Rockets’ Expectations & Mavericks Potential: Live from Media Day in Macao

Like he's – I mean, we're in camp. It appears that he's starting this year, the way he's played in camp, exactly kind of like maybe like one notch above where he ended last year. And that's really, that's what we want from all our young guys. We want that real progression. And Reid has some real advantages.

He's got some tools that just are very unusual. But he's also like, he's going to get picked on a little bit too. He's not a man, right? And so he's going to have to figure it out. But it does feel like he's starting to really figure it out. And by the end of last year, he was a really good player.

WindhorstAnd like I said in the playoffs, we were way better with him. When those guys were on the court and it included him, we were really, really solid in those minutes. How different do you think the landscape will be this year with every team trying to win?

StoneOr most of them? I think the win totals for everybody will go down. I agree. Yeah. Yeah, but, you know, at the end of the year, if a team is out,

it's hard. And, look, I've been in the NBA for 20 -something years. I've been on teams that have faced that conundrum. It's hard. It's hard to motivate in the middle of March. So I do think win totals will go down. I don't think it's going to be something where, like, the best team wins 45 games or something crazy like that, but I do think win totals will go down.

WindhorstI think it's going to be an absolute dogfight. Every game in the Western Conference is just going to be. Oh, it always is. My compatriots or whatever, just the Western teams are really well run. The GMs are really good. The coaches are really good. The ownership is really good. You know, and so year after year, these teams are doing smart things.

And so the result is that, you know, like it's a very, very balanced, you know, conference with just top to bottom really good teams.