Rockets COLLAPSE AGAIN In OT Vs Warriors | Reed Sheppard SHINES Despite Being DEMOTED Back To Bench

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This is Nick Gangsta with the Lockdown Mavericks Podcast. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. I love that I can run up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase of my Apple Card, which can be automatically sent to my high yield savings account through Apple Card right in the wallet app. With my iPhone, I can use Apple Card with Apple Pay basically everywhere I go. You can apply for Apple Card, too, right in the wallet app on your iPhone. Subject your credit approval, savings is available to Apple Card owners, subject to eligibility, savings in Apple Card by Goldman Sachsbank, USA Salt Lake City Branch member FDIC, terms and more at AppleCard.com. You're juggling a lot, but you can still squeeze in a financial plan. With the Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisor as your partner, it's not only possible, it's personalized. So if you're tying the knot, closing on a house, or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain.

1:03That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On today's show, the rocket struggle to execute in overtime and lose to the Santa Cruz warriors, the one bright spot from this game, Reed Shepard with a 30 piece off of Houston's bench. It's all coming up right here at Locked Honor. This is mission control Houston. Ignition 6.5, 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, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. On sports podcast network, as always, I'm your host, Jackson Gatlin, Native Houstonian and credentialed media member, be sure to follow along wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube, just search Locked On Rockets on today's show.

2:04Let me talk about the rockets, 115, 113, overtime loss to the Santa Cruz warriors, failing to execute in crunch time, same old story we've heard a ton this season, Reed Shepard, one of the few bright spots from this game with a 30 piece off the bench, but why is he back off the bench? Spend time talking about that. We'll get into Kevin Durant's touches, the struggles for Alper and Shingoon and Jabari's mid-Juneer in his return to action, a lot to get to. First one, let's you know that today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. Fandall is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost head to fandall.com to get started. That's fandall.com. Fandall.play. You were a game. And as always, thanks so much for making Lockdown Rockets. Part of your day, every single day, whether it's on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym, thank you so much for being an everydayer. And joining us now is one of your weekly co-hosts of the B-block podcast and sports radio 610s, Brandon Scott, who you can track down on Twitter, Instagram, all those great places

3:08at B-Scott from Hiram Clark and B-Scott. I wish we were talking under better circumstances, man, because it seems like we've been doing this song and dance way too many times this season. Houston Rockets lose yet another game in overtime. Another game lost due to inability to execute down the stretch. Unfortunately, they lose to the Warriors, 115, 113, final score. And it's so unfortunate because it just feels like a lot of the same issues that have popped up repeatedly this season. The Rockets are now one and six in their seven overtime appearances this year. And you know, I don't know, trying to figure out where things went wrong in this loss. Maybe it's as simple as things went wrong well before it got to overtime because you probably shouldn't have needed an overtime period to begin with to beat what was effectively the Santa Cruz Warriors on the other side of the aisle. But this team just cannot find ways to close games and they've struggled with it all season

4:14long. Yeah, it feels like we're preaching to the choir at this point. And that's the part that starts to kind of drive you a little bit insane or what's the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. And this season, Jackson has felt a lot like the definition of insanity. I hate to say it, but that's the way it feels. I mean, you cannot, especially after having three nights off. And then you've got a home game against, as you mentioned, the Santa Cruz Warriors, you cannot lose to Brandon Pagimpski's and and the Anthony Milton's Warriors. You know, you can't lose to LJ Cryer's Warriors. You know, a shout out to LJ Cryer who's from the town and a U of H kid and all of that. But like it, it cannot look like this. And then you come down in this game and the fact that it goes to overtime feels unnecessary to begin with as we just laid out, but the thing you get there and these guys out execute

5:15you in overtime, which is really the rough part about this. Like both, I think it's a kind of a double-edged, short thing. It's like you shouldn't be in overtime to begin with. And then you get there and they out execute you both teams Jackson got up nine shots and overtime, Warriors made six of theirs, Rockets made three of theirs, there goes the difference in the game. And when we talk about late game execution, everything else was the same. Both teams two or three from three point range in the overtime, it just really came down to executing and knocking down your shots. And the Warriors, really the entire game did a better job of that or just their process. I don't think I'm breaking new ground here. But it's like every Warriors possession, even though they had all these no names out there, looked so fluid, everything made sense. And then the Rockets are out there, kind of struggling possession to possession. And it's just a rough watch right now. Yeah, I mean, and it's kind of felt that way for so much of the season where, you know,

6:19and it gets even worse when you compare and you look at the team across the aisle right and you're like, wow, okay, well, they've got ball movement and they're, they're cutting and moving and doing all the, you know, running different actions. And then you look at some of what the Rockets are doing. And so many times time and time again, it just boils down to ISO repeatedly or like a one DHO on the perimeter and then into an isolation, whether it's a KD ISO or a shingoo and ISO or maybe Reed Shepard gets one screen and then, you know, tries to get downhill. And we will talk about Reed Shepard and some of the positives out of this loss with him playing, continuing to play out of his mind with a 30 piece in this one, you know, and I will, I'm torn because I want to, I want to highlight here that, you know, I do think that this would be one of those games where I do think that, you know, credit to the Warriors, they did just outwork the Rockets. They outhustled on, they outworked them, even some of, you know, kind of given the Rockets some of their own medicine to a degree, the offensive rebounds in this game. The Warriors managed to out offensive rebound the Rockets 18 to 17, not like a crushing

