Are the Houston Rockets Better without Alperen Sengun? Jalen Green’s Hot Stretch, and More!

Are the Houston Rockets Better without Alperen Sengun? Jalen Green’s Hot Stretch, and More!

A Welcome to another episode of rockets talk your Houston Rockets are killing it right now in the NBA I got my boy Roose with me to talk about how the Rockets have been doing and some of the discourse around the fan base that I feel like we shouldn’t have to talk

About but here we are bro so what’s been good man what are the Rockets man what’s going on with our team are we going to make that play remember I was the one that held out hope between the two of us for the play in

I thought it was over I really and I said that I was like yo their playoff play in hopes are done um that is no longer the case man they they’re 32 and 35 or they 33 and 35 32 I think it’s I think it’s 32 32 because we just went

Over the uh the over under for the season right okay correct and they have a great chance uh to beat Washington on Tuesday to go 33 and 35 right I think they were 28 and 35 at one point and it really felt like all right this is Out

Of Reach guys are hurt um not GNA happen uh but now no that is that has completely changed they have a chance they’re gonna need some luck um I’m not convinced that they’re going to get that luck however Anthony Davis scratched his cornea and he’s going to be out for a

While uh and so the Lakers have a chance of of melting here down the stretch um so yeah play in hopes are alive man I mean look there there’s some things I gotta say what e Oka is doing to keep these guys prepared next man up mentality doesn’t matter what’s what

Doesn’t matter how they get doesn’t matter how high they get he keeps them focused um it’s it’s super cool to see and it’s very refreshing because for me it gives me that that confidence of like all right it doesn’t really matter what happens I Trust Em Oka to get things

Right and that’s kind of where we are yeah I mean I’m I think You’ put a tweet out about him possibly being the coach of the year I think if they somehow make the play that given the context of the Rockets and the fact you compound the defensive efficiency of this team for

The whole season and then they make a technically like a bubble playoff team to me that that got to be it I mean that we were dead to wrs as a franchise uh coming out of the Steven Silas era obviously all the money we had to pay to

Get these guys then to me I always say hiring adoka was the best thing we’ve done regardless of whether we got Harden anybody that we could have got is udoka because he has taken that mantle as kind of the face of the franchise and the identity and you know one thing I did

Want to talk about with this recent uh streak of the Rockets winning all these games winning the last seven out out of eight and that started against the Phoenix Suns to me the Phoenix Suns game was a turning point for a lot of just things for the team I think specifically

For Jaylen green um that was kind of the marker of where everything kind of Switched as far as what we’re seeing right now and in that eight game stretch uh the Rockets have been a pretty elite team I think we’re top five in that rating uh top 10 defense we’re on The

Fringe of being a top you know top 10 offense and um just some things Miss misconceptions I know people are you know obviously the discourse we’ll talk about the how they’re playing without shanon but during this streak um the Rockets have been a high-paced team and

This was the emphasis we saw uh post All-Star break where they were as high as top three they’ve settled to about six if I’m not mistaken I think they’re six right now in Pace uh for the team uh the talking you’re talking sixth in Pace post Allstar break post Allstar break so

With with and without shenon correct so this is all the games allar the you know I mean since the February whatever okay if you remember I think the last time we did a pod they were number three so um and I say that to say uh one thing I’ve

Seen on this streak is some people comment on the pace they’re playing with and I think people com are once again mixing up pace and transition I think we’ve been getting out in transition more recently because we’ve been getting a lot of more defensive stops but the

Pace that the team is playing with which is something that I think is helping them out tremendously is uh they’re getting into their actions really really fast without over dribbling guys are moving the ball um to and it’s really started it was emphasized to me in the

Spurs the first SP Spurs game where shenon got the 45 points because one of the comments I told to you after the game is that he looked like a sabonis and the reason I said that is because everything was like handoff and just kick out Merchant like get the ball bam

Pass it shoot like that was that’s pace and they were running that uh pretty much since the All-Star break start but to me this streak is what I thought would have happened in January but now I’m realized and I wonder what you think about this they’re playing to me like

They played at the start of the season right the threes are going in they’re is they’re isolation defense is pretty Elite right now this is what we saw in November and parts of the most part of December and what to me happened is that they got tired their legs got tired

Because this is a unsustainable brand of basketball in my opinion and that January wall all the stuff we saw there from the entire team and to me it wasn’t a coincidence everybody crashed out to me it was just fatigue I wonder what your thoughts are on that so

I think I think that’s definitely true right uh fatigue and then fatigue lump you got to lump injuries into that right I think they go handin hand you get tired you start breaking down your body starts breaking down you start getting hurt then you’re playing hurt so you’re

Tired it’s just like a cyclical thing right they go hand in hand shenon was getting a back injury and and I think people forget that he was nursing a back injury um you know between like timeouts and stuff he had like a huge RP on his back and we didn’t hear anything about

That from eay or from the team or whatever so it seems like they just kind of like he tried to play through it tar obviously hurt Dylan Brooks got hurt Jabari got hurt Fred missed what four or five games um so they were they were fatigued they were injured as a result

