Udoka is one of my favorite coaches so I'm not sure where you're getting that I dislike him or is my #1 worry. My #1 worry is why is everyone shooting worse than last season (can't blame that on having bad shooters, they are the same people) and the guy who's supposed to be our #1 or #2 points creator is struggling badly. Further, our backup forwards are outperforming our starting forwards. I'm majorly concerned that we have seen that an NBA team cannot sustain the level of effort and rebounding that Udoka feels is the only way he can win this much. We saw them get exhausted in the second third of last season and no one could make the case the guys don't want to give their all. I promise this is going to happen a gain. He's once again more hyperfocused on climbing one 1-2 spots in defensive rankings over climbing 5-6 spots in offensive ranking. I also specifically mentioned offense and defense are linked to some degree, this we agree on. You can certainly choke your offense by over-emphasizing defense to the point where you lose offensive opportunities and exhaust your players and demotivate your scorers. We've seen this with JVG, it's nothing new. It's most of Thibs' career. Even JB Bickerstaff can create a top defense by prioritizing defense over everything. This excessive obsession with TO's and rebounds and getting back in transition which these coaches tell us is the only way to win a championship though they all seem to lack rings. This skill is not that rare and it results in lots of yelling, midseason fatigue, playoff fatigue and injuries. The great coaches know how to achieve the balance. Thibs seems to have intervened in his own career. Mike Brown ended this cycle for himself by learning from Kerr. Udoka has to follow this path or hire someone. By next season our team will be so good that if he's not on his game offensively, his job will be up for grabs and I DON'T WANT THAT I've been asking for Udoka since 2014. We disagree here heavily. You keep diverting to the big picture but all I'm saying is he's not doing everything he can with exactly what he's got. I'll just stick to my prediction that like every season of his career in 2 months or less, Udoka himself is going to prove you were being too pessimistic (and we'll both be happy for the Rockets!). He won't admit he was wrong and it was obvious earlier. He's going to - with this exact same pool of players - achieve a more efficient offense, better spacing in the paint, which will reduce our volume of 3's, increase our transition points, which will improve our %. We'll still be around 10th best offense, but against a higher SRS of course. He's going to brush his oversight under the rug with a McHale-esque "sometimes it's just making shots". I think it won't be long before he puts his ego aside and just hires a great offensive assistant. It will improve his career. He's just slow to accept things.
On turnovers, it doesn't really matter as long as it results in more assists than your average asst/to ratio. Denver Nuggets won the title being 20th in turnovers. Kerr demolished Udoka's Celtics in the Finals with a team that were 29th in turnovers. Celtics had the lowest turnovers in the NBA last season. Also, in case you're thinking it's because of their franchise players: all of the Finals MVP's of those teams were not considered 1A franchise players early in their careers (Curry, Jokic, Brown) very much like our guys. It's all relative. Possible to win in many ways.
I don’t doubt that the Rockets offense likely improves, Smith and Green and FVV are not likely to continue to shoot at such low percentages. I also do not doubt that they will make a line up change, trade or tweaks.
That’s a given. I’m specifically describing a situation where Udoka changes nothing but strategy and the percentages go up immediately after. That’s separate from the 1/4th of our games where guys will shoot way above their average.
It is not true that everyone is shooting worse. Dillon, Tari and Amen are shooting better than last year. That's 3 guys in the 7 man rotation. Sengun and FVV had a rough start and both are picking up. FVV shot 37% from 3 in the last 10 games. Green's numbers are slightly down, but he is also taking more 3s and he is a streaky shooter with a lot of variance, probably at the end of one his bad streaks. The one that is really struggling is Jabari. It doesn't look like there is something systematic that pulls the players down. Our backup forwards are unusually good. They are starters for many teams. They can outperform starters easily if the starters are not in top form. That's really good. I also thought Udoka's offense had a lot of room to improve, which is probably true. But on the other hand, it is true that we don't have a go-to scorer and we have to fight for every point. All of our players have significant gaps in their offensive skill set. Considering that udoka's offensive rating is quite good. But I agree that Udoka is too slow to make changes and plays his starting 5 way too much with a limited offensive set that makes the evaluation of different options hard and makes improvements rather slow.