7:25margin, but that's usually an area that the Rockets flat out dominate. And when you give up as many offensive rebounds and second chance points that the Rockets did against this Warriors squad, just due to like the Warriors again outworking you on the glass for stretches of this game, then you don't have that, that buffer that you usually rely on on those second chance points. So it was 23 to 17, Rockets still won the second chance points battle, but only by plus six, right? Ideally, that's an area that's one of the few areas that the Rockets rely on crushing other teams in order to be able to win games. But I do think when it comes down to like the end of this one, you look at the overtime period. And I think that when you go look at like the shot distribution, the shot breakdown in the overtime period, it's a little painful to look at and think that, wow, okay, Kevin Durant only got two shots up the entire overtime period. And this has been, we've talked about this ad nauseam all season long. And we are now, this is game 61 of this calendar year, where we are basically three quarters

8:31of the way done with the season. And the Rockets are still struggling to figure out ways to get Kevin Durant the basketball in crunch time. The guy that they traded for to be the closer to be the guy to bring you to the finish line to get you over the hump in games exactly like this one. And they have been unable through 61 games, three quarters of the season to figure out any semblance of reliable go to offense and exit and ways to execute down the stretch of these games. And I at this point, I cannot wrap my head around it like this is, and I get it, I feel like, or I take it back, I can't even say I get it. You can't just blame not having Fred Vampley, like that is such a tired excuse at this point, because there are teams, there are other teams that look significantly more competent, running offense and doing things at the end of games. And maybe it's maybe they do have a point guard, maybe they don't, maybe they play differently whatever. But the fact that we keep having this exact same conversation over and over and over

9:35is an indictment on, I think, Eno Doca and the coaching staff at this point that the guys continue to be unprepared for these moments at the end of games. I understand the guys on the court are the guys that actually have to execute and do things, but I'm of the mindset and the belief at this point based on everything that we've seen the entire body of work of this season and the previous two years of rockets basketball under Eno Doca. They're not being given a lot to work with in crunch time, right? There's not, there's very little play calling being done, very few actions being run. So much of it is just, all right, Kevin, try to bail us out and go get a bucket, right? And then when those plays break down or when the defense is a little bit too aggressive and Kevin can't do whatever he wants to do, can't get to his spots, then they have nothing else to go to. And they just default to whoever can get up, whatever shot they can get up. And that is really painful basketball to be witnessing. Yeah, it's, it's the issue when you don't have, you don't have movement like guys aren't moving with for one thing.

10:36So in crunch time, guys aren't necessarily moving without the basketball, and that's sort of a theme throughout the game. So it's Kevin Durant, it's not just give Kevin Durant the ball and, you know, hope for a prayer go, hey, Kevin go make something happen, but it's just standing around and watching them do it, you know, and then it's, so it's that end with Kevin Durant. And then, you know, with, and also sometimes just not be able to get him the ball period is the other issue like, so, so I was going to say that it's, it's standing around, but then the ball handling, they don't have ball handlers like they don't have anybody they can trust to give the ball to. And so they just give Kevin Durant the ball and they, they want him to both, he has to both create and make the shot. And that's just, I think too much to ask when a team has this much film on you and they know exactly what to expect. These guys don't do much without the ball and Kevin and it's pretty much Kevin Durant or bus. So there's a predictability aspect to it as well. It's like, okay, we're just going to sell out on double teams for Kevin Durant or really

11:40ball pressure him and we're not going to expect anybody else to do much different. I mean, you mentioned it, Kevin Durant only gets two shots up and over time he shoots five free throws, but to me, that's just like a signal of force to just simply force feeding him the ball. And then what about Alperin Shingoon? I mean, look, we can go up and down the list of how different guys performed in this game, but Alperin Shingoon took the most shots in the overtime and really couldn't buy a bucket. So between the inefficient play that you're getting from Alperin Shingoon and the predictability or the predictable nature of like how you strategize at the end of games, just give Kevin Durant the ball and just hope that he saves us. It's just a very easy team to defend, especially if they're not going to be knocking down outside shots. That was an issue. In this game, of course, they couldn't really buy the three pointers throughout the game. And so if they're not knocking down open shots and they're not winning the rebound in battle, then they are, they become terribly one dimensional and predictable as a team.

12:43And a lot of that is just give Kevin Durant the ball and hope he builds you out. If Alperin Shingoon the ball for some reason and let them let them back, you know, post up from the three point line, like that possession made me want to gouge my eyes out. I'm not going to lie it like, but it's not, but it's, but we've, we see it way too often. And then sometimes it works. And I think we kind of justify it because Alperin Shingoon is still a talented player. So sometimes that play works, but that's not an ideal way to get shots. I feel like they should get, I want to say I said this like a week ago that my worst some of my, some of my least favorite possessions are the ones where you get maybe one or two guys touches the ball, but it's mostly just an Alperin Shingoon. I saw a post up from the three point line. And there's not a whole lot happening after that. So we just, we see way too much of that. The team is way too predictable. I said when Kevin Durant was, was first traded for that the part I liked the most

