Paulo Alves

It hurts that

That Reid is going through his slump at the same time Shingun is out because, you know, if you're going to lose one of the best offensive players in the NBA, then Reid's one of the guys with high upside that even though he's a different position, you like to say, okay, let's give him more touches.

Well, that doesn't make sense right now with how he's playing, as we were just describing.

So I don't know that it's radically changed my view of Alper and Shingun, but you certainly feel his absence.

And I guess what I keep coming back to, there's a lot of possessions on offense where it just feels like I just look at it and I say, what the hell are they doing?

Where are they going?

And oftentimes it leads to turnovers that make zero sense because there's just no plan.

And perhaps that improves as the games without Shingun rise.

I mean, hopefully there's only two or three more of those.

But yeah, it has given me a greater appreciation for just how much

the Rockets depend on Shingun in volume.

The analogy I did on one of my podcasts recently, I think it was the postgame show that Dave Hardesty and I had with Michael Shapiro.

I compared Shingun to a Frambois Valdez type innings eater that over a long season like the NBA, there's just so many innings or in this case possessions to get through that when someone is durable and able to soak up a lot of those and at least give you a chance to

at a positive outcome, that has a lot of value.

And when you lose a guy like that and you have to fill out all these possessions over 82 games, or in the Astros case, losing Fromber, fill out your rotation over 162, you don't feel it until the player is gone.

And that's how I felt on a much smaller scale about Shingun the last couple of weeks.

So Paolo, what are your thoughts as we close out the pod on the absence of Shingun and has it sort of changed your view of him in any way?

I hope someone clips this and accuses you on Twitter of comparing Shingun to Ross.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

I think some of the reactions are over the top in terms of attributing everything to his absence.