WEBVTT - Rockets Rookie Continues To Struggle

0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:13.160
<v Speaker 1>So I want to give the Houston Rockets the benefit

0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:17.000
<v Speaker 1>of the doubts, but I just can't. I just cannot.

0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:21.599
<v Speaker 1>They are a dumpster fire. They continue to surprise me

0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:27.479
<v Speaker 1>in the most awful way humanly possible. Last time we

0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.120
<v Speaker 1>checked out on the Rockets, Steven Silence was throwing his

0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.839
<v Speaker 1>team under the bus. Remember he was like, oh, yeah,

0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.159
<v Speaker 1>they're not playing on the defensive end, they don't get

0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.879
<v Speaker 1>after it, where Eric Gordon was saying things about how

0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.760
<v Speaker 1>they're not improving, they're not getting into their man, they're

0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.400
<v Speaker 1>fighting over things and not helping each other, not doing

0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:47.400
<v Speaker 1>what they're supposed to do. Pretty much an indictment of

0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.080
<v Speaker 1>this entire team not being on the same page. And

0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.080
<v Speaker 1>then Rockets are awful. They're the worst team in the league.

0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.640
<v Speaker 1>They're thirteen and forty five, and that's the worst worst

0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:58.920
<v Speaker 1>record in the NBA by a long shot. They are

0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:00.400
<v Speaker 1>one and nine in the last ten. This is not

0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.040
<v Speaker 1>a good team, right, But there's a lot of not

0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:07.840
<v Speaker 1>good teams. This is like a infested organization though, And

0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.400
<v Speaker 1>the more you look into it, the more you say

0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.960
<v Speaker 1>to yourself, what is happening there? How do you fix it?

0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:18.240
<v Speaker 1>Because it is really off the rails. So now we've

0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:23.320
<v Speaker 1>got some new news on some more things that apparently

0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.200
<v Speaker 1>are disturbing as it relates to their third overall pick

0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.680
<v Speaker 1>from last year's draft, Jabari Smith Junior. Yeah, he's an

0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.520
<v Speaker 1>absolute mess. They've broke him. I'm gonna say it again,

0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.279
<v Speaker 1>Houston Rockets have broken Jabari Smith. According to Mark Spear

0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:41.520
<v Speaker 1>at Andscape, apparently the Thunder, which has nothing to do

0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.480
<v Speaker 1>with the Rockets, but the Thunder promised Jabari that they

0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.840
<v Speaker 1>would draft him at number two overall, a belief that

0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.280
<v Speaker 1>they extended all the way through draft night, which, let's

0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.920
<v Speaker 1>be honest, they probably also said that the Thunder probably

0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.360
<v Speaker 1>also said that the chat they knew Jabari, or at

0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.560
<v Speaker 1>least assumed that Jabari wouldn't be available, so they were

0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.520
<v Speaker 1>just trying to kind of like, I don't know, he's him.

0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.400
<v Speaker 1>His dad then told Mark Spears, when they called chet

0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:10.960
<v Speaker 1>Holgren's name, he lost it, leg went to shaking. I

0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:15.200
<v Speaker 1>looked at him. He's in tears, almost in tears, and

0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:17.680
<v Speaker 1>I forgot that he told me, okay, see, promised to

0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.480
<v Speaker 1>draft him, So I kept my mouth closed about that.

0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.200
<v Speaker 1>I talked to him and I'm like, well, hey, what

0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.359
<v Speaker 1>are you doing straight in your face. Man, you good,

0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.359
<v Speaker 1>you good? You good? You know the camera was right

0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:34.560
<v Speaker 1>at our table, bro, Can you blame him? He thought

0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.320
<v Speaker 1>he was gonna play for Mark Dagneil who probably did

0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.040
<v Speaker 1>not know, and Sam Presty and Oka See with a

0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:43.440
<v Speaker 1>bunch of bucket getters that also passed the ball around

0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:48.480
<v Speaker 1>to going to Houston post James Harden Houston gross I

0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.480
<v Speaker 1>would be in tears too, and this year has been

0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:55.959
<v Speaker 1>a disaster. They have broken him. He is the worst