13:43about it was that they wouldn't have to overly rely on 37 year old Kevin Durant because they would have so many other options. I don't know where I got that idea from, but I was completely wrong. And so that, that is one of the more maddening and frustrating parts about watching the team, the, the predictability of it all. And you met, you mentioned the free throws for KD in that overtime period, right? I mean, there was a sequence where a men Thompson's at the free third line went one for two, but on that second miss, the rockets get the offensive rebound. And they were able to, you know, kick it back out and go through, you know, a sequence of, you know, swing, swing, swing, and then getting the ball back. And it wound up in Kevin Durant's hands. And he hits a, you know, a pretty monumental three pointer at the time to bring them within one to make it 111 10. And very next possession down, he hits a couple free throws, ties the game up. All right, apologize, brings them within one, one 13, one 12 warriors come down. They hit another bucket, Melton gets a, a tip shot on the offensive rebound,

14:44which was just devastating. And Kevin Durant actually gets to the free throw line. I apologize, I actually, I'm mixing this one up. This is, this was the sequence right before the, the, the offensive tip in KD had three free throws at the free throw line. He got fouled on a three, had a chance to tie the game up at 113 all. And after knocking down 36 consecutive free throws, he misses the one that would have been the game tying free throw. And then when he gets sent to the line a little bit later, after the Melton tip in shot, which had effectively made it a three point game, goes to the free throwing, misses another one. So back to back misses after hitting 36 straight. He gets back to back misses at the most inopportune time. And then on the final like free throw. And this was the one where you saw Emeu Doka calling for it. Tari came over, gave Katie the message, hey, go intentionally miss this one. He very, he very clearly tries to intentionally miss the final free throw. And on the one that he needed to miss, manages to bank it in.

15:44Honestly, it would, it would be hilarious if it just wasn't so painful. Honestly, at that point, by then, I mean, it was, it was basically all she wrote. I mean, you know, rockets were down to with no time on the clock. Warriors had possession of the ball is basically game over. They bled the clock out and that's, that was, that was the end of the game. And Jackson is, it's not the first time where we've had either some combination of Durant or shingoon free throws, missed free throws at the end of games that do you in. That's also been kind of a low key underrated theme. You know, and it's hard to like really like be mad at Kevin Durant about it. I mean, the guy is normally like you want the timeliness of that is not ideal, but you and you want him to make those shots. But also you just, you want things to look a lot easier and that you mentioned at the Anthony Milton put back, like that was another example. I do want to point out of just how much the Warriors were out working the rockets.

16:45And so you got all of these things going up against you, right? Like you're supposed to be a better rebound in team. How is it? This was even pointed out on prime. How like at every turn, it seemed like the, the rockets had the size advantage throughout the night and you still get out rebounded by a smaller, underman, not as talented team. And that's just a really tough pill to swallow that absolutely. It is. And we talk about you mentioned, you know, making things look easier. There's a guy that certainly makes things look a little bit easier when he's out there on the floor for both himself and everybody else. One of the bright spots, maybe, maybe the lone bright spot from this loss for the rockets, Reed Shepard with a 30 piece off the bench in 37 minutes of run. We'll talk about his impact in this game and more. We're going to get there in just one moment. First today's episode was brought to you by Fandall College basketball is non-stop. Big games, tight spreads, momentum swings every single night from early tip offs to late night West Coast shootouts.

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18:47Subject to credit approval savings is available to Apple card owners, subject to eligibility, savings and Apple card by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA, Salt Lake City branch member FDIC terms and more at Apple card.com. And continuing on here at Lockdown Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball and B Scott yet another really strong performance from Reed Shepherd continuing to string together. Some really good games. 30 points on 12 of 19 shooting with six of 12 from downtown. Had three rebounds, six assists, three turnovers was a plus 11 in a two point loss. That's how good he was. Like the Rockets just flat out one, the Reed Shepherd minutes when he was on the floor. And yet coming into this game, as good as Reed Shepherd had played, Eme Odoca decided with the availability of Jabari Smith Jr. and Amin Thompson, both available to play tonight that he was going to default back to his, you know, original starting lineup going back to Reed Shepherd off the

19:49bench and Reed Shepherd checked into this game in the first quarter at exactly the 426 mark of the first quarter. And then he didn't check back out of the game until half time because he just played, he just played 16 plus straight minutes to in the first half. And then Eme Odoca did the exact same thing with him in the second half. He clocks in at the 551 mark of the third quarter and then doesn't step off the floor. The entire rest of the game plays all of the rest of the third quarter, plays the entire fourth quarter. There was one possession at the end of the third that he was subbed out one of those offense defense substitutions, but I don't count that. That was a single possession that he got maybe two breaths of air on the bench. And then he plays OT as well. And I am truly the Scott. I am at a loss for whatever email is thinking, whatever this coaching staff is thinking, whatever this organization is thinking when Reed Shepherd continues to have these

20:52types of performances and is still stuck coming off the bench. Because my immediate thought is how much better would the kid be if he actually got like a breather in though instead of being able to being forced to play 15, 16, 17 straight minutes without getting an actual rest. I mean, he's a shooter, right? First thing that goes, you know, when you're when you're a shooter, if your legs go, then your shots gone, right? And there were a couple shots later in this game after that insane tear that he went on in the third quarter to bring the rockets back from what felt like the brink at one point. They went down double digits and Reed Shepherd put together a seven oh, like a seven oh run, his own personal little seven oh run and then capped it off with a kick out three to or a kick out pass to Joshua Kogi for a corner three pointer. And that little like 10 oh stretch that Reed Shepherd ignited with his scoring and then his playmaking ability kind of brought the rockets back into it gave them life, it gave them momentum to where they actually had the lead going into the fourth quarter. And that wouldn't have happened without Reed Shepherd. And the fact that like, I don't know, I don't know what else to say, man.

