The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Jonathan Feigen On The Return of The NBA And The Rockets

Episode Date: July 31, 2020

Jonathan Feigen On The Return of The NBA And The Rockets

is the Matt Thomas show. Here we go, 101 of the Matt Thomas show. Matt Ross with you. We are happy to be joined by the longtime beat writer for your Houston Rockets from the Houston Chronicle with Jonathan Fagan. Jonathan, I got to ask you first and foremost. First, thanks for joining us. Secondly, what did you think of the scrimmage games as a whole?

And then what did you think of the actual encore play in the two games you watched last night, provided that you watched both games, and I'm assuming that you did? Yeah. Yeah. Good to hear from you guys. You know, the Scrooge games were like other preseason games. I thought they were ragged, but good at times.

I think usually we saw regulars a little more than you'd see, certainly for the Rockets, but around the league a little more than you would normally see at preseason games, at least until the Celtics sat their seven best players for that last one. And then last night, I thought it was good stuff. There's some times that looked like an opening night, but overall, pretty good. And the thing that is what I was just thinking about, right before you asked, the whole bubble atmosphere, I've kind of adjusted to it pretty quick. I haven't felt like it's weird or awkward.

Yeah, it's different, but the setting as a whole looks and sounds pretty good. And I think they've done a good job of not making the technology intrusive, you know, to where it's all about showing off which cameras you have that you normally don't or the microphones that are in places they normally are not. They're there. And sometimes they're part of the presentation. But it's not, you're seeing the game. When you're watching, you're watching basketball players. You're not, hey, cool angle or, gee, that's great. why do I want to watch the game from a lousy seat?

Like we do sometimes when they start playing a little too much. So I thought that was something that there would be a real chance of happening. I did a story about this last week where they have 31 cameras at games. That's a ton. A typical local broadcast, you'd have 7 to 10. You know, they had 31. And they have them in places. There's only six that are in places they normally would be.

There's 25 others that are in completely different places. than games normally could allow. That rail cam, which I think really looks good, you get a real feel for the athletes, their size, their speed at that size. I actually would like to see them use that rail cam more. That rail cam, they haven't used in an NBA arena in 19 years. So I thought it was some pretty cool stuff,

but they didn't go overboard where you just say, just let me watch the game. But I thought, we were able to watch the games. I will say this. It probably, to me, Jonathan, had more of a summer league feel to it than it would an overproduced game. And I will say, if you were to say, how do you want a game? I'd rather have what we had last night where you didn't feel like you brought out all the

bells and whistles than putting in too much crowd noise and too much DJs and too much. I mean, the NBA asked me to send my voice to them for Rocket Home Games. Now, tonight is not a Rocket Home game, so that won't be heard. But they're trying to do the best they can. I got to be honest, being around these guys all the time like you are, they kind of drown that stuff out. I think when they're playing basketball, it's 94 feet and the baskets are 10 feet high. Oh, yeah. You know, they're competitors.

And so what's happening, I mean, yeah, they feed off crowds. There's no question that they do. But from what I've been told, even through the scrimmages, because obviously the rockets haven't played, you know, one of the seating games yet, that it looks, it's not distracting all this stuff. And the virtual fans around the court, if you're playing, you can see them, but it's not like that's all you see. And they don't look that weird.

They look a little weird, but they're tried to be sized so that the vision for the players would be what it would be normally, you know, to where they've taken that into consideration. So it looks, it's not distracting. and actually even feels like there's something around the court. So they thought of a lot of things.

I thought it looks much better than Summer League. Summer League, they're up. It's not the best camera angles, and there's only a few. I think it looks much better than that, even though Summer League, I mean, fans are great. Fans, you miss them. There's no question if you had a choice between the two. You can put all this technology together and whatever else they might think of after this is over. And it's still not as good as the setting with fans.

But I've been impressed. I think it looks good and it sounds good. The sound, especially if you have good speakers, good sound system, you can definitely hear the difference between the normal game. And it's not just because there's no fans to drown it out because they got noise going. They have microphones in different places and they have different microphones than they normally would use to where you hear a lot more and hear different things and hear the more. clearly. I've liked it so far. Jonathan Fagan.