Um I think the other thing that plays into that the the the the brand of basketball being unsustainable and the reason that we’re starting to see it come back a little bit I saw Madison tweet about this on Twitter shout out to Madison I think it’s true um the NBA has

Confirmed that they are loosening up how they’re calling the game right I think that the NBA at large the entire league has received a ton of criticism this season for the way that they’re officiating right people are just tired of seeing fouls and ticky Tac free

Throws and this this and that and the rockets udoka has the Rockets leaning into like hey let’s be physical right they can’t call every foul and I think we started to excuse me I think we started to see in January and Fe they started th those foul calls were

Slowing down how they were playing defense the defense slipped a little bit um the Rockets were unable to kind of keep that physicality up because the referees were legislating them out of it right and now that’s not that’s not the case and I saw that against Cleveland and you saw Donovan Mitchell complain

About it postgame against Cleveland they were super physical on the perimeter I mean they were for a minute man it looked like late 90s early 2000s basketball personally I love it like I love it that’s what I that’s my right um but you have Fred Van you have

Amen Thompson it allows Jaylen green to be more physical like it just Jabari Smith it benefits everyone across the board so I think those two things have a lot to do with this kind of recent stretch we’re seeing right they got to rest number one and then number two uh

They’re allowed to play physical because they are undersized and the only way that they’re going to be able to continue that style of play at least to be successful with it is if they are allowed to be physical it’s kind of like the Utah Jazz man back in the day like

They would just do dirty and when they do it so many times you can’t call it every time you know and that’s kind of the philosophy yeah and it’s a it’s a it’s a playoff brand and and that that style is a playoff style um and it’s really hard to play that brand

Especially it’s taxing it is incredibly taxing to guard because technically what we do and what we’re doing right now we’re forcing teams to play in isolation yes like you’re gonna your actions are not going to work because we’re going to switch one through four on most plays and sometimes one through five depending

On personnel and we’re going to make your guy have to beat one of our guys over and over and in the NBA there’s a lot of good players but there are not a lot of guys on a play and play out basis that can break down a a a Defender

Especially this the caliber of the am man Thompson the Jabari uh the Fred Van the Dylan Brooks of the world over and over one-on-one and it does wear down the offense the only problem is your legs as a Defender having a shuffle for you know full possession sometimes you

Compound that over games and you get to the point where those threes start dropping off like our efficiency right now on shooting threes it started off really bad in the past like five games it’s it’s really up there overall in the in the seven game stretch um we are up

To 50 let’s see our true shooting is uh 57% 57.9 nothing to write home about but for a team that all year was 52 like we had Jaylen green true shooting as a team uh for the entire season and now to be up there in the uh you know high 50s in

This seven game stretch that that is really the biggest marker you look at some of the players that we’ve had Fred I think is shooting above 40% from three now um Jabari is in if he’s not above 40 I’m talking about post allar break post off okay okay okay okay um and during

The streak during the streak he’s well above 40 Jabari during the streak is above 40 Dylan is still struggling um uh even shenon was shooting 40% from three I think Jaylen was in like 33% uh but the shooting is back the defensive isolation guarding is back um

And I think this gives you a glimpse of what doa’s vision of this team is to me the question is how do we capture this and sustain this for an entire season right so that’s a tough that’s a tough question to answer man I mean look one

Thing I want to point out there’s so much to talk about with like the the the play style because there’s so much Nuance to it right and that’s what happens when you have a tiny a tiny sample of games right there they play three games without shenon so I don’t

Really know what’s what quite yet part of it is what you’re talking about they’ve been on fire so yeah so look I mean look Cleveland has been been struggling since the All-Star break right they came out the gate hot in the calendar year of 2024 and they were I

Think they went on like a 16 17 game winning streak something crazy like that but they’re six and eight since the All-Star break Max stru and Evan Mobley both missed the game against the Rockets stru has missed the last seven games Cleveland is three and four in those

Games Mo’s missed the last six games he’s only played 38 games all season by the way uh which is probably needs to be a bigger story line but they’re two and four with him without him in the last six and like I said 6 and eight since the All-Star break so they’ve been

Struggling now obviously the Rockets um are without shenon tar e am men th uh sorry shenon tar e can’t Whitmore right so it all evens out but the main point is the Rockets played that level of Defense without a rim protector right um everyone talks about oh you got to

Replace shenon with a rim protector the Rockets didn’t do that they have replaced Shang with amend Thompson which makes them uniquely versatile a lot of us have been talking about man amen Thompson got to start I said you got to start him over Jaylen this is when

Shenon was healthy um and shenon and they’re starting to men Thompson now it’s funny though right because they played incredible defense last night in part because of the physicality they still gave up a lot of Rim drives but they were able to to out to counteract that with their three-point shooting and

Getting out on the break you saw multiple possessions where a traditional rim protector like Jared Allen someone we’ve talked about a lot was was stuck out there in the post on Fred vanite and they could not take advantage of it right and that’s one reason why the

Versatility of shang’s offense to me is like I’d rather have someone on my team that can take advantage of that right that doesn’t not this seven-footer that just gets taken out the game by a six-foot guy because he can’t do anything with the rock um but then you