21:53Like the proof is in the pudding. You can see it when he plays. He is what the team needs and what they need more of and they to this point have refused to just empower the kid fully at this point. You're talking about the lead in the fourth quarter. He's it was the same thing in the first half, right? Where whenever he checks in, it's like a immediate impact. Now, now he was getting cooked on the other end and kind of giving it back. Like I remember Spencer was kind of giving him work there early on in the game. But as soon as he gets in, it's pull up jumper. It's, you know, pick and roll, skip pass to the other side to everything. Just flows better once you do the game wide open wide open three. Like, and this has been another theme. So it's kind of odd, man, because you feel like, is it is particularly in this game is email you, doca realizing Reed Shepherd's value like in real time, like all the things that we limit and all of the things that we talk about on social media

22:58and on these podcasts in between during games and in between games leading up to the game. Like Reed Shepherd needs to start. Reed Shepherd needs more minutes. Reed Shepherd's not being utilized properly. Like are these things that they don't like they don't consider this until like the actual moment that maybe Reed Shepherd should play more like, hey, you know, I know I didn't start them, but he's having a pretty good game. Let's write the hot hand. It seems like you've got way too much data way too many data points and way too much information to like have an aha moment during the game that hey, maybe our offense looks a lot better and maybe we have a lot better of a chance with Reed Shepherd. So that's the odd part about the consecutive minutes in both halves. It's like, is he like realizing this in real time? This thing that we're all talking about in the three in the three days leading up to the game. That part is kind of frustrating and I'm kind of to be to to to put it mildly. And then man, I would just say like

23:58when you look around it, how hard everything is, how difficult it is for them to get shots, how it is to start the game, right? Like look at the beginning of this game and how hard points were to come by. And you can't tell me that you don't get off to a better start offensively if Reed Shepherd's not in the game. Oh, and did I mention earlier? Again, the defense wasn't issued. Like the whole logic of starting Taris and instead of Reed Shepherd to me is more of a defensive play than anything. What really frustrates me Jackson is when they're getting cooked defensively anyway. Okay, I think this was a thing in the in the mix game a couple of weeks ago where in the fourth quarter, it's like, okay, they went with their defensive lineup. And guess what? They wouldn't play it on defense or they were trying. Now I don't want to say they weren't giving any effort, but they were still getting cooked. And so the defense of the advantage didn't exist. That was how it felt to start this game. It's not like you're it's not like you're just

24:58guarding the hell out of them or anything like that or or or preventing them from scoring. And so you're not fighting fire with fire because you're not bringing in arguably your best offensive player, not name Kevin Durant. You're not bringing them in until six minutes into the quarter or however long it is, you know? So like a half of the quarter is gone. And you're down 10, you know? So it's like, I don't know, I do not understand that, you know, I talk about the the predictability of them at the end of games because they do the same thing that this is there's a repetitiveness of this too that is just like mind blowing of how it is that you don't see how you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. And I'm not even mentioning the part that you did of the the 16 minutes straight or however long it is like you don't want to start them, but now you want to run them into the ground. You want to plan 16 minutes straight and which you probably shouldn't do with anybody much less a shooter. None of how he's being used to me makes sense right now.

26:04Yeah, I saw a friend of the program, Bruce Williams suggested that it might be an ego thing, right? Because if you're not starting read, but if you're going to play him and you know, run him into the ground 16, 17 straight minutes because you don't want to start him, but you need him out there to play, then whose ego is you may potentially trying to protect by not by benching by not benching somebody from the starting lineup. You know, is he trying to protect Jabari, Tari, a man, whoever, whoever, you know, he might consider moving out of the starting line up to actually include read. I don't know if I subscribe completely to that to that notion, but what I do think is like, I mean, you can make the adjustment and hell bring read in at the eight minute mark. I don't care. Let if you don't want to start him, I find I understand it's not about who starts is about who finishes games, all that. I get that. I understand that. But the issue comes in when you act there, there are logistical issues with not starting games. This is one of them. If you don't start the game, you literally miss out on the first five to six minutes of the game. You put yourself in a hole, like you just mentioned, you're down 10, right? And then suddenly,

27:05you're digging yourself out of that hole with read shepherd by the time you clock, you know, checks into the game. And then on top of that, it messes up substitution patterns to where you can't reliably get him a decent rest in between two significant stretches of play. If he were to start the game and then you could rest, you know, into the first quarter, top of the second, whatever, generally where the same area is where Katie kind of gets his rest, right? Or even Alper and Shingoon has a pretty locked in substitution pattern where they understand where they're getting their rest, when they're going to hit the bench, when they're going to come back into the game, all this stuff. Reed doesn't ever get that, right? Some games he's starting, some games he's coming off the bench, some games he's playing 17 straight minutes off the bench. How tough is that for a second year player to have to deal with that level of uncertainty and not ever really knowing where his minutes are coming from? How many minutes he's going to get? No, being worried if he's going to get yanked for his defense, right? If he's not producing at such a high level on the other end of the floor. And to your point about his defense in this game, there were absolutely a bunch of possessions, right? We're worried, you know, whether it's Pat Spencer or Guy Santos or whoever,

