This changes EVERYTHING for the Rockets... | Houston Rockets News

This is genuinely game-changing for the Houston Rockets, as they have been leaning heavily on Alperen Sengun and Tari Eason in the absence of Amon Thompson, and it seems like this new lineup has provided a sneak peek into what could be the future for the Houston Rockets. Welcome into Rockets Digest, I'm Jace Andrews, I appreciate you joining us, and hey, if you're clicked on this channel, make sure you hit that subscribe button, be one of the first 100 subscribers on what will be the biggest Rockets YouTube channel here on the platform. All right. Let's kind of start this with talking about the Orlando Magic and the Houston Rockets. And I want to start first with the Rockets and what they did tonight really should put the NBA on high alert for what will be the next greatest team here coming up in the next coming years. The next team to compete in multiple Western Conference Finals, multiple finals, because the way that Coach Ime Udoka is setting up this team without Amon Thompson is working out perfectly. We'll get into the stats here right now. First of all, I want you to look at the five starters all scoring in double digits. You have Jabari Smith Jr., who is, for all intents and purposes, the sixth man off the bench, also scoring over double digits. And the big thing that I look at in all this is that the double big lineup is providing some much needed, I guess, diversity to this Rockets lineup, because when you had Amon Thompson, there was times where this Rockets team would almost kind of falter at times. In some ways, that had a little bit of that in this game, but they would falter in certain portions of the game. But with this double big, it almost puts them at a controlling stance throughout the entirety of really the game. And so when you look at the defensive side of things, it also has for some positive things. Obviously, Paolo Banchero is going to get his 31 points is a great effort for him, but kind of controlling Franz Wagner for only 20 points is relatively good for what I would think is probably one of the most underrated guys in the NBA. And again, this is without Amon Thompson, who I think is defensively the best player the Rockets have on the court. And the fact of the matter is that when he's not on there, there is very much of a defensive switch for the Rockets. They're asking more of Fred VanVleet. They're asking more of Alperen Sengun. And for what they've shown, they're asking more of Tari Eason. And I want to start here with him because he has been really effective in the past, you know, two, three games scoring double digits upwards, close to 30 points. He is really showing that when the Rockets get Amin Thompson back and, you know, for that purpose to Reed Sheppard, it's going to make this team a very, very interesting playoff, I guess, opponent to play because they have multiple lineups at that point. They will have multiple different ways that they can beat you. And they've shown that on an eight-game win streak here. That's the biggest thing that I look at. Amin Thompson obviously played a couple of this. But without him in the lineup, they've done really great things. And go back to the stats here for the Houston Rockets. The rebounds are still there. They're still there. Obviously, Alper and Shingun, I cannot tell you what this guy has meant to the team. And, you know, we talk a lot about trade rumors, talking about what's going to come in the future for the Rockets and how they're setting themselves up for success. Right now, Jabari Smith Jr., what he is doing while Amin Thompson is out, is saying, hey, I'm worth keeping around. I'm worth what I want to be signed to in a couple years. I'm worth keeping in mind for this team in the playoff run in this year and next year before that contract year comes up and expires. It makes it to where you have Tari Eason out there. You have Jabari Smith Jr. out there, and you have Alperen Sengun out there, and the rebounding is just otherworldly, and I think that's the thing that Coach Ime Udoka even mentioned. He said, in this double-big lineup, it really kind of effectively gives me multiple options, and I talked about this in a most recent video, saying that the Rockets, in this eight-game win streak now, have found multiple different ways to win, and tonight was more of the same. We talk about the start of this game. It wasn't exactly the most fluid start. The offense really wasn't going. They were trailing for a majority of the first quarter, but then the second quarter they heated up. You had the Fred VanVleet buzzer beater to end the half and put yourself on top. and then the third quarter was just a masterful job getting yourself up to a 15 point lead really setting yourself up for success in the fourth quarter that proved dividends for how close the game actually ended up being after all so that's kind of a thing to look at in a lot of different manners but i am interested to look here at the team stats and a lot of facets because there is one part that i think people are overlooking and that's the free throw percentage i don't i know that's such a small part of the game but they took around 30 free throws tonight and or excuse me 32 free throws and the Rockets are not known for a free throw shooting