How Do Rockets Improve Next Year? | Paul George, Jarrett Allen Trade Proposals!

Host Robert Land asks Rockets Influencer & Expert Mitty @MittyNBA how the Rockets can improve next year, what we’ve learned about Udoka offensively & we throw out a couple of trade proposals for Paul George & Jarrett Allen.
(1:04) What metrics did Rockets improve this past season?
(8:55) How can the Rockets Improve Next Year? What metrics?
(14:38) Why was it important for Udoka to start with defensive culture?
(19:07) What have we learned about Udoka’s offensive philosophy?
(21:33) Should Rockets trade for Paul George?
(24:40) Jarrett Allen to Rockets Trade Proposal
(28:27) Donovan Mitchell Trade Proposal

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[Music] welcome to Houston sports talk with your host Robert land thanks for checking into the best Houston sports podcast now on the believe Network great to be with them and joining me is a prominent Rockets Twitter presence you know him as midi he’s at midy rockets on X great to see you midi and are you in Rockets withdrawal right now or just enjoying the playoffs too much to miss the Rockets uh it’s a well- needed break but honestly I I’m and this is kind of how it felt last year where you have so many moving pieces that you want to see how this new team does with you know like Alie Jaylen Jabari tari and you know seeing them grow but I’m just enjoying the vacation for right now and just working it’s a lot of fun to watch the other teams and see you know where they are compared to where the Rockets are where you feel like they the Rockets are going also um one thing every Rockets fan is trying to see is an improvement from year to year and you know maoka and the organization went into this past year looking at where they could get better statistically midi and you’ve studied this what major metrics did the Rockets improve on under udoka this past season so I want to first ask you before I go into what do you think at least one of the metrics are what do you think one of the metrics are well the big one that you know was talked about throughout the year was transition defense that’s obvious you know that happened a lot because I think Fred Van vet you know a lot of stuff that Fred Van vet did Rockets fans might not get they might not see it sort of in the background but that that was a big one transition defense and offensively that’s something I’m kind of curious what you think and and what other sort of Statistics did you like so I could go over like the how how you know what do we need to improve on for next season but I’ll get to we can get to that later but yeah for this from the silus last silus year to this year like you said it was is just defense and the biggest defensive metric transition defense and I’ll just tell you all the metrics right now and I’ll go into to explain it specifically for defense the overall defensive rating went from the 29th best to the 10th to the 10th best so pretty pretty big Improvement and just just an overall defensive Improvement but then transition defense like you said we went from the worst 30th we were last dead last in transition defense and now we’re the fourth best transition defense team in the league and I can get to that later about you know like why why that is so important for an up incoming team and you know why some teams have actually you know they’re still failing on defense their defense numbers are up transition defenses are not that great but they still they still they still fail in the playoffs and I’ll get to that later um second or third pick and roll defense we were the worst pick and roll defense team in the league um obviously we’re not as good as in transition defense but we went from 30th to 15th so like alp’s biggest flaw I would say maybe is pick and roll defense he struggles on that a little bit but going from 30th to 15th while him having most he he accomplishes almost 50 or 60% of all pick and roll plays as The Defender as the main Defender so just going from 30th lad dead last to medium is phenomenal and then he’s going to get much better about that as well fourth Rim protection defense and I just posted a tweet about this I think we were about 25th def u in rim rim protection defense opponent scored about like 70% on us on the rim which is insane this year we’re about eighth eighth year so we made a lot of improvement and that’s big because people say you know Al’s not a r protector and he is not but you can form a defense with him at the five that is a great a great defense and a great transition defense a good pick and roll defense and a great Rim protection defense as well so and this is just the beginning these these all these metrics are going to improve and then I can also get into the offense as well um so offensively there’s a lot of I have a lot of quarrel with how we ran our offense and kind of and I’ll get into all that but the the best thing that come out of the offense was probably the pick and roll so despite being a very high usage in the pick and roll people said it was inefficient people said it was a one-trick pony and kind of is but um we went from 28th in the silus year to 11th this year in pick and roll total pick and roll offense so it’s pretty good and I think we were fourth in usage so we used it a lot and we were we’re still pretty efficient comparatively to the rest of the NBA that’s yeah I think the big thing in the pick and roll offense when I I think about that is how great van vet and Shang goon were especially in the first I would say half of the Season po pre-all-star