Also look at the Washington game and they did not play good defense against Washington they gave up 119 points I think their defensive rating was like 110 111 which would be better than it is on the season um but Washington scored 58 points in the paint uh they shot 50%

From the field the reason that they that you know the defensive rating wasn’t through the roof is because Washington sucks obviously and because the Rockets were able to force turnovers and were a bunch of unforced um errors but man Washington is six the the the tallest

Guy they had on the court was 6 foot eight Kyle kosma so it’s like and then you look at the Spurs game right they played good defense against the Spurs the Spurs also suck um but that was not an inspiring win either you know so it’s

Just interesting to me how we go like game to game and people get high and low like people forget Jaylen green started popping off when shenon was playing right the Rockets were on a winning streak when shenon was playing then they played two of the worst teams in the NBA

They beat him one of them they barely eat it out um and Jaylen didn’t play well in that game by the way 16 points on 16 shots two of those came from free throws in the final like 15 seconds because San Antonio had to foul because

They were down so it was going to be another one of those games where it’s sub 33% shooting uh more field goal attempts than points you know then the last two he goes off Washington he goes off Cleveland he goes off so it’s like everything all over the place and at the

End of the day for me a lot of it just comes down to shooting and we’ve had these discussions is Jay shot on the mid’s been on the three’s been on he’s been finishing well at The Rim now like I said Washington didn’t have anyone back there and he didn’t finish well

Against San Antonio but he did against Cleveland so it’s like what do you take from these I honestly I have no idea what to take from all this because the sample size is so small and everything is all over the place I’m trying to make

Sense of it still I I think the I mean the three game sample size is is nasty to even you really can’t draw any conclusions from three games especially with the the the type of teams we’ve played with two of them being two of the worst teams and then one being a team

Cleveland even if we assume Cleveland’s great I don’t care we could beat Denver it’s still three games that’s just one game um so but you know I did separate out the games to see just some things um I wanted to touch on in the five games uh when we started our winning streak

With Al shenon uh playing against Phoenix the second game against Phoenix where we beat them um and up until he got hurt in Sacramento so I’m counting the Sacramento game in that five in that um in that five game stretch um out of the seven out of the eight wins we lost

To the Clippers obviously but uh the pace for the team we were number six in Pace with shenon in that winning streak uh the three games without him guess what we’re in Pace number six right pace has not changed at all okay um defensive rating with Shang goon in those five

Games number five in the NBA guess what our defensive rating the three games number five in the NBA um so the only change is the offensive rating the offensive rating uh we went from number 14 uh with those five games to number seven and uh went it went from 115 to

117 so a two points per possession difference and the only thing that if you look at all the data that correlates with that is three-point shooting okay so we are shooting better U from three especially against uh you know in the past two games with Washington and Cleveland that’s why the three- game

Sample size is really really dumb um in fact it wouldn’t even be fair to compare how they play with Aang until another five games then you can say just for this post Allstar break streak we can make okay this is a small assumption but even granted all of that I think at the

End of the day I mean I’ve seen how 60 games already of what the team looks like um I I don’t need any like N I can’t take too much from this stretch right now what I’m trying to see is can they just keep winning these games

Because at the end of the day the style when we talk about the play style The Rock have um right now if I ask you to say what is their main thing right now what would you say there’s nothing I can’t think of what are what are they a

Pick and roll team they don’t really run a lot of pick and rolls um isolation not really they do a a little guard and guard action they do some pick and pops with Jabari um they try to get different actions a post up here with Dylan a post

Up here so basically coach adoka is just coaching his ass off trying to figure out a way to put together an offense um with just random parts of players and I think um the defense is something that uh is definitely sustainable for him I think the five switching one through

Five is something that they’ve done with certain lineups and it is just you know they’re playing good right now I think it’s it’s been the case and I bet you I almost can guarantee it if Shang gun was healthy we would have blew out the Spurs we would have blew out Washington even

Worse and then the Cleveland game uh that would have been interesting the one thing I will say about Cleveland that I I do think that him not being there did help the team um is the fact that they can’t pick on the pick and roll as much

As they did and and that that is a thing that teams can adjust to in a long sample size in a small sample size if you’re playing a team that likes to run pick and rolles with uh Mitchell and Garland with Allen they want to pick on

That opposing big man and not being able to do that because Shango isn’t there and we’re switching everything it does shock your system now as if I was a um you know a coach if I played you in a seven game series you might win too because after that there’s ways to

Destroy teams that want to switch one through five there are teams that are going to kill us with that style teams like Golden State teams like uh Denver teams like Miami the reason I say this I saw the same movie with the uh 2018 Rockets if you’re going to play that

Style teams are going to slip on you all day long and destroy you on the backside it is so hard to sustain that against a smart team they will cut and slip you to death because when you start switching especially with our young team when you come up to switch we switch out

Aggressively they will play against that and the screener just goes go that screen open layup oh you want to come and help kick out to a three so before everybody gets all crazy let’s just think about this as rational basketball minds they are trying to new style

Against uh teams that haven’t seen it it is working well but if you think that for 82 Game season that you would rely on a team without an offensive identity to actually do anything uh I just think it’s mistaken so also the question for me go ahead go ahead also um Cleveland

