MASSIVE Changes IMMINENT... Report Reveals CRAZY Update | Rockets News

After their disastrous loss against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night, a new report sheds light on what the Houston Rockets can do to gain an advantage in Game 2 of their first-round series, and it could have a huge implication on whether or not this team stays in this series. Hello, everybody. I am Donovan Riccardo. I am your host for Rockets Digest, where we break down all the latest news, rumors, and updates regarding your H-Town team. and it has been a rough couple of days considering the disastrous playoff loss regarding the first round series between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors and things were not pretty at all during this game. Offensively, we were shut down. The only person that decided to show up on Sunday night was Alperen Sengun getting himself 26 points in that game. Jalen Green absent Fred VanVleet absent this was not the type of production this was not the typical uh rockets team that played all year and that played at a level of being the second seed they quite frankly the way they played yesterday they are looking probably like besides the grizzlies who got blown out by 50 are looking at as one of the weaker teams in terms of first games played in the playoffs they did not show up at all and so in this video i want to break down what a new report suggests about what we can do and also why i think there is some validity to this report again look at these stats right here on the board Amin Thompson uh eight points you know shooting shooting from the three-point line not very great at all Jabari Smith Jr you know getting 11 like it's just it's just like a very subpar game from all these guys and offensively we only scored 85 points in the game which you know is one terrible but you also held golden state to 95 points if you were gonna be told at the beginning of the game hey you're gonna not keep these guys 95 and lower you would say oh offensively you would have won that game but obviously things did not pan out the way the rockets uh in the Rockets' favor on Sunday night and so I want to get to the report from Will Beaty of Space City Scoop and he says we got to change the rotation not not drastically but just giving guys like Cam Whitmore and Reed Sheppard more gameplay in game two and he he mentions he mentions that the trio of Jalen Green, Amin Thompson Fred VanVleet went a combined 11 for 43 from the floor last time out and so I understand like Cam Whitmore and Reed Sheppard have not played much minutes this year quite frankly we really haven't needed them to play those substantial minutes I mean we have done a very fairly good job in with our eight to nine uh playoff player rotation and for the most part it got us to where we are we were a second seed going to one of the hottest teams in the NBA but the playoffs are all about you know matchups and adjustments and what can you throw at the other team to get them you know discombobulated out of their normal rhythm things that they might not have prepared for and I think instilling these two guys into the roster into the lineup excuse me could have a good impact on our uh chances in game two now I'm not saying you know replace Jalen Green with Cam Whitmore Or it's like that would be that's not the solution. Jalen Green for, you know, heading into the playoff series. I'm very I was very high on Jalen Green. I believe he could be the scorer that we needed him to be in this series. Game one was not evidence of that. And so we still want, of course, we still want him, guys like Amin Thompson, guys like Fred VanVleet to step up their game and, you know, be the players that they were all season. But if you instill these guys like Whitmore and Shepard, it can offer an offensive spark that you did not have in game one. And I just want to go to what Coach JJ Redick once said about these guys in terms of what they could be and how good caliber players they actually are. Both would be rotation players on nearly every team and potential starters on a lot of teams. Both really good players. And they are. I mean, the stats, you know, I'm going to show you their stats. They're not, again, they did not play much minutes all year, especially Reed Sheppard. 4.4 points per game, 1.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists. And then you got a guy like Cam Whitmore who played a little bit more, 9 points per game with 3 rebounds, 1 assist. And so, like, these stats, they're not meant to be, like, popping off. Like, they're not, I'm not saying these guys are, like, offensive geniuses that, you know, like, I understand what their stats are. all i am saying is that coach Ime Udoka has a decision to make and i think that he is not afraid to do what he think is what he thinks would be beneficial to the team for example recently we had a game against the philadelphia 76ers it was one of the overtime games that we played this season and i don't know if you remember but in that game he decided to bench Alperen Sengun he benched him for essentially that entire second half and to his credit we did slowly creep back into that game and eventually Sengun ended up making the i believe the game tying basket at the end of that and it ended up popping off in overtime but what that did what coach Ime Udoka did at that time was he put a guy who is our only all-star and he sat him down and when a player like that sits they can either react one of two ways they can either react to like oh this is BS why am i not in the game i don't want to go in the game very negatively or he can do what Sengun did come back at the end of the game when his team really needed him to get a tip in basket and really needed him to score in overtime and elevated himself to that position and so what i think Emeik can do in terms of game two is you know put Cam Whitmore in put Reed Sheppard in have them do some things have them do some damage because someone's not getting as much playing time or that'd be Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, Fred VanVleet if you put in a guy like Sheppard if you put in a guy like Whitmore someone's gonna come off right and so based on what this team has shown me they have that fight in them there is a little bit of competitiveness of course with these players amongst each other and with other teams and if I think some possible bench time for some of these guys to kind of like re reinvent their mindset and what they can do for this team could be beneficial and of course having guys like Whitmore and Sheppard Sheppard who's a fantastic shooter and Whitmore who's a great scorer could be the spark of this team now i'm not saying again i'm not saying that this is you know the one and only solution i think we could also do fine just with the rotation that we have now if they simply just shot the ball better because sometimes you just have off nights. And that's completely understandable. That's something that Van Vliet said in the post-game conference. Sometimes you just have off nights and that's completely valid. Completely okay. Or not okay, but like I understand that reason. But if this is a trend that continues, like if say, same rotation game two, same thing happens. Jalen Green doesn't show up. Maybe Sengun doesn't show up. Someone doesn't show up. If this is a continual problem within game two, you're going to have to make changes. You're going to have to. The Golden State Warriors, even though they want, you know for a fact, they're scheming up something that can throw us off. They still have Curry. They still have playoff Jimmy. They're going to do a lot of things to make it harder on guys like Jalen Green and guys like Amin Thompson who are in the first playoff series. Because, quite frankly, this right here is not going to cut. It is not. You can't have Warren score with 20 and then everyone else with 11 or less. that is not going to do it in the NBA postseason. And so this is something to consider. This is something that Ime Udoka is going to have to think about. What can he do to the lineup to change it a little bit, give it some flair, give it some spark, so that the Houston Rockets have the best chance of winning game two. This is certainly something I think could work. It could work. We've seen, you know, Sheppard and Cam Whitmore play in the last game, both having some pretty fair games, too. They're certainly capable of providing that spark, and I think it's something that Coach Ime Udoka should possibly consider for Game 2, Game 3, Game 4. We'll see what happens. And that wraps it up for this video. Let me know if you think this is a great idea or if you think this is simply an overreaction. I understand that, you know, hey, we should play two bench guys that haven't played much all year in the line in the postseason. I understand that that could possibly be a terrible take let me know let me know what you think we should do with these lineups and thank you so much for joining us on this video for rocket scientists if you made it to the end of the video make sure to hit that subscribe button we'll see you guys next time