Garry Bird would be awesome for this team. Even Garuba would be a decent 3rd string C (on the nights Adams is out) Sigh, we can’t have nice things
lol I imagine this like the angel and devil on the rocket’s shoulders. Dan Tony says speed up ime says slow down. Dan Tony says everybody run out when the other team shoots and ime says stay back and make sure we get the rebound.
We are actually top 10 in pace this season I think. We are also low in turnovers and near the absolute bottom in assist which was similar under MDA as well.
So he is a top offensive coach then? lol do offensive rebounds up the pace? Like it counts possessions and 5 taps on the glass is 6 possessions in 7 seconds?
Man yall talk about Dantoni like a) he wouldn’t ask for 20 million dollars from Fertitta the way Fertitta burned his team to the ground a few years ago and b) like MDA did anything other than let Harden spam PnR and foul bait with 4 other spacers. Go on. Start listing off the differences in that offense and the players we have now.
I think the idea that he's a bad offensive coach is wildly over-stated. We're flirting with a top 10 offense when we have one of the worst shooting teams in the league. That's wild. That means he's done a pretty incredible job of putting together an effective offense with the players he currently has on the roster.
That's not a fair assessment at all. The same Nets team was not doing this last season. They are doing it this season. What changed is the new coach is a far better offensive coach. He achieved different open shots. WE shot better last season against a schedule of similar difficulty without our best scorer. The Cavs - with the same roster - are shooting better this season. It's not a reasonable take Nook. It is routine for a coach to get different good shots for the same roster, happens all the time in the NBA. A different coach can achieve different things on offense. We know for a fact there are better offensive coaches than Udoka - are you telling me MDA or Kerr or Mazzulla is not going to get a different mix of good shots for this team? So what does it even mean to you to be a better offensive coach? I'm sorry, but this is not a reasonable take at all. If we can't agree on the general idea that "there is better offensive coaching in the world" then I don't understand why you give him any credit at all. You're basically saying anyone could and would do the exact same thing. We have bad shooters. So do we just surrender to the opponent defense more often than other teams? Do we not try to be more aggressive going to the rim? We don't have good shooters. As you said the team is constructed that way. Do we just take these shots or do we try running some different plays, try climbing the transition rankings, try playing more shooters and fewer defenders? We should try something otherwise. Last season he waited till we went 6-16 for almost 2 months before making a change. The change worked. We didn't have to lose that many games to see it.
No, our TS% and EFG% are both bottom 3 in the league. Our offense rating isn't terrible but clearly isn't good enough for us to be elite. Theoretically our offense isn't too different from the MDA Rockets ... save that we don't have Harden or Paul. A relatively high paced, low assist, low turnover, ISO and PnR based offense can work really well if you have historically elite offensive players. Not with this team, we need the Rick Adelman offense, or the Spurs aging big 3 offense (that Pops ran with Ime as an assistant). Lots of ball movement, high assists, lots of plays ran specifically with tons of off-ball movement, getting good easy looks, extracting the most out of modest role players, creating an efficient offense without having any superstar offensive players.
They do not, it all counts as one possession. That’s the only reason we have a decent offense. We have terrible shooting percentages relative to the rest of the league, but we get so many offensive rebounds we actually score decently on a per possession scale. We get way more shots per possession than other teams do.
I coach tournament basketball along with my son who coaches for a living and is insanely good at it. We’ve coached teams where NO ONE can shoot…where layups are a concern (7th and 8th graders in particular)…and we say all the time, “passing lane steals and offensive rebounds are your offense….we need about 3x the shot attempts of the teams we play to win.” On a very different scale, that’s where the Rockets are. Halfcourt offense is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS gonna be difficult for a team that can’t shoot. Always. Also always. Opponents will clog the paint, because why wouldln’t they? You can’t make them pay for it, so why would they change that??? That’s the whole concept of zone defense…”we know you can’t hit that broke ass jumper, and we’re not gonna let you get a layup….so we’re gonna camp out down here until you give us a reason to do something different.” You can scheme different open shots but THIS TEAM ALREADY DOES. NOT MAKE OPEN SHOTS….
MY GOD I LOVE THIS TEAM…THIS IS INCREDIBLE AND I OWE YOU A BEER OR LUNCH OR A LIKE AT LEAST FOR SHARING THIS VIDEO…. Udoka is amazing. To get guys to buy into this, especially pro players, is incredible. Guys who are often worried about their next contract, especially when they’re really young and haven’t already made crazy money. I’ve been a Rockets fan since I was about 10 years old, because they’re from Houston….but outside of the championship years there have been squads I’ve just loved mostly because of **** YOU effort. This team has that in abundance. Great defense can overcome a **** ton of offensive deficiencies….ask the Pistons who have 1 more ring than our team has
If we're knocking down our 3s, most of the haters will be silent Ime can't make open shots for his players...our defensive efficiency is translating to transition/fast break points, which is utilizing our main strength with our young/athletic players. He's a top 5 coach in this league.
I don’t really have any major criticisms of Udoka at this point. I also do not separate offense and defense in the same way you do - the importance or how you play/emphasize one has an impact on the other. I look at the overall record- I look at the talent level and how the pieces fit. The Rockets lack a franchise player - the Rockets are a poor outside shooting team and they lack an overall ability to put the ball on the floor and create. The Rockets are bad- very bad so far at shooting and making open three point shots. Defensively in the NBA, you can shut down teams that lack a franchise altering offensive creator and cannot make open perimeter shots. That is one of the easiest things to do defensively for a team. This is really simple - you aren’t going to be a really good offense in 2024 when you lack elite offensive players and cannot shoot at all from the perimeter. You can dislike Udoka or think that he should scheme away the Rockets offensive limitations, but there isn’t a lot he can do realistically. At this point if you are upset at anyone - it should be the person that did not have a team culture or philosophy on drafting players. Fit wasn’t even considered as far as I can tell. Fans should be wondering why the Rockets drafted #2, #3, #4, #3 and two picks in the teens over the last 4 seasons and the Rockets still lack a franchise player. So - we can respect each other and disagree - and maybe I change my mind or am proven wrong (won’t be the first time)… but right now Udoka is far down on my concerns about the Rockets going forward.
He's a transition offense coach. What I mean by that is he primarily preaches active defense that creates turnovers or breakouts off of defensive rebounds and then everyone has green light to push. He deserves credit for that. There's not a lot of evidence yet that the Rockets have a reliable halfcourt game, but if teams can't stop lane penetration and force them into half court sets the recipe is cooking well.
The Rockets won by 28 points shot 45% FG, 38.5% 3PT, 27 assists, won the rebounding battle with 48 points in the paint. Not even discussing the defensive dominance holding the Blazers to 88 points and 33% FG, and 25% 3PT These core guys are 20-23 years old and still growing into thier games. Udoka is outstanding overall imo
