That's not the reality on the ground though. They're both openly stated these things are a joint decision. Only an out of control GM would acquire a rotation player without HC's approval. We know Ime has asked for a star and a rim protector. No indication of wanting a shooter. Even if Stone didn't want it, Ime is known to have the bigger voice in the organization. I'm 100000000% sure we are not in a phase where Ime is asking for shooters and Stone is saying no, there is not even any incentive for Stone to do that. A shooter can cost 2 2nd round picks, it's not something Stone would turn his coach back on when we're sitting last or near last on so many offensive stats.
So where is the star? Even if none were available (false), then where is the backup rim protector? Surely a backup rim protecting 5 is not too much to ask when the team was positioned at #2 in West at time? An elite 3P shooter + vet backup PG may be blindspots by coaches, but GM needs to see big picture. Stone blaming it on Udoka stinks of his Silas shenanigans when it came to decisions concerning KPJ, Bruno, 1st round selections and benching Wall.
Our biggest issue is offense and shooting. If my HC is asking me for his friend a rim protector at the deadline when we're a top 5 defense and top 2 rebounding team, of course I'm turning that down unless it's a major discount on an asset. That's not unusual. I don't know where you got that Stone is blaming anything on Udoka. We just know that Udoka asked for those things. We know that it's been two deadlines now. Stone gets more of a pass because he has built one of the most talented young teams in the NBA and he hired Udoka. Udoka has been a drain on offense every season of his coaching career. The players he asked for indicate a guy who is so far up his own ass about defense that he can't see the big picture. Stone was groomed under Morey, he knows that spacing is a massive deal. We engineered a team purely around spacing (Harden/Ryno/Gordon as main scorers) and were elite in TS%. Frankly, no one would bet that Udoka is diagnosing the offense well and Stone is the one blocking him. It's either both or Udoka. Udoka clearly is not well educated on spacing. Otherwise he'd be making chess moves like Atkinson rather than asking the team for a player who will bandaid his offensive ineptitude. You draft the best players. If the best players are not the best shooters, you still go with the best player available. Stone has assembled a really good team without ever having a #1 pick. Most GM's don't strike on 3 possible All Stars. Udoka OTOH is 28th in TS% after 1.5 years in charge. We were better last season and under Silas. I'll say it again and a million times: even if he had acquired 13 non-shooting g-leaguers, then added $90m per season in salary, you would expect to improve. It's VERY hard to not improve for 1.5 stable years of coaching a bunch of players in their early 20's after adding Brooks and FVV both decent shooters. He has no one but himself to blame for his CV.
I’m not pining for silas, i think he’s a bad coach. I just think he’s a better offensive coach than ime. I don’t really think anyone would disagree, i don’t see how that’s even possible. Look at the roster silas had and ime has, it’s miles better.
Stone feels the Rockets are ahead of schedule and his lawyer background causes him to be very cautious and overly patient (he’s also trying to clean up the Rockets reputation from under Morey of treating players like pawns) We all seen the need for a bigger backup PG / lob threat rim protecting C specially with Tari and Adams not able to play back to backs
exactly Silas is a horrible head coach (not that he was given the best situation) but he’s a great offensive coach - I guarantee he would have Alpi in the post a lot more vs putting him in PnR over and over when he has no middy
Good discussion but I cannot fathom how Udoka gets bulk of the blame while Stone gets a pass on player acquisitions. We all agree that shooting, specifically shooting efficiency, is the bane of our offense. But Stone is given benefit of doubt every trade deadline because defensive minded HC is asking for more backup defensive players and/or a bonfide star? And there is no one in their right mind who would look down at Udoka's CV right now, he is literally on short list for COTY this season.
This is rewriting history, Silas didn't even want to play Alp let alone know how to maximize Baby Jokic. What are we even doing now?
Rockets TS% in the past 5 years. Silas #27 Silas #18 Silas #29 Udoka #24 Udoka #28 The Silas years were so bad (with an inexplicable spike up in his second year), it's really impossible to get any worse. But your point is valid. We upgraded the PG position from KPJ to FVV. Sengun broke out. Jabari improved from his horrid rookie shooting. The offense should have improved.
The fact that the efficiency has on average been WORSE with udoka is mindblowing, considering how much more talent we have. Ime also gained amen, who’s a pretty high efficiency player.
Folks going to hate, but I think JG took a much needed step back tonight. When he started hitting the simple pocket pass to Alperen and Adams we took off. Won't show in the stat sheet. Buying JG stock.
I've thought about this. Could Jalen develop into more of a secondary scorer / facilitator / spacer, with Amen and Sengun taking more of the offensive load? It's certainly possible, and wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
I honestly wish Jalen didn't have the trappings of being the #2 pick who was picked first of the entire "young core". He's a good player and he would be a phenomenal sixth man who could come in and fix our offense when things aren't working. I do think this team would be better-served by a more conventional "give me an open look and I'm automatic" 3nD shooting guard starting next to Sengun and Amen. That's not how things played out though.
