I don’t think it’s even fair to compare Udoka to half the people or more on this list. Most of these coaches either have generational talent or superstars on their team. Kenny is the only one who doesn’t and maybe Mike Brown. Half of our players are 1-2nd years who are severely limited shooting wise. It’s much easier to create an offense when you have players like Luka, AD, Wemby, Tatum, Steph who can make their own offense. We don’t have someone to bail us out in close games.
It's an interesting question. We're 3rd in defensive rating and 11th in offensive rating. So, while there's a disparity, it's not like our offense is terrible. So is the difference due to Ime, the fact that we've targeted high-end defensive players (Amen, Eason, Brooks, etc.), a bit of both? I really don't know. Gun to my head, I'd say Ime may be the best defensive coach in the league and middle-of-the-pack on offense.
He is a defensive coach. Having said that, his offense would look much better if they could knock down some of those open shots.
It is for me how Ime reacts and adjusts his Offense to circumstances (Postseason)..... relying on too much on Tari rebounding and run and gun is not a concept that is sustainable. How are teams going to react to the SenHub when they can adjust in a 7 game series.
A lot of it is probably the offensive rebounding disparities too. I read we are one of the top teams in league in regard to second chance points. But also a ton of our shooters just haven’t played well until recently. Jabari, FVV were shooting sub 30% from three early in the season and now Jalen Green’s shooting has completely fallen off. If Udoka had consistent shooting his offense would be much more potent.
I don’t think he’s clueless at all. I do think he does not maximize opportunities for this team and it shows since last year as this offense stalls. We saw this again this season especially in losses against Spurs, Warriors, and Bucks. In that Bucks game for instance he resorted to the 2 man game again late in the 4th putting a lot of pressure on 2 players to score in the paint resulting in empty possessions. After the Sengun slump the offense is back to where it was last year with Sengun and Fred getting heavy touches off a DHO or high screen. This limits Green’s opportunities. His sets don’t maximize the potential of this unit. But he’s comfortable with this style and thinks this is the best for this team at this point especially with a strong bench that has won several games for him.
He is a better offensive coach than he gets credit for but he has some inefficient players on his team. The amount of wide open misses we have as a team is STAGGERING but I think he draws up really good plays out of timeouts and there are normally open guys in our normal sets - we just don't have the personnel who can take advantage of them and make the extra pass or hit the shot. It is worth noting that the Rocket's best offense so far this year is their defense causing turnovers that they can turn into easy points and limiting TOs and hitting the boards.
The Thunder are also injury ridden and only the 15th best Offense, wait till they are healthy and in midseason and Playoff form and we shall revisit and compare again. Josh Giddey for all his defensive mistakes was the catalyst for their Offense, they are missing him now, their Defense is much improved but that was the trade off.
I think his focus is defense because of who he is and our personal. I think he wants us to run it like the spurs but wants to limit turnovers. I mean he is not Rick Altman but he is better that Silas and old milk hair. He’s fine, if he is really a top coach I expect the offense to evolve by the end of the year and into next year. Keep the defense going and slowly bring along the offense.
The more I watch the offense the more Jalen green seems expendable to me. He doesn’t have point guard skills and his shooting is so inconsistent. If we had a true shooting guard who could make their own offense and hit threes this team would explode. Jalen makes me groan half the game with his shot chucking
I'd just note that the Knicks offensive rebounding got better in the postseason the past 2 years, and the Rockets are looking like a more extreme form of their offense. They had other problems, though.
Objectively he's a top 10 offensive coach because right now we have a top 10 offense. He gets bumped up to the top 5 if he had better players to work with.
If the Thunder aren’t a better offensive team, with that roster, than the Rockets then something is really really really wrong in OKC
