like the robotic thing where he’s just like I got to go to the corner right he’s not he’s not actually watching what’s going on and he’s like I’m we’re setting up this play I got to

Go be in that spot in the court and meanwhile Jaylen was like looking to you know so it’s yeah he’s like oh you’re you’re streaking you’re about to have open three you’re you’re going to be able to attack in this situation and he’s just like oh I’m just coming down

The court and it’s just like all right come on we got to lock in you know those type of ter so I just especially these last two games he’s had a kind of couple of those moments but I just want him to lock in on those and he he’ll have more

Allaround games I think once he does that for sure and I think kind of hearkening back to something that you were talking about in the first segment right is this you know Jo Lando kind of coming in and giving this you know Rockets team I don’t you didn’t say the word

Structure what word you use um purpose purpose offensive purpose off purp kind kind of anchoring our offense yeah and and I I think that there’s a way for the Rockets to to do that a bit more than what we saw in this first game with Jabari J now there’s going to be an

Argument to be had and we’ll probably do it right here on this show about you know should jock landale be the starter over say Amin Thompson or you know to does does it make more sense to have jock landale be in that starting unit in some capacity now regardless of what

That ultimately looks like and maybe there’s an argument for maybe Dylan Brooks to to take a seat on the bench with some of his recent play but um I will say that I would have liked to see a little bit more from Jabari in this game as far as just like some elbow

Touches right running some offense through him a little bit more and one thing that I’m really surprised the Rockets don’t do more of is pick and pop with Jabari because you know some some of that needs to go into right if he sets better screens right his guards can

Get a little bit further downhill there are some moments you know throughout the season where we do see Jabari get into some pick and roll actions with his guards but I do think a big part of it is he’s not setting hard enough screen so his guards aren’t getting deep enough

Into the defense to kind of force the you know jabari’s Defender to really kind of shade and and and cut off their driving lane to where it opens him up and some of that right is if a defense is switching then yeah you’re not going

To get as many pick and pops but what you can get is if a defense is switching you can get mismatches and I think there was only one point this game where the Rockets highlighted a mismatch where Jabari got a smaller guy on him uh it

Was when Fred uh got wimy on him and then pulled the ball all the way out pulled wimy out to the perimeter and then realized Jabari had the small on him on the weak side swung the ball around the horn got it down to Jabari and he got to his turnaround fade right

And it was it was money cash money so I think there’s just ways that I like to especially without shingun in the lineup now right when shingun was out there it got to be a little clunky right because you got two kind of guys that could

Occupy you know the low post area or kind of the the elbow area offensively and obviously shingun was the better you know more effective one in those spots on the floor so you want to run as much of your offense through him but now with Jabari and now with this kind of

Opportunity with more shots to go around you’re not going to feed all those shots into a jock landale or a Dylan Brooks or whatever so you know there should be more of an offensive opportunity for Jabari to take on a little bit more and I’d like to see you know Oka get a

Little bit more creative with how to make how to get him in some effective spots uh to close out this season but we got final thoughts from this game some of the concerns with Dylan Brooks and his play as of late the fouling is uh becoming a serious issue Fred vanet with

A very solid statline 21 s and seven to help lead the Rockets to the dub in San Antonio and we got a few more things we want to get to we’re going to get there in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by prize picks prize picks is

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LLC member sipc is a registered broker dealer and a final segment here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball now one of the reasons for I think the rocket success in this game is despite uh Victor womy and his playmaking chops getting six assists in

This one um the Rockets just did a great job bottling up wimy right the Spurs and and Craig even talked about this at one point in the broadcast is the Spurs just I don’t know how they’ve made it this deep in the season they still can’t

Figure out how to get their best player the basketball in spots for him to be successful it’s almost like there’s moments where wimy gets a rebound and elects to like dribble it up himself because he he feels like he’s not going to get the ball back if he gives it up

