Paulo Alves

He is still just 23 years old.

and a two-time All-Star.

So, Paolo, let's start there in terms of what the Rockets can potentially do in the playoffs and also what it means for your outlook on Shingun entering the offseason.

If this continues, if you get something close to this version of Shingun the rest of the way, how much does it change your assessment of Shingun relative to when we last potted a couple of weeks ago and you were still pretty down on him?

Yeah, as far as the outcome of this team, or kind of the chances looking into the playoffs of this team, Alperen Shingun being a cornerstone piece, at least on offense, is a bit of a game-changer.

I don't think it turns them into a championship contender.

We've talked ad nauseum about what we thought the limitations were for this team and where they sit at the moment.

They still don't strike me as...

a team that can just catch lightning in a bottle.

But Shingun being a lot better on offense does solve half of the equation of, you know, typically with the types of center there are for Shingun is you typically want, he has to be such a great force on offense that it outweighs, you know, his defensive limitations.

And of course, I do think that within the type of offensive hub that Shingun is, he is better defensively than you would expect, which gives him some slack on offense.

But if he's able to be a bona fide offensive star, which is what he has been since he came back from those two games that he didn't play, and that was part of the argument when he was playing poorly, when he was having issues with his touch.

that he was playing through injury, and he's been tough in playing through injury at multiple periods in his career.

If that two-game break truly was him getting over the hump from an injury perspective, and we had heard over the week prior that the effort had been ramping up with Shingun, if that's something that's trending upwards and it's sort of blipping the radar and it's something that he can build upon,

I do think that that helps the Rockets massively, because now all of a sudden you're not depending on KD and his decision-making and his turnovers.

As great as he is offensively at pure scoring, you now have someone who can reliably take pressure off him.

And...

Like it or not, KD is an all-time great, but he does need someone like that.

And we've seen time and time again throughout the season that when that's not happening, the team struggles mightily.

And we, I think, can pretty safely assume at this point that this team is not going to flip a corner or it's not going to turn the corner defensively.