28:07you know, kind of just using their big strong bigger stronger bodies to kind of just, you know, stuff reading to a locker essentially and finish right over the top of the rim. My thing is maybe don't leave your undersized guard out on an island against a bigger defender. Maybe the defensive mastermind head coach of the team could come up with a thing or two to protect this clearly incredibly valuable offensive piece. And maybe just don't rely on this like switch everything defense where all five guys have to be able to guard all five positions. It's like, no, and they do something like it doesn't happen frequently enough, but like there are moments where like a minute, I noticed there was one play where a mint Thompson got reed shepherd to scram out of a switch onto a bigger guy, right? So like a men took the bigger assignment, gave reed an easier target to defend on the perimeter, right? That kind of stuff needs to happen every possession on the defensive side to protect Reed Shepherd. His offensive impact is so valuable to this team. You would think that he may could identify that recognize that and then scheme up

29:11ways to protect him defensively. And it feels like that still hasn't happened at this point in the season. It's almost like it just boils down to Udoca's messaging to reed shepherd and basically the entire roster at this point is like, you better be able to de up on your own. And if you can't de up on your own, you're probably not playing. And that's just that's unfair. Like it is. It's similar to the offense though. It's like, hey, man, just go, y'all better go be able to go find a shot. It's like, yo, could you could you drop a play? Could we run some some some staggered screens or something like, well, could we could we do something more than just be something more than just, hey, go out there and make it happen. It's it's a it's a lot of players just got to go out there and make it happen. And I just I can't understand it for the life of me. Honestly, I thought I referred to as prison hoops the other day. And I love that because that's exactly what it is. It feels like I'm I'm used I'm stealing that term. I'm using it forever prison hoops. That's

30:12what the bastard. That's what the rockets are playing at times. It's definitely how it feels. But I do want to make a point since you brought up Root's point about the ego thing. I just want to say this for the record, man. There is not a single soul on this team outside of Kevin Durant. And nobody's arguing that Kevin Durant should be bitched outside of Kevin Durant. There's not a single soul on this team right now whose ego is worth considering. Like they're they're not playing well enough. I know Alperch and goons at two time all star. He would maybe fall in this category if he was playing well. But nobody on this team. Okay. Let's put Kevin Durant to the side. He's a legend. But everybody there's not a single soul on this team whose ego is worth any consideration when it comes to how we deploy lineups, minutes, matchups. None of that. There is not anybody on this team that's playing well enough for that. So like if that's a thing that that's going to make my stomach turn because nobody there's just nobody on this team that's earned the

31:12right to have an ego about this sort of thing. So like just miss me with that. Or I really hope that that's not a factor. But the reach when we talk about reach shepherd, I would just wrap it up with this. It is time for the rocket. He made you doke specifically. But the rocket does an organization to start treating reach shepherd the way that they treated that they've treated Alperch and going over the years like as a priority, right? Not as an afterthought, but as a priority, right? So we're going to we're going to start him. We're going to we're going to give him an expectation for when his when his rest is going to come, right? Kind of what you were just saying about like minutes expectations and those sort of things. The way Jalen Green was treated back when he was on the team, right? As a number two overall, it is time to prioritize him, not just his like the like theoretical development, but how he's actually deployed. He needs to be a priority, not just some bench, not just some spark off the bench or just some like, you know, volume shooter or something like

32:15that the way that they treat him. It is time to like incorporate him into the identity of your team. We see that all the time. People asking and we're asking the question, what's the rocket's identity? What's specifically on offense? They don't have one outside of just man, go out there and who get a ball to Kevin Durant, give the ball to Operation Goon and hope for the best they don't have one. It's time for them to find one and he needs to be a central part of it. And until that happens, they're going to have it a lot of nights like this. I mean, we've seen it enough, right? That three man group of Reed Shepherd, Kevin Durant, and Alper and Shenguin, when they're all on out there on the floor together. And here's the here's the thing, you know, and I see sometimes people will reference like the advanced stats, the, you know, the they'll pull out the data baller metrics and stuff and be like, oh, well, those lineups actually aren't performing that well. Well, well, first off, those lineups aren't taking into account the fact that they didn't start actually like incorporating Reed heavily into the offense for the last, you know, maybe month and a half ish if that, right? Like, you know, Reed would play and he would basically just check into the game and be a spot up, you know, stand at the three point line, do nothing else,

33:17kind of guy earlier in this. They were treating Reed Shepherd like Aaron Holiday earlier this season, right? And then he started getting more on ball reps and we started and some of that is Reed developing and getting better and getting more comfortable and running the show and doing what he needs to do as the as the lead guard on the floor. I understand that, right? He's had to grow and develop as the season has worn. It's not like he's been playing this well all year, right? But he's had these games and I just it's at this point where, you know, it's not a fluke, right? He's not just he's not just a streaky shooter who gets hot and then, you know, can when you know, this is this is who he is. This is who he is as a player and he makes life easier for every other guy that he plays with. The one area of the floor that he doesn't make life easier consistently for is a little bit on the defensive end, right? There are going to be some nights where there's going to be teams that try to target him like the Warriors did. And yeah, it might cause a little bit of ex you might need some extra effort from the other four guys on the floor to maybe make up for some of his defensive limitations or to help cover for him a little bit or, you know, just to dissuade other

34:18teams from trying to target and take advantage of him on the defensive side. But that's small potatoes based on like compared to everything that he gives you offensively and not being able to lean into it and still even in a game where he was being targeted defensive where he gave up at least probably three or four different buckets just based on size mismatch alone down low. And he's still a plus 11 in his minutes in a game that they lost by two. So even though he's giving up some buckets here and there, he's getting them back and then some on the offensive end by bombing from three, hitting six of 12 from downtown. And to your point about the identity of the team and really like kind of making him a focal point, there was that stretch where he was just on fire from three, right, where he was he was cooking. And it's like at one point, his teammates just forgot he existed and they just went away from him. And it's like, no, on a on a on a team with better fundamental principles and maybe, you know, a more sound hierarchy of like order of operations like, hey, this is our number one guy. This is our number two. This is our number three.

