I'm not asking this to be a Negative Nancy, but from a place of genuine curiosity as someone who has only paid superficial attention to pro sports for a while now... why is there so much hype around Ime Udoka? He only was a head coach for one season, then he was involved in what sounds like a pretty bad sexual scandal, lost his job, and his former team didn't seem to get much worse (nor were they bad before he got there). I find myself kind of hyped up for us signing him, but I feel like it's mostly an unconscious result of everyone else's hype. What exactly makes him such a great hire for a team in our position? I personally would have preferred Vogel, but I'm open to reasonable explanations of why I'm wrong.
I guess so, I do think he is intelligent and people genuinely wish him the best. It is also a personal redemption arc for him due to the sexual scandal over there in Boston. But I like your view, because you have not been abreast of things in the NBA for a while, it is a fresh take.
Mostly reports that players love him and lots of NBA guys talking up his coaching ability (JVG, Pop, etc), plus him being that "curse you out and hold you accountable", defensive-minded coach that the fans seem to want. He did have good results in Boston, but yes, it was already a good roster, and it was a small sample size.
There are no sure things in the league and I think he is right. You could have Shaq, Malone, Payton and Kobe and still would not win the title. With good hard work, you could at least say "Well, we tried." Therefore I dislike Tilman's approach of forcing the issue with the championship contention there.
I guess, if we put the questionable character issues aside, given the Rockets' coaching history, Udoka is probably already more proven and worthy of hype than just about anyone we've ever hired before... Not sure any of our prior coaches ever even sniffed a title before they were in Houston, let alone got within two wins of one against the most successful team of this era, while in his early 40s. EDIT: Going no further back than Rudy T. Everyone else was before my time.
Weren't they at 500 the year before because of injuries, though? They pushed LeBron to the brink of elimination just a year or two before that with a very young (rookie IIRC?) Brown and Tatum. I totally forgot JVG made the finals before, too. He was solid, always thought he got too much hate around here. As for Adelman, I just have to take the L on that one... I had no idea he coached the Blazers (or if I did, I forgot) when they made the finals. OK, I retract my statement lol. ... Which kinda takes even more wind from my sails about the Udoka signing.
Important to remember this guy would have been completely untouchable as Boston's coach if he didn't like forbidden fruit (and the fruit reciprocated). We really lucked out.
Right. The dude got fired from his last job. You think that topic is off limits in his first public press conference? Jesus. Who is the snowflake here?
It’s a young talented team, with some imagination I can see eight guys with All-Star ceiling: 1.Christopher (more athletic Kyle Lowry) 2. Sengun (baby Jokic) 3. KPJ (more athletic Harden) 4. Smith Jr. (Bosh) 5. Eason (baby Kawhi) 6. Green (Kobe/MJ) 7. KMJ (Jeremy Grant) 8. Garuba (better shooting Draymond) I am on the fence on Nix…
Adelman and JVG, like Udoka had been to the NBA Finals before. D’Antony was COTY, should have gotten to the Finals with the Suns as well. Only Silas and McHale were rookie hires However we never hire a coach with a ring. There are two on the market now -Vogel and Nurse - but we went in a different direction.
I did not say it's off topic. I just said it's weird to have it as a main narrative from the 1st second. İt's not hard to say ''congrats on your new job, how does it feel'' etc as an opening. This guy did not kill a man.
Can you imagine the outrage if the women received the same treatment? “Congrats on yo … WHY DID YOU CHEAT ON YOUR HUSBAND??”
lmfao I know it's media day and you've got to hype up your new team. But they picked the wrong coach if deep down he truly believes that.
Yep. Going off JR's post as I didn't watch it - but it immediately read as if he needed to pamper KPJ because he knows how emotionally fragile he is.
