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Houston Rockets Training Camp: Conditioning Test, Jalen Green's Shot, Usman Garuba's Role & More

Mar 26, 2024
on today's show, sounds and takeaways from the first day at Houston Rockets

training

camp

ahead of the 2022-2023 NBA season, we'll hear from head coach Steven Silas, as well as Jabari Smith Usman

garuba

and Tai Tai Washington, it will all happen here in the lockdown. Rockets, this is the Mission Control Houston power-up sequence, uh, the Houston Rockets select Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr P minor. The 15 second guide is internal every time I enter that floor. I'm coming, you're going to look for someone. You're going to come in with a chip on that shoulder someone who's going to come in and compete from day one six five four three two one foreigner Rock is your daily podcast home for all Houston Rockets basketball as always I'm your host Jackson Gatlin, Houston native and a credited member of the media most of the Monday host of Locked on NBA, the host of the State of the Rockets podcast, as well as the Rockets watch, be sure to follow him on Twitter at JT Gatlin on the show Of course, at Locked on Rockets, we're free and we're also available on all podcast platforms. like on YouTube, just go to YouTube, well, go to YouTube search Locked on Rockets, then like, comment and subscribe to a special Road edition of Locked on Rockets, courtesy of the elegant Golden Nugget.
houston rockets training camp conditioning test jalen green s shot usman garuba s role more
I would do one of those Swanky like MTV Cribs, like watch my room. but, although my travel podcast kit is very mobile, it's not once it's set up and placed wherever you're doing remote podcasting, so check out the new digs. I tried to line up with the camera, all that good stuff. There is a lot to talk about today. Many takeaways from the first day of Houston Rockets

training

camp

. It was so much fun listening to Steven Silas. Types of sights and sounds from the first day of Houston Rockets training camp. We'll hear directly from Steven Silas in this episode. some takeaways from some of the things he told us, we'll also hear directly from Usman Garuba, Tai Tai Washington and Jabari Smith Jr, talk about what those guys had to say, some thoughts on what we saw from Jalen Green taking some photos. with assistant coach John Lucas in the short period of time that the media were allowed into practice after the actual practice portion was done, the part we were able to watch as media, so let's start with Steven Silas because there were a couple of important takeaways from what Stephen Silas decided to talk to the media about and here's how we're going to do this.
houston rockets training camp conditioning test jalen green s shot usman garuba s role more

More Interesting Facts About,

houston rockets training camp conditioning test jalen green s shot usman garuba s role more...

I have these kind of separate clips, um, so I'm going to throw them out. each clip and then we'll discuss it, so in the first clip, uh, Steven Silas was asked what it was about the first day here, the first day of training camp, a lot of teaching, we had a

conditioning

test

that everyone passed, so I was happy about that, but um, it was really about having a great first day and then having that result in a great city, like I said yesterday, it's going to be a day-to-day thing for us, so that day one can do quite safely, very obviously, the work that they are doing.
houston rockets training camp conditioning test jalen green s shot usman garuba s role more
I told them, I think four weeks ago, today we even have

conditioning

together and everyone has tomatoes, so yeah, the work that they did this summer in terms of the involved work that they did and the three-man work that they did. That place what's the

