We are ahead of schedule. The second seed was always fools gold. Ime has succeeded in making us relevant and I believe he will be getting this very young roster into the playoffs as the sixth seed. We will most likely be swept, but it is still great progress. I said it before the season and say it now. This is still a development year. Next year we need a vastly different offensive strategy and probably a significant roster upheaval. There is more young talent in this league than ever before. The Spurs are going to have 2 lottery picks in an extremely strong draft. Okc is probably going to win the West. LA just got gifted a 25 year old superstar. Memphis is better than us and is also young. Stone and Ime have to improve or we will be left behind. They have done a great job of the re-build. Now let's see if they can make us champions. The absolute incredible athleticism and the 2nd apron rules have altered the NBA landscape forever. It may be unfair, but Ime and Stone have to evolve and next year can be a real turning point for this franchise. Status quo is not an option. If our offense still sucks next year, Ime and Stone need to feel the heat. Some of the players should be feeling the heat as well. Jalen and Sengun both need to be able to shoot from the outside. If they can't they should be moved. I love Alpi, but learning to shoot from the outside is absolutely critical to this team's success. All-star or not he has regressed on offense. I said it about Wemby. If he couldn't learn to shoot 3 pointers he would not be a star. He has and if healthy is headed for absolute super stardom. Sengun will always be borderline all-star in today's NBA without an outside shot. The Rockets should go really hard at Naz Reid, Utah's Collins, Malik Beasley in the off-season. Surround our true superstar, Amen, with true 3&D players and go off to the races.
These are your feelings and opinion, and you have a right to it. But objectively looking at data, here is our offensive rating the past three years, we've made about a six team jump in improvement offensively each year under Ime currently. This is only midway into his second year with 22 year olds: Houston Rockets Offensive Improvement the Past Three Years: 24-25' SRS: 4.95 (6th of 30) Off Rtg: 113.8 (14th of 30) +6 Improvement Def Rtg: 109.7 (4th of 30) Net Rtg: +4.1 (7th of 30) 23-24' SRS: 1.24 (17th of 30) Off Rtg: 114.5 (20th of 30) +7 Improvement Def Rtg: 113.4 (9th of 30) Net Rtg: +1.1 (18th of 30) 22-23' SRS: -7.62 (28th of 30) Off Rtg: 111.4 (27th of 30) Def Rtg: 119.3 (29th of 30) Net Rtg: -7.9 (28th of 30) https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2025.html Some fans are prisoners of the moment or a small sample of games, and have knee jerk reactions to individual losses or stretches. But looking at the big picture, this is outstanding progress. If it's a developmental year or years, why not treat it as such and be patient and let the team grow? Some fans, not all, react emotionally to stretches and want to criticize but don't give credit when things are going well long term. Fans want growth and development but can't accept the reality it will come with growing pains. Imagine this team at at 25+ This is Sengun's first all star game under Ime Now if the long term trends change, then yes I'm fine with changing the roster if needed. But it took Boston took eight years to when a championship after getting Tatum, Milwaukee seven years, Denver seven years, GSW five. Those teams lost over and over again and made smaller or no changes to their primary cores and got incrementally better each playoff series. We'll see how this team grows but acknowledging it's a development year but wanting to overhaul the roster is impatient and doesn't make sense with the improvement we've shown. Yes, if we keep hitting long term goals we should extend him. We can agree to disagree here.
I understand that as the coach, the only thing you can control (other than some tactical stuff) is to get the players to play with effort. You can't control how talented the players are and how well they can execute on the floor. That said, blaming effort to pretty much every loss is tiresome even if it's true to some extent. I think it was Larry Bird who said that players tune out every coach after some time. I guess every coach has some kind of mantra he keeps repeating. It will eventually become a tiring cliché to players' ears. We don't really know what he says to the players behind closed door. I hope he gives them props when they deserve. And I hope he would admit his faults to them too. That's what a good leader does and his followers would appreciate it.
I remember it was basically the same thing when JVG coached here. Perhaps defense oriented coaches are just annoyed when players are taking plays off on the court. But it is worth noting that last year, the Rockets defense also started off bonkers and fell off through the second half of the season, with a notable exception in March when they were beating up on those tanking teams. So there is probably a fatigue factor with the way the Rockets play, especially when injuries start piling up. And I'm guessing Ime's trying to keep their morale up, but it's always hard to know exactly how much these players have left in the tank and how much nagging stuff they're dealing with.
Sorry, but our offense improvements are predicated on transition (the emergence of Amen and Tari) and offensive rebounding (Amen again) not some grand offensive plan than Ime has employed. We are one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA. Another year of experience is not going to change the outcome. Our half-court offense is atrocious and without changing the system and, the players we will not even sustain 14th next year. If our schedule wasn't fixing to get easy, I would bet we wouldn't even sustain 14th the rest of this year. In order to make the next step, we need roster re-construction and Ime to make improvements in his coaching.
They tuned him out temporarily last season when we went 6-16 for no reason except his insistence that they are lying about being tired. He got his ass saved by an Alpi injury and Jalen covering for him on offense essentially. Hopefully the ASB timing breaks Ime's mid season curse. If a person is truly hard working and their heart and body and their mind believes it and then someone calls them lazy, it's hard to recover from too many of those. You just lose faith in the coach's ability to understand things like an alpha. You don't expect your coach to be a nagger at the podium. Before we hired Ime I really loved to hear that he's not afraid to tell people the truth. Now we come to realize he lies and plays politics just like any other coach and I understood that he throws his players under the bus maybe more than any coach in the last 30 years and he takes less blame himself than any coach I've ever seen. He's a good coach but I did not anticipate him not improving easily from just his second season in the NBA.
That's why it's critical that one of the young core guys develops into a leader. Having vets like FVV, Dillon and Uncle Jeff is important, but that core needs to grow from within. It's kinda funny that Jabari has occasionally shown that fiery personality, but he often gets upset at teammates at times when he's not pulling his own weight.
Ime is not the problem….Stone is. All these “pie in the sky we’re almost there just too young” posts make me sick. We don’t have enough offensive talent to win the West….this year or next year or the year after without adding a star. PERIOD!!!
You are extrapolating a lot from a minimal number of post game comments. We know players who have been coached by Udoka vouch for him in the highest terms even after he left. Ask Tatum and Brown what they think of Udoka. I take more solace from the Rockets vastly improved performance under Udoka than a supposition such as yours.
You're right, it's all just speculation, and I was a bit drunk when I posted that last night. Still, when I think about what my perspective would be if my coach kept bashing me in the media (again, he even does it after wins sometimes!) I think I would be frustrated. But sure, for all I know they joke about it in the locker room and it's not a big deal. Could be the case.
Ime is not the problem….Ainge is. All these “pie in the sky we’re almost there just too young” posts make me sick. We don’t have enough offensive talent to win the East….this year or next year or the year after without adding a star. - Celtics fan, 2021
I dont think any other coach, even the great ones can do better with what we have. I think Jalen and Alpi not being consistent is more of an issue compared to Ime.
