The Rockets put up a good fight against the Golden State Warriors but ultimately lost in seven game because they do not have enough reliable scoring. So now is it time to go trade for Kevin Durant, or is it someone else?
Payne & Pendergast discuss it here.
Payne & Pendergast discuss it here.
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00:00Techs are already rolling in and people are already looking ahead to the offseason here with the Rockets.
00:04And they've got a fairly substantial to-do list, even if you didn't feel like they need to go out and sign a player.
00:10They've got guys that they, you know, same decisions they're making on extensions for Jalen Green and Alperen Shingun last year.
00:16They're at least, I would imagine, having discussions about what the future looks like with Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason.
00:23This time next year, Ahmed Thompson will be the topic about an extension, all those things.
00:27It happens fast, man. It comes at you quick.
00:30Kevin Durant is a topic today, Seth.
00:33And you and I were talking about KD earlier.
00:36The people still seem very split on the text page when we bring up KD, although it's not nearly the deluge of, no, no.
00:42I mean, people watch these games.
00:44It was a tough watch offensively for this team.
00:47Whether it's late in games and you just need a guy to go get a bucket,
00:49or you need a shooter out there for the, you know, the general ebb and flow of the full game to loosen things up a little bit.
00:57Kevin Durant does seem to address some of those needs.
01:00This is how I phrase the Twitter poll.
01:03Pender poll for Rocket fans.
01:05After this series loss to the Golden State Warriors,
01:09are you more, less, or the same when it comes to wanting Kevin Durant on the Rockets?
01:16Okay.
01:17Oh, this is a tough one.
01:18All right.
01:18Because I think people were pretty split beforehand.
01:22Maybe more so people were more negative about just, hey, let's see what we have with this.
01:26Let's see what we have with these guys first.
01:28Yeah.
01:29So they're negative on Kevin Durant.
01:30And again, keep in mind, same.
01:33Might mean like that.
01:34Yeah, exactly.
01:35Exactly.
01:36I think a majority, and it would be a slight majority right now, want Kevin Durant specifically.
01:43But there's also, that's going to be, there's going to be way more people that were ambivalent before,
01:48but now want him.
01:49So I'm going to say, I want to say 62% say that they want him more now than they did before game one.
01:55Okay.
01:55That's interesting.
01:56No, the answer, and I'll need a buzz here, Colin, if I could.
02:00Do you have the buzz sound effect in there?
02:01All right, never mind.
02:03Oh, yeah.
02:04Yeah, I screwed up the simple math on that already.
02:07Okay, I was wrong.
02:08I overshot it.
02:10No, that's not the buzz.
02:12Don't worry about it.
02:12Yeah, don't worry about it.
02:14So it's actually, there's a tie between wanting him more and wanting him the same.
02:20And it's 35% each, 30% want him less.
02:24Like this thing is split almost three ways right now with Kevin Durant.
02:28Yeah, that was a really simple exercise that I screwed up.
02:31I shouldn't have said as high as I did for people that wanted him more.
02:34So the people that want him the same, yeah, I guess the tough thing is, okay, are those
02:38that, how many of those people still don't want him or still do want him?
02:42So it didn't change, it didn't change that much for, for, for anything, I guess.
02:48Well, I mean, a third of the people, look, in a, look, in a, in a, in a potential move
02:53that I feel like a lot of people are against, a third of the people are saying that this
02:58series has at least increased the chances of them wanting Kevin Durant.
03:01You know, I think that this is, this is how I look at it.
03:03I think that all of the young guys that we've talked about that showed promise in this
03:09playoff series, which is really pretty much everybody except.
03:12Jalen that played substantial minutes.
03:16I see where, all right, you know what?
03:18They got some playoff experience and I like the, the metal that they showed.
03:23I'm in Thompson, especially games one through four.
03:25Didn't look like himself games five through seven.
03:27Oh yeah, that's what I want.
03:29That's it.
03:29Shane, Shane Goon defensively, great offensively did some good things too inefficient in a lot
03:35of ways.
03:35And he himself after the game talked about how he needs to improve.
03:38So I look at it almost with, I feel like you have the places in people.
03:42Peace in the guys that can grow, but you also want to capture what you have right now.
03:48And almost like, like it's quantitative easing, easing.
03:52Let's add something else to the mix that can give you scoring immediately as all of those
03:58other young guys continue to develop.
04:00And then it doesn't have to be something that's a two or three year process.
04:05It can, it can start right now.
04:07And yes, at the same time, if Cam Whitmore is still on the team, he's going to move Jabari
04:11Smith jr.
04:12He's going to improve.
04:13I'm in time or I'm in Thompson certainly is just on the right track.
04:18Um, and you have the assets to do it.
04:20So I'm, um, I really, I would love to have Kevin Durant on this team.