break and then you know you talked about uh defensively and and where they went and I’m just curious what you think because the defense was top four or five for the first half of the Season really and then the Rockets decided to speed up the pace a little bit and then they slowly sort of dropped I mean one thing that didn’t help was Dylan Brooks’s inconsistency in the second half of the Season uh van vet had a spell where you know he was injured and so he wasn’t performing as well but what do you think uh about the Rockets going forward defensively is this something that they can even get better at because now they’re more familiar with each other or if the way to unlock the team a little bit we saw them play a little bit better offensively was to improve the pace does that start to sort of bring down the defense a little bit is it harder to keep up that type of Defense when you’re trying to speed up the pace as much as they were one of the things that actually we were missing um that truly showed was uh tar e so har is probably the defensive or the piece on defense that we don’t have anywhere except for maybe alen Thompson our defense can be good with Omen Thompson with tar een he’s one of our weak side Rim protectors when tar e went out uh Jabari had to be that weak side Rim protection and he didn’t he wasn’t that great at it but he he stepped up and he’s improving he’s only 20 years old but tar e was that that main piece now in terms of improving defense for you know for the future the pace is definitely going to you know if we want to increase Pace defense absolutely abely will struggle a big reason why um you know our defense was actually pretty good with alpie in and then with alpi out because our defense was actually pretty good post Allstar break with alpie once we lost them uh Pace actually decreased defense decreased um offense stayed around the same and he was a big he was a big component of that Jabari rebounds very well because alpie is the one boxing out defensive rebounds are a big big portion of that and the way they play defense isn’t this drop coverage where they depend on a brim protector the way they play is you know they they use their perimeter guards and they get in front of their their opponents and they’re able to stop stop their stop the people going in um with their point of attack a big portion of that is also alpie we’re one of the best Rim protection teams and that’s because it wasn’t just alpie protecting the rim but the way that the defense was set up so just having those two back tar and alpie and then I think we’re gonna get Stephen Adams as well to uplift the second unit when you talk about defense Stephen Adams and tar een it’s not just the way they play defense but read Bing if you’re getting you know if you’re getting the rebounds you’re not giving up Second Chance points then that’s going to be big too exactly you’re saying the pace actually went or wasn’t as as much in the second half of this because I think the whole thing was that he was saying that he was trying to pick up the pace and that was a part of it the second half of the Season or post All-Star break you know H how do you think Pace affects you know where they’re going to be defensively I mean you you account for that in the analytics that okay the paces but more but you know it’s points per possession and that sort of thing but do you feel like that does have an effect as far as like the Total Defense because now you’re asking the team to you know be a lot better defensively and and more detailed as they’re maybe more tired because they’re running more and stuff like that Oka said it your his defense wants to come from the perimeter his perimeter guards his point of attack so those guys are going to get exhausted my good our good friend Frank also mentioned that we we were playing a playoff type of defense for most of the year and people got guessed people got you know exhausted and then when you add Pace to that and when then when you don’t have a big body kind of in the paint whether it’s going to be stepen Adams whether is alpie you saw in the second half of the Season people get I mean the defense strugg but the offense was offense was doing well the offense was doing well mostly because of Jaylen the defense was actually pretty stable until until alpi got injured after that pace fell a little bit and defense fell a little bit as well so for everyone to come back and kind of have this like Synergy among Among The Bigs and the guards even if we increase Pace I think just having that depth in the in the bench with Steven Adams and I think we probably should get another Center but then maybe even getting some point of attack Defenders as in the guards in the wings as well we’re going to get tar e back and Almond’s going to improve Cam’s going to improve uh we’re looking at increasing pace and our defense beam improving as well but only one way to find out but I’m I’m pretty optimistic that way okay we teased it off the top I think what everybody cares about is how do you get better next season where can they they improve M what what do they need to do to get better well defensively I’m I’m I’m not going to um go into that too in depth but I want to ask you offensively what do you think and I I I you’re going to get this one right but what’s one thing offensively that they need to improve what’s another thing offensively they need to improve everybody keeps saying shooting shooting is the big thing for the Rockets but um I would say even more important than shooting is this team was it just never felt like they