To another player there are so many and but I want to give a little bit of credit to the Rockets defense for kind of flum mixing the Spurs a little bit when it comes to that right because they switch everything so effectively Dylan Brook shadowed wimy all night long um

When Dylan Brooks wasn’t on wimy we had guys you know Jabari would check him or Jack landale or even Jon Tate who you know next man up mentality shout out to Jan Tate consumate professional uh hasn’t you know he didn’t hang his head he’s not sulking that he got cut from

The rotation over these last few weeks or this last month or so you know he checks in he does his work he had some great defensive possessions you know against wimy or coming over as the helps side Defender to kind of stop wimy um you know on the backline of Defense as

You know somebody else was like fronting him at The Rim those kinds of things so I do think the Rockets collectively did a decent job uh really slowing with me down the fouls from Dylan Brooks you know it’s a concerning Trend maybe it’s something we’ll revisit in a future

Episode but the backcourt play for the rockets in this one Fred vanet 217 and seven seven of 16 shooting not super great but you know three of nine from downtown got to the charity stripe four times hit them uh you know an overall solid game from Fred two steals two

Blocks um again Fred Van BL being credited with the blocks uh the strips that he has when guys go up around the rim and then Jaylen green 16 points five of 16 shooting two of six from downtown four of five at the free throw line including two very clutch free throws to

Extend the lead and give the Rockets kind of that that three-point buffer there uh at the very tail end of the game he did have seven boards and five assists as well um what did you think about you know just Jaylen and Fred’s performances in this one

Well first of all Fred once again steady Freddy this is this is the Fred that we need to win games we need a steady Fred Van he is able to sense when the Rockets are struggling offensively and kind of take over in the pick and roll and get

To his mid-range game if it’s three if he doesn’t have the three immediately he still knows how to get to his mid-range and where his shots come on the come on the floor you don’t see uh Fred taking a lot of shots in the paint because he

Know that isn’t his skill and there’s also uh a 7 Foot eight giant down there you know I mean you can’t and that’s just not high percentage shots for him and so Fred’s understanding of where his spots on on the floor even in these situations uh allow him to get into

Rhythm like he did and you just show this is what vet experience is with shingon being out he’s still able to be effective against this team and that kind of goes into I think Jaylen struggles offensively today I think jayen struggles offensively of course Jaylen jaylen’s not been able to really

Consistently shoot the ball all year but I think a lot of that has to do with uh Jaylen not understanding his spots on the floor and uh especially against certain Personnel so tonight Jaylen was kind of deterred from the rim a lot because of wmy and when he tried he had

He he had some success getting to the line and he had some some some really big fails like the the one block on wimy but one of the things that he didn’t do a lot was into that mid-range game that midrange game weird because it started he hit his first two buckets from

Mid-range I was sitting there thinking okay great he’s gonna cook from mid-range tonight and and this is and this is my biggest issue with Jaylen right now is with with your three-point shot being so volatile and how much the Rockets play out of the pick and rooll

You have to get in the gym and understand how to get shots that no matter what type of night you’re having you’ll always be able to make and that’s just about the repetition we talk about Jabari knowing his spots on the flooor we talk about Fred Van vet knowing how

To get to that mid-range that is a bucket you have to be able to go get and you know you can get it around the free throw line elbow area those are easy buckets and Jaylen doesn’t take enough of those shots once you begin to take

Those shots and make them at a high enough Clips you get to mix in you get to bring those those um guys packing the paint out of the paint they’re G they’re going to hard hedge on you and then you can give them the the hesy and now get

To the rim you now you can start to use and mix in your speed but you have to be able to rely on something that is that is less volatile than your three-point shot right and so yes he’s had this kind of Renaissance at The Rim which I think

Is very important for him but guys are going to know that oh he’s finishing at The Rim we’re going to sink hard to the rim so you have to have that in between game we talked about this a bit but go guards of his ilk and size are Elite in

That area we talking about Deon Booker we talk about Bradley Bill you have to establish that mid-range game especially with shot blockers to bring them out of the paint so that you can get to the basket and so I think with with shenon being out now it’s even more important

