{"id":24059,"date":"2025-07-26T17:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T17:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24059\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T17:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T17:25:12","slug":"southwest-notes-rockets-christie-lazare-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/24059\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Notes: Rockets, Christie, Lazare, Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rockets fans should expect to see much more of the two-big lineups featuring Alperen Sengun<\/a> and Steven Adams<\/a> this season, writes Kelly Iko for The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that neither are shooters \u2014 Sengun made just 23.3% of his three-pointers last season while Adams is 1-of-17 in his career from beyond the arc \u2014 Houston found an unexpected level of success playing the duo together. The two skilled international bigs were able to leverage their passing, rebounding, and toughness around the rim to great success, and Iko writes that other Western Conference teams took note and may attempt to follow suit.<\/p>\n

Bringing in Clint Capela<\/a> should help the Rockets manage Adams\u2019 minutes, though since Capela is less of a play-maker than the other two centers, it remains to be seen if they\u2019ll attempt to capture the same type of magic by putting him in lineups with Sengun.<\/p>\n

The Rockets know that Sengun will have to expand his range, not just for these lineups, but also to facilitate playing with Amen Thompson<\/a>, another very limited shooter. Iko writes that becoming more comfortable outside of the three-point line is one of Sengun\u2019s priorities this offseason, and Thompson is hard at work on his jumper as well.<\/p>\n

We have more from the Southwest division:<\/p>\n

Max Christie<\/a> is excited to reunite with new Mavericks teammate D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a>, writes Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s one of my closest friends and closest teammates,\u201d Christie said. \u201cWe were together for two years out in L.A. and I respect him a lot.\u201d Christie has had an eventful start to his career, from playing with LeBron James<\/a> to being included in a trade for Luka Doncic<\/a>, to now forming a new young core with Cooper Flagg<\/a> and Dereck Lively<\/a> II<\/a> to complement Anthony Davis<\/a> and Kyrie Irving<\/a>, when Irving returns from injury. He\u2019s excited for the challenge, citing the day he was traded as his favorite day as an NBA player. \u201cWe got a good roster,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got a good coaching staff. We\u2019re looking forward to making a big splash in the West.\u201d
\nThe Grizzlies are adding Darnell Lazare onto their coaching staff, Drew Hill reports for The Daily Memphian (subscriber link<\/a>). Lazare previously worked for the Grizzlies as a player development coach in 2018 before joining the Pelicans in a similar role, notes Damichael Cole writes for Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/a>. Cole writes that Lazare is expected to work with Memphis\u2019 big man rotation after working closely with Pelicans rookie Yves Missi<\/a> last season.
\nThe Spurs have committed over $1 billion in funding to San Antonio\u2019s downtown revitalization, which will include a new arena, write Amanda Moreno and Chris Hoffman of News 4 San Antonio<\/a>. The civic project, known as Project Marvel, could cost up to $4 billion in total, and the Spurs\u2019 commitment is expected to help alleviate some of the fiscal concerns. The Spurs\u2019 investment includes $500MM for a new arena, $500MM in downtown development, and $60MM in community incentives, affordable tickets, and small business support. \u201cAs we have done since 1973, we are operating in good faith, grounded in deep love for our community and a sincere desire to help San Antonio thrive,\u201d said Spurs chairman Peter J. Holt. The team is asking the city to contribute another $500MM to the arena costs. The Spurs are expected to stay in their current home, the Frost Bank Arena, until 2032, when the lease expires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rockets fans should expect to see much more of the two-big lineups featuring Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[23895,64,63,726,19699,23896,23897,23898,85,19698],"class_list":{"0":"post-24059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-clint-capela","13":"tag-dangelo-russell","14":"tag-darnell-lazare","15":"tag-max-christie","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-steven-adams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}