test

line stretched out there is 12 times three three times so 12 times a minute and a half rest we'll do it again a minute and a half rest and then we'll do it again it's unusual for everyone to crochet um ? So, of course, it was head coach Steven Silas who talked about what the first day was about and emphasized the conditioning element of the first day that I thought really stood out, you know, and he was really good at describing what which was the task in question was the three-quarters of the court exercise, which I'm already sweating just thinking about it.
houston rockets training camp conditioning test jalen green s shot usman garuba s role more
I wonder what the advantage is, what the advantages are of doing that three-quarters of the court drill versus doing it like the traditional one, like I don't. I know suicides are a side note. I hated suicides in middle and high school, they were horrible, but that's beside the point, the fact that all the Rockets passed, I think is a great sign that this team is striving to be the best. The best version of yourself that you can be, you know, they were warned about this conditioning test four weeks ago, right, they were warned that they were like, you know, Silas warned him and basically said, "Okay, guys, the first "conditioning test day." training camp and the fact that everyone passed with flying colors is absolutely fantastic.
Later, Steven Silas brought up the fact that, you know, kpj and Jalen look phenomenal conditioning-wise, physical-wise, they seem to be in fantastic shape. I also mentioned KJ Martin and someone who stands out in the conditioning department, but I love that they all passed that test because this is a Rockets team that wants to go out and run well and the fact that they all passed the conditioning test. A1 day with great success instead of guys coming in and you know, maybe there's some guys that come through and some guys that, you know, are working to get back into game form, a little bit, whatever it really does. , goes to show that every player on this list has absolutely invested time, energy, and effort this offseason to stay at the top of their game.
It would be very easy for a team that was the worst team in the NBA two years in a row for any of these. The kids who need to be mentally checked want to go away, you know, go hang out on a boat or an island or whatever in the off-season and not take their off-season regimen seriously, but instead they did. seriously and that's already showing through the The work is shown here on the first day of training camp now we also saw I wanted to make that point first, but before we dive into

more

Steven Silas stuff, we saw Jalen Greene warming up in our courtside because The media said, you know, we're hiding in a little corner of them, they basically told us, "Hey, stay here, um, so what we saw was Jalen Green and John Lucas, uh , working, you know, Jalen Green just got some three points.” perimeter

shot

s and it was really cool to see how closely John Lucas works with Jalen Green on his three-point

shot

and to see both of them, you know Luke and he's working on so many things, so I put the video on my Twitter there. feed, but John Lucas is working very closely with Jalen on multiple different things and if you look at the video, what John Lucas does is there's a video where Jalen takes threes from the corner and Lucas is actually holding his hips while shoot, uh. and it's for a variety of factors, basically what you're trying to do is try to keep your hips aligned, you're trying to keep Jalen's base from rotating as he shoots or staggering forward a little bit, so basically you're trying to keep your form consistent every time, right, exactly the same movement, exactly the same fluidity, all of that.
One of the other drills that John Lucas often does with Jalen is he does a quick one to two count, so we didn't really see this one. today, but it's one that we saw a lot in pregame routines and whatever at the Toyota Center last season, Luke would be standing on Jalen's side, he'd be spreading the ball around for these three and he'd do it so early. As the ball came out of Luke's fingertips, he would start counting one, two, one, two, one two and Jalen had to release the ball before Luke finished saying two and Luke would call him if he took too long to release it. and so. that's Lucas working with Jalen to get his release faster, get his you know, get his form down to a figure eight, just a patented consistent release point where there's no variation in his shot, all of that because Jalen can hit his shot whenever he wants. , but He's also the type of player where a lot of times he's off balance in the movement and Lucas is really working with him to try to get him, you know, where he's centered, with his shoulder squared to where the shot is. the exact same thing every time, regardless of whether it's a catch-and-shoot opportunity, regardless of whether it's an isolation move where it's a quick boom boom coming to your step back, whatever or if it's dribbling driving towards a pull-up jumper. at midrange, he wants Jalen's shot to be the same every time or as close as possible every time, so I love seeing that kind of work behind the scenes, you know, with John Lucas and Jalen Green. up I want to talk a lot about uh Usman

