Many Rockets fans have watched Jeff Van Gundy’s Rockets. Van Gundy’s defense was legit, but his offense was atrocious. Udoka is a lot like Van Gundy, but even stricter. He’s stricter with his young players. Older players like FVV can play poorly and still get minutes. To me Udoka has a lot of issues. 1. Offensive Problems: Two years as coach, there is no clear offensive core. Jalen Green disappears in the playoffs—6 out of 7 games he’s awful, partly because he’s not stepping up, and his personality is too soft. But what offensive sets did Udoka designed for him? You can say Green’s not good, can’t score in isolation, I get that. But he can score sometimes. When he can’t, he gets 7-8 shots at most, and if he takes more, he’s benched. That’s how the regular season goes. Who can perform consistently without enough shot attempts? Meanwhile, FVV can go 3-for-18 and still play 35 minutes, but young players? Nope. Everyone saw how bad FVV was in the first three games! 2. Jabari Smith’s Shooting: With his shooting ability, I haven’t seen a single offensive set designed for him. Not even a basic Spanish pick-and-roll or off-ball movement for mid-range shots. In the regular season, he might sneak a few shots or get open looks, but in the playoffs? Zero opportunities. Even a shooter like Curry needs various sets to get open. 3. Playoff Rotations: The whole team shot poorly in the playoffs. I get not playing Sheppard due to his defensive weaknesses, but what about Cam? He’s got the physicality, and playoff officiating allows more contact. Why not give him a few minutes in the rotation, even just 5 minutes in regular time to test him? He’s had games in the regular season where he hit consecutive threes. Kerr and Kuminga had a falling out, yet Kerr still gave him minutes to see if he could contribute. 4. Regular Season vs. Playoffs: People love to point out the 2nd seed to shut down criticism, but that was after the young players treating the regular season like the playoffs and grinding it out! Udoka can motivate the young guys, but after motivating them, he’s got nothing to offer, no adjustments, especially on offense. Coaches like this have a low ceiling! He is our Mark Jackson!
