Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast look at some of the various offseason moves to assess where the Rockets stack up in the Western Conference.
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00:00George leaving the Clippers to go to the Sixers. So, Paul George is out of the Western Conference
00:05now. The Clippers re-signed James Harden to a two-year deal, $70 million. Russell Westbrook
00:10will be back with the Clippers as well. Kawhi Leonard is still a Clipper. They signed Kevin
00:18Porter Jr. I don't know if that matters to people, and it definitely doesn't matter,
00:21probably, for the standings. But Seth, if you look at the Western Conference,
00:24the Rockets are 11th, and the Rockets, in my opinion, are not going backwards.
00:28The young core is going to be a year older. They added Reed Shepard. Another year with
00:34Fred VanVleet and Dylan Brooks is kind of the veteran guys. Steven Adams is going to be part
00:38of this team now, which I think is kind of underrated. Big like that, who they had issues
00:44with size last year. If Steven Adams is healthy, that's, I think, kind of an underrated addition
00:50here. They picked him up last year while he was injured. So, I don't think they're going
00:53backwards. They were 11th. They were 41-41. And then there was a big gap between them and
00:58the teams behind them. The next closest was the Jazz with 31 wins. I suppose Memphis, 27 wins,
01:05but they get John Morant back, presumably, all year. And then Victor Wembayama probably takes
01:10a step forward. But the Spurs won 22 games last year. As far as stuff going on in front of the
01:15Rockets, man, like right now, life is pretty good. I think the Golden State Warriors are viewed as
01:20the dynasty is over. Klay Thompson is leaving. Sacramento hasn't really done anything in the
01:26offseason that would indicate that they're taking a big leap to stay ahead of the Rockets. I'm just
01:31counting up from 10 as the Warriors, 9 as the Kings. Pelicans just pick up DeJounte Murray
01:36as the eighth seed. That's definitely an improvement for them. The Lakers are kind
01:41of the Lakers. They're the same team, but now with J.J. Rennick as a coach, a new coach.
01:47Nobody knows a damn thing how he'll do. Good, bad, indifferent. But he'll also be managing
01:55his podcast buddy's son, Bronny, too. Which I believe is the biggest thing that might blow up
02:04the Lakers. If somehow Rennick, who doesn't hold his tongue, I don't think, is somehow a little
02:12too mean to young Bronny. It's almost like a Little League dynamic played out now. Where
02:19LeBron and how he wants Bronny treated might be the first big challenge Rennick faces in trying to
02:27actually own the locker room there. Can you imagine being a coach of a Little League team
02:32and the helicopter dad is actually a member of the team?
02:36Like that's, yeah, yeah. The helicopter dad is actually on the team.
02:40Air quotes, coach. Right, right. So I, the Lakers don't scare me. Phoenix is the sixth
02:47seed. They got swept out of the first round of the playoffs and that's, I don't, that mix is
02:52not good there. I, you know, Durant and Devin Booker and I think Bradley Beal was, that's a
02:56disaster. The Mavericks made the NBA finals and I like, that's okay. I'm, I'm, you know, that,
03:01that, that they're a 50 win team and I think there's a chance they're better than that.
03:06The Clippers though, man, you lose Paul George, you know, and that's, and we know James Harden
03:12is a little suspect. They picked up Kevin Porter Jr. though. Yeah, they did. I think the top three
03:17teams are legitimately really good basketball teams. The Thunder, the Nuggets, and the Timberwolves.