garuba

, the screen machine, so to speak, we're going to talk about what Stephen Silas noticed about him during his game at the Euro Basketball Championship and we'll also hear from the man of the moment, the upcoming champion himself . in just a moment after a quick message from our friends at BetOnline betonline.net is your number one source for all your football bets and information this season, even though the Texans you know are off to a bit of a rocky start .
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odds, be sure to bet online to see all the trends and stocks available to bet online, that's where the game begins and continues here on locked at Rockets, your daily podcast home for all the Houston Rockets basketball where we're missing our programmed reinstatement music on my soundboard which I don't have with me on the road so it's a lot of fun. I need you guys to understand that I was going to start this segment and I was like looking to my left like, oh damn, I don't have my soundboard, I can't play the clip and I don't have access to the MP3 file.
I don't think I have it saved in a cloud folder. anywhere, so we're just going to run without it today, so let's go ahead and keep this going, as clumsy as possible. I even thought about doing a fake, like I can't even, I can't even do it. I'm not even going to try to get the music right. I'm done derailing segment two. Let's listen to Steven Silas when they asked me about Usman Garuba's play in Eurobasket. I know, it was happening. Those are the three things that I thought he was pretty good at, but I didn't know he was as good as he did during Euro basketball, so, yeah, the energy that he has, those are things that he knew, the ability to change that He has, those are the things we move, but As far as his offensive game, he really showed a knack for rolling short and making plays for others that he didn't know.
That gives you a chance to run some of the things you do without me and then with the second unit, if that's the case. the second unit Center a little bit yes, yes a little bit is more, it's less static and more in motion for him without B it's a little more static depending on the ball, but for those you can be a little more in motion and he can pick it up and making sure Steven Silas highlights a lot of the things we paid so much attention to during Usman Garuba's game to his title-winning game for Spain, Usman's dirty work. garuba puts in the forehand and Silas is very specific in his praise, essentially focusing on what garuba provides, which is projection, rolling briefly and passing on all the things I've been raving about with Usman garuba in this very podcast we've been discussing .
During the Rocket watch, when we saw Usman Garuba play basketball, he does all those things at a very high level and later, Silas discussed the fact that you know Alpi is at least in what this means, what is the Usman garuba skill set? What it means for the team is that it's kind of the inverse of what Alperin Shingun offers because Alpi plays a very specific style of basketball and Steven Sal used the correct terminology which he called static LP versus Usman Garuba as someone else on the move and that makes me loves. because it's true that there are clear differences between the way those two guys play, they have some overlap, they both set good screens, they both can roll effectively, all you know are little things here and there and they're both good passers, but They are very different types of players, the correct LP is the type of player you want to give the ball toon the low block, in the high post, on the perimeter, in dribble handoff sets, whatever, let him dictate and direct the offense correctly, let him make the decisions. and things are a little static with him and then people run around and play with him, whereas with garuba there's a lot more movement, a lot more movement, you know he's capable of doing what he does well because garuba will do a screen scroll, It will scroll the screen again, you know? it's just screen roll rescreen screen roll rescreme as many times as you can say it in a row, right, it will do it consistently during a possession, so you can keep things moving a little longer with garuba, whereas again with shingun things are a bit More static as to how the offense looks, unless people are moving, you know beyond what Shingun is.doing the right thing shingun won't be the one to move people need to move around shingun when he has the ball, whereas with garuba he can be the one who moves and can be the constantly moving piece within the offense setting good off-ball screens on ball screens and then making the right passes, this was something that really stood out, especially with Garuba's play with Spain, what his passing is, his ability to create for others, especially from short kicks, is something I'm really looking forward to seeing in Houston.
The Rockets are trying to unlock a little bit because it really felt like at times last season they basically just threw Garuba in the corner and said, stay there, go, go and aim up and we're basically going to ignore you. use, you know, KJ Martin to set screens offensively, while we have a blast. Take a look at what Garuba can do as an Offensive Strength and then that doesn't even take into account the fact that he defensively provides so much that he's interchangeable. versatility in that in everything, so there are many good things to be excited about with Usman garuba and talk about the devil, the man of the moment in person, the champion not only of our hearts but also of Spain, let's listen to Usman garuba.
You felt great again, you know, I've been waiting for this for a long time, you know, being injured because someone disappointed me a lot, but you know, I played with the national team. I feel very good and this has many things in common. What did you think of the first day of practice? What did you think of the first day of practice? It was great, you know, great energy and stuff and all that, but it's good, we have a nice Johnson, what do you think of the conditioning technology? Oh, that was crazy, yeah, well, you know we all went through it and that was the key, you know, yeah, everyone.