Either that or it's just better than watching horse in Michael Connolly's gym and someone else's driveway. Maybe we're just all starving. Oh yeah, I'll take this all day long. I've got zero problem with it. Absolutely. Jonathan Fagan, Houston Chronicle here on the

Matt Thomas show. Jonathan Ross here. And as you mentioned with the sound, an interesting thing to me with that is one of the things the Rockets talk about, especially with their defense, is talking. How much of Do you think it, they, for example, you're on the road and there's a loud crowd and it's maybe difficult to communicate defensively. So is that a big loss as far as home court advantage or do you think that doesn't matter as much? Yeah, I think it's very overblown.

You know, I think PJ Tucker put it real well. He said, I don't know, we got some guys who hardly ever talk. You know, it's not that we can't hear them. They're not saying anything. So if you want, like here's a guy. who, you know, Yao Ming, it was his second language, and he was a quiet guy. He was really good at saying what he was supposed to say. A guy who's really good at it, Tyson Chandler, can do it from the bench.

He's not even in the game, and they can all hear him in any setting. They hear them more in this setting, but you can hear the guys who make sure they can be heard, and there's some guys who just don't talk enough defensively. It's not because you couldn't hear him. No, they didn't say it. Talking defensively is a huge thing. It's especially important for a team that switches as much as the Rockets do. And it's one of the things they have really emphasized since the start of training camp 2.0.

All right, let's get right to it eight games starting tonight against Dallas. What is your gut feel? Are we going to see – I'll first ask you on the Rockets and then the NBA West in general, because 3 to 6 is – well, actually 3 to 7 could be very much in flux. How much shifting do you see? Do you see the rocket's going up and down? What does your gut feel about where we will be, say, two weeks from now? Yeah, it could go a lot of different ways.

And these two teams, this is kind of a cop-out-sounding answer, doesn't it? No, I was fine. These two teams could go, I mean, the Mavericks also could really climb or get stuck where they are because they really could. And the Rockets, their first four games are so tough that they've, really could be a team that slips back and there's all this debate, what's wrong with the rockets, you know, it'll be on ESPN debate shows, and then they could go on a run and go, oh, what did they do? How did they change? It's that kind of a schedule where I think these first four

games are all going to be really tight and it comes down to who wins the last couple minutes, which by definition means they could go either way. They're not running away from the Mavericks. They're certainly not running away from the Bucks and Lakers. I think Portland's going to be a tough game and a very interesting one because that's a real size versus small matchup. Extreme, you know, the Lakers and Bucks are too. But these games, they're not running away from these first four teams. It's going to be who wins those last few minutes.

Ross and I debate this all the time. I'd like to get your perspective. I think if you're going to win the West, And there are some people that are thinking the Rockets potentially could be sneaky surprise team. Because a lot of people think in the NBA that because of the bubble, there may be a surprise team. If you're going to face somebody second on the path towards winning the West, would you rather see the Lakers in the second round or the Clippers? Oh, Clippers.

Clippers, Clippers, and also the Clippers. Oh, my gosh. The Lakers are really good. They're really deep. They're a little diminished right now because no able to. Bradley. He opted out. Roshan Rondo was out. You don't have playmaking as much when LeBron is not in the game. But come on.

LeBron, what he did this year is absolutely incredible. What he did last night was fantastic. I mean, Gardner, Coyle Leonard and Paul George in the final 11 seconds of that game. Crazy. Yeah, I was just going to say that this is like 2013 LeBron defensively. They have got at 35 with the mileage on his tread, it's absolutely amazing what he's. he's done. And Anthony Davis, you know, I just turned in who the awards would be. I had to put him in the top three in the defensive player of the year voting. I wouldn't have had him win it. But to be that good and to be there defensively, and the clippers

are very good, and we saw what they did to the Rockets in the second last game before the hiatus. But they never seem to quite have, be as cohesive as are the Lakers. The Kenner doesn't seem quite right yet because they've had the lineup change so many times, guys in and out, and it's continued now to where, you know, Pat Beverly is just back, Landry Shamet is just back, Montrez Harrell is not back yet, and so it's not just a fantasy league where it's just about who you got and who you don't. They don't seem to fit as well as they could. Maybe they will as this postseason and the seating games progress. But they seem to, well behind the Lakers in that regard.