Without Mo and without stru stru isn’t big anyways but without those two guys they’re very undersized right so uh Donovan Mitchell 61 62 Garland 61 62 George Nang 68 slow you got Jared Allen uh and then aoro what aoro Isaac aoro 65 66 something like that they just don’t

Have like if you play against a team that that spreads you out but that has guys that are a little bit bigger across the board like a Miami Jimmy Butler bam adabo guys like that that can attack you yeah right you you’re going to be in trouble also three-point shooting they

Had Nang Garland Mitchell um but then after that like aoro is his percentage might be okay but he’s really limited to the corner he’s only a corner three-point shooter as far as being decent at it Jared Allen um but they had like I think Merill out there their

Bench is thin like it’s just it’s just a tough sample size and also when you’re when you separated the five games of shenon to the three games without is that at the five games with the when they went four- one and lost to the Clippers yes correct okay I also want to

Point out the opponents right the defensive rating being the same correct right so the defensive rating was the same or they they were ranked the same in the NBA in the five games with shenon and the three games without in the three games without shenon they played San Antonio Washington and then Cleveland

Cleveland’s not a good offense by the way 17th on the season um all below average two of those offenses I think are bottom five with Washington and and Washington’s also the the worst defense in the NBA by the way and possibly one of the worst defenses I’ve ever seen in

My life I’m not even kidding um and then and then Cleveland which is 17th on offense versus Sacramento which is 12th on offense the Clippers which are fourth fourth on offense Phoenix 10th on offense despite all their struggles this seasons and then San Antonio and I think

Portland who both stink so pointing that out as well right because when you normalize and another thing to the points that you said we came out the gate hot this year as a team and then what happened udoka said it shanon said it they were like yo they they’ve

Started to adjust and to take ALR shenon out of the game right they started scheming specifically like yo this is what the Rock is do this is how we’re going to take him out of the game it’s kind of like when you get a new quarterback in there or when there’s a

New pitcher on the mound and you don’t have all the film on him you don’t exactly know right everything so you don’t know how to scheme that’s kind of what these Rockets are right now they’re helter SK Helter Skelter spread out running gun hitting you from all angles

It’s kind of hard to know what’s what um so yeah if there was like a full season of data I I would imagine things would change and then lastly with Jared Allen and shenon being out Allen was out on Jabari and the rets picked on him they

Put Jabari in some pick and pop and they were able to to take advantage of it so schematically that that definitely helped and that was good but yeah it’s just like all these little bits and pieces you really got to parse through before you make like a sweeping

Generalization but what was the question you were gonna ask yeah the question is and this going to lead us to the jayen Green Piece is how do we manufacture a team or produce an offense that takes into account the strength of your best player in opan shenon and

Jaylen green who you want to be your best perimeter player and I think we got some glimpses of it before um shenon got hurt uh uh but I think Jaylen this type of Jaylen we’re seeing he’s been like really turning up especially on defense um since that Phoenix game is he’s just

Been a different player The Rim finishing is better um and the three-point shooting is starting to come around I’m not gonna I’m not sold on his three-point shooting I think it’s it’s still streaky so I don’t really I I don’t really care about that but the two-point uh field goal percentage is up

In the high 40s um right now he’s averaging let’s see in the three games since uh that shenon got hurt Jaylen is averaging 26 uh points per game seven rebounds and three assists and to me you know that’s incredibly impressive in the games prior to shenon uh being hurt he

Was averaging uh 23.6 points uh only 3.4 3.8 rebounds and 3.4 assist so he’s scoring about two more points um and his rebounds are up um the three-point percentage is is up definitely um from where it was before 32% in those five games and then uh now

Being up to I think it’s like in damn near 40% uh uh for it now so the three-point shooting aside three game stretch he’s shooting good that’s good I think there there’s some things I’m seeing that are incredibly sustainable with how Jaylen is playing especially one the defense but attacking the rim um

I this on a live stream we had it seems like he’s finally learning to not jump so early uh from because in the past when he would go one he would expose the ball um and so he was prone to getting stripped number two he would jump so far

Out from the circle maybe he was scared of contact that a lot of times before he got to the rim he was already on his descend losing juice now he’s jumping into the bodies of Defenders and absorbing the contact and finishing through and I think that’s been like a

Great Revelation for him um the dude is I mean he’s playing he’s balling right now and if you had this player for the entire season I mean we probably are outright just to maybe a top six seed uh in the NBA given how well our defense

Plays if we want NBA or or in the west uh in the West in the west top six in the west if you want to talk about sample sizes like I know a lot of the people that you know I put a tweet out about people wanting to trade shenon

Most of them are like super Jaylen green stands right you have a sample size of an entire season compared to a few games um and some people try to pose it as their equal you know when I said that somebody said well they did the same thing well n Jaylen was bad for

Literally like 50 games 60 games of the Season that is different than a guy being hurt for three games right so anybody on our team is tradeable in my opinion like with the right price anybody shenon jayen about anybody is tradable but the price on the brick on

Shenon is way different than the price on the brick for Jaylen green so when we have these discussions I I want these to be nuanced you know I mean I’m talking to y’all I want it to be nuanced so you understand that it is not equivalent of