03:22After that, and I think the Mavericks too, the five seed. I, you know, I, I think for sure,
03:27like my expectations for the Rockets now, Seth, is that if they get into the play in that seven
03:33through 10, if they're not hosting a game, I'll be a little disappointed at the seven or eight
03:37team in the play in. And I think the ceiling for them, I think the ceiling for them is they can
03:41flirt with, they can flirt with maybe getting home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs,
03:47like a four seed or something. I'll say the one thing, the way I like that
03:51Rafael Stone has set up their future drafts is that it puts you out of the mode of where being
03:59a fringe playoff team is a bad thing. You know, where, where, you know, it used to be the worst
04:05thing you can be in the NBA is right in the middle because then you're not tanking enough to get
04:09future stars. They have their potential future stars already on the roster and they've got draft
04:14picks that aren't tied as much to their individual success. So you can actually, like you can actually
04:20get excited about being at the back end of the playoffs and you know, and obviously these days
04:26in the NBA, your seating doesn't matter nearly as much as it used to, but I'm yeah, I think that's
04:32where you should, you should feel right now. The, the huge, the huge X factor in all of that is,
04:38okay, let's say theoretically they did trade for Kevin Durant. Like, does that, like what does,
04:45how much does that elevate just plopping Kevin Durant onto this roster? How much does that
04:51elevate them up into the conversation of those, those top three teams? Then I think you go into
04:56the, if you get Kevin Durant, then I think you've got to be talking. Whereas I'm talking about
05:00getting home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs as like not a pipe dream, but boy,
05:05that's like a really, really lofty ceiling. It has a very small chance of happening, but I could see
05:11it if things fell the right way. Now that all of a sudden becomes what this phase of Rockets
05:15basketball is about. Like, okay, if we're not, if we're not, I don't think there'd be a one seat or
05:20anything like that, but I think you're targeting like three, the three or four seat. If you got
05:24Kevin Durant, I'll tell you right now, that's what Kevin Durant's targeting. Kevin Durant ain't
05:27coming to a team to be the seven seat. Right, right, exactly. Yeah, that's where, and I guess
05:32that's the conversation that you have to have, uh, you know, that Kevin Durant would have is
05:38even though Kevin Durant once claimed that they never talked about championships when they met in
05:42the Hamptons with the, with the Warriors that, that, uh, so long ago, like, I guess, yeah, maybe
05:49you didn't talk about it because obviously that's, uh, you, you, you're going on a team there that's
05:54very capable of winning a championship. Right, right. Um, is this demise of the Warriors dynasty
06:01as much fun as you envisioned it being when, when, uh, back when we were all praying? No,
06:05cause it didn't happen as fast as I wanted it to. It's kind of like the spurs,
06:09the demise of the spurs. It was after it was after five or six straight years of me saying
06:15like, well, they'll get old. Nope. They're not going to win. Although they won a championship
06:20again. Yeah. That extra one, they won in 2022 was kind of a, that was an underrated kick to
06:26the junk. Cause you thought they were dead, right? You know, like you thought they may be,
06:30maybe not like dead, like irrelevant, but they, they, they lose Durant in 2019 and they go on to
06:34lose in the finals. And then Durant leaves in free agency and guys all of a sudden are, you know,
06:39like Clay Thompson dealt with two really horrific injuries. Steph started getting hurt and they
06:45were literally picking second in the draft one year because they stunk. Yeah. And it's, I mean,
06:50granted injuries, but they, they, they were a bad team that year. So you felt like, okay, well,
06:54you know, Steph and clay, I'll come back and dream on still there. So there'll still be a kind of a
06:58pain, but I didn't think they were going to win another championship. I like that. Um, I do the
07:02one part I like about that though, is that Lake of the owner would just like, just talk for so
07:09long about how, how light years ahead they were of everybody else when it came to, uh, operating
07:14an NBA franchise. Now, at least he gets to see like, oh, okay. Well we, yeah, we struck gold
07:21with a few picks and, uh, we've got the right guys, but it's, it's, you're not as smart as you
07:27think you are. You know, like it was like, if you were truly light years ahead of everybody else,
07:32you would still be very much a dominant team, but like, no, it's all about the players you have.