35:20Like that wouldn't happen, right? You wouldn't see, like, I guess, we'll say, I don't know, J-dub on the thunder, get waved off or looked off by his teammates when he's on a heater and, you know, got 20 points up with, with still a quarter and a half left to play. You wouldn't see Isaiah Hartenstein look him off to go to, you know, knock it, go to attempt a hook shot or pick any of AJ Mitchell ignoring him to go, you know, he's between ISO on the perimeter and pull up with a step back three. Like that doesn't happen because those other teams have fun, like identities that they are locked in on and that they understand where is the rockets identity. It doesn't feel like it exists, right? It's just kind of whatever on offense. They don't, they do not have an offensive identity at this point. They haven't really had one through two and a half years of Emeo Doka coaching this team and getting Kevin Durant and having him as a cheat code on offense and having outpour inching those are two really great kind of band aid fixes for the offense, but we're seeing and we've seen in unfortunate, very like 4k high definition this season, how much the rockets

36:26desperately need an overhaul with their offensive approach to things and whether that comes from Emeo himself or it comes from a different mind that gets brought in or something else. I don't know, but they need something different offensively because it's been the same old same old all season long. And again, another late game execute another overtime game that they were unable to execute at the end, another late game collapse and against a opponent opponent on paper that you should have beaten, right? Warriors team missing Steph and Jimmy and Porzingus and so many key contributors that actually make them the warriors, right? They had so much money in salary just out like $100 million, not even playing in this game and they still managed to lose to the Santa Cruz Warriors. You know, you know what it felt like you remember this game felt a lot like you remember the back, the back that they lost to the Celtics and the Hornets a few weeks back right before the trade deadline right before the trade deadline and it felt that way because Jalen Brown didn't play in that Celtics

37:27game and they got cooked by Peyton Pritchard and Derek White in that game and that was a that was a far less competitive game than this one. And so it didn't feel exactly like, but it felt like another one of those, how could you? How could you lose this game? I know maybe home court advantage doesn't matter as much to people, but I'm a little low school. It's like you got to protect your home court and you got to beat teams that you're supposed to beat when they're underman and shorthanded and all these sorts of things and they could not do that and another parallel with that game with the Celtics game in particular is how how well the process looked on the other side versus yours. You had all your horses, you had everything going for yourself, but because their process looks so much they were they were less talented. They're on the road, they're less talented, but their process looks better, their identity and their roles are much more defined or better defined and clearer than yours are and therefore they're able to

38:33out execute you, out work you and it should not be. It should not be, but I will reiterate this again the same way that we understand Kevin Durant's role on the team, the same way we understand outpourncing Goons' role on the team. I feel like the next big priority there needs to be having a better understanding of rechepherds' role and place on the team. That's what they need to say and honestly I'm not quite sure how we're this far and we haven't gotten there yet. It's honestly frustrating that we're this far that I'm saying that they need to figure it out and they haven't figured it out just yet is maddening for me. This should have been something that they figured out by like 25 games and being pretty honest. Coming up, we will talk about the rough nights for Alper and Shingoon and Jabari Smith Jr. as well as final thoughts from this loss. We're going to get there in just one moment. First today's episode is brought to you by five hour

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40:36your post and here's a staff that says it all in the minute that I've been talking to you. Companies like yours made 27 hires on indeed according to indeed data worldwide. So if you're hiring spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes with indeed sponsored jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to help get your job. The premium status it deserves at indeed dot com slash podcast. Just go to indeed dot com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast indeed dot com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need to hire. This is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. And final segment here at locked on rockets you daily podcast home for everything Houston rockets basketball. Alper engine goon has been struggling as of late and I want to give him a little credit before we talk about the bad from this game just because there was that stretch at the end of regulation where he actually had two or three buckets like in a row really tough like down down to the wire like going bucket for bucket trying to just keep the rockets a float keep

41:37them tied and keeping them in the game right you know plays where they were trying to get the ball to Kevin Durant couldn't get the ball to Kevin Durant because Dremon was doing such a great job face guarding him on the perimeter. And so then it you know Alper engine goon has to step up and try and deliver something you know out of a possession that they wasted 12 seconds trying to get the ball to KD and managed to do so repeatedly at the end of regulation. But his body of work for the entire game was not great right just 17 points on 20 shots eight of 20 shooting oh three from downtown has no business taking that many threes to begin with with how poorly he's been shooting the ball seven rebounds seven assists one steel five turnovers was a minus 15 in his 37 minutes 18 worst minus 15 I mean they they they got killed in the she in the shingoon minutes and you know I said this the other day but you know for being one of the teams two stars shingoon hasn't consistently felt like a star it's been a lot more like his production has felt