* everyone in the starting lineup by TS% except Brooks who - on the biggest tear of his career - is now almost shooting the same as last season Our bench is carrying us, no disagreement there. I don’t believe the offense is optimized, no. It’s really good against an easy schedule but we were able to achieve that exact same feat with less talent last season (Sengun injury). Amen and Tari are much better this season and we have Sengun, so I expect a better offense against easy teams.
Will I guess Ime needs to a 80's style offense that doesn't lead to open shots from the perimeter. In 2024. Stone really should have signed a veteran shooter this off season. The team has to trade for a shooter. It has to the #1 priority right now.
Dude Jalen green missing wide open shots makes me want to punch my tv. I’m starting to dread when he shoots it.
The Rockets starting backcourt was 1-15 from 3 tonight. The Rockets starting backcourt is just bad at this point. Rockets as a team 8 for 32 from 3…. Only solid shooting behind the arc from Smith and Sheppard. Green is bringing nothing to the table offensively right now.
As long as the team can't shoot, these sorts of games will happen. If you want to blame something on Udoka, it would be why the hell he's had 2 offseasons with this team and all of our youngsters still can't shoot. Jabari was drafted as a sharpshooter and is below average both seasons under Udoka. Jalen's gotten worse. Sengun hadn't developed an outside shot despite all the comparisons to Jokic. And his big max contract acquisition has devolved into a mediocre shooter after just one season. Tari has However, if you place development issues on Stone and company, then honestly there's not much Udoka can do when basically his entire rotation is laying bricks.
Yeah but here's the thing: the team can't shoot, that's not going to change. There is no point sitting around waiting for hot shooting nights. When some of these shooters bounce back, Brooks is going to go back near his averages. So either we proportionally give more minutes to shooters and less minutes to non-shooters (so that we shoot better and more driving lanes open up), or we make a trade. Do something other than cross your fingers and hope that poor shooters start shooting well out of the blue. If nothing changes, nothing will change.
I agree with this - but you also have a thin skinned GM that doesn’t want to admit he didn’t build a “team” - but drafted a bunch of individual players that don’t play off of each other well. The GM also doesn’t want to bench starters- because right now it looks like he blew the #2 pick in the draft and possibly the #3 pick (Green and Smith). Because of the upside of Green and Smith, I think Udoka will give them time if we are winning.
It feels like what we're doing here is anything to avoid putting an ounce of blame on Udoka. I get that. We were starved for wins and he's done such a tremendous job overall. For me, I can appreciate this moment and brainstorm for improvements simultaneously because as you know I was never in doubt that a couple of years after Silas we would be better than 90% of this board ever thought. Nook, I can't possibly fathom telling a GM to pick the best player available then turn around a few years later - after asking his patience with the existing core - and ask him why the pieces don't fit. When you pick 10 players in the first round with a BPA mindset, they are simply not going to fit. That's an unreasonable expectation. Stone has made mistakes, but that one I cannot pin on him. It's a natural part of any good rebuild. Most can be made to fit with good tactical creativity. A portion of them just won't fit. We're not an outlier in that regard. The only young core in the NBA who is a step ahead of us is the Thunder. Their draft picks don't fit together. They got lucky with SGA, nothing more. They picked BPA. Replace Shai with a #5 pick they had to make themselves, let's see which young team they're better than. Banchero and Wagner can't shoot. Ivey and Cunningham don't fit. Blazers don't even get me started, they are the worst young team. You tell me who picked a ton of players in the first round on BPA principle and they all fit before they turn 23. You're not considering another couple of key angles: 1) Just because our team doesn't fit well now, doesn't mean it won't fit. Even if the pieces you picked miraculously fit, it's not going to fit when they're all between 19 and 23 years old. Especially given we have the highest volume of serious prospects in the NBA. 2) The elephant in the room: all the pieces fit perfectly when Sengun does not play. If you swap Sengun with an average C who can shoot - say Myles Turner - everything fits perfectly. Amen fits. Green gets to beat his man and not face a rim protector. Reed, Jabari