04:24Yeah.
04:24I, I, of the young guys, you know, you laid out that way, the young, like the five young
04:29guys that really matter in terms of the immediacy, because Reed Shepard and Cam Whitmore, there's
04:33nothing you can look at this series and go, I feel better or worse about that guy.
04:36I guess I feel worse.
04:37Cause I would have loved to have seen them get in and especially Reed Shepard might've been
04:40able to come in and knock down a few shots for you, but whatever.
04:43Like, so putting those guys aside, the five young guys at homegrown, you drafted played
04:49in this series.
04:50The only one I feel worse about after that.
04:54That series and had his moments, but he, boy, he had some brain fart moments too.
04:59Um, the only one I feel worse about is Jalen green.
05:01Like that series.
05:02I don't know how you can come out of that group, that series feeling anything but worse
05:06about what Jalen great, like his performance, his performance was below the line to where
05:12you can write it off as youth.
05:15He looked lost out there.
05:17He looked, now he looked better.
05:19He looked plugged in defensively.
05:20I will give him that.
05:21The effort was there defensively, but like offensively, um, other than game two, he
05:26just, he, he looked lost out there, you know, and just dribbling into crowds and, um, you
05:31know, couldn't, couldn't handle a lot of what Steve Kerr and the Warriors were throwing at
05:34him.
05:35The other four, you know, I mean, I'm in Thompson.
05:37I'm, I've always been a huge, I'm in Thompson guy.
05:40So I'm in Thompson.
05:41You feel, you just said, you feel great about Alper and Sengun.
05:44There's certain elements that I was very critical of in terms of his ability to finish around
05:48the rim or in the lane or in the paint that stands that criticism.
05:51But I don't feel, I feel, I feel like Alper and Sengun, there were enough that I saw enough
05:55in this series to where I feel good about what future Sengun is going to look like.
05:59And then Jabari and Tari are role players on this team who did some good.
06:03I thought Jabari should have got more minutes in this series.
06:05So, you know, um, especially when it comes to game seven, when your offense is just not
06:10working and you can't get a shot off at some point.
06:12And it's at no point in that game, despite them reeling it in a few times, did you feel
06:18like they, they had it working the way they wanted to work?
06:21That's when I wish Adoka would have, I don't know, maybe you would have felt like it was
06:24too much of a desperation move or what have you, but get some, get some shooters in there
06:28somehow, some way, maybe your defense will falter a little bit, but you was, you've got
06:35to score points.
06:36Yeah.
06:36I thought there were two points in the game last night, Seth, where I was like, Oh, that,
06:40that, that point hurt.
06:42One of them was honestly, one of them was Buddy Heald's three pointer at the buzzer at the
06:47end of the first quarter.
06:48Like you, you had worked your way back into that game.
06:51Jalen had just made an and one to make it 1917 rockets and he misses the free throw.
06:56So the Warriors come back down, hit a three, go up 20 to 19 and, and then Buddy Heald hits
07:02a circus three from mid court to make it like, honestly, like it's, I get it.
07:07It's the end of the first quarter, but in a low scoring game like that, like for it to
07:11be 2019 or for it to be 23, 19, instead of 2019 at the end of one just bothered me.
07:17Yeah.
07:18The other point where they had in the second half where they were, I mean, they, they came
07:23out at halftime, they were down by whatever it was, you know, eight or 10 at the half
07:27and came out at halftime.
07:29And they were down by 15 at one point in the third quarter and they'd whittled it all
07:33the way down to 63 to 60 with two minutes to go in the third quarter.
07:38So you've got, you kind of got the Warriors playing in the muck with you.
07:41It's a game that's being played in the low sixties late in the third quarter.
07:45And they had a chance to cut it to one or even tie the game.
07:49And the shot they got was like a contested Jabari Smith baseline J from 17 with the shot
07:56clock running.
07:56They started doing that thing again, where they initiate the offense with five seconds
08:00left on the shot clock.
08:02Like guys, they were even saying it on the broadcast, like guys, you got to go here.
08:06Like you, you got to, you got to get moving.
08:08And so the Warriors immediately go on a 12 to two, you get it down to three.
08:12You got a chance to sit and then the Warriors go on a 12 to two run after that.
08:18Like that was just, that was demoralizing at the end of the third.
08:21The closest they got in terms of, in terms of win probability was with two minutes and
08:2643 seconds left in the third, when it was, there was 63 to 60.
08:30Jabari hit a three to make it 63, 60.
08:33And then 40 seconds later was the sequence I was talking about there.
08:36Yeah.
08:36That's, that's where it felt like, okay, they, and they got the home crowd behind them.
08:40They're into it.
08:40You feel like, boy, they haven't even played really good offense.
08:42And here they are within three.
08:44And that was when Steph had started to figure some things out too.