42:43a lot more in line as of late with take your pick of any of the other role players who you know sometimes Jabari has a big game sometimes Tari has a big game sometimes a min has a big game right that's basically what shingoon feels like now it's sometimes a lot of a big game but more often than not as of late over the last few weeks or so really month and a half or so he's had a handful of big games but then he has a lot of more so kind of mediocre games where he's struggling defensively at times or really struggling to actually finish around the rim or just you know be can be consistent and efficient on offense and I really I don't know what it is at this point with shingoon you know some of it boils down to for sure not having a reliable lead guard to be able to run two man game with and pick and roll and all that stuff so you know shingoon is clearly the guy who is most affected by not having Fred van Vleet out there and it's been encouraging seeing some of the two man game grow between him and read shepherd but they're still not using it enough and he just hasn't been good enough recently honestly that's that's that's about

43:48as much as you can say about it he just hasn't been good enough lately your your last point there though about somebody who could benefit more from Fred man bleed out there or is suffering more with Fred van bleed to absence it's kind of all the more it's like a it's like an added piece of the argument to bring reading because like if you think for sure read makes everybody better in theory particularly your your outside shooters but also let's not understate how much better he could potentially make out for shingoon and have another guy to play off of somebody to help get easier looks easier shots like wouldn't you much rather the read shepherd out from shingoon picking roll whether whether he slips or whether he pops like wouldn't you rather that then the freaking out from shingoon post up from the three point line or whatever some of these other possessions that were getting from shingoon basically I think I think in this game we saw I kid you

44:51not I'd have to go back and check but I swear to God I think we saw more a men Thompson clink capella pick and roll action in this game then we did read shepherd alpore and shingoon pick and roll action and that should be like that that that should be a fireable offense I'm sorry like it's not good what are these guys doing out there and that is lack of discipline that is lack of like coherent coaching and offensive philosophy and identity and execution and understanding like hey maybe we don't run pick and roll with two non shooters in a men and and cc like no disrespect to those guys again they're they're talented they're good at what they do but that is not the action that you want to run that is not good offensive action and sometimes they do stuff like that and then like amend because he's ridiculously you know 99% of athletes will still get down hill and finish with where I was like all right cool but the process of it is still garbage like it's just bad and you go back to your point about the process from the other teams looking better right 99% of the time even against sometimes bad teams their process looks better than the rockets the

45:55rockets just have this abundance of talent and sometimes the talent just wins out right because at the end of the talent wins wins games it's weird man they they're picking roll combinations considering what the most obvious one is that they should spam some of the stuff that we've seen them do in terms of picking roll combinations like they've done I've seen just like in the past I've seen Jabari Smith Jr. and Clint Kapella picking roll combinations like I'm just really or maybe it's Jason take like it'll be just really odd combinations where you're like hey man you're not really giving the defense anything that they're worried the whole idea is to put the defense in a bind and to compromise them and have to make decisions about okay we're like I gonna defend this am I gonna defend that and you know if everything's happening quickly and before you know it boom you make your move and you're attacking you either hit your shot or you get down here whatever it is but this like a Kapella a men Thompson picking roll all your defending

46:57there is the basket essentially because because both of these guys are gonna do their work in the paint you know and outside the paint are not really threats to you neither neither guy so yeah man like the back back to the shingoon point though I would just say man it is it made me think of watching him be inefficient again tonight made me think of how man he scored that 32 against the Wizards earlier in the week and I couldn't even really enjoy it right because and I and I have to do this thing where it's like it's just the Wizards or they're tankin but you need to say that for his proper context but if a guy has a good game it's the NBA I want to give him credit and say hey man that was a good game but I couldn't really fully enjoy it because part of me in the back of my mind was thinking oh yeah of course he of course he would have a night like that against the Wizards but he hasn't had like a superstar night like he did right but he hasn't had a lot of

47:58those if any really over the last couple of months and hasn't looked like you know we throw the word of the term superstar around has not looked like one of those since the beginning of the season and I thought you put it well man just kind of looks like another guy on the team not not not like he's bad but just another guy on the team not special like if I were to drop you into the universe and you've got no context you haven't been following the rockets for the last few years you don't know anything about out from shingoon and I just drop you into the middle of Toyota center during the game and I'm like okay who are the who are the cornerstones center pieces of this of this squad I think Kevin Durant will obviously stand out to you reach shepherd is gonna stand out to you and then I think you're gonna look around and see a bunch of nice players but outperch and goons not gonna be based off of how he's played lately it's not gonna be somebody that you would guess is a two time all star and a linchpin and what they've got going and so he's got to find it he's got to figure out a way to get back to that I

49:02think it goes without saying this team's going nowhere without outperch and going playing at a much higher level than what we see yeah and I'm still not again so much of this is is not you know it's not ever just black and white there is gray area in or here right none of this is yet we're not just sitting here oh this is all outperch and you can fall well no some of it's coaching right some of it's the lineup some of it's hit the not having Fred Van Blee not getting enough reps with reps with each shepherd but at the end of the day the one that like there are things that shingoon can control right that he can control his effort and his desire to play defense at a higher level right he can control his just inconsistent finishing around the rim like that's something well within his control is his ability to just not smoke wide open shots when he gets when he does all the hard work and gets to the bucket and then just shots just a little off around the rim right when you don't hit threes when you don't when you're when you're not a shooter you can't really afford to not do that right for your touch around the rim to be bad yeah and and you also when you're not a shooter you can't afford to take three threes in a given game right that's a win for

