Let us now speak of the Houston Rockets with second time guests, Jackson Gatlin, of Lockdown Rockets and the Lockdown National NBA show.

How are you doing, Matt?

Doing great, Nate.

Excited to be back on the program, excited to talk, always excited to talk Houston Rockets basketball, especially with them positioning themselves as contenders this season.

I'm sure that's going to be a topic that will broach as we navigate this conversation.

Are they still contenders, given the Fred Van Bleet situation and all that jazz?

So it should be a really fun conversation, man.

No, definitely.

And a year ago, I think we both had them kind of in the low 40s.

You might have been mid-40s if memory serves.

They well exceeded that to be the two-seed.

Probably actually could have won another game or two had they not taken their foot off the gas towards the end.

And then, though, lost in a 27.

A mild upset, maybe some people would have favored the Warriors.

Not one, but any time the two seed loses, it can be a little bit of an upset.

To be sure, as you look back on last year, and we'll talk obviously about what they did to

fix these things and also what really worked for them and whether that's going to continue.

But what stands out to you about that performance that landed them the number two seed a season ago?

Yeah, I think that this team, when, when Emu Doka was hired, we knew that the Rockets would become, you know, over time that they would become one of the NBA's best defenses.

And that's exactly what they did.

Year one with Emeudoka, they finished as the 10th best defense in the NBA.

Last season, they finished the fifth best defense in the NBA.

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