Ime Udoka after Pelicans crush Rockets in New Orleans

Probably because it was the Rockets' front court that got worked over like a ballerina in a back-alley brawl.
And our 6'10-ish starting center once again got bullied and big-boyed by a bigger, stronger opponent.

Add in the turnovers and what you get is exactly what was seen...another on the road beatdown.

It's getting embarrassing how 'Gunatics try to turn even Alpi's most obvious shortcomings into a referendum on Green, all the while whining about "accountability".

 

Being a 21-year-old C and getting bullied on occasion is standard, especially when your front-court mate is 20.

Being 21 and averaging 21-9-5 while anchoring a top 5 defense, is not...

 

I’m not from Houston, but just an observation that the Houston reporters only seem to ask “softball” questions.

 

"Anchoring"??? Okay

Tell me again how that pertains to Udoka's press conference and him addressing what actually happened in the game against the Pelicans.

 

Udoka: we didn't guard Zion and Valanciunas well + FVV was rusty + the starters didn't play with urgency + too many turnovers (Green had 1).

BBS: Jalen Green is the reason for everything.

You guys are insufferable. Green had a terrible game, like most of the starters. Everyone's bad game is on them, including Jalen. They weren't hunting Green. It's not Green's man that beat us. Green's misses didn't hurt us more than anyone else's misses. He turned it over less than everyone else. He just had a shitty game as did the rest of the starters - and with good reason, the opponent coach is an excellent defensive coach and seemed to know what we were going to do before we did it over and over and over again.

For the love of god Ime, change anything. Start Cam, Amen, Holiday, Tate, Tari I don't care but we can't keep starting Green and giving him free reign to take stupid shots then pulling him from the game and starting him all over again the exact same way. You either put a leash on it for the good of the team or you make changes to the way we play or you bench him.He is insisting the team looks bad AND Jalen looks bad AND the team is uninspired because they're out of answers - no one is winning here, not Jalen, not Ime, not the other players, not us, not Stone, no one. This is so idiotic.

Sick of Jalen, Udoka and Stone all of them. If this is their plan to "protect" his trade value, I've never seen it backfire so badly every in my entire life. If I asked you to secretly showcase Jalen Green's weaknesses and destroy his trade value, you would run exactly Udoka's offense. You can't THINK of a more effective way to showcase Green's weaknesses and destroy his trade value. I don't cross my fingers and hope Green is miraculously going to be good at beating a packed paint or making an open 3pter or making off balance midrange jumpers. It ain't happenin' so make a decision Udoka.

 

There was a lot of bad with the starting lineup and with coaching last night but Jalen was the worst. He stinks nearly every game and continues to have an unearned starting spot. When you preach culture and accountability it wouldn't be surprising if that's part of what has lead to a systemic wide regression for the whole team.

I don't think anyone is saying if you bench Jalen we win last night. But benching him is the most blindingly obvious change that could be made to try and keep this season from continuing to spiral.

 

Personnel just not there. A Center who can’t shoot beyond 10 ft. or protect the paint. An inconsistent SG who doesn’t have a more cerebral or physical approach. A 3 and 4 who can’t consistently get to the paint off the dribble. A PG who is a poor paint scorer and slow off the dribble. Personnel just not good enough. Some of these guys can be really good and serviceable on other teams that can compliment their weaknesses but collectively it’s not working for this team especially at the 3 and 4 spot.

 

Yeah, I am getting less and less sure that he knows what he is doing....every answer is physicality and defense......I am not sure he has a deep enough offensive bag to help.

DD

 

Other than the Jalen excuses, not bad.

DD

 

To me the pieces don’t match. Players simply don’t compliment each other.

 

It was asked for a week. Ime knows. The media knows. We know. It doesn't matter at this point.

 

As a true competitor. How could you not care about defense as a player. It’s another player ultimately saying I can take you any time. I don’t think Jalen, Sengun etc have the correct inner drive to be leaders of this team. Their effort is god awful.

 

Watch out now. You called out the all mighty Demigod Sengun. The lynch mob will be calling for you soon. Lol

 

Easy to avg 21 when you getting spam fed in post by FVV …

 

I love how nearly all Sengun haters/Jalen believers are hilarious dudes who have no idea about basketball.

I totally agree though. It's easy to avg 21 when you shoot the ball every game, he should avg 21 without shooting the ball, that's impressive.

I swear, some of you are begging people to make fun of you, lmao.

 

Really? I saw the opposite. Looked like our guys were trying their best out there and it just wasn't good enough. Just getting cooked over and over again. JV dominated Sengun, but not for lack of trying, it looked like a dad out there playing his kid. Too small and too weak. CJ was getting whatever he wanted and it didn't matter who was guarding him, he was getting easy buckets on Jalen Fred and Holiday. And then Dillon looked to me like he was giving 100% guarding Zion, but Zion could either get by him or power through him with ease.

The result is the same, but to me it wasn't for lack of effort. The effort was there and it just didn't matter.

 

the last 2 months Alpi has prob been scoring 4-8 points on his own …missing bunnies, abandoned his 1 leg jumper - stopped his push shot.. and only scoring on PNR rim runs

Example last night - he didn’t score his 10th point til 3rd qtr .. score was 65-52

He scored his 20th point with 1min left in 3rd score was 101-77

Empty stats

 

The idea that this team’s problem is that they don’t try hard enough is just wrong.

The defensive success we’ve had is due to us playing hard most of the time, even when behind, which very few NBA teams do. Some of our offensive problems are that guys are pressing tooo much — too many guys trying to bully their way into a crowded paint rather than be disciplined with spacing and taking the catch and shoots they need to take.

Good teams win with skill or size. We’re not there yet. Hustle just gets you out of the basement.

On the margins we could have a better variety of skillsets off the bench (shooting, rim protection), and we could run more creative sets.

But we’re a below average because our team is 2 experienced NBA starters, 6 college age players, and vet mins. 30-32 wins is on track. 35 wins way overperforming.

 

Doesn’t matter what you think. According to your posts you understand very little yourself.

 

There’s stretches where they play hard and there’s stretches where there’s a lapses defensively especially in that second quarter. Examples:

1. mcollum ran a PNR with JV. Had nowhere to go and dished it to Alverado top of key. Amen was too deep in the paint worried about JV then ran out to run off Alverado but he decided to drive to the paint. Amen was beat That left Sengun to defend Alverado and JV which ended up in an easy dish to JV for a layup.

2. Pelicans were on a fast break after a missed Rocket shot. Cam whitmore was in the corner but slowly ran back allowing Alverado to run the break with a wide open Herb Jones for an easy and 1.

3. another pels break. Zion outlet pass to Jones. Jabari was guarding jones but FVV ran from the corner to help. An off balanced jones on baseline then passes to a wide open Mcollum in the corner.

reminder that all these plays happened late in second half igniting a huge pels run. This is how you lose games

defensive lapses, missed assignments, and effort