and Tari can fit anywhere. If Whitmore fixes his intangibles, it's also perfect for a guy who barrels his way to the rim. This is not me blaming Sengun with whom I have an unbreakable fandom, that's the greatest player in Turkish history and one of my all time favorite players who I would not trade for practically anyone in this league. We have Sengun. We are working on his 3PT shot - the coach has openly said that's important. We are seeing him used as a spacer even sometimes. When Sengun's shot comes online, everything fits. That's the pin that blows up this offense. After that, 1 or 2 players might not fit and as with any maturing rebuilding team, that's normal. We swap those guys out if they don't want to be bench players whether it's Green, Whitmore, Jabari, whatever. IN THE MEANTIME, we can't dump them based on unreasonable expectations but we have to TRY something other than Jalen Green taking as many 3's as Trae Young and Damian Lillard. No one is asking for miracles with what we have. Just optimization. Don't play Amen and Sengun together if you want the other players on the floor to help you. Bring Sengun and his defender out of the paint more often. One thing we definitely CAN ask for is: we should lead the league in pace and assists if we don't have a 1A superstar scorer. These are small things that add up to a better offense instead of sitting back and throwing our hands up in the air because we're not a good shooting team. We're just watching the iceberg of a schedule coming up with no plan. I know how it's going to go because I called the 6-16 iceberg last season and everyone was too precious about Ime to talk about it. We shouldn't wait till that happens again. If that exact same cycle repeats itself this season, I don't think Udoka can deny accountability for that. It will have been 3 consecutive seasons of that for him. Is it crazy to ask him to be proactive?
Do you have sources inside the Rockets organization? Just dont know how you would know the inner workings of Stone's mind.
First off - why is the goal to find some blame on Udoka? That is odd, if Udoka isn't really the issue - and he isn't, why is there a concerted effort to find SOME blame? Second, very good front offices have a long-term plan, they are looking for particular types of players that will fit well together and that either have skill sets that mesh well or that have certain types of personalities. If you think that really good teams are always going BPA no matter what - that isn't the case, because BPA is largely dependent on how a player will fit into the culture of the organization and how that particular players skills and attributes will help an organization win. You are wrong about the Thunder - they had a very clear plan on the types of players that they wanted, the physical attributes - the strengths and the types of people that they are and that is very much indictive of them on the court. As for the Magic - they also targeted a particular type of player as well. Also - Wagner and Banchero are forwards, and they both shoot better from the perimeter than the Rockets starting back court. As for the Pistons - I don't think they have been very well ran, so if that is the bar - then we have issues. This doesn't really have much to do with what I said. The pieces do not fit well - they are a poor shooting perimeter team, their back court is bad - that isn't Udoka's fault --- he cannot magically make them good shooters. What happens in several years has little to do with that, right now they are not good shooters and Udoka cannot magically make them good shooters. The front office is NOT going to want to bench Green or Smith - because they invested the #2 and #3 picks in these players and are invested in them improving. Sengun is better in the post than out of the perimeter - and he is the Rockets best scorer. Moving him to the three point line will just take him away as an option. Leading the league in pace comes with consequences - and is hard to do when you have the paint packed because you cannot shoot. Also - leading the league in assists? The Rockets don't have the best passing team, nor the best creating team of players either... that goes back to the whole culture and philosophy priorities of the organization. Also - lots of passes leads to lots of turnovers. Everyone knows that the iceberg of the schedule is coming up - and the Rockets are lucky to have the record they have so far with the offensive limitations they have. Udoka cannot magically make them into good shooters, good passers and good creators. They are what they are and that is the reality he has to work with. Also - it requires the front office at some point making a decision as to whether these guys will improve at shooting, or if this is just who they are and will be.
