Ime Udoka after Murray, Nuggets end Rockets 9-game win streak 3/23/2025

Ime lost this with his crappy two bigs no Jabari or Tari lineups.

DD

 

You got that right.

You got this one right. Let’s make our young athletic team into a slow footed two tower sh*t free throw shooting team. Brilliant!

 

At least needed to make it a 3-big lineup.

 

and yet again he seems to believe he coached a perfect game lol

 

I didn't get to catch last night's game yet but I can tell you I can't keep up. I thought everyone loved the double big lineup - wasn't there a crappy thread on that floating around the last few weeks?

 

No, you were out coached and undersize from the start. You can not be married to Amen at the PF and FVV at the PG. We were KILLED on the boards last night, it's too small of a lineup.

Sengun - 6'9
Amen - 6'8
Brooks - 6'6
Jalen - 6'5
FVV -6'0


Jordan - 7'0
Gordon - 6'10
MPJ - 6'10
Braun - 6'6
Murray - 6'4


Amen is size best used when he's in the back court. This constant infatuation with FVV is going to be the Rockets downfall this yr. He needs to come off the bench and the starters need to be; Amen, Jalen, Jabari, Brooks and Sengun.

 

I'm not a fan of the double big lineups as I expect they will get exposed by better teams. That said, the Rockets outplayed the Nuggets with the double big lineups last night. Shooting percentage sucked, but the double big lineup was money on 4th chance points.

Hemingway has this belief that the Rockets playing lineups suited for transition play is the way to go and ignores when lineups are not suited for transition play well.

The culprit last night was the defense. The three-guard lineup defense sucks. The usual good defense lineups didn't play defense up to snuff. Playing both Tari and Jabari off the bench is weird and causes weird lineups that suck.

 

Yea, the double big lineup wasn't why they lost. Late in the game, the announcers said the double big was a +9.

They lost because Murry torched Green and Brooks in the 3rd. Oh, and free throws capped off by Alpi's airball free throw in crunch time.

 

The two bigs works with Jabari on the floor at the 3 because he can actually shoot the ball and it makes our interior just impossible to deal with, so what you give up in perimeter defense you more than gain inside. It doesn't seem to work as well without him out there.

 

Double big, Brooks, No Jabari, no Tari
+36 Net Rating
Double big, No Brooks, Jabari, no Tari
+50 Net Rating
Double big, No Brooks, No Jabari, Tari
+0 (1 possession, nothing happened)

Talking very small sample sizes. A +36 Net Rating is a step down from +50, but both numbers are ridiculously good and unlikely sustainable.

 

Yeah, my belief/suspicion is Udoka is trying to give a little more run to a handful of situational strategies that might come in handy in the postseason - double/triple big(If Jabari is your 3) and zone. I think that's why we have seen the rotations tighten - no more Reed/Cam appearances. The next 10 games are about giving some playing time to these lineups we might have to call on as the situation warrants in the playoffs. I remember that being a talking point when they interviewed Celtics players when Udoka led them to the Finals - they talked about how they had to play several different ways to make it and that being multi faceted was one of the strengths that got them to the Finals.

I agree that you are going to be exposed if you build only around a double big lineup, but I also think that when you have the depth/core we have, those lineups can win you some minutes when the conditions are right. If we can play 10 minutes of double big when the opposing team's backups are in the game and you win that time span with a +6 - that becomes a handicap for our starting units who likely are not as good as opposing team's starting units.

 

While I appreciate Ime looking at situational lineups, I wish he would give more time to balanced lineups, which may also be helpful. He seems to be going heavy on double big lineups and heavy on three-guard lineups, but is just neglecting well-rounded lineups that perform well.

 

Jabari might be the most moronically used player in the entire league. Imagine having a 6-11 shooter that can shoot over everyone not named Wemby and you'd instead prefer your 6-4 chuck-o-matic shooting guard or 5-10 chuck-o-matic point guard take those shots instead.

 

Yeah the Nuggets have good rebounders like Russ and freakign 80 year old DeAndre out there so they didn't give a ****. It's good to use against zoning teams that are denying the Rockets the paint, but this wasn't happening last night. Instead they were playing man and then running off of misses & TO's.

I think I said a week ago a team with decent guards will be much harder for this "double big" crap to work against and - Jamal Murray made that seem correct last night.

 

We should've gotten out the double big man lineup earlier in the 4th. Jamal Murray killed us in the 3rd which made it an uphill battle in the 4th to get back in the game.
It seems to me Sengun has been in his head these past couple of games, which I think his confidence has been shocked...correlation to him missing easy baskets around the bucket which he usually makes.