I disagree though I think Ime is the heart and soul of this team. The Rockets can lose any 1 player on the team and still maintain their defensive intensity thats why I think Ime is the heart and soul. He is like Marc Jackson he isnt amazing at rotations or drawing plays but he is S class at getting the buy ins of players and having them play hard. Rox are number 1 at offensive rebounding and that shows the effort the team shows every night. FVV had an interview at Draymond's podcast and he said he has never had a team like this where everyone enjoys and is excited going to work and grinding hard. He said Ime busts everyone's ass during the game but out of games he is a player's coach and makes things light and fun. And the thing about Ime Udoka is just like players he is also young as far as coaching goes. I think this is only his 3rd year as being the HC so he can still improve at the other things he is lacking.
He's averaging 12 PPG off the bench with good efficiency. He's already a two-way monster. Very likely that he'll get even better. This might be an unpopular opinion but I believe Tari will be a much better player than Amen even though Amen has a higher ceiling on paper.
I think tari is better right now for sure but amen is the better defender on ball. Tari shooting is very important for this team and both together is like a force multiplier with amen on ball and tari coming in for the steal when they least expect.
That is probaby all true, but teams like that typically get exposed in the playoffs. Optimistic that we will get a chance to see them in that environment this year.
Rockets are only in Y4 of the rebuild though I guess people forget that. In a typical rebuild you only get 1 player every year and that's assuming you didn't get any busts. If you look at comparable teams in the NBA apart from OKC who got arguably the best trade of all time in the PG trade no other team rebuilt this fast from ground zero. Getting to the playoffs only 4 years is a hell of an accomplishment esp considering we have the 3rd seed while featuring a bunch of 22 yr olds. Rockets are way ahead of schedule, looking back we missed on the BPA multiple times including potential stars but at least Stone still hit on vast majority of his draft picks. The trio of Sengun, Amen and Tari is very promising, you have the bones of a big 3 once they all reach their prime kinda similar to the Celtics tbh. The funny thing is the Rockets ended up with even more draft assets than when they started out 4 yrs ago despite collecting 7 players with potential. Thanks to the Brooklyn trade they have 9 FRPs and 5 SRPs to use from now till 2031.
That's a rough 0-12 from Tari over the last two games (and -20 +/-). Hope he snaps out of it tomorrow.
I wonder if something physical is nagging Tari. He just hasn't looked the same the last couple of games.
Is there any word on where Tari was? It was reported he went to the locker room after his 0-fer and only came back and sat on the bench.
Why isn’t any reporter asking about his status? Is he tired? Is the leg bothering him? It appears his legs are fatigue. He is short on lots of his shots. Maybe they are going to just monitor his minutes and take it slow during these back to back game stretches.
I'm sorry, but Tari is NOT the heart and soul of this team. DB is the emotional heart of the Houston Rockets. The juice he brings is contagious. I love Tari. His time is coming, but he doesn't have the "nasty" element like DB.
