The NBA Should Be Terrified Of The Houston Rockets

The NBA Should Be Terrified Of The Houston Rockets

All right, guys. So, let’s break down this footage from the Rockets training camp practice yesterday. It was a fun one for sure. Shout out to the Rockets for doing all of this and letting me react. So, here we’ve got Reed Shepard against Kevin Durant. He’s got the ball in his left hand getting ready to make a move. Durant is above the three-point line. He’s not all up on him because he’s respecting the speed. But watch how well Durant defends him. He doesn’t fall for any of Reed’s moves. So, I’m just gonna play it through and then I’ll rewind it. Boom. Cool. So, Reed makes a crossover move and then he attacks Durant’s back foot. Of course, this is the move that a lot of players Durant’s eyes will bite on. See like the hesitation. They’ll go flying off their feet and then get beat. But Durant sticks with him and with his length, he’s able to still get a contest with his left, but it doesn’t matter. I mean, this is a 6’10, 6’11 man with a massive wingspan getting his reach up there and Reed just throws up basically a hook shot off of the backboard. Reed Shepard arguably won the day. I mean, he was so so phenomenal and he’s competing for a starting spot. Everyone’s talking about he’s the backup to a man, not so fast. Reed Shepard absolutely could start if he has a good training camp in a preseason. And we’re just going to play through this edit. My first time looking at it again. Again, I can’t stress enough. This is so cool of the Rockets to go out here and to do this. And most teams are not even doing this in the regular season, yet alone just a training camp practice. It just goes to show of the expectations this team has. They want to document everything. They feel like they’re going to win the championship. Fred Vanble or not, they believe in what they got and the depth and what they built. And we’re getting to see it in full display. I mean, this is just day one, guys, as the Rockets are going to kick off the preseason on Monday, October 6. That’s a little bit disappointing. I know. Well, the Knicks are in the Middle East, so they’re going to have the first preseason game tomorrow. But the Rockets will kick off Monday against the Hawks, which is going to be a 7 PM game over, of course, in Central Standard Time. So, here’s this clip as well as you got Kevin Durant and Jeff Green kind of get tangled up. You can see they’re smiling about it. He grabbed me first. I’m reading his lips. KD is trying to make his case of the official. And then, yeah, Katie’s going to grab him for real. This is hilarious. I think Jeff Green’s personality fits the Rockets. Amazingly, as he tapped Jabari in the shoulder, Jabari fell for that. He looked and he’s like, “Oh, come on, Unk. Durant’s going to spot up, catch, and shoot.” See, the Rockets didn’t have this last season. You know, Dylan Brooks is saying Dylan Brooks is kind of crazy comparing that to Kevin Durant, but like who won the Rockets last season? I hate my fault about this guy is I can’t really bring it down, but who won the Rockets last season was catching and shooting in rhythm effortlessly and knocking that down. And that’s Ty E guarding him by the way. One of the best wing defenders in the league. I mean, most guys aren’t even attempting the shot. But Durant just right in rhythm. Knocks it down. Doesn’t even touch the net. Just Katie didn’t touch the net very often yesterday. It’s just it’s mindboggling to me to think that the Rockets, who were the second seed in the West, got Kevin Durant and didn’t give up anyone of their main court. They didn’t give up a man. They didn’t give up Shenun. They gave up Jaylen Green who they wanted to trade anyway. And Dylan Brooks, they had to give up something valuable. But I mean, and what a first round pick. It’s just, you know, Kevin Durant is still a top 10 player in basketball at the lowest. Who’s ready to see year three amen? Yeah, I think a men’s the most interesting story line of the entire Rockets outside of Kevin Durant because his leap is going to ultimately determine this team ceiling. We know the floor is there. We know men’s going to be the best defender in the league. We know he’s going to get assists. he’s going to get rebounds, but just in terms of his score, can he of course improve that jump shot, which we’ve already seen glimpses of in the preseason and in the offseason, he’s looked like a much better shooter. A lot of Rockets players have spoken about that. Him being a leader, him being a floor general, running the offense, he’s going to be in a role that he wasn’t going to be in