Ime Udoka after Rockets can't stop Pacers in Indiana 3/4/2025

REB was not problem in this game, Rockets won that battle. I agree with your frustrations on offense because that has been Rockets Achilles Heel all season.

50% FT + 30% 3P was Rockets undoing tonight. The 4th quarter offensive ineptitude continues. Rockets could have mitigated or even fixed this hole by trading for elite 3P shooters. We know that at least Cam Johnson was available for the taking but Stone is blinded by hoarding his precious Suns picks + of course, acquiring more 2nd rounders.

 

I mean, imagine you're Stone and Ime walks in whining for a superstar.

What would you do as his boss? Have you ever had an employee whining about something out of anyone's control?

Very clear how you deal with this narcissistic person:

"YEAH, LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT IN ****ING MAY OR SOMETHING IME. WE'RE IN A PLAYOFF WAR. WHAT ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON RIGHT NOW? IS THIS YOUR LIMIT? BECAUSE I'M PRETTY ****ING SURE THE WORST OFFENSIVE COACH IN THE NBA COULD ACHIEVE WHAT YOU'RE ACHIEVING OFFENSIVELY. ARE YOU BETTER THAN THAT OR NOT?"

Coaches are measured by how much more than the sum of parts they can achieve. Whatever we have whether you like the pieces or not, Ime's not been able to move one inch in TS% since Silas. He's only been able to artificially improve the offensive rating if his players break historic offensive rebounding records. Jesus.

Stop acting obtuse no one is denying his defensive coaching, if you can't even utter soft words like "his offensive coaching has been below average" then you're not debating genuinely anymore.

If you can't admit that, don't bother trying to discuss it with me. It's absurd at this point.

 

At this point it's not the rebounding or defense or offense. It's the leadership because he says everything and everyone sucks (except him).

The red alert is: I thought the team is shaky because of too many injuries and lineup changes. Ime is insisting they just sucked.

If that's the case, it means they're not listening to him in the middle of sliding down the playoff standings. That means we have a much more serious problem at the top.

This team doesn't believe in him at the moment. You can see that are less reactive even when he yells during the game. I assure you a superstar is not going to be more obedient than our guys.

 

I think the Starting Point Guard Position is the biggest need to change.

Ime Udoka too hard headed to know that
Reed Sheppard needs to start. Reed I think is mentally more ready as a Starter than a maybe bench player that never plays. Stand in the Corner SG is not his role.

Start Reed Sheppard

 

No offensive Vision for Ime Udoka and No Defensive Vision either.

 

Ime's post game interviews are not for us but players. We come back at the fourth.

 

Ime Udoka not coming off his ego and internal politics.

1. Start Reed Sheppard

2. Cam Whitmore - His points and his Physicality and Athleticism is needed off the bench, starters check out and gets lazy after they leave for other players that can't shoot and Veterans that can't play defense.

3. Ime Udoka offense must be Start and centered around the Guards. Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard they need to be Engines in the offense.

4. Maybe if Reed Sheppard starts it Unlocks Alperen Sengun Assists and Jalen Green Assists, if Reed Sheppard starts making 3 pointers.

5. NFAly Dante deserves to be the Backup Center over Steven Adams and Jock Landale.
Rebounds, Switching Defense, Alley OOP Dunker will help the Team.

 

Doubt Ime has lost the team. The fans perhaps, but not Rockets players. Rockets are in the come to Jesus period of the season + their is no superstar on the team to carry it. The half court offense issues will rear its head more and more.

 

He needs to channel his inner Silas and bust some heads

 

It is like every year he has the same drop in production and same implosion.

 

They win by maximizing talents of their players. Especially on the offensive end I do not think this is what is happening right now.

There was a difference between JVG's team and Adelman's team or McHale's and Dantoni's. I am not saying they need to get rid of Ime, but they need to add an offensive mind to the bench as the league clearly figured out the strategy "let's shoot bricks and get offensive rebounds".