What I’m seeing from these games for the whole season so as we evaluate things that come on it shouldn’t your first thought shouldn’t be how do I attack the other player it should be how does coach adoka get the best out of the entire team given the talents that we have um I

Love that guys are playing better I love that we have a chance uh to make this plane I hope we make the plane um and uh all these these experiences they’re getting uh but at the end of the day this team we’re seeing right now is not

What we need to be right there’s three of our main core players missing and our bench still stinks in my opinion so to me what can they do moving forward into the summer to help this team get better that’s the question Stone and neem are

Gonna have to uh tackle so do you want me to answer that or Jaylen yeah yeah what what do you think what do you think is a like you’ve seen this you see like kind of what we are with small samples with this team uh you seen the shenon uh

Piece you saw what they look like in between post Allstar break what is your vision of this team I mean my vision would be if the ideal Vision right the ideal vision would be that Jaylen and shenon have the two-man game of offensive star power that we can ride into the future that

Would be ideal and then Jabari Smith is you know a high level three andd guy tar een does what tar een does you insert a man in there and you get all the versatility that comes with him they took advantage of him in the dunker spot which was really interesting um ideally

That’s what you do and then you use the Brooklyn picks to upgrade instead of having to take two of these you know young kids plus the Brooklyn picks to trade for whatever Zion Zack Zack LaVine you know ideally you avoid that and you do you naturally build and naturally

Organically uh put it all together um you know but but it’s it’s it’s interesting man because with Jaylen like you know when we compare jayen and shenon I saw people calling the whole jayen thing a narrative let me just be very clear right um and I know that a

Lot of people’s for For Better or Worse they’re going to put my name connected to Jaylen just because of you know all the stuff but let’s just be clear Jaylen was playing bad right that was not my opinion that just that just was what it

Was uh by all stats and metrics by the ey test he was one of the worst starters at his position with his volume in the NBA period right he he leads the team in field goal attempts now by the way 15.7 per game it’s not like he was just

Playing a small little role he was taken he’s been the number two in field goal attempts all season now he’s number one number two in field goal attempts all season um with one of the worst TS percentages one of the worst efficiency percentages among qualified players that

Take that many shots up until about a week or so ago out of the 500 there was like it was like some stat 565 players in NBA history have taken 400 threes or more in a season his percentage up until about a week or two ago was number 557

On that list right and that’s in NBA history that literally was on track to have one of the worst three-point volume shooting seasons of all time I don’t know where he is now so I just want to be clear he was not playing well right that’s different than shenon who was who

Had an All-Star season All-Star type season um that’s different than in the face of shenon having an All-Star type season someone saying like nah got to trade him got to trade him right if Jaylen plays like this I will completely change everything that I that

I think because this is what I want to see the issue is I just need to be convinced that it’s that it’s real because we’ve seen it we’ve seen him do this right fool me what’s the what’s the George Bush Fool Me Once fool me twice

Shame on you yeah you know like it’s just one of those things it’s like I’ve seen him do it before the fan in me is really excited when he does the cool all the cool and the highlights and the dunks and the Crossovers and hitting the threes and turning around like step all

That the fan in me is excited but then there’s that part of my brain that’s like well hold on I don’t want to jump the gun because I know he’s done this before and and then and then it magically disappears over the course of the offseason and it takes him 55 more

Games to to rev the engine back up the next season right um on one hand there’s some positive there’s positive value to the fact that he’s able to turn it on late in the season but that coming at the expense of the first 40 50 something games that’s that it remains a problem

Now what’s interesting is on the season um if you look at the super Advanced numbers and I’m not big on like vorp and wind shares and box plus minus because it’s still as far as it applies to basketball I still think it’s um a little you know I’m not sure how

Applicable it is across the board it’s kind of a chicken and egg situation right is it a player standing out or is it the situation the player’s in that produces those positive Advanced numbers I don’t know but uh that being said he’s offensive win shares on the season he’s

Still in the negative he has a positive defensive win share two 2.5 best of his career by far um but but offensively he’s still in the negative on the season and then you look at box plus minus offensive Bo box plus minus in the negative negative point2 defensive box

Plus minus negative. 7 box plus minus as a whole on the season Nega .9 which is still miles better than the previous seasons and this is the first season he’s been in the positive on VOR point 6 0.6 so all of that is trending good um the rebounding is actually really good

Like it looks really good functionally like it looks good when he does it it makes an impact on the game some of the increased rebound numbers I’d have to imagine come by virtue of shanon being off the floor and not getting the rebound numbers Reb rebounds in the

Modern NBA is a weird stat anyways I feel like it’s not what it used to be because for that reason but all that being said the way he’s playing now right if the three-point shooting is real let’s get let’s get back to the table I need my shooting guard to shoot

Threes well and Jaylen green hasn’t done that in his career lately he’s doing it he’s doing it effortlessly he’s always been a rhythm player and that’s why when people talk about it they they like they make it sound like it’s this complex Nuance complicated thing his whole issue

Has been making the shots he takes that’s it there’s other pieces and bits to it that make it a little more elevated but but the but the base analysis is hey he got the open shot he got the open midi he used his In-N-Out and hit the elbow and Rose up but he