were great at finishing around the basket the Rockets have got to get better at that Jabari Smith for one has got to get better at finishing around the basket Jaylen green we saw some improvement in that run in March but he’s got to have that kind of finishing the whole season you know he’s been terrible at finishing around the basket except for March and that was it so that’s got to get better for him I’m in Thompson you know I mean yeah when he dunks it’s great but you know he’s got to be able to figure out a way to make layups or get it in when he’s three to 5 feet away from the basket that’s something that he’s going to have to get better at tar e we know has had his issues finishing around the basket so to me that’s something that I want to see all these guys get better at some of that is just age and experience um young guys have a bigger issue because you’re used to not having the athletes that you would have in the NBA when you’re going through college or the G League or wherever else but that’s the big thing for me absolutely so you definitely shooting and then you also touched on um being able to finish at The Rim that’s a big that’s a big component of what I’m about to say so I’ll just list these stats out first for shooting effective field goal percentage and that’s basically field goal percentage with emphasis on the three points U with on on the three-pointer but also Tak into account drives and two-pointers so it’s a good overall way to judge that we were ranked bottom fourth on that so bottom fourth in in just in just you know effective field goal percentage being able to finish anywhere our three-point percentage we ranked 23rd this should tell you that like our we still were able to shoot a little bit better than finished at The Rim but like being we if we want to be able to win we need to finish at the rim and we also need to be able to you know shoot well catch and shoot we ranked 25th um that’s about bottom six it’s not good either so given all these shooting statistics we were ranked 10th in open shot percentage in the NBA so we were open 10th most in the NBA so we were getting the open shots we were finding the open shots but we were not converting on those and the second portion what I want to talk about is ball Movement we were we were terrible we were terrible moving the ball we were terrible finding the open man we were third worst in passes per POS per possession um that means we just weren’t moving the ball around compared to other teams we were second worst in assist per possession so that’s assist assist percentage um being second worst when you have you know alpi and Fred Van vet is not an excuse you need you need to be able to move the ball um a lot of that also comes from people just being stagnant when um when someone has the ball when the primary ball Ender has the ball they depended on the alpie and Fred van Le pick and roll for too long or just the Jaylen green and alpie handoff all those other people were just sitting in the corners kind of just waiting and we also fourth worst in Touches for possession so people just weren’t touching the ball people weren’t passing it people were just kind of like if you just watch um clips from last season people are just you know waiting in the corners just waiting to get fed or whatever so I think we’ll improve on that but that’s that’s probably one of the worst I’ve seen with ball movement yeah the big thing when I look at ball movement with this team is I don’t feel like udoka has implemented some of the stuff he wants to that would lead to ball movement because he was trying to give them the basics and he even he even said something about that during the season Y but the other part about it is with ball movement it helps when you’ve got more Shooters on the floor the ball is easier to move when teams have to space out and the rockets you know don’t have that threat and so some of these guys are just going to have to get better at it and if they don’t they’re going to have to get better at cutting and moving and doing things quicker and when they had the most success this year when they looked the best midi it was that stretch in March and the ball just seemed to fly around and guys were moving Non-Stop and you know it wasn’t dribble the ball up the court and everybody looked at each other like we’ve seen most of the last three or four years I mean that stretch was really impressive I mean I remember specifically watching a couple of those games like against Sacramento and Oklahoma City where I was like where has this been all along from these guys exactly it was it was so fun to watch what eay did was he depended heavily on on jayen and Alp to take us to the Homeland also Fred Van vet but he never gave that usage away from Jaylen jaylen’s usage has always been consistent the entire entire season he never changed it so it was around like 27 28% Alp was around around the same about 26 27% and alpie kept getting double teamed Jaylen kept getting double teamed but alpie was I think the fourth most in terms of in U in NBA players with the most uh post post up double team so people were committing on him and forcing us to beat them with the with the three point a shooting and we were not able to do that so teams got whatever they wanted basically against us yeah the thing about this team offensively is you know they’re young and you you can debate whether okay we need this guy to do more this guy to do more whatever it’s just guys getting experience that’s a big part of it on the offensive end same same defensively but even more so