Both Rockets Coaching Legend and Rockets future hall of famer head honcho did not make it to media day.
“We had a … 28-minute film session,” Udoka said. “I showed them clips … and numbers from the past three years — what we want to avoid, what we want to get better at. The main thing I stressed is effort and execution.” Asked what he most wants to see improved, Udoka said: “Everything.” It was a wonder he squeezed all that needs to be improved into just 28 minutes. “The numbers were ugly, to be honest, the last few years,” Udoka said. “When you rank 25th to 28th in a lot of categories, there’s a lot to improve on and grow. I kind of hit them right between the eyes in the areas we struggled in the last few years and (where) we want to get better.” “We know how much we struggled the last few years,” Udoka said. “A big part of the film session today was I put the numbers 17, 19 and 22 up there, and that was the win totals from the last few years. And how do we take a huge step up from that? We want to be a different team and (have) teams know when they play us, it’s not the same as the last few years.” “We got to sprinkle some things in in summer league and the offseason, so guys know what we’re going to do a little bit,” Udoka said. “It was more so for the veterans. They’ve already been through a lot, so they can pick it up pretty quickly.” On Tuesday, Udoka said, the Rockets kept things “simple.” They were switching on and off the ball but “will get to the schematics later.” Still, even with just the basics, there was an emphasis on better communication, an issue often cited in the past few seasons when young players struggled to talk defensively, even when they knew enough to know what to say. “We want to be a louder group,” Udoka said. “And Fred even stressed that. We have to talk more. We have to hear each other. That’s been one of the keys. To be a great defensive, offensive group, you have to talk to each other and not try to read each other’s minds. The defense that we’re going to play, it takes a lot of communication, a lot of talk out there.” They have only seen glimpses of that defense, but the sense that things are changing was inescapable. “The philosophies are different. Different focuses, different approach to the season,” second year forward Jabari Smith Jr. said. There was also a move to one practice a day, though the Rockets had been phasing out training camp two-a-days in recent seasons. Udoka said players' conditioning was so good that he could hold a longer practice Tuesday, as opposed to a short walk-through of a morning practice followed by a scrimmage late in the day. He was also pleased by the competitiveness that he expects with a team insisting it is “hungry” to turn things around. “It was great,” Smith said. “We were competing from the jump. Everybody came to training camp in shape, so it was good we could get off to that good start. “A big focus on defense. We were last in the league in a lot of those things last year, so it’s just trying to not repeat that.” He added that Udoka was funnier than he had heard, but Smith also described his coach as serious and down to business. “We’re just trying to introduce everything from the ground up,” Udoka said. “The great thing about our group is they came in shape, so we could go a longer session, get a lot of things in. We were all pleased with how they competed and how they picked things up quickly. “We want to change the perception of us as a team and as an organization, and that starts with playing very hard every night. We have a lot of competitive guys, a lot of bodies, a lot of depth. They competed great today.”
I’m shocked how improved Amen’s jumper is in such a short amount of time. our in house shooting guru has been busy!
I'm disappointed, but I guess. I'm sure even with my disappointment I'll be tempted to buy one, maybe.
Yep. I guess there is no real identity left to have. Forget about what the fans want. Maybe next they can switch to an Orange, Green and Yellow color scheme. As long as it says Rockets I guess we're supposed to be impressed. They don't jack with the Lakers gold and Purple anywhere near what they do to the Rockets. It's like they don't know what the team colors are to the fans. Les is partly to blame for coming up with that dark blue pinstripe garbage. Now it's do as thou wilt and who cares how jacked up it is.
Don't buy that crap and let them know how disappointed you are otherwise we'll keep getting crap like this! I hate watching a game and I don't even know which team is the Rockets!
