It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infiniti Sports Network. Amongst all the things that took place over the weekend, Fanatics Fest, NBA Finals, Panthers having their parade, OKC winning it all. Yesterday around lunch we all learned that Kevin Durant is on his way. to the Houston Rockets.
Well, looks good.
Sounds good on paper. Covering Durant joins a young team. We have pieces that are going to Phoenix in exchange. To break down what took place, what the Rockets gave up, what we can expect. Joining us is someone right now very familiar with all things of Rockets.
You can catch him mornings on Sports Radio 610 down in Houston, Payne and Pendergast. It's Sean Pendergast. Sean, how are you, man? I'm great, J.R. How you doing, man?
I'm excellent. Thank you for taking the time and joining us. When you heard the trade took place and you saw what was being exchanged, what were your initial thoughts with Durant going to the Rockets? And my initial thought when I saw what was going back to the Phoenix Suns, which by the way was always going to be the The barometer for whether or not I wanted a Kevin Durant trade. It was always going to be for me, depending on what they gave up to get him.
And I was. I won't say I was stunned, but I was very happy. With the trade and what was going back, the biggest thing to me, JR, in a trade for Kevin Durant that they had to do. was make sure they don't give up any of the young Long defensive wing players that they have.
Well, Ahmed Thompson was never going anywhere. But Jabari Smith Jr., his name kind of bounced around this trade a little bit. Tari Easton, his name kind of bounced around a little bit as the trade rumors were swirling. They kept all three of those guys. That was big.
And then I thought the draft capital that they gave up was way less than what I thought. It was gonna be. Phoenix seemed real intent on getting All of their draft capital back. The Rockets have their pick in the draft this Wednesday, number 10 overall.
Well, they did before this trade. They also have unprotected number. Or their unprotected first-round picks in 27 and 29. They got to keep both of those.
So the fact that the Rockets didn't give up much, I don't care about the five second-round picks. Those are like six-round picks in the NFL draft. You can get those on the street corner. Um, I love and I'm I've never been a huge Jalen Green guy. Honestly, losing Dylan Brooks in this trade hits me harder than losing Jalen Green in this trade.
So, Sean, when you look at Jalen Green, every time I've turned him on and watched, and I get it, he's still 22. He went through that entire. you know, G-League experience. Did he ever develop at all? I felt like he just, his inconsistency, his shot selection, it's like something hasn't clicked where he could just.
Just consistently work and then play defense. What's the deal? He developed once Udoka got there. You got to understand, J.R. Luke, when it was Stephen Silas coaching, all these young guys, it was a disaster.
They just didn't respect Stephen Silas. Stephen Silas didn't sign up to coach all these young guys. He thought he was coming here to coach Russell Westbrook and James Harden, and they both asked for trades right after he got hired.
So that whole thing, the whole. The whole stew of Stephen Silas and all these young guys just didn't work at all. And so Jalen Green scored plenty of points on Steven Silas' watch, but to your point, obviously they were all, and none of it was winning basketball, and none of it was all empty calories. And then Emil Ducker got here and he kind of lit a fire under a lot of guys, including Jalen. And I will say, to Jalen's credit.
He was playing better defense, you know, as this season went on. By the time the playoffs rolled around, he was at the very least a willing defender. He was never going to be Ahmed Thompson. But he was at least putting the effort in on the defensive end. He was becoming a better ball distributor.
He was becoming better at those things, but he was never and is never going to be the best player on a championship team. And I think that's the question. The Rockets had to ask themselves when they were presented with this opportunity to get Kevin Durant, and clearly, the feeling. The Rockets had. And I know, and I'm guessing there's a level of disappointment from the Fertillas and ownership that it didn't work out with Jalen Green.
I know they really liked Jalen Green, and they were really hoping it. It would work out. um but the price for kevin durant just started to reach a price point where it was too low to Did not Say yes to. Sean Pendergast is here with us from Sports Radio six ten. In Houston.