50:06the defense every possession down at this point you know if shingoon's having a big game where he's balling out and he's crushing and paying cool you're if you want to step out of the three point line and take a couple threes because you've got 20 points in the paint already be my guest have fun do it right heat check yourself but heat check from the perimeter there was no reason for me to take any of those threes in this game right you know I don't I don't even remember one of them being like at the end of the shot clock where it's like he just needed to hoist one or it was going to be a turnover anyways these were all like with plenty of time left on the clock and it's just he has the ball in the perimeter takes the three and he has not proven to this point in his career to be a reliable enough three point shooter to take those shots you know take him when you're you know hot when you've got when you're flowing when you've got the other points going elsewhere when the vibes are good sure but it's just if that's what that's a losing proposition at the end of the day you had a men Thompson take two threes he did hit a corner one but again even that one's like you know Katie passed on the ball because a men's man was literally shit like shadowing over to Katie and Katie literally couldn't do anything with the ball because the defender didn't care about

51:09a men in the corner and so Katie just whipped to him the corner like I guess this is all we're going to get on this possession and he knocked it down and Katie even like outstretched arms kind of like well I guess that went in that worked right but that's one for five three point shooting 20 percent between shingo and a men Thompson right there shouldn't ever be five threes combined between those two guys in a given game and that comes back down to discipline and coaching right why is the coach allowing them to take those threes right that shouldn't be happening within a given game also on the other on the other side you know Alper and shingo he struggled in this one gave him his flowers for the the big plays that he had at the end of regulation yes needs to be better Jabari smj Jr making his return from his ankle tweak gave hustle got some rebounds had 11 boards couple of assists couple defensive plays but just really struggling everywhere offensively over in this one over eight only three points just a really rough night back at the office of

52:10Jabari in his first game back yeah I'm going to give Jabari a little bit of grace though because this was his first game back and because he had been playing so well before he got injured that's fair and and I feel like you know everyone's deserved or or should be allowed at least a little bit of grace now over is bad I don't I don't think you can just excuse over you know part of your job is to knock down open shots you got to knock down a shot over his tough but just the overall underwhelming nature of the game you got to figure that he's still trying to get is you know get his wind back kind of get or or maybe rhythm is the word that I'm looking for you know especially again considering how well he was playing and then for for that to be disrupted you miss a couple of games and then and I imagine these last three days off kind of benefited him maybe helped him be able to play in this game but it's just now been enough time to where I could see how he would be out of whack out of rhythm just a little bit now it's one of those where

53:13you want to put a pin in it right and and and just hope that it's not a trend right once Alper and Shingoon came back from his ankle injury it was like everybody was kind of looking around like post ankle injury Alper and Shingoon how's it looking and that sort of thing and so we're going to have to do that with Jabari but I'm willing to allow one game to kind of give him a mulligan here obviously if he had played better he'll have he gets one three if he gets two shots they win the game you know as opposed to zero shots but but yeah this is going to go down as a game kind of similar what I was talking about earlier about that Celtic game as a game they like in the race in the Western Conference is going to really really bug you that you lost this game no matter where it is at your finish you're going to think oh if I had won that game back in early March against a warriors team we were supposed to beat and maybe if Jabari Smith June you're sorry Jabari if he had just hit maybe one or two shots could have won that game and kind of similar thing from a few weeks ago with the Celtics but Jabari you know the the

54:18ask of him is and this would be the frustrating part of this continues is to hit the open shots you know we talked about this back when he was struggling before like hey man you get some of the easiest shots on the team and we cannot stress enough how important your scoring is to the team right like yeah there was a stretch there when he played well they won when he didn't play well they lost there was just as simple as that his his scoring is vital to the team well Royal Ivy said this in the interview with Vanessa Richardson during one of those half-time interviews a few weeks back like and and Jabari was having an amazing game his scoring is vital to RT so they're going to need him to be better obviously if they're going to do anything I hated watching Anthony Melton ball out because I really wanted him on this rock it's roster this past offseason he was one of the the guards that I was like you could take a flyer on him he's coming back from an injury you know low risk high reward potential kind of player and he was brought him back and and man he has been since January he's been incredible for them 23 points

55:2210 of 22 shooting six rebounds two assists three steals two blocks now I will say that I obviously I love what Josh Kogies brought to this rock and steam and I think that the my when I was campaigning for Anthony Melton being one of the the players to consider for them to consider going after this past offseason it would have been with that that minimum slot that ultimately went to Josh Kogie but like but could you just pretend or like imagine for a second like how good the Anthony Melton would be for this rockets team like if they had gone out and gotten him and or if they let's just pretend if they had Melton instead of like DFS at this point like which is how rough DFS has been or really anybody other than DFS at this point because I mean he didn't even play this game because he still he he still we are in March and DFS is still not playing back to backs and still hasn't really rounded into form yet still apparently dealing with some pain in that ankle so maybe the rockets rushed him back from injury too quickly maybe the injury was more severe than you know we were led to believe when they initially signed him this past offseason I don't know but the DFS then continues to be one of the most perplexing

56:24disappointing elements of this whole rocket season filled with a number of unfortunate frustrating circumstances and disappointments but another overtime loss we want your thoughts on this OT loss what's that out to you from this game what did you like about Reed Shepherd's performance and any other good stuff from this game what did you dislike about this game let us know your thoughts in the comments section B Scott you know the drill let have been in order to track you down at so you can catch me at the B block podcast on YouTube wherever it is you get your podcasts and also on sports radio 16 find me on social media at B Scott from harm clock that's going to do it for another edition of locked on rockets as always thanks much for checking out the show remember the best way to help us grow the shows to listen every single day on a podcast platform of you choosing and then like comment subscribe on YouTube but as always thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening we look forward to having you back right here at locked on rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston rockets basketball

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