 

Spoiler

Sorry don't mean to dump at your specifically, I'm just fed up with this ****er because I see the players taking accountability in interviews but he doesn't realize that being the charismatic alpha is his job. I said 3 months ago this team is headed for fatigue, injuries and a stubborn Ime Udoka unless something luckily forced him to change. If I can see that coming, I expect Ime to make me look like an idiot.

This problem didn't start last game, last week or last month. It's been a while now. What would a superstar do to save us? Jalen has been putting up 25 ppg on 58 TS% and we're still losing. There are only x number of teams with superstars, do the other teams never improve at anything for years? Or do teams climb standings with small improvements and developments and coaching changes?

The superstar argument is for the coming summer. We're in the middle of the season chasing the playoffs. They chose not to make any moves at the deadline, twice. If the problem is that this roster can't even win half its games without breaking a quarter century rebounding record and being a top 2 defense, then standing pat is on them.

So now we have to discuss:

1) Why are we 28th in TS% when we were 24th last season and 29th under Silas? What can possibly explain not being better than Silas and regressing from last season?

2) Do we not expect that when we spend $80m-90m on two way players that in the following couple of years we will tick up in shot making?

3) Do we not expect that even if he inherited 7 players drafted with the last pick in the first round who don't have a high ceiling, that if we hire a staff based on its development credentials, that almost 2 years later we might be 25th worst shotmaking team in the league instead of stuck at 28th? Just because we're better organized, have accountability and have been working on their game off the court?

4) When have we played well without being the best rebounding team in 24 years? Basically only when Sengun went down last season, where we were beating easy times at a contender level winning %. That's it. Which other coach needs his team to grab the most misses in 24 years? Are we the only team without a superstar? No we're not. This is ridiculous. For this team to make the playoffs, he needs them to be historically elite at defense and rebounding. That's not an acceptable standard. Just think for a moment if you're the best rebounding team in the last 10 years, your coach saying to you: not good enough. It's just crazy the amount of rationalization he's dishing out for his flunking offense.

5) Now, the one thing he was hiding behind is not working. Why is the WHOLE TEAM demotivated to do these things? Will anyone in the world believe this is a lazy and not hardworking team? Every opposing coach, player and media member knows we're an aggressive, physical and hard working team. They are just not fighting for him.

If everything is wrong, always look at the top of the pyramid. That's the responsibility Ime accepted when he was simultaneously given the permission to do what he wants with this team. You can't throw your players under the bus more than any other coach in the NBA and then run away from accountability when you can't get through to them.

Sorry but these are excuses for a coach who has done well otherwise, meanwhile we're talking about his performance in improving the skills and system of his team. I don't know about you, but if on the day we were going to hire him he said: I can't improve this roster even 1 ranking spot over Silas on offense and I want to spend $90m per season on FA's - I would have told him to go f*ck himself, defense-only coaches are available at half his salary.

We're not asking why we're not a contender to be talking about superstars. We're asking why we can't win half our games for a long time now. This has been going on too long.

I excused the previous game. Let's excuse this one. Who's fault is it when the hard workers stop working hard simultaneously in a pattern? If you've ever led a team of any kind, I assure you it's the person who's blaming everyone else. You can criticize players and take accountability sometimes, they are not mutually exclusive except with good coaches.

 

A coach's job is to get more out of a team than the sum of its parts. What superstars do is 0% credit to the coach. Prime James Harden doesn't need you to do anything for him. What superstars or players do better or more under a coach is the coach's production/job. If we got a superstar now, would Ime not still need to run an offense better? You think Booker and KD are going to come down here and be ok with Ime's record of:

TS% (i.e. offense without grabbing our own misses)

9th when he has future champions Tatum and Brown
24th offense with rockets, missed the playins
28th offense with rockets, collapsed mid season, let's say we end up 7th

You really think a superstar feels like coming here and lifting a team on their shoulders? You think big superstars love Ime that much? lol They don't love Kerr or Spo who won't make the game harder on them in more desirable cities/markets? Those guys don't do things the right way?