08:47That was when you're like, wow, they've weathered this buddy healed storm.
08:50You know, like buddy healed was like six for seven from three at that point.
08:54And now you got it down to three with the ball.
08:56And you just, you, you come away taking a bad shot and then they want a 12 to two run.
09:00No.
09:01And I'll tell you, honestly, like, okay, at that point, it was a Houston before within one
09:0611 left in the first, it was a Houston 50, 53% win probability by the end of that quarter
09:12that, that buddy healed shot was like, that's where everything, it never, it never got, never
09:17felt genuinely close.
09:19Yes.
09:19Yeah.
09:19Those were the two sequences in the game that felt like they, I mean, look, it's a game
09:23where each team's possessing the ball a hundred times.
09:26Those were two that I felt really acutely.
09:28The buddy healed three at the end of the first, and then when the Rockets cut it to
09:3263, 60 and had the ball and they don't get a good shot.
09:35And even worse, they allow a 12 to two run by the Warriors that closed out the third and
09:40continued into the fourth.
09:41So just, yeah, just a bad night.
09:42And just so many, so many missed shots in the paint and that's the missed opportunity
09:47there.
09:48And that's where I think Shane Goon, Shane Goon was hard on himself after the game and
09:52with doing a job with their zone and making it difficult, but there's just too many, too
09:59many point blank shots that they missed.
10:01And in the series, you look at some of the close games, it was the, the easy stuff that
10:05even for a bad shooting team, it feels like, man, they really just relinquished some opportunities.
10:10That's where the playoff experience hopefully makes a difference.
10:12If they had won yesterday, would we be coming in talking about them exercising the warrior
10:16demons or would we have felt more like, nah, this is just a new Rockets crew?
10:21And I mean, how it would have been, I, in a way, I think it, I don't know if it would
10:24have been exercising the demons.
10:26I think it might've been kind of putting the veil or the curtain, like the closing the
10:30curtain on the warrior and what they, what they have been for the last decade or so.
10:35We would have gotten sad dream on and sad Steph sitting on the bench at some point, you
10:39know, they won by like 10, Steph's kid would have been miserable.
10:42Yeah.
10:42A lot of people were kind of apologetically hoping that Steph's kid was miserable against last
10:48night.
10:48After game six, um, Steph Curry's kid didn't want to talk to him.
10:51Oh, he was very upset about that loss.
10:53Yeah.
10:53Steph walked off the floor and was trying to talk to his, his, his cute little kid.
10:58He's like five years old or so.
10:59Yeah.
11:00Okay.
11:00He's got, the kid's got the competitiveness in him.
11:03He's got the, he's got the genes.
11:04Yeah.
11:05All right.
11:05Here's an interesting take.
11:06Um, I think Jalen green is a very talented athlete and I could be wrong about this, but
11:11I don't think he puts in the work to take his game to another level.
11:14Like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant do when Kobe Bryant had a series of air balls in a
11:19playoff game against the jazz in 1997, this fueled his determination to improve his skill.
11:24And he went to work.
11:26He was consistently in the gym working on his game.
11:29I don't think Jalen, I don't think Jalen has that wrong of that, but I strongly believe
11:36that because there's no evidence that says otherwise.
11:38I don't hear any comments about his work ethic.
11:42Well, yeah, it's not like people are gushing or lauding it or anything, but it's, I mean,
11:45these guys all work.
11:46Like these guys all put NBA, NBA players put in a lot of time and they play in the summer.
11:51They play year round and everything, but I don't think that's like, yes.
11:55Again, if we need to compare, okay.
11:58I don't, yes, I know this is what, that's what bothers me.
12:02I don't need him to have a Kobe level of preparation.
12:04I need him to have a, I'd like him to have a James Harden level of preparation.
12:08Or work or whatever it might be.
12:11Why do people treat, we need to stop this disease of expecting Jalen Green to be some
12:17kind of superstar that is not there.
12:20It's just flat out.
12:21Yes.
12:22Everything you said about him not measuring up to Kobe or Michael Jordan.
12:26Why are you setting the bar up there?
12:28I want him to have the same level.
12:31I'd like him to be at Doncic level.
12:34No, no, no, no, no.
12:35I'm joking.
12:37Yeah.
12:37No, compared to any of the top 20 players in the NBA, where is that same fire, that same
12:43drive or any of the intangibles?
12:46Right.
12:46It's not there.
12:47It's a, so to even bring up Kobe or to bring up Michael Jordan, it's a, it's disrespectful
12:54to those guys.
12:55He doesn't, they're no, yes, you're a hundred percent right.
12:59He doesn't have that same level.
13:00Like just like 99% of other NBA players.
13:03I want him to get up to the level of genuine all-stars.
