Amen Thompson scored a career high 33 points to lead the Houston Rockets to a victory in Boston over the Celtics. Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni react to Houston’s big win, Amen Thompson’s star potential, Bradley Beal’s no trade clause, and the death of the dunk contest . Then, Keith Parish from “Grits and Grinds stops by to talk about the Grizzlies recent schedule, their new offense and Ja Morant’s bad game against the Knicks.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni & Keith ParishExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodySubmit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened in the Rockets vs. Celtics game?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for January 28th, 2025. Coming up, the Rockets got a huge win in Boston. Bradley Beal does not want to go to Chicago under any circumstances. And we got Keith Parrish on the show to talk about his Grizzlies, even though they got smacked by the Knicks. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, S. A little bit of NBA Daily Curse sprinkled on Keith Parrish.
It had to happen. Keith is going to come up after the break to talk about the Grizzlies and the season that they've been having. S, the other big game last night, Rocket Celtics delivered. The Rockets are only in good basketball games. The Rockets pick up a big win thanks to a men Thompson's best game as an NBA player. He hits a game winning shot. I mean, start to finish.
This was about a men Thompson. We can get to the rest of it, but we have been very enamored, I would say, with the men Thompson. And this game is exactly why he was doing everything.
Chapter 2: Why is Amen Thompson considered a rising star?
The Rockets are the – not the story of the season, but one of the stories of the season. And you can talk about their impressive win over Cleveland, two wins over Cleveland. You can talk about this Celtics game. But this week has made me question just how far the Rockets can go because we've had conversations over the last couple weeks of like, OK, well, I think –
The Rockets will have questions in the postseason. Who's their guy? Who's their guy? Can Jalen Green be that guy? Can who this, who that? I think a men Thompson can be that guy, because if there is a world in which this guy is dominating defensively, one of the best athletes in the league. He's doing it on the defensive end, but also finding ways to win offensively.
Chapter 3: What questions remain about the Rockets' postseason potential?
He had 33 points tonight, which was a career high, tallied it up last time against Cleveland with a 23-point triple-double. So he's just dominating and finding ways to win without the jump shot. So my question to you – But that's the problem. No, this is the question I have. It's like he does everything else so well. Like, how much further can he go without the jumper?
Does he break conventional wisdom of, like, how far a star can go? Because, like, the last guy to do that is what? Like, Giannis.
I mean, it's Giannis. But that's the thing. Giannis has elite skills. length, elite, I mean, just elite size. I mean, he, you know, he's a seven footer. I think if, if a man Thompson is seven feet tall, we're treating him like he's Giannis. Right. The problem is for, for a wing, the limitation in what he's going to be able to do as far as like the ceiling for his offense is,
It's always going to be about that jump shot, specifically off the dribble, right? Like the guys who can create their own shot. I mean, Houston, Jalen Green, right? Yeah, it's operation good. Dylan Brooks and and those guys are standing on the side. We're going to get Dylan Brooks. But those guys, they got to stand and wait their play finishers.
And I just think that, you know, as a play finisher, there is a ceiling for what you can be like. You can't be the number one guy if you can't create a shot. And so his limitation is all about the jump shot. Now, again, we've talked about this. I think he's interesting as the ball handler in pick and roll situations.
And so there is a way that you can use him on the ball where he's able to attack the basket. He's a good passer. I mean, and you can have shooting around him. But it gets really, really tricky when you're able to guard him one-on-one because you're just not worried about him shooting.
You remember like all NBA Ben Simmons, right? Not the version that we've seen the last few years, but the version that was like one of the top 10, 15 best players in the NBA, right? That version of Ben Simmons, but with the aggression level of a man Thompson. Right, he's not scared.
Amin Thompson is not scared. He's not scared to even shoot the three. And in this game, he stuck his first corner three. Boston was not guarding him, by the way. Not guarding him on the perimeter at all because he's not a threat to shoot right now. Or he's not a threat to make right now. But what I did like about it, he hit his first one. And they left him open for the next one.
And he was actually actively calling for him to make a cut because he did actually have a back door. But a man just said, no, I'm open. Just make the pass. He misses the shot. But I think that confidence, confidence, especially in a game like this. And it didn't bother him that he missed. It was like the second miss of the game for him at that point.
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Chapter 4: What is Bradley Beal's current trade situation?
And the one team has a guy who has a no trade clause. It's,
He holds all the cards. And finally, we got the last entrant for the slam dunk contest at NBA All-Star Weekend. Mack McClung coming back again. He's going to try to win it for a third time. And I believe our reaction is probably the same as it was year one and probably the same as it was year two, which is.
why yeah he's not in the nba no i am not like if i'm buying a ticket to an nba game like mac mcclung is not on the list of guys that i'm that i'm paying to see and unfortunately as like when you look at the dunk contest in the field there is no star power there whatsoever it's supposed to be all-star weekend Yeah. Now, look, I don't hate on the guys who are going like I respect that.
You know, if you're young, like Modest Buzellas is going to be in it. Andre Jackson Jr. I think this is a great opportunity to show to.
Right. Right.
Steph Castle. You get to show yourself off. But man, Michael Jordan did this. Kobe Bryant did this. Dominic Wilkins did this. And yeah, there were guys like Larry Nance, but Larry Nance was skywalking. I mean, they were doing special things. I mean, you think about role players like Aaron Gordon, right? Like he had an amazing dunk contest.
It isn't to say that you have to be a superstar, but I do think that the dunk contest has just completely lost its luster. And I just can't figure it out.
So as I was thinking- It used to be, I just want to say, it used to be a thing that like-
blossoming stars would do I remember Vince Carter you know 2000 that's what made him into a star DeMar DeRozan for the Raptors before he became that all-star he was going into the dunk contest hey I want to make a name for myself like it was supposed to be that that's what the all-star weekend is supposed to be it's just lost that I think They're kind of scared to lose. That's the reason.
