Ben DuBose

But when we talk about how players have developed or not developed, and I know a lot of people look over at the Spurs and see, you know, impressive stat lines if you squint hard enough for guys like, you know, Castle in year two, Devin Bissell, Keldon Johnson.

There's several young guys that people are envious of.

And with the Rockets, superficially, I understand the frustration.

Like, relative to my expectations before the year...

I would say amongst the five recent first-round draft picks, the only one who has cleared my expectation is Reed Shepard, and there's still some pretty clear deficiencies on defense.

Amin and Jabari, roughly in line with expectations, maybe a little bit ahead, and I would say Shungun and Tari, at least for me, are below expectations.

But I really think a lot of the reason for that difference, you know, I get that it feels like the Spurs are doing a better job with development.

But when you have that North Star like Wemby, it simplifies the roles so much for those players around him.

Like, I feel pretty confident.

If you put Amin Thompson into the Steph Castle role with the Spurs, he would be an all-star.

His numbers would be ridiculous.

He doesn't have that luxury here in Houston.

to be able to simplify his role.

I mean, especially after losing Fred Van Vliet, now you're asking him to do all of the ball handling and be the primary playmaker.

Now, I know you can get into, well, should the Rockets use Reed Shepard, but there's concerns defensively, and also you need to use him off-ball.

I guess...

I get the frustration because superficially there are a lot of young guys on the Spurs who are having big seasons.

And so I get some of the jealousy that's out there.

But I really think a lot of this comes down to Wemby.

And I was actually, just as a thought exercise, Paolo, I think Shingun in San Antonio would be really good.