Is that what superstars are doing? Asking themselves where they can go so the entire responsibility of the offense is on their shoulders? Is that the pattern you're seeing from major players who can influence their own landing spot? Or do superstars go where they don't have to do all the carrying so much and they get the max and they have the same shot at a title as they would under Udoka's team?

Get real guys. You're so far ahead of yourself talking about superstars. The problem is not that this team is what it is. The problem is that this team is what it WAS before Ime ever got here. The coaching benches are littered with coaches who can preach only defense and hand their offense over to superstars.

But when you reach an important playoff series, two way coaches DOMINATE one-way coaches even if they have superstars too. Go look at a list of the most successful coaches in terms of titles. You barely find any one way coaches in there.

 

FVV playing is like having a coach on the floor

Ime Udoka coaching is like having a PG on the bench in street clothes

 

Rockets have been a dumb team all year. They dont have a true star player but they could mitigate some shortcomings if they just played smarter.

Like last night, when Tari smoked those putbacks after all the oboards late in the game...my guy, just turn around and kick it to a wide open shooter instead of trying to go up in a crowd when you have a 65 layup rating.

All these flawed players want to take it upon themselves to make the play instead of just moving the ball.

We dont have a guy we can just give the ball to that can consistently keep the scoreboard moving so these guys need more movement and passing to create mismatches and attack angles and open shots. This is jsuch a low iq team though...i dont see it changing until some of these guys are moved.

 

Problems I see with the Rockets offense - when you look at other teams, even Indy last night… they create wide open looks for their best players (Think Halliburton only had 1really tough layup and a step back 3)

Rockets don’t have a hierarchy - a player can hit few shots in a row and then will not have another shot for 5+ minutes

We have too many selfish / ball stopping roll players - Dillion, Tari ,Cam,Holiday ….they get the ball and 9/10 they are shooting it or attempting to pass to late for a TO

We have 3 players who aren’t selfish enough / get stuck inbetween shooting or passing - Jalen, Alpi, Bari (JG will drive 3-4x to start game and once frustrated with no calls - sulk) (Alpi complains way too much now)(Bari will turn a easy shot into a contested shot or turnover)

Teams are adjusting to playing Alpi 1 on 1 which then kills Amen effectiveness on offensive end cause not only is paint clogged but now he’s force to shoot over 2 bigs in dunkers slot

The open shots we do create is for players the other team wants to take those types of shots ( Alpi middy, Amen middy)

We play so much better when we are rebounding and pushing the pace, but for whatever reason we revert back to 90s basketball

 

I agree. Our bread and butter is to score through contested traffic. Our mantra and culture is: We will out-physical-you-in-the-paint and on the glass to get our buckets. Kudos to Ime for creating a culture and a mindset, but this is insufficient coaching. We need phase 2 coaching, not phase 1.

On offense, we have a few sets, but no real plan to work the ball to take uncontested shots, unless the other team is asleep or undisciplined.

You can pause your video on practically every trip down court and see us take the hard, contested shot. The root problem is that almost no one on this roster can hit the open jumper so we don't trust that. Every guy tries to man up and "beat his guy." This misguided star mindset leads to backbreaking TOs, frustration, and isolation. Every guy is on their own on offense. These offensive possessions are the most brutal way to play the game.

When the season wears on--and guys are beat up--they can't just out-leverage guys every time down court. It reminds me of the home run swingers in baseball. They strike out a lot.

We need an offensive system that gets guys out on the break, moving faster, passing, and moving without the ball. For a young team, we walk and trot a lot. They need a coach to inspire movement and break tunnel vision habits, not complain about them and bench guys who need experience.

Other teams are grateful that Ime chooses not to work on anything here. It makes us easy prey.

 

Yeah, Ime is definitely giving off old JVG vibes. The Rockets score 102 points, which is basically wrose than the worst offense in the NBA, and Ime keeps on talking about defense. At some point players are just too tired to play 48 minutes of wall-to-wall defense like they were doing early in the year.

 

A Tale of 2 Halves.