Ben DuBose

Like if you had a front line of Shingun and Wemby and you had Wemby to cover for some of Alpey's issues defensively, I think that would be an amazing fit.

And it would allow him to sort of hone in on the areas that he's actually good at.

I just think it's a total apples to oranges comparison.

And so that's not meant to give a pass to the Rockets players, because at some point you've got to, you know, make the best of what you have.

And the same can and should be said of the coaching staff with Ime Udoka.

But in terms of the comparisons, I just think the difference is Wemby, right?

That's what I keep coming down to.

It's not like, you know, this is the same Spurs front office that drafted Josh Primo and Jeremy Sohan, neither of which is with the team anymore, and the two years before Wemby.

It's not like this has been some sort of masterclass of GMing and coaching and development.

I just think the gap is that they have Wemby and the Rockets don't, right?

Well, let me follow up on Shingun because I think there's an interesting conversation there that I do think dovetails with the inherent offseason strategy that I know we both want to cover.

So one thing we need to lead with, according to every bit of information I have, Imei Udoka is going nowhere.

Now, I'm not telling anybody listening how to feel.

If you don't like Imei Udoka, to each their own.

You can feel how you want to feel.

But from everything I've heard, the Rockets are nowhere close internally to being out on Ime Udoka.

In fact, they just gave him a contract extension prior to this season.

They still believe in the guy.

And so knowing what we know about his playing style, and this is a defensive coach that's been well-established,

you do have to optimize the roster for him specifically because you don't have a player like Wemby or Kate Cunningham or even Cooper Flagg