Just missed the shot he got to the rim he got his thrown he got to the room he missed the layup he’s not getting to the line at the same rate as he used to by the way so some people have that misconception he’s just finishing better he’s shooting better

Right against uh Cleveland last Cleveland last night he’d catch it and shoot it and it went in right and earlier in the season those shots were just not going in so instead of whatever I don’t know what he finished on the on the night for shooting I don’t I don’t

Have his box score memorized but those four threes that go in or whatever earlier in the season he was missing three of them you know and and the and the box score would reflect that so if he’s able to keep this up and put these types of numbers together then I’m all

In on on whatever Jaylen green uh can be and part of it is they’re getting in transition which is a little bit of a red flag for me because I don’t want my my super superar shooting guard to be heavily reliant on transition he’s got

To be able to attack in the half court um we know he can run a pick and roll with shenon I’ve seen him make a couple advaned reads lately had that one oneand whip pass to the corner like a few excuse me a few games ago if you

Remember that so he’s doing some things right but at the end of the day man he’s rising up and the shots going in when he’s rising up for a midi over these last three four five six games it is going in when he’s shooting a three it

Is going in you know what was not happening earlier this season both of those things so it’s like yo if if if he figured the shooting out Hallelujah let’s go um am I convinced that he has quite yet no I gota I got to keep seeing it especially against San Antonio

Washington I want to see it in more you know tougher environments but but yeah that would be I mean that would be my answer man for the offseason if you get this version of Jaylen green and the rockets make a legitimate playin push or even make the play in without shenon

Without tar een which are two huge pieces and by the way while we’re here if we’re going to have these discussions of oh are they better without shenon should we have the discussion of if they’re better without tar een that would not make sense right that would be

Stupid right but T E’s not playing and and they’re winning games so maybe we don’t need t e stupid L that’s fact that’s fact to your point to your point real quick about the transition um with their starting lineup and there’s a question I want to ask you real quick

After I say this they are um in transition they are in the almost in the 90th percentile off of overall transition frequency with this in these three games with the starters and then transition off of Steels they’re number one in the NBA in that stretch and

That’s from uh cleaning the glass um so a lot of their their offense is off of transition interestingly enough um one thing I have noticed with them in with uh with amen Thompson basically replacing shanon the offense has picked up I think obviously because they’re like I said we need to differentiate

Pace from transition they are getting into transition more because they have really no weak links on on defense right now especially scheme wise you can’t we haven’t played a Joel embiid or joic or somebody that’s G to punish us for being small Jared Jared Allen for as

Good as he is when you switch out on him it’s not a mismatch because he can’t post up he sucks he can’t if you get him at the three-point line he’s not going to back you down and make a move so it’s really we haven’t seen one of those guys

To take advantage of it so a lot of times we’re playing in isolation forcing the teams to take bad shots and then forcing steals or going off for rebounds and we’re running and hitting them with our athleticism catching them off the def uh the actual the defense has been

Has been worse uh with the starters so we are at 121 points per possession on defense with am man Thompson Dylan Brooks Jaylen green Fred and and jaari so how many minutes this is in 99 possession 89 possessions 89 possessions they’re giving up 121 points per 100

Correct correct okay so I you know I mean when you watch these games I think like you pointed out the Washington game we could couldn’t stop them it was back and forth for a while San Antonio was a low-scoring game for both of us and then

This game was just so the three game sample size is crazy obviously to the eye we see that they’re a better defense but with that lineup they’re not right now so I can’t say that oh that’s this is udoka defense when statistically it’s been worse than what their Baseline is

Which is around 1156 with uh with their regular starting lineup um question I wanted to ask you before we end this one thing I’ve noticed as you pointed out with amen Thompson they’ve been using him pretty much as a Ford SL big man sometimes you saw this this got me

Excited that uh pick and roll lob that a man went and got that was that was I was like damn I’ve been saying uh the comp with Aaron Gordon I’ve thrown out Draymond Green I’ve said um like is it time to say bye-bye to point guard a men

Because I feel like that that that I heard adoka even refer to him as as a wing so what do you think about that is that dream of you know a lot a lot of people want him to be like this future ball dominant he’s going to have the rock

Making all the decision breaking down is it is that gonna happen in in this regime that is just so I have not seen that personally I’m not right about everything so who knows man but I have not I have not seen a an every I’ve told

I’ve said this right he’s not an every down back at point guard um I think Aaron Gordon is a really good comp I think uh Philadelphia version of Andre Iguodala with without the ability to even shoot the three whatsoever but just like a super athletic Do-it all Wing

That can fill whatever role you need I don’t think he’s a point guard I don’t think he’s not a point guard but this whole notion of oh Fred you know I saw I saw uh some of like you know some of the bigger NBA media accounts the ones that

Are like super stat focused talking about oh the rocket shouldn’t have gotten Fred amen Thomson needs to be playing point guard and I’m like man you’re not watching these games right he is not his handle’s okay he does not have a point guard handle and every an

Every down point guard handle in the NBA um and then like we’ve talked about man you put the ball in his hands you’re putting your team at a disadvantage because all the team all the defender all the defense has to do is back up and I guarantee you teams are going to live