offensively because I just feel like you know some of these guys you know they’re not used to the NBA and what what you’re going to see from defenses and stuff like that so you’re they’re still thinking about it and stuff like that when the thinking starts to lessen and the reacting is happening then that’s when it really starts to get better and you we talked about offense midi but fans get infatuated with offense over defense a lot of the time but why was it so important do you think for Oka to start off with a defensive culture as opposed to an offensive culture to me it’s pretty easy watch the playoffs right now because you know the teams that uh are having success are doing it on the defensive and the game slows down and it becomes a real wrestling match and the rockets to be prepared for that need to get to that defensive point so they can compete with these teams in the playoffs exactly so I’ll say this um players in terms of just players judging how player how how impactful a player is and also how important a player is to a team and judging by just salaries offensively gifted players are more uh make more money and they’re more valued than defensive players you’re not going to see many defensive player the years get unless they also have an offensive bag but you’re not going to see them get like a Max contract or super Maxes that much but in terms of Team defenses team defense and offense are just one inone like you need you and maybe even a little bit more on on defensive side you need a great defense first and you need to start with that culture and it’s also just easier to have a great defense than have a great offense I mean if you look at if you look at us right we didn’t we had just a bunch of ragtag groups Scrappy players I would say um who didn’t really fit with each other because we came into the season not knowing how they would fit we didn’t experiment enough in the silus year so it was all just you know em came in from Boston where he ranked first in defensive rating he came in here and made Houston a top a top five SE defense for most of the year but then it ended up being top 10 so let’s just talk about the teams that didn’t start with a great defensive culture three teams come to mind the Sacramento Kings with sabonis the Denver Nuggets with yic and the Philadelphia 76ers with embiid and I’ll talk more about the 76ers with embiid they had a decent defense but one thing was lacking so with the Sacramento Kings so bonis and fox they were the number one best offense in the league at the time last year they were one of the best off they were the best offense but guess what happened they got bounced out in the first round of the playoffs big part of that was they couldn’t they couldn’t stop the Warriors from penetrating and constantly beating on sabonis um sabonis needs a rim protector he he does and the team defense was not set but they focused so heavily on their offense they completely forgot about their defense but opponents were just slashing on them at will the Denver nugg with yic before before they actually got their defense together their main goal was just get yish the ball and let’s let’s see what we can do with them they play Drop cover with yic they didn’t play the the Hedge the Hedge system that they have the system where kind of you see this these Denver Nuggets as like one like almost like this one organism around 2018 2019 is when they implemented more of like a hedge hedge system where they played more as a team and they didn’t rely on Jas to be their rim protector which is kind of what the Rockets did this year as well not and then also you have two teams right there you just name that have these centers that have some physical limitations defensively and and they they can’t be the Hub of defense so it really you know it it’s much more difficult to build a defense around those guys because the other guys have to sort of make up for it in a lot of ways and you know that’s what people are trying to figure out how much is is that going to be the case with shenon so it’s good that you mention those two teams because they’re very they got similar you know centers and and joic and savonus exactly y see the thing was joic was able to figure out on defensively they’re one of the best and this year I think they’re sixth in Rim protection so they figured it out and they have pton Watson too who’s plays great at the four Aaron Gordon so you can’t get it to work you just have to you just have to build the team correctly I think Shen gun’s offensive skill set is too is too too hard to ignore you cannot ignore that you can’t just throw away for another you know defensive defensive big you can have that on the rust but if you have a talent as shenon I think you should definitely try to build a defense around that and I think it is a little bit easier to build a great defense than a great offense but they are worth the same um and then also the sixes with embiid em yeah they they were actually a decent defense because it was Ben Simmons and embiid towards like in the post they had a defense decent defense but they were one of the worst transition defenses in the league their perimeter defense was not great Ben Simmons and and Joel embi they were good defenders in the front court but they’re they lacked the wings and they lacked the guards to do to have good Premier defense and that’s kind of the reason why they were not as successful 2020 I think 2020 2021 I me also struggle with a lot of injury issues but their defense was not set and I think that’s why I also think why yok is years ahead of