Ben DuBose

So just...

As far as a hedge for Shingun, if he's having a bad night or if he gets hurt again, then I think there's a lot of value in having Clint, you know, if you need him ready to play 25, 30 minutes.

I'm not saying that they should play him 25, 30 minutes on Saturday night against Dallas.

But, you know, if you want to potentially have him available for that down the road, then maybe you need to start consistently playing him for 15 to 20.

Yeah, Akogi, Capella, Jayshon Tate all played 18-plus minutes.

We talk about wanting to see the Rockets take the games more professionally and have the defensive effort more consistent.

When three guys of your top eight in the rotation are those three, it's going to be pretty hard not to.

And so it starts with Akogi.

We've mentioned in recent shows that his minutes have been on the way up for a while.

But yeah, when you have his energy on the floor flying around and then you supplement that with guys like Tate and Capella who always play hard in their minutes.

And obviously, Amin Thompson is a top shelf defensive player every night.

You just have so many above average defensive pieces out on the floor that guys who might otherwise fade in the background or say, well, it's night two of a back to back.

I don't have the legs.

you're less likely to do that if you're going to stand out like a sore thumb, if you're the weak link in the chain.

And so I think, especially in this situation, night two of a split back-to-back, Josh Okogie, Clint Capella, Jay Sean Tate, let's give them their flowers because they set a standard that I think your guys like Reed Shepard and Jabari Smith Jr.

that can go either way at times with their effort.

We talked Jabari during his shooting slump and the impact that's had, at least in the metrics on his defense.

That's less likely to happen when you're playing with guys like Josh and Jason that are flying around.

Yeah, I've done some digging and I think the Kobe White scenario is unlikely.

I think there's sort of a game of telephone there.