With amen Thompson taking 18 shots inside the paint that are semi- contested and banking on him going nine of 18 at best right because that’s probably what would happen um and then also man can we give some love to Fred Van vet Fred Van v has been he’s been so

Good he’s gotten so much heat from fans over the season of like oh I’m tired of Fred or oh a men needs to be playing point guard man look what happens when you use athleticism size and versatility off of the ball a men as a wing finishing plays instead of creating the

Plays right I I mean to me it’s like not even close why would you take him away from his off ball prowess and put him on the ball make everything harder for the offense make everything easier for the defense same thing with Jaylen you know like when I’ve been talking about Jaylen

Playing off the ball that’s the idea people think oh you’re so athletic imagine when he’s got the ball no it’s easier to defend an athlete with the ball than it is to I mean assuming that they don’t have the full Elite package like like a LeBron James or something or

Or Giannis or something like that which are very rare oneof one type players right if you got one of those yes okay put him on the ball I still don’t think a man fits that category in terms of the overall skill package because he’s he’s lacking in certain skill areas but you

Take a player and and you use athleticism off the ball like bro if you’ve ever played the game if I got a guard an athlete I would much rather guard that athlete with The Rock in his hand than chase that dude through screens on screens on screens because

It’s very difficult to keep up especially in today’s NBA you’re not allowed to touch them you’re not not allowed to like do little things to keep them to slow them down so yeah I I am off of a man as a point guard I’m not saying it’s like never ever do it I

Would just develop him as a versatile allaround Wing that can hit you from all angles and do all sorts of things right um and and again Fred Van vet he’s having the most efficient season of his career eoka has unlocked him um he’s having the most assist per game of his

Career he has I think the best assist percentage of his career you know and he’s doing this he’s doing all this with his usage being down like last year I think he was around 23% usage this year it’s like 19% so Fred Van Ved is has been the I think the perfect perfect

Signing right you’re not going to get this defensive team switching everything flying all over the place pushing the pace you don’t get that with James Harden with James Harden you get get things slowed down you get you know Hit or Miss effort on defense holes on

Defense um and he slows things down to a grinding halt to his pace and waits for the right move so I I just I continue to point that out because I’ve seen over the course of the Season everyone’s like oh my God we should have gotten Harden

And then also back to the matchups man so we all Circle Cleveland as like yeah I want to see how this team plays against Cleveland matchups are everything in the NBA Cleveland didn’t have the matchup the rockets blew them out the water Cleveland didn’t have the matchup could you imagine playing Denver

Without a big man uh we’re going to find out what this team looks like against the Thunder uh in a couple weeks because the Thunder have a guy like Chad can actually hurt you on offense um and they have Jaylen Williams and SGA who have decent size 65 68 uh and they can

Actually put the ball on the floor and hurt you um so we will find out but yeah I mean you play a team like Denver who we’ve actually played well against and you don’t have a big man and I think some of those some of those weaknesses will begin to show themselves

So I would caution people to just wait I mean they’re play the bulls the bulls aren’t great and Kobe White’s going to miss that game but they’re going to play vuich we’ll see what happens against vich um but yeah matchups are everything as well so yeah I once to get three game

Sample size and uh it’s crazy we even have to um really emphasize this stuff to people um because I just feel like there’s I’m gonna assume 99% of rockets fans aren’t idiots um so to the 1% we made this podcast for hope you learned something um but to your point about

Fred post Allstar break this is is the whole he’s shooting 41% from three on 8.4 attempts okay um I think that’s a huge reason why we’re doing well Jeff Green is back to 38% from three jabari’s 37% from three Jaylen green is 36% from

Three if like I like you said if this is the shooting we’re gonna have um and this is in 12 games this includes everybody that you know cam not being hurt or Alp not being hurt this team um is going to be really really dangerous and to me the biggest Factor comes down

To three-point shooting um in what they’re doing for uh amen Thompson I’m with you I think that one of the the things that I’m seeing for him um is not really because if he’s on ball you do limit what you can do with the team to

Me the best case for him is to play off Ball but to me the best compounding case for him is to play off ball with a post Hub guys like Aaron Gordon are trash on any other team that doesn’t have a yic sabonis type of guy right or if you’re

Talking about Iggy being able to play on the court with cavon Looney at the same time you need Draymond there because you need the other non shooter has to be just as much A Gifted passer as the other non-shooter to make because passing is spacing in my opinion I view

Uh good passing and space and cutting all that stuff so okay the best way for me like once again how do we get the you know the initial question was what do we look for going forward is they need to figure out a way to keep doing what

They’re doing I love their playing in Pace I think pace is exactly what it is that means get into your actions fast once the defense um commits you make your moves fast your reads fast guys don’t want to cut I don’t think it’s a coincidence that yoka said in that

Article we discussed before that he wanted to really start from the ground up and then in the fact they’ve increased the pace over time makes sense because you can’t do something fast that you’re terrible at it’s going to look ugly and that’s what Stephen Silas had

Us doing doing stuff fast but we were just you know the kids didn’t know anything so the pace being slow to me was on purpose right we want to learn how to do it the right way even though we’re going to slow down wait for the double team to