everybody on this is his defense first starts from his perimeter defense and then he builds a team defense around that and you know first year in Houston with just a ragtag group he’s 10th 10th in defense so I think that’s important yeah let’s flip it to the offense um because you know OKO you might not have known much about him if you weren’t watching all the Celtics games a couple of years ago what have you learned about him as an offensive mind both this year and going back to his Boston Celtic days in his Boston Celtics days um he was his first year there and he kind of struggled a little bit he made the players Buy in defensively but also offensively to what they’re doing but he started out very simple he and he utilized his star players so he had players like Jason Tatum who actually had some a little bit of playmaking to him that a lot of people didn’t realize I would say but he basically turned his turned Jason Tatum into this almost this is isolation pick and roll Sant guy and had everyone do a five out offense except for maybe when Al Harford and Robert Williams shared the floor together but he was just driving and kicking and they were one they were the best shooting team in the league so they were able to capitalize let’s say we had the best shooting team we would be able to capitalize as well because all all they did was just kick and shoot out that’s kind of what OKC is doing right now they do have a lot of movement and they have a really good defense but their offense is a lot of catch and shoot catch and shoot catch and shoot so you know we’ll see about that yoka also adjusted to his player skill sets versus Silas who forced something on them Silas forced them to play some sort of this it was a react and play type of um type of office that he was trying to create udoka on the other hand learned how value Al was learned how valuable Fred was and then also tried to uplevel jayen into like play to the star that he should be or he should be playing at so that’s one thing another thing is that he I I guarantee I almost guarantee if yoka had one more year in Boston they would have figured out their offense they were already seventh in offensive rating but they played against the Warriors team that was just deadly there’s nothing you could do about them seep Curry just went berserk but if he had one more year they would have figured that out because everything tanked uh the next year they weren’t as good I think I’m I’m very hopeful for you do a lot of people said that he would not be able to you know sustain his offense or you know or be able to be creative offensively I did too but like you said before in this podcast he’s he’s he’s doing it on purpose he wants the team to learn how to play together and hence why also said it’s easier to get the team to move as one versus move as with the ball so it’s easier to get a good team defense over team offense the team offense will come as they play together but we’ll just have to see in the future all right let’s talk about some sort of fun stuff there was a rumor out there and I’ll preface this rumor what if you listen to Paul George’s podcast you’ve heard him be very complimentary of some Rockets players there was a report that George might opt in in the last year of his contract for the purpose of a trade so maybe Paul would be interested in coming to play with a couple of those guys that he seems to like on his show the Rockets uh got brought up in I think it was Scot’s inside report midi Frank with rocket shop shop said he would be interested in George if they’d only be given up Dylan Brooks and filler in this sort of sign and trade one-year option type deal what do you think if that’s the case yes if if it just if all it takes is Dylan Brooks and a couple of fillers that’s 100% that’s 100% something I would take the main issue that I have is it’s just going to cost too much I’ve seen a lot of times where Cam Whitmore was thrown into that into that package uh you mentioned or I’m afraid we might have to give up one of the core six which I don’t think we we would realistically but if it cost more more than you know just adding one of the cors that I’m not I’m not for it but what about draft choices would you give up those I would definitely consider if it just if it takes two if it takes two I I would be hesitant on three but if it takes two then yes I wouldn’t be surprised if something happens maybe and I don’t know how the the sign and trade happens on a draft night deal I don’t know if that’s necessarily the case if you can sign and trade a player but if you can sign and trade a player I would be very leaning towards something happening on draft night but I would be down for Paul George I’m just worried about his cost and I think so is the rest of the NBA would you be willing to give up the two picks without a guarantee that George was going to sign some sort of an extension with the Rockets or what would you want George to do once they make the trade do you want to Max extension or you know what would be palatable for you if it’s just two years we could potentially I think he said max extension but he said that to the Clippers I feel like he’s willing to stretch his wings out a little bit and see what see what other people offer him but I would want to guarantee cuz it it otherwise that’s something that could him not agreeing to you know resign is something that could potentially after you’ve given up two draft picks and Dylan Brooks I mean Dylan Brooks is on a bad contract right now as of right now but those two draft picks are pretty useful so