You're listening to The Hottest The Hottest. It be a podcast out here.
I said what I said, it's the Heat Check. It's just on this episode of The Heat Check. It's Friday. I got you loaded up for the weekend.
Baby.
You know I'm fired up about something. I'm pretty much waking up in the morning fired up. So let's talk about the Houston Rockets aka adults email U Dopea's gout. I'm playing gritty right now. We gott getting the young players on the come up. And then we have a special interview with Keith Smith from Spoke Track, and we also have another good one with James ham Sage of Sacramento Kings, the Lifelong Insiders. He said he was like two hundred games below five hundred or something in his
career with the Sacramento Kings. I think that's what he said. That's nuts, jam Pack show. Baby, let's get ready for the fucking weekend. Let's get into it. But you drop that beat the chigue, John, you don know what I'm fired up about. Let's talk about them. Let's let the world know. I know it's early, I really do, but the Houston Rockets, could they be good? Like is this a good team. Is this a playoff team? I think
it's a playoff team. Let me tell you I sort of saw it coming, but didn't see it coming big time. Faith in emy Udoka. You know what time it is one of the uh and one of the uh. You know what I'm saying. From the looks of things, that's a callback to the shocker the e may threw up. From the looks of things, no one else saw it coming, you know what I mean. But this this man, E may Udoka did it in Boston, and he turned those young pups into straight dogs, turn those golden retriever palma doodles,
those skits of doodles into straight Rottweilers. In their last four games, the Houston Rockets are four and zero with an average margin of victory of twenty one and a half points. Oh boy, oh boy, e may E may Udoka, You slide devil. It doesn't matter where you go. You just continue to make teams good. You make moves. He's made a lot of teams who passed on him look like idiots. Let's break it down. According to Brett Usher USh Hush.
The Rockets are eighth in offensive rating, seventh in defensive rating, fifth in net rating, Daddies Home Home Forever.
You know what time it is. You know what other teams are top eight in both offense and defense, Philadelphia and Boston. That's who. Wow, that's incredible. What is going on? This is the Houston Rockets we're talking about. Remember Steven Silas, you remember him. I don't know if you remember the moments that I remember where they'd put him up on that damn podium and he'd have to say, I don't know, I don't know why they're so bad. It's like I've got the same thing to say every day. They just
don't listen. Them pups are peeing all over the house. Now with email Unoka, What were the Houston Rockets like under Steven Silas last year? You would be like that Eric Thomas motivational speech where it was like compete, compete. Many of you are acting like you are not competing. Act like you're playing basketball, act like you're playing football. Compete. I need effort. So they add Fred Van Compete, they add Dylan Brooks, villain the Dylan, and they have set
the tone no soft poo poo around here. And we slanted those moves, didn't we boy oo. Yes, they are so overpaid forty million for a US six to one point guard with a bad back. Ew Dylan the villain as your key rotation plate piece. Ooh, and they're balling out though they really are. They're impacting winning, just not in the way that you think they are. For example, in the win against the Los Angeles Lakers, the team
that went to the Western Conference Finals last year. You could make minimizing comments all you want about who was in the game and who wasn't, but the truth is Lebron was and this is a team that went to the Western Conference Finals. They outscored the Lake Show by six points or more every single quarter in a thirty four point route. An embarrassment, a curb stomping like you have never seen before. Er Dylan Brooks had five points in that game, Fred van Fleet had Fred van Compete
had nine points. They were a combined plus forty six for the game. What does that tell you? Someone needs to let Cam Thomas know that you can do more on the basketball court to impact winning than just put the basketball inside the hoop. Their defense has been ridiculous. They combined for eight rebounds and eleven assists. Brooks has been all defensive team levels since he got to Houston. He's kind of been all defense since he was even in Memphis, even when he played for the Oregon quack
Quack Ducks and Fred Van Fleet. Fred van Compete has been the veteran presence that they have always needed but lacked. He don't play no games either, Fred van Fleet. He was so mad at Scottie Barnes last year. He's like, get me the fuck out of this place where they eat poutine for breakfast. They are a team that never quits. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much they're up, how much they're down. They are a team that quit a lot in the third quarter last year. They just
let go of the rope. Not with Fred Van Compete on the team, No, sir, And guess what the kids are following suit As a result, they buy in what emi Udoka has to say, buy in to what Emai Udoka is preaching. Before they fucked up the Kings, before they embarrassed the Lakers. Jalen Green right now playing off ball, averaging twenty points per game on forty six percent shooting
and forty five percent from three. Are you serious? Jabari I have no confidence Smith under Steven Silas is now averaging fourteen and seven on fifty percent from the field and forty percent from the three Alpah and Shangoon, who many of us didn't know whether he was going to be left out of the rotation. Maybe he's the odd man out because he doesn't play any defense. He man handled Demonisabonis, by the way, another All NBA player twice, Shan Goon is averaging eighteen eight and six on sixty
percent from the field. And then we got Uncle Jeff, Uncle Jeff Green. He's another veteran presence. He's making some culture changes in the group. Aaron Holliday played well, Jayshaun Tait looks good. They did lose Aman Thompson to injury, and you thought maybe that would be some sort of a downgrade, but it's not. Cam Whitmore got sent down to the G League. But I don't know why. It doesn't seem to matter either. This team is solid, even if they seem a bit thin. These young boys can
run and run and run. You want to talk about a big three. Brooks, Fred van Fleet, and Shanngoon have a net rating of twenty four point three that is second in the NBA, behind Kawhi PG in Westbrook, which is kind of crazy, and ahead of Tatum Brown and Porzingis who. What amazes me, though, is how emi Udoka continues to motivate the young Bucks. According to the reports, he reminded Jalen Green that, hey, you got passed over
last year for this man, Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves got to go to the Philippines, where your family is from, and you play on the raspy ass Team USA Select Team. You better let that boy know what time it is. Cook that motherfucker cook him, let him know. Team USA was super impressed with Jalen, called him dynamic, very confident, very impressive, but still left him off that team, didn't He still left him off that team. Green has some dog in him as well, because he did not forgive
and forget that slight he murdered Reeves. He became the first Rockets player to score twenty eight points in fewer than twenty two minutes since John Block. Who is He had twenty nine points in twenty one minutes for the San Diego Rockets in nineteen seventy. Guess what, Guess what? Guess what? Austin Reeves had seven points. Yeah, boy E may pick him up. Let him know. Is this Rockets
team a playoff team or a playing team? After finishing last, last, and second to last and three straight years, I wasn't sure, but with em Udoka at the helm, if I'm a team like the Grizzlies, I am very worried about getting the boot out of the standings For a team like the Rockets that are coming for that ass every single night. Be worried, Memphis, be worried.