Come this like all of that stuff has led them to this point where they get to the point where as soon as the double comes guys know where they need to go so all of that to say man I am so excited about eem odok as a coach for not only this

Coming season but the coming Seasons because I think what he’s building here with the Rockets um is something that in the long term uh they are on track to be a really elite team and possibly dare I say the dword that we might be cooking a dynasty right

Here in Houston this I can’t go there yet not yet we might be cooking a dynasty we missing some pieces bro I’m not we might be cooking we still we don’t have all the ingredients we still you know I mean I got to run to the

Store and grab some stuff but but but I got my recipe book you feel me I got my main ingredients I just with the Tex man that the League’s on notice feels like the League’s on notice it is and and I’m just excited um about that but uh so

Last few games you know we’ve been like I said the competition actually we have a pretty easy stretch what do you think um if how they go about the next few games like do you think they’re G to keep being hot do you see any I think so

Yeah you know we we all have those feelings um it’s like that intangible you can’t really quantify it um it’s basketball is a rhythm game in a lot of ways man and a sports is really momentum and Rhythm right baseball’s like that football can be like that like you know

When that turnover happens in a football game and you’re like oh we’re going to blow this lead you know like you just have that feeling and these Rockets right now have that feeling like they just feel like the confidence building and and by the way when we talk about

Jaylen again we try to boil things down to like numbers and this this and that he’s a rhythm player and he’s in a rhythm right now right like he’s just getting to his spots weaving in and out pulling up and it’s going in and you can see him he’s turning around before the

Ball’s going in so he feels the Rhythm and that was nasty by the way bro yeah he did I I I I’ll burst the bubble he stepped on his foot um when he crossed him he did step on his foot he did no well every crossover is like a push off

But you know you know but um it was it was it was crazy I when I was watching it I was like oh my God uh and he turned around he he combined like the Harden with the Steph right he dropped it looked at him shot it and then turned

Around which is about as I think as disrespectful as it gets in a in a dope way right like yeah dope you know like if you ever do that like I I was playing I plug myself I was in a wck league and I dropped somebody um I didn’t do all

The other stuff but I dropped him and it’s been like years since I broke somebody I broke him and I lost my mind like I just like looked at him and I started howling and he got pissed off but like it’s it’s one of those where

You’re just like oh my God he did that so but but he’s in a rhythm and like when and this team is in a rhythm right so that’s that’s the other thing now being a rhythm player is not good for a star because that mean because when that

Rhythm’s gone that means you’re gone right so I need to find him to the great manufacture the Rhythm even when they’re off right and I just need him you know to round out by getting there but but we’ll see um I also want to point out by

The way I didn’t mention this it’s just funny how short memories are right out the All-Star break Jaylen shot three of 14 five of 13 five of 13 six of 17 10 of 28 it was not until that second game against Phoenix he went 12 to 23 um that

Things started turning around also people forget um alpr shenon dropped 4515 and like six against a defensive player of the year candidate in an isolation Centric matchup uh I think 12 days ago not even two full weeks ago it’s just amazing how short memories are

It’s it’s a lot of agendas um it’s a lot of people with preconceived notions a lot of biases and uh I had said this on a tweet you commented on uh we are not a tanking team anymore guys let’s let’s let’s be serious let’s be real let’s talk basketball

Um and let’s just root out those type of people from the fan base because I think it’s it’s really disgusting it’s nasty and uh yeah I just I’m not engaging with that type of discourse if you want to trade Shang goon fine but not off of

Three games hze that’s just you feel me like you can you can give me oh we need a rim okay yeah we can talk then but uh some of the Discord but n man uh I think we can cut it there um we will be back

Next week this is episode number five of rockets talk if you guys are new to the channel hit the Subscribe button if you like this video hit the like button let us know your thoughts on the uh the recent streak for the Rockets uh not only this three game but also you know

The the eight seven out of eight games that they had what have you what are you seeing we like to discuss with you obviously you guys know we don’t care I will argue with you Roos is very nice on uh YouTube for some reason uh I’m not

I’m Roos on YouTube and you’re like me on you’re me on you on Twitter on YouTube so I am I am I’m Chop Shop fans know Bute apprciate you bro um hey real quick big question do they win 40 games they have 15 left they got to go eight

And seven to to finish with 40 um I think um I’m trying to think which game is going to determine that I think they can win 40 games yes I think they just tell you right now Wizards Bulls Jazz Blazers as their next four they could

Easily go four and 0 they could Thunder Jazz Mavericks I mean this a then it’s Timberwolves Warriors heat Mavericks to start April magic those are the first five and then Jazz Blazers Clippers I think they could win 40 they can win 40 they can win 40 I don’t think it

Guarantees the plan but I think they could win 40 uh and if they do to me successful season easily successful season and we’ll talk about what the implications of that is when we get there but um you already know what the deal is keep rocking with the chop shop

And we’re going to keep dropping that fire Bang Bang Oh

In this episode of Rockets Talk Roosh and Frank discuss whether the Houston Rockets are better without Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green’s hot stretch, the teams recent hot play and Amen Thompsons role going forward! #houstonrockets #nba #podcast #alperensengun #jalengreen #amenthompson

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