13:06Well, I, it's just funny to me, like, just cause you don't hear about how he works, you
13:10make an assumption about how he works.
13:12You know, like, it's going to assume that he's not in there putting it.
13:16I mean, the guy literally says, like, I don't think he's got the drive to be great.
13:19Like, how the hell do you know what kind of drive he has?
13:21I, I mean, one thing I'll say about jelly, Jalen is one of the few stars who will, and
13:26maybe, maybe I'm using the term star a little too loosely.
13:29Now Jalen answers the bell.
13:31Like Jalen will go play.
13:32Jalen plays hard.
13:34Um, it may be though, that he just based on what his skillset is, there's a ceiling on
13:37what exactly he can be for a good NBA team.
13:41I mean, can he be the best player on a championship level team?
13:43We are so far into hell.
13:45No, right now.
13:46Like we are so far onto the map of that in, in hell, no territory.
13:50Yeah.
13:51So, I mean, there's, there's all kinds of stories about him going back to the gym after, you
13:55know, to shoot extra and everything.
13:56Like, I don't, I like, it's like, that's where it's just, and I'm not, you're, you're,
14:01yes, it's okay to question anybody's preparation depending on, you know, when they're not showing
14:05results.
14:06It's just, it's, it's, it's more than that.
14:09It's like, at the sum, at the end of the day, you don't have to overly complicate things.
14:13The guys, the, the, he just flat out did not show up and he looked like a deer in the
14:18headlights at times.
14:19And the consistency improved this year throughout the regular season.
14:23But it's like, it's this old myth or belief that somehow, you know, it's not like Michael
14:31Jordan's work ethic alone is what made him one of the best basketball players of all
14:35time.
14:36Right.
14:36There is a talent component there too.
14:38Well, there are lots, you know what?
14:39There's lots of guys who worked just as hard as Michael Jordan who never made it in the
14:43NBA.
14:43Yeah.
14:44Like there's not, there's more to it than just the, the, the, the 10,000 hours isn't
14:49some unattainable standard.
14:50It's a prerequisite.
14:54Lots of people think and don't end up being the absolute best of all time.
14:58Yeah.
14:58I, I, to, to, I guess, put it succinctly for Jalen, uh, there are holes in his game.
15:04I don't think, I don't think effort is one of them.
15:07I don't think work ethic is one of them.
15:09Like, I think, I think the fact that he's not really a pure shooter, he's a guy who
15:13can knock down threes, but he's not a guy that scares you shooting threes.
15:16Um, I think he loses his head sometimes on the court, just in terms of making strange
15:20decisions when he's pressing a little bit.
15:23I think we saw that a lot in this series, especially early on, um, when things weren't
15:27other than game two, when things weren't going well, he would, he boy, he would drive
15:32to the rim, get a shot blocked.
15:34He turned the ball over the beginning of that one game where he was just careless with the
15:37ball for three straight possessions in the first minute of the game.
15:40Like, those are the types of things.
15:41So, all right, keep texting in.
15:43Um, Jalen is always in the gym.
15:45They report that he works hard.
15:47Yeah.
15:47Yeah.
15:47I just, it's not even, that's where it's, it's just, it's an oversimplification sometimes.
15:53Like it's, it's really, really, really hard to be an awesome basketball player and you
15:58can work, you can do everything you're supposed to be doing.
16:01And it doesn't mean that that's what turns it for you with Jalen.
16:05There's something more than does it.
16:08He works.
16:08I'm in, yes, I have no doubt that he works as hard as a lot of players who are better
16:12than him.
16:13Um, it's just that now four years into it, his age is less of an excuse.
16:18And some of the things that showed up in this series, you just start to wonder, all right,
16:22maybe, maybe it's just not there with him.
16:24Well, and you can't, you can't just write it off to youth as easily when there's four other
16:30guys who are in your age bracket, but Jalen looked overwhelmed in that series.
16:38None of the other four guys, you know, Tari, Jabari, Amen, and Alper and Shingun.
16:42None of them looked overwhelmed to me that, to the degree that Jalen was.
16:45Amon Thompson is a perfect indication of a young guy, you know, in his second year who
16:50looked a little bit, like he was getting the, getting his feet underneath them in the first
16:54four games and then comes out in games five, six, and seven.
16:58And he's classic Amon Thompson.
17:00Like all of that, that you could see the dog in him and it's just, yeah, it just, we didn't
17:06really, we saw the 38 game at 38 point performance, but then six games of, I don't want to say absolute
17:12nothingness because there was some, obviously he had some, he had good moments, but it still
17:17wasn't the straw that stirs the drink moments.
17:20No, no, no, no.
17:21He scored 38 in a game in a seven game series, an average 13 a game for the series.
17:26You know what I mean?
17:27That's hard to do.
17:28It's hard to do any of the ball in your hands that much.