Because you’re not going to have the same type of release valve and gravity from that release valve that that allows you to get more buckets and buckets through shenon sometimes you’re going to have to take that shot and know that you can make it and that is a shot that is

Can be can become automatic because of how close it is to the rim it won’t take as much time to develop as your three-point shot um so I I like Jaylen to do that and also become a a better facilitator which I think he’s done all

Year and he did very well tonight I thought Jaylen was actually the first player to start hitting guys on the roll tonight I and I thought I thought this this Rockets offense had very poor ball movement in that first first quarter um and a lot of it I thought fan V missed

Alen on some uh rolls for the rim um but regardless of that I thought he it felt like it felt like Fred was a little maybe I don’t want to say tunnel vision but just kind of felt like okay no Shing in the lineup I got to go get my shots

And to his credit he started the game off pretty high he had he had what I believe eight eight first quarter points and you know he he uh tied the team in leading for field goals him and Jaylen both with 16 field goal attempts in this

Game it kind of felt like there was a lot of onus on Fred like okay I got to go get mine and get going so that I can be our steady diet of offense if we need to and he was right he was the team High

21 points scored so he did what he needed to do but I think some of that maybe took away from his usual like you know mentality of get guys involved exactly those little things um to your point about Jaylen right the shots he hit in this game he had the two mides

That he started with back to back which looked really good then completely like get just it got away from him uh he had one finish inside that one and one finish where he went up through contact uh absorbed the contact and and was able to hang in the air which shot side note

I loved that play because it really felt like like that’s how Jaylen can use his athleticism theim take can and you ab and thenot it on the you on the as you’re falling down right I think sometimes he tries to get the shot off as he’s going up and if you

Just absorb that initial bump and you stay you know composed on the way down it was really beautiful that he hit that shot and then he was two of six from the three-point line so it’s five makes total but uh agree with everything you said about Jaylen now something that I

Know we wanted to talk about here and you you hinted at it a little bit in segment one uh Amin Thompson and his you know using him kind of in that pseudo shenon role uh offensively kind of that connective tissue piece as a screen Setter as a roller somebody that he’s

Absolutely got the court Vision to unlock some of the same things that shingon can do offensively my concern though is he just doesn’t have the necessary scoring gravity yet because you saw the way the the Spurs elected to guard am Min Thompson with Victor whama

And this is going to be a concern A continuing Trend right we’ve seen the Rockets do it against guys like Jeremy soan we’ve seen them do it guys like Josh giddy if you cannot shoot the basketball if you are literally just a not a threat to shoot from anywhere

Outside of the paint then defenses are going to Sag on you and they’re going to put they’re big on you or they’re going to put a a defender on you and allow that person to roam and kind of blow up other plays defensively now I do think

That you know over the course of the game the Rockets did some good things to kind of you know force a switch or or pull Victor with minyama out of the paint and be able to you know attack and get things going but for when when a men

Was on the floor it kind of felt like the Rockets were just at a disadvantage cuz I I don’t know how especially if Victor is the guy checking you I don’t know how a men can attack that coming out of the role um it’s just I think it’s almost a losing proposition yeah

But I mean good thing it’s not going to be a whole lot of Victor with yamas we play you know what I mean you what that’s so so that you know Victor Victor has this ability to just guard two players at one time with his length like

There was one play where Jaylen drove very hard he took got an advantage and dropped it off to to alen Thompson and any other time that would have been a dunk but Victor just was able to move and be and guard both of them at the

Same time but I don’t think we have to worry about that too much too much more often but what you’re saying is important I think it’s very important especially if we’re going to start Al and Thomas Thompson that he is our primary screener and we use him in the

Short roll uh short short roll game I think that amen from the short role we will finally be able to utilize his excellent IC as a passer we’ve seen flashes but because his ball handling isn’t quite there yet we we haven’t been able to really tap into that but I think