So, what now? When you think about the construction of the Rockets, you talk about Thompson, Sengoon is still there. You have a champion in Van Vliet. What are your thoughts on how this whole roster comes together? I think it's great.
I think there's a lot of versatility built into the roster. I think Kevin Durant. hits them right where they itch. They were good at a lot of things last year. But two things that they were Very poor at were half court offense.
And just shooting, just you know, just pure shooting. And Kevin Durant's arguably the best in both of those instances in the last 20 years. You know, nobody, literally nobody better off to dribble in the NBA last year than Kevin Durant. I'm literally the only player to go 25 plus a game, 50 plus from the field, 40 plus from three. Three seasons in a row, he's hit those.
And that's not back in his late 20s. That's right now in the middle of the three-year streak. Nobody's ever done that before.
So he's still scoring and playing. At a very high level. I think his defense is a little underrated. You look at some of the defensive metrics. He's still a really long.
Obviously, he's very long, and if he gets in one-on-one situations, he's at least a pest defensively. I think it's really fun to think about the way things can fit together. We saw Eme Odoka in the playoffs. And late in the season, kind of unveiled that two-big lineup with Stephen Adams, Alpert Shengun, which was outstanding in that Warrior series.
Now, all of a sudden, if the other big that they're throwing out there with those two guys is seven-foot Kevin Durant spacing the floor, you know, it's just, I think there's a lot of combinations. It's a roster, it's a rotation now that. Reed Shepherd, former number three overall pick, is going to get a bump up now and get some minutes. Cam Whitmore, who's, you know, doesn't get on the floor very much, but when he does, he puts the ball in the basket. He's probably going to get some more minutes, and they still got some dry powder.
Do some more things, uh, Raphael Stone, the GM, does if he wants to.
So I think it's really exciting. I think just the versatility of all those guys on the wing. Added in with Kevin Durant makes for a lot of really fun permutations for Emeodoka.
Well, could you see any? You kind of alluded to it a little bit. What adjustments would you say the roster needs going forward? Are they set as. Title contenders as it stands today, are there some weak spots that you would like to see addressed?
I think they're title contenders. I mean, I think they're right in the mix now with Kevin Durant on the team. They can use more shooters. You know, they. Yeah.
Kevin Durant's, shooting was a weakness. They picked up Kevin Durant, so that's one guy. Um you know but you they they probably need more Probably need one more. plus level shooter on the outside. I don't think it's going to be somebody where they're Giving up two players and a couple first round picks to go get.
They've got the mid-level exception available to them. You know, they've got, they've still got a ton of draft capital if they want to use that. Might keep an eye on them maybe in these next, you know, in the next. 48 hours or so, you know, it's the with the draft, the draft coming up this week, that tends to trigger a lot of activity of all types.
So I'd say that's probably if they're trying to put. It's hard to say the finishing touches. I mean, they got knocked out in the first round last year, so I don't want to act like they were, you know, I don't want to act like they were one possession away from getting to the NBA finals. Kevin Durant's a big, big step. But yeah, like, I honestly think JR.
that the Raphael Stone and the Fertidas took a look at this postseason. And kudos to the OKC Thunder winning the NBA title, but they did go to seven games in two of the series. that they played in leading up to it against the four seed in each conference. I don't think OKC is a good team. I don't think we're talking about an all-time great team.
And I think you look around the landscape of the playoffs in the NBA. We don't have super teams really going anymore. It was very balanced. There was a lot of parity. And I think they took a look around and said, man, we can win this thing right now.
And that was the impetus behind the move.
Well, Sean, when you look at it, the expectation is for them to win right now. What do you expect? From this team. Of course, all things being equal if they're healthy, what are the expectations next year? Because things are kind of packed in the West.