0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.080
<v Speaker 1>he's maybe ever been in his career right now, just

0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:01.880
<v Speaker 1>off the radar. The fact that he's in the Rising

0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:07.640
<v Speaker 1>Stars Challenge is really sort of a loose interpretation of

0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.840
<v Speaker 1>rising star. Right like, right now he is a falling star,

0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.400
<v Speaker 1>and eventually he will rise again like a phoenix out

0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:15.960
<v Speaker 1>of the ashes when he gets the fuck out of

0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:17.760
<v Speaker 1>Houston or they sell the team or get rid of

0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.120
<v Speaker 1>stylists or something. But right now he is not a

0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.560
<v Speaker 1>rising star. Jabari Smith is a falling star. He is

0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:27.200
<v Speaker 1>averaging twelve seven and one, which is like fine, but

0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:31.799
<v Speaker 1>he's shooting thirty percent from three thirty nine percent from

0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.760
<v Speaker 1>the field as a whole. This is a guy. If

0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.680
<v Speaker 1>you remember that everyone said largely was the best pure

0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.160
<v Speaker 1>shooter in the league or best peer shooter in the draft.

0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.720
<v Speaker 1>He has the best jumper in the draft class. So

0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.720
<v Speaker 1>then when amazingly so they asked Steven Silas about all

0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.440
<v Speaker 1>this right for the article, and you would assume that

0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.440
<v Speaker 1>Steven Silas would say positive things about Jabari right, protect

0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.000
<v Speaker 1>this guy, make him feel good, knowing that it's gonna

0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.600
<v Speaker 1>get published. I don't know something, do something Steven like

0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.920
<v Speaker 1>figure it out, know that your your player's confidence is

0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:08.720
<v Speaker 1>at an all time low, and maybe figure out a

0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.720
<v Speaker 1>way in print for him to boost it. No, no, no, no,

0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.400
<v Speaker 1>he didn't he said this. Jabari is young in trying

0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.480
<v Speaker 1>to find his way. He has grit and toughness and

0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:23.599
<v Speaker 1>tries defensively, and he's not given much at all. I

0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:28.840
<v Speaker 1>don't run any plays for Jabbari Smith. You don't run

0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:33.480
<v Speaker 1>any place for Jabari Smith, your number three overall pick,

0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.839
<v Speaker 1>the guy that everyone thought was a consensus number one

0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:42.640
<v Speaker 1>overall pick. You don't run any designed place for him. None.

0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.160
<v Speaker 1>You don't feel like that's maybe something you should reconsider.

0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.320
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, like you don't think that's maybe something

0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:52.520
<v Speaker 1>to evaluate about you. No wonder Jabari is upset. He's

0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.760
<v Speaker 1>probably in tears on a regular basis. Honestly, Let's be honest.

0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.120
<v Speaker 1>If I was stuck in Houston, that is a jail

0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.400
<v Speaker 1>sentence in the NBA. All you have to do while

0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.760
<v Speaker 1>you're biding your time before a free agency read books,

0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.040
<v Speaker 1>try to figure out, maybe become like a lawyer like

0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.400
<v Speaker 1>they do in jail. You know, they just figure out

0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:18.200
<v Speaker 1>a new craft, a new hobby, a PhD program. Jabari,

0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.440
<v Speaker 1>do something with your time because you're locked up like

0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.000
<v Speaker 1>Akon right now, and there's really no point for you

0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.080
<v Speaker 1>to focus on your relationship with Houston Rockets because they

0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.520
<v Speaker 1>clearly don't focus on the relationship with you. Jabari said

0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.720
<v Speaker 1>this in terms of how his rookie year is gone.

0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.680
<v Speaker 1>Probably you would imagine it's not going well for him.

