Ime Udoka benches starters, criticizes lack of competitiveness in loss to Warriors 2/13/2025

It was pathetic watching us play, absolutely atrocious passing, drives into 3-4 guys, getting blocked and the ball stolen left and right. Glad I flipped through the game until it was closer and saw finally Nate Williams in the game and that he was scoring at will. Time to see him getting some playing time over some of our guys like Cam who was probably along with Jalen the most egregious at being selfish and just dumb on both ends.

That being said, a coach should make the game EASIER! Our guys have to work way too hard to get even a simple shot right now and they are doing very little to make it easier. Our guys standing around while Adams has the ball in the paint, no action to get a shooter open and simply zero adjustments to teams figuring out how to defend us, largely the zone and just zoning in on Sengun and stay home on most of our guys since they are not good 3pt shooters you have a good chance to beat us.

Ime might win a trophy one day, but he has very clear flaws and it would simply be because he instilled a defensive mentality, but the players just carry him. Off-season priority number 1 is forcing an offensive coordinator as a main assistant.

 

how would you characterize or term udoka's offensive philosophy for this team? or does he just not have one at all because the team doesn't deserve one because there's no superduperstar player worthy of his grand expertise?

 

We are playing a lot of Princeton, if that helps

 

Ime has overworked these guys. His constant berating of one of the hardest working teams in the league is wearing thin. We won't win anything with him as a head coach, if he won't look in the mirror. LOL that you complain about hustle. You couldn't run up the court one time without walking and Ime is running these guys on full throttle the whole game playing FVV, Dillon, and Amen monster minutes.

The schedule gets much easier the rest of the season. If FVV and Jabari come back and we are just a play-in team, Ime should get 1 more year. If Stone doesn't get some shooting this off-season, he should be fired. It's been a fast re-build and we have great assets, but both Stone and Ime are failing to make the proper adjustments. The entire league has 4 superstars and Ime is complaining that he doesn't have one. He is the one that needs accountability, not these 22 year old guys who are absolutely exhausted.

 

lol without motion and without backdoor cuts when teams are packing the paint all game

 

More then just 3-4 games. There have been atleast 5-10 games where if we had a closer who could generate some offense we would have won.

*But its important to be fair. When this team was whole we were dominating other teams by 20+ points. We have just been injured for months now.

 

In fairness, he did have one good game this year where he scored over 20 points. Oh wait, I’m sorry, that was in the g-league where he took 34 shots in the game. I am more concerned about his defense than his offense. He got taken to the shed multiple times in just 5 minutes and that’s why Udoka didn’t let him play with the other scrubs. Watch the replay if you don’t believe me…..his guy would blow by him for a wide open layup time after time. It’s gotta be killing Udoka!!!

 

I mean when Amen, Jalen, Tari and Sengun want to shoot inconsistently or not at all its easy to defend against us. FVV and Jabari are our most consistent shooters along with Brooks. Teams are literally sagging off Amen and Tari to force them to shoot.

Not to mention Sengun and Jalen decide to be aggressive one night then passive the next night. Last night from the start of the game the offense looked awful. Both of our "allstars" decided to just let the warriors do whatever they want. I don't know how Udoka can punish them but he needs to discipline this team from performances like we saw last night. If this team stinks it up like this in the playoffs all hell is going to break loose.

 

I don’t believe Stone’s big moves were only (cut) Springer and (retired) Zeller. It was a slap in the face to all Rockets fans and showed no commitment to the players for the remainder of the season. Not surprisingly they have been playing like a team that has checked out of the race as they know they don’t have the firepower to take the title this year.

 

When we run Princeton, we have motion.

Keep in mind, when the players struggle with creating advantages out of motion, they often just go through the motions (thus, flattening their own sets) to get to a pre-determined end point (e.g. driving), rather than purposeful motion for longer in the shotclock. I see this with many teams.

That’s a tell that you either

1. have an exploitable flaw (e.g poor shooting/passing, or
2. inability to read defenses, and each other’s options, as a team

Or …

worst, the players aren’t trusting the game plan (like MJ hating going thru the motions of triangle stuff).

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I also balance this analysis with the fact the shotclock really does make teams flow from motion into drives/PnR/post-ups to salvage a good look when the early clock stuff gets snuffed. And btw: The Memphis Offense is an extreme example (no on-ball screens) of using motion to get drives from the perimeter.

anyhoot, I enjoy watching the struggles … while imagining what it’s like at practices when coaches have to figure out what concepts the team can/will execute.

 

our greatest strength is our depth and versatility. it should come to no surprise that we struggle to win games when we have 3 rotation players out of the lineup.

 

That's why Stone didn't make a trade mid-season...still evaluating which players he's trading away for a franchise player.
Looking at our remaining schedule of the year, we could fall into the play-in tournament. This will be a huge disappointment and deflating to our team after sitting in the #2 spot through January.

 

Maybe. At least w/ Jalen, it probably is time. Sengun is what, in year 2? At least he's not in year 15 and showing little improvement like Jalen.

 

Fat jokes for DD huh. Very original, lol.

 

They know they are not winning anything this season. This is a “make or break” year for some of the players to prove themselves. But it is clear they lack a closer.

 

It's funny how much competition we have at the 3 spot but Sengun and Jalen have no competition at their positions. Team needs a real backup center that can play b2bs and a real shooting guard this offseason.

Been getting tired of Sengun no showing 1st halves and then stat padding 2nd halves. Been tired of Jalen and his little "gonna play my ass off for 5 games so I can slack off 20" ****.

 

This is as spot on as anything that's been said in this thread!


I'm also starting to believe that the orchestra is starting to tune out the conductor! His lack of any cohesive offensive scheme is going to be his undoing if he doesn't change his clap, clap, clap approach to coaching! He's starting to sound/look more, and more like McFail 2.0!!


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One more for Ime:

If you deep down secretly think it's a superstar issue, and instead you are throwing your team under the bus for effort in front of reporters, that's really really f*cked up.

If it's the superstar we're missing, you should be criticizing the offense rather than effort/defense. Doesn't make any sense.

Even when it comes to offense, he's defensive.

 

At what point do we start blaming Ime as he throws his players under the bus every single game?

He sets them up to fail with his rotations and lack of offense.... then tries to act like he's Pop after the game.