Yes - I know people that work for the Rockets and the Bulls (primarily) and I know what Stone has said and done in the past. He is known for being thin skinned and doesn't handle criticism well. Also - part of it is common human nature, no GM is going to want to admit that his draft picks perhaps are not going to be good ones. It is the whole sunk cost fallacy. There is a vested interest in Stone giving players like Green and Smith every opportunity to pan out and play well (and maybe he should). Regardless - the larger point remains, the Rockets younger players are struggling to shoot from the perimeter and that is resulting in teams adjusting how they play the Rockets and that leads to offensive struggles at times that cannot be magically fixed by passing the ball more or "coaching them up". To be clear - I am not saying for sure Green and Smith are "busts", but removing them from the starting line up and marginalizing their minutes and roles would be viewed as an admission that they were not the best draft picks... and I don't think the Rockets are or should be at that point - but it also explains why they continue to play so many minutes, with the hope that they improve as young players.
It's really simple, someone could be doing well and not everything well. Not sure why that's odd to you to be honest. It's about improving rather than saying someone should be fired or sucks. Disagree strongly with most of your points here to be honest: 1) It is impossible to draft BPA on 10 draft picks and expect them to fit together before age 23. Has basically never happened. A few cases in NBA history could be made but I'm not holding my breath. I always expected that trades will be necessary as soon as we know who everyone really is. Best player available is best player available. If you're also considering fit, it's not the best player available. That's just catering to fit. Absolutely can't blame Stone for this one. He has the right to see who he drafted and then make trades. 2) Totally disagree on Thunder. Josh Giddey is gone. SGA was acquired in trade. The rest of the pieces fit only because Holmgren can shoot. That's exactly what I'm saying. If the C can shoot everything can work. It's not a magical fit, it's just a shooting/spacing thing. I would not swap our or Orlando's roster for theirs if you replace SGA with say Franz Wagner or Amen Thompson. 3) Wagner and Banchero can't shoot and it's why their offense lacks spacing too. They're not fitting in any special way. They are doing exactly what we're doing - hanging their hat on playoff level intensity and defense. They will get better at shooting and be fine. The comparison to our backcourt having the worst shooting season in their careers (FVV and Green) is irrelevant. The NBA is positionless basketball, I don't care which position can and can't shoot, I just need enough overall shooting in the starting lineup. If I have Amen Thompson, I want a C who can shoot - and I don't lose anything. 4) Sorry but some coaches can get better offense than others. I can't even engage anymore in this idea that no matter who the coach is, there would be no difference in offensive rating. It's just too far to even consider, I have seen the same roster score better many times in my couple of decades watching basketball. I'm watching the Nets do it. I've seen the Kings do it. I've seen the Rockets do it. It has happened a lot and it will happen forever. That's why coaches exist. That's why some coaches are known for offensive brilliance, they get more out of the same group. 5) Yes but turnovers are not correlated with winning championships. Passes vs TO's is correlated to winning a championship. I've shared with you multiple champions who led the league in turnovers. We should be getting more assists if we don't have an ace 1A scorer. 6) Was not advocating taking Sengun completely out, only when we need. We don't have to park him in the paint. He's a great post scorer, but not enough to overcome the fact that it may be affecting ALL your wings. There's a balance. Udoka does not need to make anyone into a good shooter, he just has to generate better suited good shots. There's no coach ever hired that can't generate these mediocre shots. There are coaches who can generate better shots. He can hire one like MDA hired a defensive assistant or he can learn it like Mike Brown did. Let's revisit this in a few weeks when Udoka changes the offense as we continue to struggle with spacing/shooting and I will just share his own words with you as we watch our wings suddenly rediscover how to score. I have no idea how you're accounting for the fact that the same starters with the same coach shot better last season against a more difficult schedule. You must be thinking it's just bad luck.