We trust each other and we've been working hard for that, yes, all this summer and I'm very proud of my team. Are there any similarities in how you were used by the Spanish team and how the Rockets can use you in their offense? Yeah, I think I hope I can help my teammates and play the same way I played with the national team here. Yeah, I think I can help a lot, but you know, I don't know what they have planned for me, but you know. I'm on your way to your title, you ended up playing against Turkey and you and Albertino have played against each other before, but what was different now playing together now that your teammates here at the Rockets were there, maybe a few extra words and go ahead a little we've been waiting for that game for a long time what does it mean to be a veteran now even though some of these guys are the same age?
I'm happy because you know we have a pretty young team, it's good to be around all these guys they're all hungry we want to work and we want the country song was it important to you after not being able to play much last year that the team, the fans of Could the organization see what you do if they saw this summer? I just want to be patient, do what the team wants me to do, the team wants to do it with me and you know, once my time comes, get ready and do it, do it the best you can, what's it like being around Bobon?
Is he always a happy person, happy birthday, is he a good guy to be alone? Thank you and of course that was none other than Usman Garuba. It's just great to be able to hear from him. It seems like he's, you know, incredibly optimistic. about this season really excited to get started I'm the first one to start first of all I'm happy he's in a healthy place right he's had a couple of really weird injuries that have kept him out and you know basically kept him removed. from his Rockets family and being able to participate in trying to prove that he can do something meaningful at the NBA level and it seems like his body is in a good place right now, physically, mentally, he seems to be in a good place. situation.
Good good place after that title and then I love it. I was so desperate that I wanted to try to ask Shingoon this at media day and unfortunately I didn't get the chance because I was pointing the finger at the wrong person in the media. space for the first two interviews and I thought, oh, I was supposed to point to someone else when I wanted to ask a question and I'm stupid and I was pointing to the wrong person, so I didn't. I can't ask a couple of questions when I wanted to ask questions that are my responsibility, but I'm glad I was able to ask Garuba what it was like to play in Shingu because he's right, you can tell that that matchup meant a lot to him.
He was right, he was, already You know, I just chuckled about it, um, you know, some big laughs come out of Garuba again. Everything looks, you know, so just he looks and feels like he's in a very, very good place and I'm very excited. to see what he brings to the table for the Rockets this season, so next, do you want to hear from Jabari Smith Jr and Ty Ty Washington and your final thoughts on the first day of Rockets training camp in just a moment and last ? segment here on Locked in Rockets your daily home podcast for all things Houston Rockets basketball, let's go ahead and dive head first into the clips of, first we'll do Jabari Smith Jr, then we'll do tai Thai Washington and then we'll share final thoughts . about what those two guys had to say and you know the thoughts from the last day of training camp, so let's dive into jabarisma Jr.
Hey practice, did you take a moment and think okay? I'm here, yeah, yeah, oh, that was a good experience. like just warming up to get that real feeling, like it was a real NBA practice, so it was a good experience, was it different from summer league or off-season workouts? um I say it was a little different because it felt like that. Actually, it was about time. I feel like everyone was more focused, everyone was more focused, more attention to detail was much greater and I feel like we were playing a lot harder in our energy that was depleted today.
What did you think of the conditioning test uh it was tough but I'm happy that everyone passed it we all passed it and then we ended up finishing practice on a good note so I'm happy about that Jabari how much have you really had an opportunity? he always gave me little tips and said someone I can talk to when I feel frustrated and he has been a good person in my ear. I always laugh at what I always talk to him about, so he's been a good person. Mentor to me, this is just when we walked in we heard your voice it's one of the strong voices, excuse me, have you always been that kind of leader?
Yes, I feel like he's always been in me, even when he was going to college. I was one of the youngest players on my team, the youngest player on this team, so it's like people always preach to me, no matter how old you are, you can still make an impact with your voice and just being a leader. because we all have the same level that everyone respects. We know it's only day one, but right now, what does defensive communication feel like? I feel like our communication is good right now, but it may be a completely different level.
I feel like we can be one of the best. defensive teams in the league and I feel like our communication has to go to another level so we can get to that thank you, thank you, okay and let's go ahead and dive into Tai Thai Washington, our final interview from day one, Rockets. training camp, so what are your impressions of your first NBA training camp practice? She was good. I liked. You know, it's a dream come true for me. I just watched our first little practice. I was very excited to be with the whole team. going out to the computer, you take a second to think, okay, I'm here, yeah, after we broke it, after we did our condition impact, I thought it was pretty much at that point how much they plan in the summer , they help you enter.