From the short roll that’s only two or three dribbles um you know when he needs to score from that and he has enough handle to make a fake a Euro Step and athleticism to finish in in those areas he just has to make sure he’s rolling on

Time and hard or or staying in the passing window where he can receive the ball and make a play and that is what I think he he needs to work on I actually thought he set some pretty good solid screens that at least freed up guys a

Little bit to kind of create advantages but he didn’t stay in those passing Pockets a couple times he did where um there was one time where he had a lob but the angle was still weird so the ball was coming over and it just took a

Delay for him to actually uh get up but it it it actually ended up in a foul I think Sohan fouled him trying to disrupt the lob but that but that angle was just a bit off because he doesn’t know to quite roll Ka don’t know how to play

With him as a roller so it’s it’s it’s it’s going to be I think it’s going to be key for this offense that we get him involved in that cuz he’s going to be able to make some of those passes and we still have Jabari um who’s out in the

Corner stretching the floor uh we do want Jabari as a screener but when you reverse that I think we should use Jabari as a screener in those areas in the short roll as well because he can shoot out of the short roll and when you can shoot

And don’t use a lot of athleticism you can make multiple decisions and this could be a perfect opportunity for Jabari to work on his playmaking because that is an area of his game that he doesn’t have a lot of experience with but I think in the short role that could

Open up some things for him and I’d like to see him hit amen for some of those back door cuts that shun uh does as well there’s a lot of questions that we have about this new Rockets starting lineup should this be the Rockets continued new starting lineup or is there an argument

To be made for Jack landale to be inserted in there as he continues to play out of his mind couple last last couple notes from this one before we shut this uh shut this show down uh shout out to Jaylen green and also Uncle Jeff who both tried to uh completely

Poster Victor wom Yama in this game to no avail but both tries were you know valant efforts both times Jeff Jeff uh green tried to do his patented Statue of Liberty driving dunk on wimy and tried to turn back clock he thought he was 22

Instead of 47 um and uh shout out to Craig Akerman who had this whole like he had this you know Revelation he like hey wasn’t the Statue of Liberty a gift from France so if Jeff Green had yammed on Victor with the Statue of Liberty dunk he would have been returning the Statue

Of Liberty to France I thought that that was a hilarious moment and then Jaylen green had his moment where he you know broke down his Defender got to the paint and basically almost tried to yam on Jeremy soan and Victor wanyama kind of you know didn’t quite have control of

The ball on the way up but man that would have been you know after his uh after his poster on on Anthony Simons I mean The League is on notice and nobody’s trying to be on the receiving end of a jayen green poster moving forward but on

That note Madison you know the drill let everybody know where to track you down at yeah you can find me on Twitter at madman leags come talk Rockets basketball with me that’s going to do it for another edition of lock on Rockets as always thank you so much for checking

Out the show if you haven’t done so yet please consider subscribing wher you’re listen to your podcast or on YouTube just search locked on Rockets be sure to like comment and subscribe 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 lock on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets Basketball

Fred VanVleet & Jock Landale Lift Houston Rockets In Win Vs Victor Wembanyama & San Antonio Spurs

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) is joined by weekly cohost and NBA Draft enthusiast Madison Moore (@MadManLeaks) to discuss the Houston Rockets 103-101 nail-biter win against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, led by Fred VanVleet and Jock Landale. How Jock impacted the game at a high level on BOTH ends and finished a team-high +15 off the bench, Steady Freddy leading the way offensively, Jabari Smith Jr. with a huge second half after going scoreless in the first, how the Rockets defense slowed down Wemby, Jalen Green and Aaron Holiday with clutch free throws at the end to seal the game, Amen Thompson in the Rockets starting lineup and more.

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#HoustonRockets #Rockets #NBA #JalenGreen #AlperenSengun #JabariSmithJr #TariEason #AmenThompson #CamWhitmore #FredVanVleet #DillonBrooks #JeffGreen #JockLandale #ReggieBullock #BobanMarjanovic #AaronHoliday