0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.960
<v Speaker 1>Let's check in on him though. He says, yes, it's

0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:43.520
<v Speaker 1>been tough, honestly, because I feel like I've been winning

0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.320
<v Speaker 1>all the way up to this point. So it's just

0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.800
<v Speaker 1>knowing it'll get brighter down the road and just trusting

0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.040
<v Speaker 1>the process and staying with it. It will not get

0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.400
<v Speaker 1>brighter down the road, I hate to say it. Until

0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.000
<v Speaker 1>you get out out of Houston, maybe you end up

0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.640
<v Speaker 1>going to Philadelphia because James Harden wants to end up

0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:14.080
<v Speaker 1>back in Houston. Maybe strippers and foi gras infused lobster

0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:18.760
<v Speaker 1>hamburgers that James Harden loves so much. Maybe hookah is

0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.560
<v Speaker 1>your way out. Maybe somehow, some way you can get

0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.680
<v Speaker 1>a reprieve. But there is no bright days coming for

0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.359
<v Speaker 1>you when you are in Houston. I promise you that

0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.479
<v Speaker 1>all of this is an example that the spot you

0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:38.200
<v Speaker 1>land is everything. So much of the draft is where

0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.920
<v Speaker 1>you go. And let's face facts, there is no worse

0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:46.640
<v Speaker 1>spot for a young three point shooting big man to

0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:52.040
<v Speaker 1>go than the Houston Rockets. You have Jalen Green, you

0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.159
<v Speaker 1>have Kevin Porter Junior, you have Josh Christopher, you have

0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:00.480
<v Speaker 1>Alpera and Shanngoon, and they all want that ball and

0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.640
<v Speaker 1>they don't want you to have it. And that is

0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.960
<v Speaker 1>the truth. Even if you're wide open, jumping up and

0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.880
<v Speaker 1>down out of the basket, they are not giving you

0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.960
<v Speaker 1>the ball. We can only imagine what Jabari would be

0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.120
<v Speaker 1>in Okay. See, we could only imagine what Jabari would

0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:21.360
<v Speaker 1>be in Orlando even but I promise you this is

0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.320
<v Speaker 1>the worst spot for him for his confidence. And he's

0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:26.600
<v Speaker 1>a nice kid. He's a little too nice for Houston.

0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.280
<v Speaker 1>If you know what I'm saying. He's the kind of

0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.800
<v Speaker 1>kid that gets sucked into thinking that if you go

0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.320
<v Speaker 1>upstairs to the champagne room, you only have to pay

0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.360
<v Speaker 1>for the one song. You just doesn't know that every

0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.880
<v Speaker 1>new song that she plays you have to pay more

0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.080
<v Speaker 1>money for. And you come out you're like a, oh,

0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:50.520
<v Speaker 1>twenty seven thousand dollars to Cayenne, right, Like that's Jabbari Smith.

0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.880
<v Speaker 1>One thing is for sure, Jabbari's rookie year has gone

0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.640
<v Speaker 1>far worse than any pundit or any draft expert could

0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.960
<v Speaker 1>have ever ever predicted. Well he ever become a star.

0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.960
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. Time will tell, but he's gonna need

0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:05.840
<v Speaker 1>to get out of h Town in order for us

0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.680
<v Speaker 1>to find out. So we talked last episode about the

0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:13.800
<v Speaker 1>Warriors and how they were upset with my Portland Trailblazers

0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.840
<v Speaker 1>and for not disclosing the seriousness the severity of Gary

0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.200
<v Speaker 1>Payton's injury. The derailed almost a four team trade that

0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.600
<v Speaker 1>sent out Sadeek Bay, James Wiseman, Kevin Knox, and about

0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:28.920
<v Speaker 1>a gajillion and second round picks. Right, So they're upset

0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.800
<v Speaker 1>with the Gary Payton trade. Golden State ended up taking

0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:37.400
<v Speaker 1>on Gary Payton. But to say that they are pissed

0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.520
<v Speaker 1>is an understatement. They've already had the League look into it,

0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:48.280
<v Speaker 1>they've already launched a formal investigation. But now there's more. Yep,

0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.000
<v Speaker 1>I just looked. I googled it today and I was like,

0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.000
<v Speaker 1>what's up with the Warriors? Are they over it? Have

0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.199
<v Speaker 1>they calmed things down? Are they chill? No, they are

0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.199
<v Speaker 1>not chill. According to Chris Haynes, the Warriors are now

0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:02.800
<v Speaker 1>encouraging the league front office to investigate all of Portland's

0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.720
<v Speaker 1>trades over the last few years. Hey, I think they're

0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:08.760
<v Speaker 1>fucked up in general. I think you guys need to

0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.240
<v Speaker 1>look into some stuff like it kind of looks like

0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.679
<v Speaker 1>they're not just selling dimes and Nichols, they're pushing major weights.