On this first date, I hope that the whole group that you know has been there since the summer, just working and stuff like that, same with the Summer League, just builds confidence in me to go through the whole process and get to this point, like that that I feel very comfortable. What I'm into and how I'm doing it, what were some of the overseas episodes that we saw moments in the summer league where you would be, you know, on the ball, the main playmaker and then you would also play a little bit without the ball, what happens. on making that mental shift to be on the ball and then maybe play poorly, you know, with guys like Jalen or kpj uh yeah, as you know, I don't really have a problem playing with or without the ball.
I feel like I can shoot. It's enough to shoot well enough to play without the ball and I feel like I handled it well enough. My IQ is really good for playing point guard, so it's like at the end of the day basketball becomes positionless, as long as you're on the court. You should be out there being productive to make something happen, so I don't really care if I have a ball in my hand or not, as long as I'm out there being productive your mentality changes at all, although when you know you're going to handle the ball a little bit more instead of playing horrible, uh, yeah, just a little bit.
You know, when I'm off the bar, I tend to look for my shot more and then when I have the guys, you really get to know me more. a leader who takes everyone to their places and makes sure my teammates eat yes, it was difficult, it was difficult, but you know, the coach told us about this four weeks ago, so we had enough time to prepare and everyone and each of the boys did it. it just shows that you know the preparation we did before this point was worth it, you know that talking about your time actually had a chance, so it's more or less telling us that everything we're doing now will translate into the season, so he was. just getting ready for today, where he did a great job, you know, I'm a keeper, but he's always coaching me, telling you how to become a better player, that's an important transition, it's a little bit easier, you know, yeah, only a little.
He definitely helped me and you know I have the guys available. Does it make it easier to know that you have players like Jaden Green and Kevin Porterfield who aren't much older than you and can relate to some of the things you can relate too? uh yeah, I'm sure you know, like you said, that they're not, they're not that much older than me, so every time I got a question, I was never afraid to ask because you know what kind of similar age you don't know that far away. So I could ask them to talk to them about anything that will be useful for our interviews with the players.
Now I will say that I love that Garuba Jabari and Tai Tai were asked about the conditioning task and their reaction every time. like big eyes, you just know it was a lot for them, but they really came together as a team and just made it happen, you know, these guys knew, they warned them about the test and they came. they came in and passed again, you know a couple of the guys, you know, some of the guys passed with flying colors, but they all did well, no one failed and then it was a great sign of kind of a first hurdle for this team right where it's like Hi, Steven Silas set a goal and this team, as a cohesive team unit, everyone accomplished that goal successfully.
Everyone's been pushing each other for the last month since they found out, they've been pushing each other to be in a place physically where they could pass that goal, so I love that you know about goal setting and all that for this one. team, that's a good sign of things to come, so I want to start with Jabari here because, first of all, I love Jabari's personality, right? He just oozes confidence. um and he's very vocal and I think it's a very interesting kind of dichotomy between him and Jalen Green because Jalen it's not that Jalen isn't vocal, it's just that Jalen is a little more maybe a little more reserved. a little more cautious and a little measured in his responses to the media, you just know he's a little quiet, maybe a little introverted, right, James Harden was pretty much the same way, right, James was never super, ya You know, bustling and detailed. whatever with the media, he was very good, these are myanswers and let's get out of here, let me get back to work on improving myself in any way possible and Jalen feels the same way about that mentality, while Jabari is not that.
Jabari isn't those things either and he doesn't have that desire either, clearly Jabari has a grudge, he has a crazy work ethic, all that, but at the same time he's kind of a really big personality, right? He, you know, enjoys the moment, enjoys the vocal leadership element and talks all the time about being a leader, and that was one of the points he made was the communication element, being defensive, being vocal on that side of it. . floor and that's something that really stood out about Jabari during his first practices with the Rockets during summer league. It's so incredibly vocal, even though Us Media was sitting outside the practice area, we could hear the Rockets practicing and I could hear how loud and how much communication there was on defense in each of those scrimmage drills that the Rockets were running and then we got to see him in play as the Rockets ran through some scrimmage drills, you know, the little one.
Something we got to see at the end of practice, so I love that Jabari completely embodies that

