Dave Hardisty

But maybe he needs a game or two off to get more healthy and do that.

Or maybe, you know, it's a blessing in disguise and you just dial up the usage of these other bigs and you see how Reed looks in those settings.

But

I think it's the combination of those two right now and the issues that creates defensively, you know, there's a compounding effect in that it's hurting Reid offensively because he just doesn't have the sample size to shoot his way out.

And I also think Reid is the guy who probably misses Steven Adams the most because of the screen setting.

I think so many of the looks Reid got, it felt like the Rocket Six man was the combination of Reid and Steven.

So I think not having that screen setting presence offensively combined with the defensive limitations of Reid when he plays with Shingun, it's sort of a double whammy right now.

And honestly, that's been the difference.

You look at, you know, when the Rockets started this month so slow, it was Okoge playing about 12 to 15 minutes per game.

He almost fell out of the rotation altogether.

There were a couple of single digit games for him in which he just made like a token appearance in the first half.

Now he's back to playing like 25-plus minutes, including 30-plus on several occasions.

It feels like every game for the last, you know, five or six, and all of a sudden the Rockets are much more consistent with their effort.

So, yeah, it feels like for whatever reason, I think, you know, the Rockets got Tari and DFS back at the same time, and so they're trying to figure out, you know, what the rotation would look like.

And when they were at their worst was when Josh Okogie got squeezed for minutes.

Now he's back, and at least against...

At least against the mediocre to bad teams, it's paying off.

They still got to figure out, you know, offensively against the likes of San Antonio and OKC, like those are valid concerns.

But on the balance, Josh having his role rise, I don't think it's a coincidence that the Rockets as a team have seen their success rise over that same period.

And by the way, just a general point heading into trade deadline week, you know, someone in the chat pointed out that Capella was good tonight and he was a good signing.