Salman Ali and Forest Walker have a new podcast episode that has a different perspective about the Rockets 2025-26 season and our weird fanbase. I tend to agree with them. Thoughts?
if that thing is over an hour long I think you should give some pointers to key parts of the discussion--time stamps from the transcript would help. Just a thought. either that or a tl;dr summary
Nah, I listened to the episode and by the end wanted to fire them too. The smug superior ball knower Jabari Smith Jr fan is the entire problem. They look at the advanced numbers, look at his jumper, see the weak side blocks. Label him as good on both sides of the ball and completely miss the point and the most basic math. The other team has more defenders that can pressure the ball then we have guys on the court who are comfortable with the ball. The other team has more guys that are comfortable with the ball than we have guys that can pressure the ball. He’s a very below average movement athlete who does 1 thing well on both sides of the ball. *Stand still jump shot. *Contest shot with long arms Everything in between is G league level snails pace movement. The team that makes the other team uncomfortable wins and Jabari’s presence will always be a massive disadvantage. We talk about lack of development and offensive while this 4 year starter who’s a key part of what we train every day can’t dribble or pass or do anything dynamic on the run. Our management likes him as a person and is now enamored with the idea of having him apprentice under Kevin Durant and playing together which will make us too slow, easy to handle around and unskilled with the ball to win against the best teams for the remainder of Kevin’s career. After that they started with a cognitive dissonance of tall play hard 3 point shooter = championship starter and success in modern basketball. They’ve laid out their opinion and it’s now impossible for them to change and adapt it. Age development doesn’t work like that. A 21 year old athlete, can learn the game, get stronger, shoot it better. a 22 year old weak athlete that’s already well coached and knows where to be isn’t going to magically become a fast and coordinated athlete. 22 is peak athletism. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt’s best times were at 22 years old. John Collins and Chris Bosh moved magnitudes more fluidly than Jabari when they were 22. These dudes talked about KD, Amen, and Sengun trades and the thought of trading the actual problem never crossed their minds. They talked about transforming the team around Amen with Jabari at center which is a laughable thought only around because they haven’t seen what Jabari at center actually looks like against a good team in a series. Shooting guards routinely guard Jabari with no issue, just stand next to him and don’t leave him open. Why the hell would anyone put their center on Jabari. Stretch 5s require 4 shooters around them more than anyone. Porzingis and Myles Turner have been non factor weak starting centers their entire careers with one stand out age 27 season when they had 4 fast fluid shooters around them with the 24’ Celtics and 25’ pacers. The only thing preventing teams from putting their center on Amen Thompson and clogging the paint even more is Alperen Sengun being too damn big for anyone smaller too handle. He’s such a weak prospect to punt on playoff series wins for, I would bet anything we’ve already passed on a Jabari trade over these past 3 years that would have won us one of the series vs GSW or Lakers. We have over 120 million of our cap space wrapped up in dudes I could beat in a race up the court and back. Sengun(35) Durant(40) Jabari(23) Adams(14) Capela(7) Speed and Skill isn’t a different advantage in basketball, it’s a superior one. If these guys thinking in any way mirrors the organizations, then they still don’t get it, and fans should rightfully be pissed off.
The first big point made is that people didn't give the Rockets enough grace for the injury problems and that just says to me Ali is overrating Fred VanVleet as much as apparently the Rockets front office and coaches do. It's emblematic of why so many fans are so angry right now. Fred VanVleet is a good point guard; a couple of years ago, I would even say he was a very good point guard. But the age 31 version who was barely hanging on as a starting caliber player last season should be replaceable five years into the rebuild, and the fact that he wasn't is an indictment of this organization's inability to adapt, lack of foresight, as well as, most importantly, the somewhat-disappointing results from several years of tanking and trading away a bunch of good players. I would even argue that it's probably the organization's fault Fred (and KD for the playoffs for the same reasons) got hurt, for that matter. We've had a shocking number of issues with injuries during practice under Udoka (what the hell are they even practicing? WWE wrestling? Does this happen so often with other teams?) and some of us last season were beating the drum that Fred was playing far too many minutes for a small veteran point guard with a mottled injury history who has to hustle his ass off and play very physically to generate results. Maybe those injuries that we're supposed to "give them grace" for don't happen in a smarter organization with a smarter coaching staff. At the same time I do think they're kind of spot on about Houstonians' collective chip on their shoulders and the general toxic negativity of our fanbase, and that did make me chuckle. It's one of those "both can be true" situations, I guess.