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Chapter 5: How has Jimmy Butler's situation affected the Heat?
Exactly. I think that that's completely wrong. And I wish that wasn't the world that we lived in because, man, I grew up in a dunk contest. It was awesome. Part of it is the people. I had an idea, though. Okay. Okay. You and I, let's pick four people. We'll just go back and forth. I'll pick one. You pick one. You start first. Under 27. Okay. Haven't done a dunk contest. You go first.
Let's pick our four guys to be in the dunk contest.
Dream for under 27, though. It's only right that we're doing this today. Give me a man, Thompson. A man, Thompson. I think the Thompson twins could just go in together.
That would be excellent. How about this? Like I said, Michael Jordan did this. We keep comparing Anthony Edwards to Michael Jordan.
OK, fine.
OK, this is a crazy one. This is a crazy one. You remember JaVale McGee and he did the dunk contest and he did the two hand, two rim, two basket dunk. Please say Wemby. Let's get Wemby. Yes. But three, three baskets.
Just try it. Why not? I feel like could Wemby dunk from the top of the key? It's plausible.
You know what I mean?
Like we could find that out maybe in the dunk contest if he did it. Okay. So my last one. There's one guy we need. John Morant. Oh, that's a great.
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Chapter 6: Who are the potential dunk contest participants?
Even when they show down with the Nuggets or the Mavericks, it's like Luka Doncic isn't playing. Jokic isn't playing. So they had very few actual opportunities to kind of test drive. I think their new offense and what they're doing. And they've hit a couple of hiccups. Like they lost big on the road to the Thunder. They obviously lost big on the road tonight to the Knicks.
They did win a big road game against the Celtics. So they've had some success. But beyond that, As a Grizzlies analyst, I'm like, well, who are we supposed to test ourselves against? Like everybody else, we beat them. So it's like, you know, it's weird to take like three games and be like, these are our games against good teams.
They also have, I mean, they're very notably 0-3 against the Rockets, but those games, two of those- That's the team. Two of those three were down to the wire though. And it was just like, that could have gone either way. And again, even if you include those, you say, okay, we have a bad record against these absolutely elite teams, which is fair. Everyone does.
But it's also like we're talking about five or six games. So I don't know. I think the biggest issue is the Grizzlies offense, despite allowing the Knicks to score so many points, because when the Grizzlies can't score, they kind of let up a little bit on defense and then it gets totally out of hand.
But the Grizzlies offense, their turnovers, which had been an issue all year, that for me is what they could not overcome in this game.
They play a really unique offensive style. You mentioned it just now, but nearly dead last in pick and rolls. I believe still dead last in handoffs. They're working off cuts. They're working off of just ball movement. I think they still lead the league in assists. They did earlier to start the year.
No, the Nuggets. They're second. The Nuggets have taken that. Okay, there you go.
Now the Nuggets have overtaken them. But generally, they're moving the ball a lot. And so... Why do you think they're changing their offensive style like this? Is it just to play better in the postseason? Is that the goal or is there something else philosophically they're trying to achieve?
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Chapter 7: Why has the dunk contest lost its appeal?
Yes, I think the long and short of it is they determined the formula for success that they'd used in previous seasons, which was essentially forced turnovers, offensive rebound, and just hope those extra possessions work. overcome your poor shooting. They're like, it isn't good enough. So we have to overhaul things. So they totally did overhaul things.
And despite getting embarrassed in the showdown game against the Knicks, you can clearly say it's worked. This is a team that even when you look back at the, the 51 win season and the 56 win season, they went back to back seasons as the two seed in the Western conference and They were bottom 10 in effective field goal percentage in both of those years.
Right now, I mean, until this game, before the next game, they were, I believe, fifth in the NBA in effective field goal percentage. They were leading the NBA in January in effective field goal percentage. They were top 10 in three-point percentage. And I think it's all specifically because they want to win postseason matchups.
And so right now, I think the big question for everyone watching the Grizzlies is how much of this is applicable. I think for the regular season, and I, I hate to, I'm not a rings guy. Like I'm a, I'm a big guy about like, Hey, the NBA season is real long. Yeah. And we should enjoy watching wins for months of the season. And the Grises are doing that, but they do have bigger goals.
And tonight was an example where, uh, Again, you don't want to draw too many conclusions, but the idea of the space it out, the idea you want to move the ball so then you can attack your man one-on-one. The ball wasn't really moving that well. And I do actually credit the Knicks defense. And also there was times where like Desmond Bain's been incredible for the last couple of months.
Desmond Bain actually has excelled in games where John Morant has missed. But Desmond Bain had a ton of turnovers. And a lot of that specifically was OG Ananobi. Get his hands on balls. Carlton Towns, get his hands on balls. It was like they were actually ripping the ball from him. There was some...
A little bit of disjointed play where they were throwing the ball out of bounds, but that's been the Grizzlies all year. I believe they're 29th in the NBA in turnovers. They turn the ball over a lot, but they also get a lot of assists. They score tons of points. Just tonight, three-point shots not falling, and they were very disjointed on the offensive end. And yes, that was a very long-winded.
The whole point of it was to try to, I think, overhaul the way they go about scoring and hope it'll work better in the postseason.
Yeah, but the wings that they've got in New York, I mean, the Knicks, they cost 26 turnovers in that game. The Rockets, again, it's the size on the wing that they can throw at Bain and they can throw at Ja. Jalen Wells has had a pretty good season. I mean, they've got guys now that they didn't have before. Gigi Jackson's back. Jaron Jackson obviously becoming an offensive force.
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