Even though it was a great game, obviously, and really close, they've got two great players and a tremendously deep roster. Just if, who do you want to playoff series? Those are the reasons I would say the Lakers are the ones you'd rather not have to play. You'd rather have somebody else beat them for you or play them later. It just feels, though, and again, Ross and I have debated this court a bit that, you know, they had two guys missing last one obviously. They're just, the clippers just run so deep.

And I don't, this may not be fair. But I feel like they're, and you brought up cohesiveness and moving around lineups. It just feels like that when you get the clippers down a little bit, they don't have enough moxie to overcome that, that they start just jacking shots up and whatever. And again, that may not be fair, but I think from a mentally tough aspect, I think the Lakers had the biggest advantage over those two teams in a matchup. Yeah, and I didn't even mention Lou Williams. So the clippers can be better than they were.

can become better. But yeah, that's another reason where the Lakers absolutely know who they are and what they have to do to be their best. The Clippers is just a little bit of a feel. And then the other part, normally depth is a very overrated thing in the postseason. Teams shrink their rotations in the postseason.

You're not winning a playoff series because you've got a better 11th guy. not usually if teams are both healthy. In this situation, we don't know. The Lakers have good depth too, particularly when Rondo does get back eventually. Maybe under these circumstances, when the playoffs are every other day, depth will matter more than it typically does. But generally in the postseason, you're not winning because of the end of your rotation. and you're winning because of the top of it

and the ability of other core players to knock down that big shot that defines a game that changes and determines a winner in a game. Does PJ Tucker hit that corner three? You know, that's what determines who wins a game in the playoffs and often a series. That, and of course, did you have the best player on the court?

Did you have two of the three best players in the court? Not, boy, they came, waves. That 11th guy was really good. Yeah, I got 30 seconds on this one. Give me one quick. Rockets are going to shock the world and advance and win the whole damn thing, and then give me one, things are going to fall apart and they could lose in the first round. You mean a reason for both? Yeah, reason for both.

Hardened is unbelievable. You know, he's back to the November, December hardened. and the reason for not is they don't get their shots back to where it needs to be to be an incredible offensive team. To win a playoff series, they're likely going to have to play. They're going to have to be great offensively. You know, they didn't shoot well enough to be that. I will leave it at that. Mr. Fagan, thank you very much for the time.

I look forward to reading your tweets all throughout the game, and, of course, your coverage at Kron.com slash sports. Fakes, thanks for the time. I really appreciate it. No, no, not Krona.com anymore. Houston Chronicle. What?

What happened? Who's changing that? Is that a McLean thing? Yeah, I'll believe it. No, it's, all of our stuff now. Well, most of it had already been on Houston Chronicle.com. Well, I bought a couple of quick things.

All right. But now all of it. Houston Chronicle.com. Cron.com won't have any of my stuff. But really, it hasn't had, it's had a quick, too quick paragraph. straight paragraphs for some time. Now, everything is very simple, very clear.

Houston Chronicle.com. Well, I bought digital. Thank you for letting me say that. Yeah. Well, I bought your digital service. So be at leastably happy with me on that. Thank you, Jonathan, then really much. Appreciate it.

Enjoy it, guys. We'll see you later. All right, Jonathan Fagan with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Ross has an MLB update for us. Yeah, you do. You just didn't know it. I can't say it. I can't say it because it's a, you know what, free Friday.

Well, yeah, but if I say, one of us has to. Just be honest. You can't do COVID-free shows right now. You just can't. Or can we? 116 on the Matt Thomas show, the message here for the Shell Federal Credit Union. Hey, gang, 1.99% APR available for vehicle purchases.

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