I thought about that for a second, but - if there is one single player KMJ benefited from the most...it's the guy who kept feeding him. Alpi.
Well he’s going to be keeping his son accountable that’s for sure….For all the talk about KPJ having a wake up call from a coach like Udoka, the same can be said about KJ who hasn’t improved his defense at all since he came into the league. He just wants to dunk and score but not do other things to win. That’s why he was pulled several times by Lucas when he was coaching, and instead of using that as motivation to get better he decided to sulk and pout on the bench and refused to join the team huddles. I was a fan of his and love the chemistry he has with Sengun, but I just can’t get with the entitlement attitude he started to develop. So his Dad likes the hire? Well get ready……
I want to see a bunch of guys moved for vets and other assets this season. We need to consolidate. I’m ready to move on from KJ, Christopher, and Tate. None of them can shoot. The two guys outside of our core that I’d really like to find a way to hold onto and see what Udoka can do with them are Garuba and TyTy. I just have a feeling that both players can take a big step this year with the right coaching. Don’t get me wrong, I’d move them in a second as part of a package for a difference maker, but if they can get 10-15 min consistently next year, I bet they both show out.
My only ask is that PT is determined by meritocracy and not draft position . will that suck for this years draft picks ? Maybe . Green and smith got 30 mpg rookie year despite objectively being a bottom 50 nba player . but I don’t care . I hope lazy play is rewarded with getting benched . We’ve been chasing the highlight play . I want guys who are chasing the winning /smart play .
Hoping that Udoka considers hiring a staff with at least a slight bit of diversity. So far that has not been the case.
As a manager, I try not to hire ten mini-me’s. He’s got all young aggressive guys who remind him of himself. A wiley veteran who is not a “yes” man would be a nice add to the staff.
Ya I feel like even with the amount of praise the Ime hire gets, it's still underselling the Rockets literally went from the worst coaching staff in the NBA to a championship level coaching staff in one off-season. That's ridiculous and quite frankly is near unprecedented. Usually the tanking bad teams don't get the cream of the crop coaching talent. That is going to be a bigger difference than adding any current vet star by a long shot.
[ There's been 4 coaching changes this offseason since - literally 100% of them can claim to be championship level That's just a low low bar. The reason why nobody's talking about the Rockets though is that they're irrelevant to the league power structure other than as a Harden retirement home. That's what happens after 3 years in the tank with no victor
i value your opinions - can you name a single non ,"championship caliber coaching hire made in the last 2 months in the NBA? I'll wait.
OK, I'll bite, basically every single coach hired since Udoka (with one quibblable exception) has recently coached teams to (or in 3/4 cases, won) recent NBA finals. Hell Monty Williams signed a contract for, nearly 3x the amount of Udoka's - strange but ok i guess. THe NBA takeoverse is fickle, it's not going to be impressed as you think it should be - unless this is a vintage 2017 "media conspiracy against the Rockets" type deal - in which case I wholeheartedly agree.
I know what your problem is also. You are a older poster. Probably your peak following of the NBA probably occured before the one and done era so you see these rookie 22 year olds already contributing to winning. In your entire basketball following life you've never seen a team where a 9 man rotation is younger than your typical D1 team and therefore you feel confused why people are so high on a bunch of players that just got you 22 wins.
I guess the team (or most of it) is in Houston and having informal practices with Ime and the new staff (sounds like the guys from Boston?). Mostly basics, but 5v5 stuff too. I guess I don't really follow these things much because that kinda surprised me (figured that would happen later). Hopefully this helps the guys and the coaching staff get on the same page ASAP. This was probably on Twitter and shared elsewhere, but I probably just missed it. I did see some guys working out, but I thought it was smaller workout stuff.
They talk about Udoka's offseason coaching from 16:15 onwards. Good interview, enjoying everything I'm hearing about Udoka's style and how early he's connecting with the players. Also seems like all the players are responding well to the training and they had been working on their game a little already. People are severely underrating our young core.
Dude, if ANYBODY'S defense hasn't improved its Sengun's. Why does everybody's defense get critiqued but our worst defender?