0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:21.240
<v Speaker 1>I think that they are full fledged shady. Why why

0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:25.680
<v Speaker 1>do they want the front office to look into the Blazers. Well,

0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.200
<v Speaker 1>they assert that the Blazers just as a matter of course,

0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:35.160
<v Speaker 1>keep screwing teams over by hiding injuries. Can't you just

0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:39.240
<v Speaker 1>leave well enough alone Golden State? No, they cannot. Apparently

0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.600
<v Speaker 1>it's not just the Peyton trade. As Haynes reported, I

0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:44.439
<v Speaker 1>was told that they've urged the league to look into

0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:46.839
<v Speaker 1>Portland's dealing with New Orleans last year when it was

0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.400
<v Speaker 1>the CJ. McCollum Larry Nance trade. They've urged the league

0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.760
<v Speaker 1>to look into that, particularly Larry Nants junior, because they

0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.560
<v Speaker 1>believe that a similar incident happened in that deal, and

0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:01.120
<v Speaker 1>they feel like the Blazers may have a pattern of

0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:07.239
<v Speaker 1>doing something where they're either withholding information or presenting misleading information.

0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.720
<v Speaker 1>And so without having all the details, what I do

0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:12.719
<v Speaker 1>know is the Warriors have made it clear to the

0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.040
<v Speaker 1>league that they need to look into that trade from

0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:22.480
<v Speaker 1>last year. Snitch, snitch, snitch. What are the Warriors doing?

0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.440
<v Speaker 1>They had nothing to do with them. The optics are

0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:27.920
<v Speaker 1>not good at the moment. Right after Nance was traded

0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.400
<v Speaker 1>to New Orleans, he had surgery on his right knee

0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:35.000
<v Speaker 1>and missed more than ten weeks. Whoopsie. They didn't see

0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.880
<v Speaker 1>that either. He was healthy. He was healthy. Uh. This

0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:40.720
<v Speaker 1>is how I know that the Warriors are pissed because

0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.760
<v Speaker 1>if Adam Silver finds that they've done shit wrong, they're

0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.320
<v Speaker 1>gonna lose draft picks, they're gonna get fined and the kicker.

0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.240
<v Speaker 1>There's pretty much nothing at the stage that would actually

0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:56.320
<v Speaker 1>benefit the Warriors beyond just snitching. They get nothing from this.

0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.000
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. Maybe that's why they couldn't find a

0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:01.760
<v Speaker 1>buyer for NRK at the deadline because he had his

0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.480
<v Speaker 1>calf injury. I don't know if Portland is guilty at all,

0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.040
<v Speaker 1>but what I do know is the Warriors have it

0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.360
<v Speaker 1>out for Portland and they do have a little bit

0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.000
<v Speaker 1>of history. That's all the time that we have for

0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.240
<v Speaker 1>the heat Check. Check back Monday for an all new episode.

0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:18.280
<v Speaker 1>Do not forget to watch that feed for past episodes, interviews,

0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.880
<v Speaker 1>bonus episodes that drop unexpectedly throughout the week. Please follow

0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.360
<v Speaker 1>us on every single social channel at this heat Check

0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.640
<v Speaker 1>on TikTok at Trista Crik on Twitter, Instagram, Trista Crick

0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:33.079
<v Speaker 1>on TikTok as well. Tell all your friends please please

0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.520
<v Speaker 1>download the pod, Please subscribe to the pod. Please write

0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.800
<v Speaker 1>nice things about the pod. We still have people who

0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.360
<v Speaker 1>are hating being trollers and trolling in the comments, so

0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.480
<v Speaker 1>help me out. And also, by the way, the Heat

0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.080
<v Speaker 1>Check never sleeps even after the trade deadline, but hopefully

0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.760
<v Speaker 1>at some point I can't talk to you guys soon

0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:51.959
<v Speaker 1>much