role

and is convinced that that's his

role

and you really know how to make money on the defensive side of the basketball, their offense is going to be fantastic, Sure, he's going to fit and if he's the third option one night, first option, fourth option, whatever he's going to hit, he's going to have his offensive opportunities, but this team has a lot of bucket getters. right, they need to be a difference maker on defense and that's exactly where Jabari hangs his hat and that's exactly where he's going to have the biggest impact, especially early in his rookie year and I love that he's embraced that role 100 percent with Ty Ty.
Washington um, I was glad I had the opportunity to ask him about his role as a combo guard, um, because that's exactly what it sounds like, right, he was a combo guard at Kentucky, he was a combo guard in the Rocket Summer League. . and he's really like the pure essence of a combo guard like Josh Christopher isn't really a combo guard Josh Christopher is like a combo wing is what we'll call him right because Josh is like he's a bucket catcher that can put the ball in his hands he's going to make his shots, he's not a point guard, right?
Josh is like a wing, you know, if he was, you know, a couple of inches taller, he would be very Jalen brown-esque um, but for Tai Tai he has that ability to be you know that playmaking lead point guard. , floor facilitator General, whatever they are, great point guard instincts and then he's also very capable of playing off the ball and we saw that on display in the summer league, so I and I liked that bit of A look at what What he said about his change in mentality is that, when he plays without the ball, he tries to hit his shot a little more and he tries to be a little more aggressive, maybe when he plays without the ball, whereas when the ball is in his hands he is the leader on the court, true.
I think that position is correct if you are the point guard or we will call it the main playmaker, whatever it is for a team, you are effectively the leader on the court, right? You're the one pulling the strings offensively and the buck starts and ends with you and if you do a bad job of starting things to get guys involved, then offensively things are going to break down, they're going to start breaking down left and right, so that the fact that Tai Tai understands that role and understands the differences and how he has to play.
I really have high hopes that he can fit almost perfectly into the rocket system, whether he fits in and plays minutes alongside kpj and he's, you know, the me. I don't know the two guards next to kpj, you know they play more of an off-ball role or he fits in, you know he's playing minutes on the line next to a guy like Josh Christopher Off the Bench or maybe he's playing next to Jalen and he. He needs a little more knowledge, a main facilitator role. I think Tai Tai is capable of both roles and I think that's where he has a little bit of an advantage over a guy like gandation Nick, so I still think he's going to do it.
Get the primary backup point guard minutes to start the season, but Dacian Nix is ​​more of a typical point guard, as if he isn't necessarily, he doesn't have the same type of off-ball capabilities or comfort. I have to say Ty Ty Washington. Those are final thoughts from the first day of Rockets training camp. We will be back here with the second day. The whole breakdown. All interviews. All. If you want to watch the full Steven Silas interview and if you want to watch these full interviews again. without me going in and out of the episode, all that good stuff, it's listed and available in the episode description, it's on my Jackson Gatlin media YouTube page, so subscribe to that one, I think there's 6,300 of you subscribed. on Lor's YouTube page um so I need to see about 4000 more subs over the next week on the other media no I'm kidding but legit subscribe that's where I'll put all the Rockets content from this season um . and as we get closer to the regular season and stuff, I'm definitely not going to include as many interviews on the show, but I really like the training camp interviews and stuff because they're very insightful, it's really cool to hear from someone. from the players, so that's what we'll do for today's episode, as always, thank you very much for watching the show.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing or if you listen to your podcast, that's Apple Spotify Google, the new one. Odyssey app free and available on all podcast platforms, we are also on YouTube, you guessed it, go to YouTube search locked on Rockets, like, comment and subscribe, remember the fourth house mantra to form the team. 4D algorithm, comment on YouTube videos that will help you. I was out a lot, but as always, thank you so much for watching, thank you so much for listening, saying goodbye to the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles. We hope to have you back here in lockdown.
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