that one year of just Paul George and him not signing an um an extension would be pretty detrimental yeah I’d probably give up that first round pick this year if it doesn’t fall in the top four and frankly I don’t know if it even matters if it falls in the top up for because it seems like all these guys in the top 10 are about the same guy so it’s not a big difference but I I still would be willing to give up that first round pick if there was no guarantee on a contract extension but yeah if you give up anything more than this year then I would say no dice on that and I’m I’m not somebody that thinks like Paul George is a number one on a championship team he’s a guy that’s you know a two or three or something like that so when you make that trade you’re hoping that Jaylen and or shanon becomes the one and you could you know have Paul George is sort of a robin to his Batman or whatever but exactly yeah that’s kind of where I’m at on it and I’m going to throw another potential trade at you and this one is not anything rumored but I’m just watching what’s going on in the playoffs and it’s becoming pretty obvious the Cavs could put Jared Allen on the trade market this offseason with Moy excelling as a center and the rockets fans would love to have a vertical spacing Center like a Jared Allen this is a guy that’s been Allstar we know Jared Allen’s resume is pretty good and I’ve just got this trade Proposal with Allen Dylan Brooks jock landel and a first round pick swap so basically the Rockets would Swap this pick that they have with the Caps pick this year so they would fall down to 20th in the first round and you would be giving up Dylan Brooks Jack Landell and you would be getting back Jared Allen and George Nang so the Cavs get a wing Defender and a little defensive attitude with Dylan Brooks along with a Moy backup and Jack Landell so they’re not left high and dry as far as bigs are concerned the Rockets get a vertical spacer and and George and yang you got another three-point option how do you feel how would you feel about something like that do you think the Cavs would be interested in something like that I think that’s too much for the Cavs um in terms of they’re giving up because I think George Nang is actually and I think Cavs was has been shooting pretty not not in the playoffs but they were shooting well pretty well before in the regular season I think Nang would definitely be I don’t know if they’ give up both Jared Allen and George Nang from a Rockets perspective it depends on how it really depends on how Stephen Adams is because well then you could you could also have both of them and you could trade both of them if or one of them if you need to I think we might be giving up too much for a player we don’t need at at the moment if we can I would I would look for maybe like a third Stringer guy a center that could probably take that position the point isn’t just that you’re getting Jared Allen is you’re getting off the Dylan Brooks contract you’re open opening up room for T een and am man Thompson to to start or get into the starting lineup you know without ruffling Dylan Brooks feathers which everybody seems to be worried about if he were to go to the bench if if one of those guys you feel like is ready to start next year which I think both of those guys should be starting next year if you’re asking me but the other part about that is yeah George Nang you’re giving up something but I mean George Nang is still like what is he eighth ninth tenth guy whereas you know if you’re the Cavs you know moving Jared Allen for Dylan Brooks you’re you’re hitting something that maybe helps out the whole team spacewise and all that sort of stuff it just depends on what they think of Dylan Brooks is and and if they think that he would be a help to them and and and maybe they need some physicality maybe they need some attitude you know maybe that’s something that they would consider because of all the reasons that oku wanted Dylan Brooks to bring him in so that that’s my thinking on it but you know it’s hard to get into the Cav’s head on this thing yeah Dylan Brooks is definitely he’s on a the thing is he viewed by NBA teams I think he’s on a bad contract so U we’d have to give up some assets to get rid of him so getting rid of him is like I love Dylan Brooks but just just for the contract purposes he’s getting paid too much and we need to be able to clear clear that cap space for for later I think it’ be tough for NBA teams to actually you know give up something of use for something of equal that we’re giving up so well the sweetener is that first round pick swap so they would jump into the top 10 they could you know they could play with that get get another piece to the puzzle for them that’s a little bit maybe better out know you know with the draft it’s I don’t know if that’s much of a sweetener this year but that’s just an idea that I had because I do like Jared Allen a lot and I do feel like okay his value with the Cavs is going down down down so they’re gonna look to probably get rid of him I would think I mean it just doesn’t seem like him and Moy work together well it’s not the two of them maybe but just overall it just doesn’t work for spacing it doesn’t work for lineups for them and they’re they’re trying to get as good as they can with Donovan Mitchell there so they don’t have to give up Donovan Mitchell and I love Donovan Mitchell yeah and I would I would say oh let’s you know let’s see if we can go after Donovan Mitchell I just don’t I kind of don’t think that you know if Donovan Mitchell says I want to get