without uh or with Fred rather because Men was still going to be on the ball and facilitate even with Fred, but now he’s being asked to do that full time. And I’m just excited to see what exactly that’s going to look like, too. Because if we look back on a men and he has a monster season, the Rockets are going to be unstoppable. But if he doesn’t take that leap, I mean, they’re just going to be another team in a crowded Western Conference. So, I’m keeping an eye on a men because I know Shenun is going to have an all-star season. I know KD is going to have an MVP type of season. What do you got out of a man Thompson? Can he become an all-star this season? Can he become even more? I mean, the sky’s is the limit. There’s not very many players in basketball, maybe if any. Oh yeah, WBY. Besides a WY that have a ceiling, like a men’s option. Like this guy could literally be a guy who wins multiple MVPs. Like he’s has that type of potential. He’s the best athlete in the NBA. He’s already arguably outside of WBY. WMBB is a unicorn made in a lab. But outside of WBY, he’s probably already the best defender in basketball. He’s got high IQ. It’s not even He’s not just athletic. He’s a high IQ smart player. And dude can like barely drink a beer. He’s like 5 years younger than me. Like it’s just l literally ridiculous to think about. And I think we’ve got one more thing here if I remember correctly. Yeah, we do. So this is just a picture of Reed Shepard attacking the basket going right at Shangun. You can see how he’s blocking off ShenGun. So you see with his left like right here. This is going to be hard. Let’s switch it to red. So you guys see like right here he’s doing a good job of just making sure that ShenGun can’t exactly alter the shot with his off arm. And he’s laying it up and in. I don’t know if this went in. I mean, I don’t like I don’t know how this play sort unfolded. Like Shenun might have fouled him. I mean, hell, maybe for all I know, Shen got a crazy block on this with like his fingertips. But just to see Reed going to the basket is big cuz we know he can shoot. We know he’s got unlimited range. Like Reed has some of the best range already in the league. We’ve seen it time and time again. But it’s a matter of just attacking the basket, being aggressive, getting to the free throw line is something that we want to see more out of Reed Shepard. And I’m hoping that this season we do. And just look at Javari. Javari just literally just looking like, “Oh my god.” Like look at this guy flying. But going back to Reed cuz you know I’ve been talking about Reed Shepard the entire summer. He he’s the most intriguing player to watch out for because if he has a breakout year once again I mean the Rocket ceiling is just so much so much higher. Like they’ll have a legit chance against OKC if they can get something valuable at Reach Shepard this season. This is just a good strong take. Good offense is always going to be good defense. But can Reed be consistent? Can he come in every single night and score the ball, facilitate, be efficient, get to his spots as a playmaker? Because is Reed a point guard or a shooting guard? That’s kind of what we’re going to find out this season. A lot of these typical guards that come into the draft are basically twos and one’s body. That makes sense. Like dame staff. I mean, I’m not saying Reed’s on that level yet, but you know, those guys are shooting guards, but they play point guards. So, I’m kind of looking forward to seeing Reed do that. They’ve got Aaron Holiday. The Rockets financially cannot go out there and bring in like a Russell Westbrook or a Ben Simmons. So, they’re going to have to rock with what they got, at least for the next couple of months. And I’m truly excited to see how it goes. Uh, I’m also excited to see how Monday goes, what they do with the starting lineup, what they do with the rotations. I mean with the Rockets start Shangun and Adams I mean are they they well they can’t start of course Dorian Finny Smith because he’s not even clear to play right now. So there’s just a lot on the table help maybe a man in Reed Aaron Holiday but then I don’t know what they would do up they’d have just Aaron Holiday off the bench. I don’t know if they’d go that route necessarily. Maybe they’ll start Tari. They’ll use a big lineup. I mean we just we don’t know. And I think that’s the the fun thing about the Rockets is, you know, the next several days of of practice are going to determine a lot. And everything’s on the table at this point is, you know, Aaron Holidayiday whips a corner three ball. Durant.

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