Ime Udoka isn’t some head coach with 20 years tenure. we saw championship level defense over the last couple weeks and we saw poor offensive coaching, decision-making, and roster construction. our hope has to be that he is willing to evolve, grow and learn. For those of you that follow Premier League soccer, I am a huge Tottenham fan. we have a coach that has been successful at numerous leagues around the world and has brought his strategy to the Premier league only to see it struggle and not work. While I love this coach, he is basically 100% against change and he is going to lose his job over it very soon. Let’s hope that isn’t Ime. Some of our opportunities (IE getting Smith more jumpshots) We’re painfully obvious. I’m super disappointed in Jalen. The only positive I can point to in the series is game two and the fact that he played defense at a pretty high level. We have young offensive guards waiting in the wings and it may be the better option to roll with those guys but let’s not pretend that 23 years of age is the end of the line as far as being able to improve. And I mean that from a physical, skills, and mental standpoint. We might not ever face a defense this good again in the playoffs over the next few years. I’d either abandon Brooks and FVV or largely reduce their roles to 20 to 25 minutes a game. Maybe next year is a time to take a little bit of a step back as far as regular season wins. Even our grizzled 23 year olds will get better. And we certainly have a logjam on the roster that should allow us to upgrade. I’m very pleased at the regular season we had. We have a championship level defense already. It’s just about tweaking the offense as we grow over the next couple years. Remember that for the 2024/2025 season we were banking on internal growth and that certainly happened. That is not a one off and we should continue to see it. I’m guessing that generally, everybody on the board has had failure thrown in their face at some point and had to adjust. Let’s see how they do.
I admire your optimism. It did occur to me that this was only Udoka's 3rd year as a head coach, but he already seems pretty set in his philosophy.
Sticking to core principles as a leader is important. Especially if they have led to certain levels of success. Modifying those to make yourself better is crucial. We can do a lot better on the offensive end.
I think IME has to get at least 2 more years. If we continue to win 50 games a year . . .. probably 4~5 Rocket River