team in fact they're one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the entire NBA and yet tonight they shot a 90 percent clip from the charity stripe that is going to be effective come down the stretch come when games are getting close like this hitting at a 90 percent clip is going to change the way that teams look at you and i think in some ways people look at this rockets team and as a fan's perspective we're always like there's always a bunch positive we look at it from you know a biased lens quote unquote and outside of that there are people saying oh the rockets aren't a real contender the rockets they have so many issues they're too young they're not going to get it they're just okc they're they're too young like just like last year's okc they're too young they're not going to do anything in the playoffs but then you have Fred VanVleet hit the buzzer beater you have Tari Eason go out there and provide himself as a very, very valuable aspect without Amon Thompson on the court. And things start to switch. And you have this eight-game win streak, and you show yourselves sweeping the Magic, sweeping the Pelicans, being able to continuously get out there, compete on the floor, night in, night out, and Coach Udoka really putting out there multiple different types of lineups. We talked about the double big in terms of Steven Adams and Alperen Şengün, but now in some ways, it's still a double big. That's what they're calling it. If you go watch the games on Space Network, whatever it's called, they still say it's a double big lineup, but in a lot of ways, it's more of a three big lineup. But Stephen Adams was out there sometimes with Alper and Shingun. But having Tari Eason, having Jabari Smith Jr., and having Alper and Shingun, they were able to really do an effective rebounding performance. And I think in this game, it's a little bit less shown in some aspects because in terms of rebounds, you only out-rebounded them by five. And in a lot of ways, the Rockets have out-rebounded guys by 15 in certain games. So that seems like nothing. However, funny enough, Jabari Smith is the guy that I want to mention because he, in this game, had multiple times where his effort was shown. And they talked about it in the broadcast, and if you watched, that he went to a camp this summer. He had kind of this thing that he was sent off to that Coach Uduka wanted him to go and basically kind of, not re-evaluate himself, but make him more of a, I'm going to say a team player, but a guy who was valuable in multiple different aspects. One of those aspects was rebounding. Obviously, he was top 25 in the league last year in rebounding. This year, it's been injuries and stuff like that, or I think he would be top 25 again. But he has shown a lot more heart this year. And maybe that's partly because the team is good. Maybe that's partly because he has people around him, he believes in them. But overall, this entire team is just buying into the product that Coach Ime Udoka has shown to them for the past two years. And the one guy that I think honestly is probably the most, I'd say the most, the biggest reason for this win streak is probably Jalen Green. I mean, you talk about what he has been able to do during this win streak, and tonight he was the leading scorer with 26 points for the Rockets. He's so young, yet so versatile. He was hitting multiple threes from, I mean, just parking lot range, parking lot range, and went out without Amin Thompson. Fred VanVleet has been in and out of the lineup for the past month now, obviously back in the night scoring 19, but he has been kind of the steady pace. Jalen Green has been in the lineup night in and night out. He has performed well. He has multiple times come out there and played almost the entire game. And tonight he played 37 minutes, which was tied for the most entire game. It's just incredible that you don't have Alan Thompson. And this team continues to show that they need to be given a valuable threat chance in the Western Conference. And people are overlooking it, 100% overlooking it. Jalen Green, I think, could easily go on and take this team and be the leader. I know Fred VanVleet being the veteran, being older is a great thing, but I'm seeing the mold here of Jalen Green kind of taking over this team and say this summer they let go of Fred VanVleet. Jalen Green, if he's not traded, which I don't think he should be, he's going to become the guy. And I'm just excited to see that formation. I'm excited to see what the Rockets have in store. And for Coach Ime Udoka, just a round of applause. Just a round of applause. The eight-game win streak is obviously put towards a lot of players and as it should be, but Coach Udoka with the tactics he's implementing, especially in this game kind of really testing out some double big lineups and keeping it working it's amazing thing and and again for such a young team you have to be a good coach to come out there and show that okay gotta keep these guys corralled and he's done just that so i appreciate your time and uh get down in the comment section let me know how long you think this win streak will last thinking nine games 10 games 11 games where does it end get down there put a number in the comment section i appreciate you and we'll see you next time on Rockets Digest