out of here his next stop he’s going to be pushing for some places where he wants to go and I don’t know if the Rockets would fit into where he wants to go but you know I don’t know about you I I love Donovan Mitchell I’d love to get my hands on him and I my my real concern is that am and Thompson as a point guard is a long long project so once van v contract ends this next year you know there’s an option but we assume they’re not going to exercise the option then then you need a point guard and Donovan Mitchell to me right now even though he’s playing with Darius Garland he he should have the ball in his hands he’s a point guard right now and I would love to get him because you know for the most part his playoff career with the exception of that Nick Series last year has been great I mean he’s he’s a scorer in the playoffs he his percentages are good this guy is a is a guy that can lead your offense and he’s never really had that guy next to him that can help him out in scoring and if shanon and Jaylen green developed or you know shanon and another one of the Rockets developed then he might have another guy with him that can help him a little bit on the offensive side and that can complement him better than you know Rudy gobear wasn’t that guy obviously I would love I would love Mitchell the price the problem is is price which is probably the Cavs would probably ask you know what the uh I think the the Utah asked of Cleveland which was kind of like a an arm leg so that’s the that’s the issue there obviously I mean if Donovan Mitchell is available for the right price you take him no questions asked but if it’s a cost of Arman leg I don’t know about that but I think um I think what if the cost is I’m just gonna throw out a couple of names you know so you you you you might be giving up and let’s use Dylan Brooks again you might be giving up Dylan Brooks cam Whitmore maybe a couple of other filler guys maybe a couple of the uh Brooklyn Nets picks with with be too much for you or is that fair I mean if it takes Dylan Brooks and cam Whitmore and just like the Brooklyn picks I’m I’m leaning towards you know and if it’s and if it’s a if it’s a sign in trade or we’d be we’d be able to get like most of his years some way somehow then yeah I would I would do it if it’s Dylan Brooks can whip more but if it then if it costs like Dylan Brooks can whip more what if I had Jabari what if I had Jabari if you had Jabari oh man I would I might get killed but I might do it I might actually do that that’s that sounds like a good trade to me yeah I me you’re you’re hoping that jabari’s upside isn’t gonna be Allstar level and you know even if Cam Whitmore hits All-Star level you’ve got an All-Star on Donovan Mitchell that’s ready to go right now but the odds that you know the odds are usually against guys turning into allst stars and we could love cam Whitmore all we want to but the odds are still going to be stacked against any player becoming an All-Star and you know what Donovan Mitchell is he’s an All-Star level player and at times he looks like a top 10 guy exactly exactly all right well great stuff midi thanks so much for uh doing this it’s at midi Rockets anything else that you’re working on these days Rockets anything you’re looking up or you know you’re gonna put out any cool threads or anything like that um I have some stats that I definitely do want to like post some threads on Twitter I’m I’m going to make a new addition to the website probably add some more U more specific metrics uh offensively defensively scoring creation defense um impact metrics I’ve been really really trying to focus on that so yeah we’ll see and then as as I I have a couple I have a couple of threats though that I do want to post a couple of metrics that might surprise some people I posted the rim Protection One that Houston was the eighth best Rim protecting team in the league this year I thought that was interesting I didn’t think we’re that good but the metrics tell you otherwise yeah that’s interesting um also I want to remind everybody too that we just put up a Rudy T tribute which we talked of about his career this is the 30th Anniversary if people um haven’t noticed yet it’s the 30th anniversary of clutch City the original the first championship so figured it was a great time to look back at Rudy Tom jovic’s career but also we include classic interviews that we’ve done over the years on the show with Calvin Murphy talking about Rudy and his 81 finals teammate Robert Reid Houston sports radio’s Barry Warner his biographer and Rockets beat writer in the 80s and the 90s Robert falkov Kutch City Legend Chucky Brown um played on that great 95 Team Rockets fan favorite muchi Norris Chronicle reporter Dale Robertson and also we have a couple of features that I did back in the day on Rudy T when uh I worked on at channel 20 worked on the Rockets telecast so definitely go check that out if you’re a Rockets fan I mean I I can’t imagine anybody not being a Rudy T fan if you’re a real rockets fan I mean this is one of the great coaches in in NBA history and obviously won the two championships for the Rockets but um thanks again midy and we we’ll see everybody again soon appreciate you Robert [Applause] you’re listening to Houston Sports Talk hey don’t forget to support us by subscribing and commenting on YouTube you can always listen to us on Spotify apple or your favorite podcast app tell your friends about us and share our Show links on social media spread the word everybody thanks for listening [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]