Yeah, they are. If if everybody's healthy, if this is the nine-man rotation they go into the postseason with and really not even the nine, like if the guys that you know, the if the starting five and the fur two most important guys off the bench, you know, let's call it Tari Eason and Stephen Adams. If they're all healthy going into the postseason, there's no reason this team shouldn't at least be playing. In the Western Conference Finals. I 100% believe that.
They were the two seed last year on 52 games. And they couldn't score in half work sets.
So So I just think that this trade for Durant, there's nothing that they got worse at, and there are significant things that they got better at.
So I think they've certainly have title potential. And if they're all healthy, I think it'd be a major disappointment if all the guys you and I just talked about are healthy, that they didn't at least get to the conference finals. Man, it's going to be fun to watch. I assume, I really assume all fans for the most part, well, the majority are very happy with the move. Yeah, I can tell you.
I put up a little Twitter poll this morning, JR, and glad you asked. I gave three choices to the Rocket fans out there, and I said, What you approve? Do you approve of the Kevin Durant trade? And the three choices were. I strongly approve, I'm okay with it, and then I disapprove.
And less than 10% disapprove of the deal. The other two. The other 90%, roughly. Kind of split evenly among the two buckets of approving it. You know, probably about half and half.
Half or Okay with it? Um and then the other, you know, the other half of that. Bundle are really, really excited about it. Generally, the people that are concerned about it. We're mostly concerned about Durant's age.
The injuries And what A contract extension might look like for a 38 and 39-year-old guy who's dealt with some medical issues over the last few years. That's the That's the big concern. Um we're all ready to embrace Kevin Durant, the uh social media jouster. You know, like i when he's not on your team, he's annoying on social media. But I just watched him cook Emmanuel Acho like 10 minutes ago and I'm like, that's my guy right there, Durant, he's my guy.
Yeah, he's certainly going to be a whole lot of fun to watch. Hey, sometimes when the opportunity presents itself, You just got to shoot your shot instead of thinking about the long term. Worry about that later.
So. And we'll see what happens. And here's the thing, JR, but real quick about that. Even if this thing doesn't work out with Durant, you know, even if they give him a two-year extension and in three years he's cooked. It's still got Amin Thompson, Jabari Smith, Kim Whitmore, Reed Shepard.
You know, I know I'm missing one here. Oh, Alice and Shangoon. Yeah, they will all be under the age of 26. When this Durant deal is up in three, you know, he gets a two-year extension. In three years, those guys are all going to be 26 or less.
So, this is not something where it's not look, it will never look like what the Suns look like right now. I can promise you that. That is a graveyard in Phoenix right now. Yeah, I don't know what the hell they're doing up there. Who knows if they're even going to keep Jalen Green, but.
You have no idea what's going on with Beal. I'm surprised Booker must really love Arizona because I'm surprised he wants to stay there. It's just. It's ugly up there. There's no other w way to put it.
We got like seven two guards on the team. It's crazy. It's, it's just, it's, I mean, I'm sure they're not done. And I hope for Jalen Green's sake, and honestly, like, I like Jalen Green. I like that they traded him for Kevin Durant, but I do like Jalen Green, and I hope, for his sake, I hope they do move him somewhere else.
Well, yeah, because being out there is ain't going to work out. He'll get it.
Well, you'll have to share shots. But anyway, good luck to him. Good luck to the Rockets, man. They're going to be a lot of fun to watch. Hey, Sean, tell everybody where they could listen and follow to you and all that good stuff, man.
Appreciate it, JR. Yeah, on the Odyssey app, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Central Time. uh mornings on sports radio 610 you just search Sports Radio 610 or Payne and Pendergast, it pops right up.
And you can get me on X at Sean T. Pendergast. Hey, Sean, thank you so much. Good. I can't believe it.
I was going to say, enjoy the draft. It's actually two days from now.
So. Yeah, yeah. We ain't got no picks, JR. We got Kevin Durant now.
So we emptied the chamber for this draft. But yeah, appreciate you having me on, man. Keep up the great work.
