Adam Clanton

You didn't want to make a trade before Stephen Adams went down just for the sake of making a trade.

And I I was never I always felt and this is not any sort of inside knowledge whatsoever.

I have next to zero relationship from that standpoint with Rafael Stone.

It's like a hello when I see him in the hallway.

It's nothing.

It's not at all like Daryl Morey.

But I never – I kind of always got the impression that maybe their way of thinking was, you know, we're not punting on year one of Kevin Durant, but we're not going to move Fred Van Vliet, who is really the only contract that can get you a big name back –

For money purposes, we're not going to do that just because he got hurt.

So it's almost like they feel like, okay, we're going to go with what we've got and hope for the best case scenario, which is that maybe Fred can come back like he's talked about, which is like late March, early April, and just hope for the best.

It doesn't sound sexy, but that's kind of the card they were dealt or the hand they were dealt.

And so I've always kind of thought that might be their way of thinking.

I'm just curious to see if with Steven Adams going down, because, again, this is a major rotational player.

You're going to be without with for months, maybe if that changes their way of thinking or what the future holds from that standpoint.

You know, Wex and I talk about that a lot and we keep comparing last year to this year because, you know, it was the first time they participated in the postseason again.

And it just the Western Conference mirrors last season so much this year in that speaking to your way of thinking, you didn't go get Kevin Durant to be the two seed on January 20th.

You got Kevin Durant to combat wherever you're at on April 15th, because I don't think the Rockets honestly care about their seating and nor should they.

And I don't think any team not named Oklahoma City, and they certainly don't care because they're going to be the one seat in all likelihood.

I think every Western Conference would be playoff team should approach it that way because it's so you're talking about a two seed and a three seed being separated by a game, probably more so this year than even last year.

And so it's ultimately going to come down to, all right, well, what team do you match up against the best?

And that's always the case in the postseason.