Ime Udoka after loss to Knicks: "We regressed in a lot of areas."

Look, we are overthinking this.

All of the teams that beat us are better than we are. It is really that simple. They have better players and thus a higher likelihood of victory.

The closest team in terms of talent were the Heat, and that was a relatively close game. Not a surprise.

As a coach, you realize that you learn more about your team through losses than wins; wins tend to cover up weaknesses, while losses illuminate them. The losses offer an opportunity to correct issues and get better long term.

At this point, the Rockets ceiling is 7th seed, and right now we are outside looking in on the play-in, so not that far off. Hey, we have already matched our win total from last season, and still have 50 games left. So we have made a lot of strides.

 

It is sad to look him like this, he sounds like he is under the weather every time....

 

Rockets don’t put their players in positions to succeed -

Jalen shoots above average from corner 3s and average from right side of arc

but sucks at top of key and left side of arc ( yet 143 of his 3 attempts are from there)

While Jabari is shooting above league average from all over the court ( doesn’t get enough attempts a game)

it’s as simple as moving Bari over and placing JG in corner so that more of his catch and shoot attempts are in his (hot spots)

 

Look….for once I am going to be the voice of reason. Udoka is a great coach and is doing all he can with limited talent and no size. Best case scenario on this trip was 2-4 and minus a heroic Bulls overtime comeback, he would have achieved the best outcome. As much as I dislike our pretty boy, low bball iq, Jalen Green….it would be less fun to watch games without his occasional offensive spark. Replace him with Bullock or Holliday and this team never scores 100 points again and would be slow and difficult to watch. Catch 22 is that he’s just good enough that we can’t get enough back to justify a trade. A good GM could work a deal for Ivey and Duren, without destroying our existing group but instead Stone is focusing on the likes of Capela and Barnes.

 

I love watching both of my teams play each other, especially when both are playing pretty good right now. Knicks passing has improved drastically, they move the ball very well and unlike his teams in the past, the knicks shoot a lot of threes. Adding OG Annuoby really transformed their defensive switchability. Rockets played them really well in the first half but went cold when they really needed to be trading buckets and the knicks pulled away. Really fun game

 

Great take, from someone who also watches other teams frequently...refreshing.

 

I went through the schedule and I think we will end up at 42 wins if Tari gets back soon and we sign a backup center. If we get a starting SG as well we might better 42. I predicted they would only win one on this road trip. What really sucks is we are getting Utah at their absolute apex for this year.

 

I used to LOVE these post game chop shop videos but now I only LIKE it since ringleader guy is taking too much space every day. It is really hard to listen to that guy trying to talk. He is incredibely shallow at best and wrong most of the time and ffs he cant talk half decent. End of rant.

 

The offense is generating a ton of open looks. It’s our lack of good shooters and too many bad plays by our sg that is holding us back. I’ve advocated patience with Jalen, but it’s time to move him to the second unit where he, Amen, Cam and Tari can play up tempo ball that they ideal for. FVV and Jalen will never compliment each other. I see absolutely no reason not to go get a legit starting sg and let Jalen develop off the bench.

 

Green won’t be able to drive from the corner and FVV is a horrible finisher at the rim. It’s very simple either Green gets better or make a trade and send him to the second unit.

 

It does feel like Udoka is at a crossroads between development and contending for playoffs.. I'd say you can't truly do both in the NBA, you kinda have to prioritize one or the other.

Also the Jalen hate is so lazer focused that Brooks 4-13 / 0 assist / 1 rebound in 40 minutes game gets washed . Take Jalen's 3 pointer away he was 6-10. He was absolutely smacked on a few drives to the cup as well. Some boneheaded TOs I can't dismiss but overall was genuinely one of our only offensive options this game. Sengun was dreadful tonight, Knicks fans in the stands were commenting with brazen at the flamingo shots and the slow maneuvers. FVV bricked wide open 3s in the first half that really killed our momentum. The Knicks are a steady solid team with vets, they will play a consistent brand of basketball.

Our entire team is struggling and there isn't a single move that is going to rapidly fix anything. We either have to take our lumps with developing players in a system or we can move the young players for Vets at the deadline to help us get a 6-8 seed for the next 5 years.

The question is for Udoka is what is he going to do to help us on the offensive end because we look so utterly out of ideas that my partner nearly fell asleep last night at the game. Just boring, dull basketball right now.

 

Well, to be fair, we also got teams that were not at their best earlier. So I'd say these things tend to even out.

I allow my prediction to have a two-game margin of errors. If they make trades, stop development, and focus on making the playoffs only, it can be a different story.

 

My biggest worry is we are playing to Fred's and Brooks best strengths at the detriment of all the younger players. People like to quote Jabari with dramatic improvements but he's virtually averaging the same amount of points as last year (13.4 vs 12.8). Sengun is starting to regress and I'd argue near the end of last year he was much more dynamic offensive player than he is currently. We all know about Jalen...

Really starting to have concerns about the development of our young players, but it was a tough road trip against Eastern conference contenders so I won't hit the panic button just yet.

It is important to note that Udoka is a very young coach himself. He only had a shot tenure in Boston.

 

Even if let us say they win 40 games but end the season on a longer losing streak, it would sting....that is just the truth of it.

 

Green can drive just fine from the baseline / corner … he actually seems more comfortable with the reverse option and if Alpi or Bari dive from top of key down middle for layup or dunk.

Fred needs to ditch layups and stick to middies

 

42 games left

 

I mean he's averaging the same/more points on much less usage and shots. In fact, the lowest usage in the starting 5. With %'s up all across the board including a 59% TS aka efficiency. yeah it's dramatic improvement. looking at the box score of pts averaged without context in no way tells the entire story

 

I don't agree at all dude, this is one of the most poorly designed offenses in the league imo and I think it has a lot to do with how much work our defense needed.

It's just not possible to succeed if outside of 1 play (FVV-Sengun PnR) we have nothing but catch and shoot. No transition, no lobs, no movement, no spacing, no pace. All teams are using those to their advantage and all of them are generating open looks anyway.

Last season people kept posting about how we were great at getting wide open looks too. Wasn't true then and it isn't true now that this is the only reason we lose games.

I've been digging deep into the stats of this offense and will be making a post soon showing just how many things Udoka is putting us at a disadvantage with while we're constantly pointing to our average ability to get open catch and shoot looks and he doesn't even believe offense is the problem 95% of the time in post game.

Give him time, he will fix it.

 

I am feeling like they lose at least one of those games, maybe two.
They simply are not playing well.