Interview with The Udoker @sirjesse https://theathletic.com/5315924/2024/03/05/ime-udoka-rockets-interview-jalen-green/ Offense, Sengun, VanVleet, Green, Amen, Cam, coaching a young team… “My name Ime means patient and I’ve had to have that for sure. I’m going to coach the way I coach, which is probably more intense and harder than a lot of guys have been coached. But they know that coming in and that’s not going to change. You either grow and learn from that or you kind of wilt under that.”
I did not know Jeff Van Gundy became the defensive senior consultant to the Boston Celtics months ago.......this clears things up.
Its impressive Ime has got the team into the play-in conversation. The deed isnt done yet, but when Sengun went down, I thought their play-in chances were close to zero.
He was the perfect coach for the job. So glad we got him and his staff. Now wait til our talent gets better, either through internal growth/development or trades, we will be a real contender. The winning culture is being set now...
Lol. He makes it sound like Ime is about to go on a revenge tour. I hope he does. Posting this for the humor
I appreciate that he was willing to change his philosophy mid season, not all coaches are capable of doing that. Coming out of the break he knew we needed to make some changes and the speed up in tempo has been huge. It didn't just happen when Alpi went down, it was a choice.
Kudos to Udoka. I know his nature is to believe an open shot is an open shot, but he had to open his eyes and expand his mind to the idea that the same player will make more shots if they are in rhythm and miss more shots if they are not. Rhythm isn't just something you have before the game, it's also a product of how the team executes, how the ball moves, the pace, the space, all of those things. It's ridiculous at this point to say nothing changed and that they're just making shots. Active ignorance. Rhythm is real, confidence is real. Pace is like the frequency of a team, there's no right or wrong answer except the one that "happens to" amplify the team's abilities on a net basis. There must be a reason to have this big a swing where even if you lose your highest scorer you are getting higher efficiency points. We attack so much more swiftly and quickly, and even if we are not getting a lot more possessions we are still forcing the opponent to get organized much faster. We allow Green to size up his opponent. We allow anyone and everyone to push the ball. The paint is empty far more often - if nothing changed, why would our opponents change how they were beating us? Great to see this huge step for Udoka. He's kind of the Jalen Green of coaches isn't he? Gets hot after the ASB in both his seasons, peaks really high.
Plus Steven Adams...don't forget about Steven Adams. And the Brooklyn pick...hopefully Reed Sheppard.
I'm starting to wonder if this is the best single coaching season in Rockets history. Considering the unstable situation that he inherited. Injuries to half of our young core. Teaching boys how to play like men on both sides of the ball. He's the best coach in basketball. No other coach could pull this off in one season. Tilman should lock him up for the next 10 years.
