In this year's NBA draft, the Rockets gained a lot of money, and took Shepard with a probe pick, which is a sharpshooter with accurate shooting, which is very suitable for the current Rockets, according to the latest reports, Stone attaches great importance to Shepard, he said: "We regard Shepard as the best rookie player this year, and we have been paying attention to only one player," even Stone spoke, which means that Shepard will get a certain amount of playing time in the new season anyway, but the Rockets are indeed a little crowded with guards now, There are a lot of people who can play, which creates a rotation problem for Udoka.
After taking Shepard, the thing the Rockets have to solve is how to renew the contracts of Shin Kyung and Green, Both of them can sign a five-year $225 million contract this offseason, and if they can enter the best team in the 2024-25 season, the contract will reach $269 million for five years, and at the same time, it is unrealistic to give the two a maximum salary, and someone will definitely have to make sacrifices, before the outside world agreed that Jalen Green will either take a salary cut or be traded, because in the Rockets' system, Shen Jing's importance is greater than Green's, so a big contract can only be given to Shen Jing, not to mention, Udoka has always preferred Shen Jing, but just today, it was reported that the Rockets will not give either Shen Jing and Green a big contract.
Rockets reporter Feigen revealed that the team is unlikely to offer Green and Shin Jing a five-year 225 million maximum salary early contract extension this offseason, which is easy to understand, no one can get a big contract, as for the specific amount is unknown. This wave of rockets can be described as a god operation, solving the problem of retaining the two, since everyone is not the top salary, then no one has to leave, there will not be a situation where one person signs the top salary and the other is dissatisfied, so Green also ushered in the expected ending, he is unlikely to be traded in the offseason, Green likes the Rockets very much, he actually doesn't want to go, before the Rockets draft, Green also went to the scene to support.
Using a salary cut to retain the two young cores at the same time, the Rockets killed two birds with one stone, and Stone won the game. However, there is another possibility, the Rockets think that neither Shin Kyung nor Green is the future of the team, and they want to develop Shepard to try, what if he is better than Shin Kyung and Green? Or that the future cornerstone of the Rockets has not yet appeared, and it will be necessary to wait for the draft in the next few years. Shen Jing's shortcomings are obvious, his offensive ability is strong, but his defense is too poor, and Shen Jing is a little lonely in playing, and the ball basically can't come out when it comes to his hands. Green, on the other hand, is inconsistent and unpredictable, having won the Player of the Week award in March of this year.
As a result, he was beaten back to his original shape in April, and Green's sluggish in April was an important reason why the Rockets missed the play-offs, but as long as he can reach the heights of the Thunder Alexander, I believe that the Rockets' record will leave the Warriors. Another point has to be mentioned, Shen Jing and Green both need the ball, the two have some conflicts, Udoka's tactics have always been around Shen Jing, he has the most shots, Green don't say that he is the second master, and even the team's status is not as good as Van Vliet, especially in the last quarter, the Rockets offensive end is often Shen Jing and Van Jordan two turns, Green can't touch the ball, and after Shen Jing was injured and fell, Green's ball power skyrocketed, which was played in March.
The problem is that when the two are on the court at the same time, Shen Jing is the core, Green can only make sacrifices, and it will still be like this next season, because Udoka only has Shen Jing in his eyes, and after the regular season, Udoka talked about what Shen Jing used to say: "Shen Jing is an incredible player, it's a luxury to have a player like this, he can appear in different positions on the court, he can do all kinds of things, once his shooting improves, he will open up new worlds for the team and himself, and the most important thing is that he needs to understand this, Knowing how the team is responding to him, we will also help Shin Kyung develop better defensive habits as soon as possible. ”
It can be seen that Udoka's evaluation of Shen Jing is very high, and for Green's positioning, Udoka thinks that he is just a scorer, according to common sense, the Rockets will definitely give Shen Jing the highest salary, but Green is not, and now they don't give either of them, which means that the Rockets plan to keep them at the same time. In fact, frankly speaking, who should the rocket really clean up? The answer is VanVleet, last season, Van Jordan did not perform well, the offense was unstable, the defense was stabbed, and he couldn't bring the Rockets, and the key was to seize the playing time of young people, such as Amen Thompson can only play on the bench, so what the Rockets need to consider is how to trade out Van Jordan.