All right, it is time now to speak of the Houston Rockets with the newly crowned King of the Southwest Division for the Athletic Calico. How are you doing, man?

How are you doing, man? Thanks for having me on.

Yeah, definitely. As much as I would love to discuss points so hand with you, we already did do this first shot.

I know you've been around them as well, but you're still the best man I know to discuss the Houston Rockets.

So I wanted to just say get right into it here and what have been the big focuses during a preseason that seems to me it's going pretty well for them.

Yeah, I think the biggest thing for them, I guess as far as the team is concerned is to get everyone on the same page.

You know, obviously, E-mail Ducca has come in and he wants to play a certain style of basketball, you know, five out brand of basketball.

He wants to kind of not dump things down, but keep things simple to make sure everyone kind of understands, you know, terminology sets spacing and just play to the strengths of the team as a whole.

And the preseason is a time to, you know, get guys in shape, get guys jelling, you know, but this having come in as a new head coach and having, you know, come in with this new coaching staff.

They want to establish some sort of structure and identity early on so that, you know, they don't have to play catch up, you know, in November and December.

So I think these games, what they put four games already defensively, they've, they've already, you know, shown that they can defend at a high level.

I think that they're third or fourth right now in defensive efficiency, which yes, it's preseason, I know, but the more important thing is that they're sticking to their principles.

They're they're learning how to switch how to how to recover come up to the line of the screen, drop back and rotate and most importantly, communicate.

I think that's what's been one of the biggest takeaways defensively for this group offensively, it's going to come and go because they've had guys in the lineup.

You know, Jalen and Fred didn't play last game against Centennial Jones, but then what he's been doing with the toe thing.

So he hasn't played the last two games.

So, you know, for a team that's already kind of low on guard talent, you know, being without their starting back court, it's going to look pretty clunky offensively, but for the most part, they've been able to compete.

And I think heading into the regular season, you should have some kind of optimism that know that they'll hit the ground running.

Yeah. And of course, I mean, yeah, I kind of chuckle when he said preseason, but that's, you know, that's more than they've been able to say over the past three years.

Sure.

So now they are trying to make a step forward here.

Everyone who listening to this program knows that they have this pick from the Westbrook trade that's out to OKC this year.

...