Ben DuBose

well, Fred will be a better player next season.

People say, well, you know, what will he come back as?

Even if he's 80% of what he was last season, I think he'd still be clearly a better player than Kobe White.

The Rockets firmly believe that last year's team, the number two seed in the West,

Frederick Fleet was their most valuable player.

The Rockets firmly believed this.

So even if he's 75, 80 percent, one of these more dire scenarios.

And at this point, he will have had more than a full calendar year to rehab the ACL in this scenario where we're talking about next year.

And basically a year and a half by the time of the 27 playoffs, which is what really matters.

Yes, I think he's better than Kobe White.

And I think Reed Shepard is more of a developmental priority.

I think giving up potentially a better player, a better contract, and a first-run pick, all for whatever bump that Kobe White would give this year's team.

And by the way, he probably decreased Reed Shepard's minutes for this year's team, and Reed's been a huge upside variable.

Hopefully he can get hot again, because certainly a big part of their decline since December 1st, they've started to find it, at least in terms of win-loss record in recent games, so they haven't consistently been as dominant as they were the first six weeks of the year.

Well, that was when you had Reed Shepard in peak form, and if you bring in a Kobe White,

You're going to be limiting the opportunities inherently for Reed Shepard.

There's only so many small guards that you can play.

So you're giving up a lot, and in my opinion, it doesn't really move the needle.

Now, if it's the type of player who does move the needle to where the Rockets look like more of a contender this year, or maybe it's a Kobe White move in tandem with something else, then okay, that's a different conversation.

But I guess the way I'm looking at it, is the juice worth the squeeze?