From the Chron this morning: While Tari Eason’s putback that was ruled to have come after the buzzer officially sealed the Blazers’ win, the Rockets’ defensive lapses were what really gnawed at coach Ime Udoka afterward. “Our defensive discipline and following the game plan and personnel, it was horrendous,” Udoka said. “I think we were really poor for three and a half quarters and decided to kind of buckle down and play a little bit in the fourth. Still, we had too many late fouls that gave them opportunities." “… Still not guarding to our capabilities. If we guard to our capability, we can still win that game on an off-night shooting.” To clarify, Portland is averaging 116.5 PPG. Further, the Rockets are holding opponents to 110.7 PPG on average. Holding Portland to 103 in a game would seem to be a terrific defensive performance by any measure, yet it gnawed at Ime. I'm officially out on him - he doesn't seem capable of grasping the entirety of the game.
Our defense was really good last night. Our offense was fine too, just couldn’t hit shots. If we shoot this poorly from 3 we cannot win. It’s really that simple. Just 30% from 3 and we win running away without Sengun,
Ime isn’t smart enough to know his own faults, this is 100% on Ime. Design a ****ing offense that beats a 3-2 zone….Ime is an AAU coach masquerading as an NBA coach. DD
They missed wide open shots... we shot 22% from 3 vs our season average of 38.8%.... if we shot our average, then we win by 26 points! It isnt like they threw some defense at us that disrupted our shooting - our guys just couldnt make a shot... its not like they were getting blocked - or even contested... we just couldnt make a shot... it happens... He went 10 players deep into the rotation looking for a spark... holiday 0% okogie 0% reed 14% bari 14% amen 25% tari 25% kd 33% dfs 50% If we coulda made 9 out of 36 - we win... 1 more second on the clock - and we win... how many teams can shoot 22% from 3 - and still pull out the victory? hell, we went 69% from the free throw line... we shoot 77.5 on the year... shoot our average, and win! Thats free throws - no strategery involved... lol! we held them to 103 pts vs their average of 116.5... so 13.5 points below their average... Good god what do you want from the man...? PLEASE give me ANY actual factual statistic to support your claim... anything beyond your "seasoned eye test"....
I think the primary job of a coach is to get players to buy in and play hard and Ime is very very good at that. Our players do a lot of stupid things, but they do it with a lot of effort. That said, as a team that's looking to be great and not just good, we need more out of him on both ends. That energy has to be directed into both an offense that sets guys up for easy scores and a defense that utilizes more of the team to shut down the bigger threats. I don't think the solution is to replace Ime but we need to get him some help. Max Kellerman has been saying recently on his podcast that in a salary cap league with the NBA championship teams can carve out a real advantage from their assistant coaching staff. Assistant coaches don't count towards the cap and they don't have a max salary. If Tillmam wanted to, for example, offer Mike Malone and Mike Budenholzer $100M each to help Ime configure both the offense and defense, he technically could. So far, they've let Ime make staffing decisions on his own but, as much as I like him as a head coach, his overall outlook on the game is a bit too simple and to get to the next level you need a bit of sophistication.
Why isn’t udoka hiring actual shooting coaches and locking these busts like Brickari in a gym until he makes 100 3 pointers in a row is beyond me.
idk bro... idk what are shooting coaches set-up is... but like i said, we were 38.8 on the year - so idk what happened... 22% vs Port, 24% vs Suns... on mainly wide open looks... i dont get it... its not like we sucked all year... we got one of the best 3pt %s in the league - but not over the last couple of games... smh
Yeah, I watched the game. But this is a RECURRING ****ING PROBLEM - we continue to give up leads and to lose to inferior teams because we don't have a coach with an offensive clue. When things are going bad, what OFFENSIVE set can we use, to get a good shot? If 3s aren't falling....hey IME, play guys that are actually GOOD at shooting them. We don't play our PGs....we overplay a 37 year old sniper who is slowing down and resting on defense and doesn't move on offense much at all, the last cut KD made was to a birthday cake. We STINK on offense,.....ISO...ISO...ISO isn't going to win ****....we need other things to do when those aren't working. Statistics are for casuals, and it helps them ignore the real problems. DD
Most often when we give up leads, imo its bc our guys get happy and lazy... they feel good so they start playing outside of their capabilities... look at the game thread and u will see when Amen took a 3 on like our 3rd posession i b****ed... bc he sucks at the 3 ball and unless its a shot clock winding down scenario, then he shouldnt be taking them...(same w Alpi...) but then Ime starts pulling guys for turnovers or shot selection or whatever and everybody loses their mind... "why is holiday in?" "why did he pull Reed?" "why is Tate in?" I feel like we were taking what the defense gave us... and when we got one of the best 3pt shooting %s in the league and they wanna give us the 3 ball - what ya gonna do? It isnt like we were 0-27... lol. I agree that we overplay KD, but I feel like its often out of necessity... Okogie, Holiday looked great to start the year - not lately... Reed looked phenomenal for a stretch - not lately... Tari was leading the league on 3pt % - not lately... and all of this crying about KD isos... i feel like nobody (except me) had an issue when we ran iso to the nth degree with Harden... and I was told it was our most beneficial play and we should run it non-stop - when i thought we needed to diversify... so idk... and with all due respect... any valid opinion should have some statistical merit... not saying every stat tells the whole story, but there should be some numerical basis for whatever course of action.... "Seasoned eye test" can only carry u so far... Eye test is an opinion if it lacks any statistical basis... and we all know about opinions... theyre like aholes - everyone has one and they all stink! lol
On defense- you’re wrong. Durant is one of the 3 best defenders on the team, which says nothing about him but everything about how the worst gm in the league (rafael stone) built this roster.