07:37And how did you come by them? Yep. Uh, someone says put the pipe down, Sean. Well, what did I
07:42say? That was pipe pipe. Put the pipe down where you said there, uh, the, he either thinks that
07:48they are already the championship contenders, or he thinks that being a fringe playoff team is
07:53too lofty as opposed to, I don't know. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. One of the other I did, I, I'm already
07:58actually knows your genuine personal life and he knows that you've got, I wish he wouldn't just,
08:02I wish he wouldn't text. Cause he knows. Cause I haven't been able to put the pipe down. I'm
08:05going to read that on the air, you know, sound mind and whatnot. Um, so yeah. So if you missed
08:11it, Paul George is a sixer. They signed Tyrese Maxey to a max deal. Um, boy, the NBA has got to
08:17be loving that that Philly is making big moves like this. And then you've got a Philly Celtics
08:20Knicks thing going on at the top of the Eastern conference, the big, uh, the big, I say blue
08:27blood names and the Knicks haven't done anything in decades, but they're still it's New York.
08:31Um, so yeah, I think rockets to me over, if I put over under seven and a half, see, do you think
08:38they get over the eight seed? If you had to put over under like seven and a half seed, like, uh,
08:44to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, I would put over the well over in terms of higher and the order
08:50higher in the standings. Yeah. Yeah. I would put, I'd put them over that. Yeah. It'll be
08:54better than the seven and a half seat. Yeah. Um, I was just got, I got distracted by a picture of
09:00Daryl Maury is, um, did you notice that the longer he spends in Philadelphia, the more
09:04unkind on Kemp's he's been looking, he's just kind of letting it all go. His beard at any given
09:11time is just some various weird stage of between. He's not recognizable at times. I mean, he's
09:19recognizable, but like once you look, you're like, Oh yeah, that's Daryl Maury. But no, like he's,
09:23yeah. Do you think that's just that that's the way Daryl Maury was going to start to age? Or is it
09:27partly also that he's in Philly where they will, they will fight you on the streets. They don't
09:32like the way you're managing that. Yeah. I think it's the last part that is a way more stressful
09:36job than this one, you know, that than the one he had here. I mean, he was for a GM of a team
09:43that peaked out at conference finals. He was treated by a lot of folks here, like a GM demigod.
09:50And I use a really good GM Daryl more. I think he's really smart, you know, and I think if
09:54Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady don't get hurt, or if Chris Paul doesn't get hurt, then maybe Daryl
09:58Maury is viewed differently around the league as a GM. Maybe he does have a championship or two at
10:03that point. Yeah. But no, that's a way more stressful. If someone says chances of clay
10:07coming here, clay Thompson, very little. I think clay wants to go to a ready-made championship
10:12contender. Yeah. I don't think he's tough when you've been in that environment and that's all
10:17you've known. You know, it's a, it's gotta be kind of a scary thing to be going out into the
10:23great untested waters of who knows what the hell kind of basketball team you're going to be on,
10:28you know, for Maury, I think I'm, I'm kind of eagerly anticipating this Paul George era
10:33of the 76 years, just because this has been, they were loading up for this since James Harden left.
10:40But this is, this feels like the beginning of the first time we're really going to see
10:45relevant Daryl Maury without James Harden. And like, okay. Cause he, they were just tied at the
10:52eye. And I know, yes, he had that time before Harden got there with the Sixers, but it always
10:56seemed like he was angling for some way to have James Harden with him from the day he left Houston.
11:03Uh, and this, this feels like he's out on his own for the first time he's he's home alone for the
11:08first time in his actual adult life. Yeah. It will. And it shows too, how much, like how much
11:12Paul George respects James Harden's opinion. They were teammates in with the Clippers,
11:16James Harden's over in China talking about what a liar Daryl Maury is. And Paul George was like
11:20deuces going to play for Daryl Maury, Nick nurse in Philly. See you later.
11:25Uh, I just realized that James Harden's more in love with getting in bed with the communists,
11:33having a good basketball opinion about Daryl Maury. I'm not a huge Paul George guy. I think
11:37it's a really good signing for the Sixers. If I can just get past the fact that he's making
11:41$50 million a year at like age 34, you know, like the money's so crazy now, man, like it's wild.
11:47Money in the NBA. All right. Um, Payton Pendergast.