if u watch a quarter get flipped 100 times, and 75 times it comes up heads... your eye test tells u that its more likely to come up heads on the next flip... Someone with a limited grasp of statistics and probabilities may declare that there is a 75% chance the next flip will come up heads... since thats what the data supports... Someone who knows a little more about probabilities may declare its going to come up tails, since the % of a 50/50 prop should even out... Someone who truly grasps whats going on, knows the next flip is still a 50/50 proposition. and btw... that whole "Statistics are for casuals, and it helps them ignore the real problems." is an example of that arrogance that I referenced earlier... now, if u want to say that u trust your eye test more than an analytical assessment - fine, thats your prerogative... but to be so dismissive of statistics and analytics when its sweeping the league and to refer to people who are cognizant of the stats as 'casuals' is simply unnecessary if u want to partake in civilized discussion... imo.
Can any of the Ime bag lickers on this thread list out any of his accomplishments? 1. Lost to a worse warriors team in the 2022 nba finals, outcoached by Kerr and lost in 6. 2. The rockets when not tanking under silas were .450 for a stretch in the 22-23 season. He added $80m in vets to only end the 2023-24 season .05 better 3. Bounced in the first round of the playoffs to an older warriors team, couldn’t even put the series away with Jimmy Butler out for two games.
If a coin comes 75 times heads out of 100, (frequentist) statistics say your best guess for probability of heads is 75%, if you don’t know anything about the coin. The fact that the coin is fair is a physical property and is an assumption, not a statistical fact. And nothing about basketball is a physical fact like that. now if the coin is fair, then statistics doesn’t tell you you will observe more tails to balance out. Actually there is no balancing out. What you call balancing comes from the fact that the diference between heads and tails will get smaller compared to the total number of flips. And this will happen even if you observe equal number of heads and tails from that point on. If you get 500 tails and 500 heads in the next 1000 flips, you’ll have 575 heads and 525 tails, giving you a number much closer to 50%. 575/1100 is about 52.7%. basketball is more suited to a Bayesian statistics approach, where you update your guesses as a mix of your assumptions and observations, as the conditions are changing constantly. So, for example shooting in the low 20% without Sengun and increased volume is probably not actual % but under the new circumstances we also won’t shoot as good as be
The marginal benefit of the effort we put on defense is minimal at this point but ime is fixed on doing that. That impacts shooting, performance in the 4th quarters. The team is good but I don’t see a way to get better without making the offense better. And that’s really the main weakness of ime as a coach.
I think DD is frustrated with Ime's offensive acumen overall. Most of the posters on the board who don't worship Ime, are frustrated with his offensive structure. We held the opponent to 103 well below their avg 116 points and Ime still complains about the defensive dicipline. Give me a break and say something about the shot selection, offensive movement, shot creation, something other than defensive effort for a change. That's what we want from the man. Ime looks and sounds like a one-trick phony. All-in on defense. One trick phonies can win a lot due to specialization but they don't become king of the hills.
This is the funniest post I've seen from you. If you're not into statistics, you're a casual - just like myself. Statistics provide key decision making factors and you're blind without them. What you see don't matter without the stats.
Reed and Jabari playing together is a defensive disaster. This is all I need to know about Ime. I don't even watch the highlights anymore.
