As a native Houstonian who has lived in and traveled to several major cities, I think there are a few things that standout about Houston that, depending on your POV, could be a positive or a negative: - Lack of public transportation. Definitely need a car to live in Houston. - It’s in Texas, which with the current political situation, is not a positive. - Weather. If you love thunderstorms, hurricanes, floods and 90 percent humidity, it’s for you. - Food scene. On par with NYC and Chicago. - Sports. Outside of the Astros and Cougars, the sports scene is garbage. No NHL either (which is a crime when Phoenix, Minnesota, DC, Las Vegas and Denver all smaller markets, have NHL teams). - Crime. - Downtown kind of dead (again). When I was working in Downtown in the late 2000’s, Downtown was starting to come back to life. However now I hear a lot of it has died again. Sad. - Uptown/ Galleria. Very nice area and known throughout the country. People in NYC, DC and Chicago talk about it. The fact that the Galleria is indoors is a plus. The Magnificent Mile and Fifth Avenue have great shopping but it’s all outdoors. For those who don’t know, NYC can get almost as humid as Houston in the summer. Chicago too, but less so. Then you have the winters!! - Dating scene. I hear it’s a slaughterhouse down in H Town. I am married so will let you guys tell me. - Lack of amusement parks and other entertainment. Since Six Flags went bust there is nothing for families with children to go do. Now you have to drive to Dallas or San Antonio for amusement. Atlanta and four amusement parks within 3 houses, and Disney World/Universal is 6 hours away. NYC has four amusement parks with two hours! Chicago has two. Houston 0. Not a good look. - Houston is sort of dirty. Not clean like NYC or especially Chicago and the hated Dallas. The city fathers need to get on that because it’s a bad look. Every piece of litter, unkempt yards, cracked streets, graffiti, needs to cleaned up. Atlanta has this problem too by the way. - Finally, Houston lacks a personality or true character as a city. NYC is the Big Apple. Chicago is the Windy City, DC is the Center of Power and Atlanta is the quintessential Southern city. Those cities have done a great job preserving their culture through zoning, building codes, and community guidelines on development. What is Houston? I could not really say and I was born there.
If udoka somehow decides to run it back with kpj oh how folks are gonna turn on him especially da sofs. I'm quite curious to see how good of a coach ime is and if he's able to turn kpj into the player double d and booby keeps stanning for. It would b pretty simple for ime to get harden and get into playoffs, but it would b CoY for sure if he turns kpj into an a pg that gets us winning into playoffs. I'm pretty sure he will have a positive influence on the other youngsters
This got me thinking a bit. Al Horford only really started shooting threes in his 10th season in the NBA (his last one with Atlanta), and then continued shooting quite a few threes with Boston. Horford is also an excellent passer for a big man. At his peak, he got 5 assists per game, and at his rebounding peak, he got 10 rebounds per game. At his peak, similar amount of steals and blocks to Alpi. Udoka used Horford a lot, and he was arguably a big part of Boston's success, even at an advanced age. Alpi at 21 will arguably already be better in some aspects of the game (passing, rebounding, athleticism, overall scoring) than Horford was at his absolute peak. I love Horford as a player, really great, smart player. If Udoka thinks about using Alpi like a Horford on steroids...that must have been part of the appeal for him to sign with the Rockets.
If by steroids you mean Sengun shooting outside of a 6 foot radius I agree. Big Al was always a good shooter.
I thought about it too but if you look at the last few weeks of the season Sengun played pretty well on the defensive end. I'm hoping he stays in town this off season and works with the Rockets and on his 3 pt shot. Personally, I would like them to keep their nucleus in tact but get a shooter at the SF position, add another shooter off the bench and pickup a defensive backup big....a true shot blocker and rim runner. Like I've always said when we had CWood, nobody should be moved or traded until we get a REAL Headcoach. Despite of what many thought about, CWood was a 20 and 10 player and a above avg 3pt shooter.....I think Udoka would have found a place for him.
Kpj improved as much as anyone on the roster last year, he’s getting better as a player, meanwhile his biggest shortcomings are the exact areas Udoka is known to fix- ball sticking too much on offense, whining on defense instead of getting back, accountability overall. Kpj is really going to sink or swim next year, and I’m hopeful that it will be the latter, due to his steady improvement the last few years (shows work ethic) and his nonguaranteed contract giving him no choice except to fall in line.
KPj was the product of Stone/Silas. If Udoka wants to run him out there at PG in the Marcus Smart role then that's fine. He's earned that trust (Ime). But Honcho is going to have to basically be Marcus Smart. Ime's outlook for the team is probably to make Jabari/Green a better Tatum/Brown. Couple that with another high draft pick (Jarace, Scoot or Wemby) and we have a good direction finally. My biggest question is *if* Ime/Stone want to keep the pick or trade for a Bridges type of player.
I'm pleasantly surprised by the hire; in all seriousness, I never thought he'd pick Houston. I can forgive the man's previous transgressions in Boston as long as he can avoid off-the court issues here. I saw an article that compared the hiring to Tilman's gamble on Kelvin Sampson at UH. Depending on the issue, I'm willing to give a guy a second chance, and this is one of those times. Here's hoping it works at as well for the Rockets as it did for the Cougars. Now go out and give him the personnel he needs to win games.
I looked, and he shot a bit more midrange than Alpi, but no threes really until his 10th season. Shooting more midrange meant a lower FG % than Alpi though. Just a great player overall. Lot fewer turnovers than Alpi. Alpi needs to learn to protect the ball better.
For sure - Big Al would step out and kill you with 10-15 foot jump shots for most of his career. Adding a 3 ball kept him relevant even as an aging player. Sengun needs to be sure he's giving effort on defense all game long that is where I could see Udoka falling out of love. Big Al has been a + defender his whole career.
Several interesting points, among them was the likelihood that Ime makes getting vets to want to come here just increased dramatically. Ime commands a lot of respect from players, so thinking some of them, especially ones in unhappy situations, would more favorably consider coming here doesn't seem too far fetched to me.
wth does any of this have to do with udoka? fact is, there are only 30 jobs with only a hand full available at any given time. houston overall is likely a top 10 job out of that 30 and even higher when it's available due to scarcity.
All of the assistant coaches from his year in Boston stayed there. Hard for me to see any of them picking Houston over Boston unless their contract is up and Mazzulla wants to bring someone in he has history with. Has anyone heard what the assistant coaching staff might look like under Udoka?
I was super busy yesterday, so apologies if these already got shared. But I found some Youtube videos of plays BOS ran while Udoka was there, which might be interesting to some: Spoiler There's random videos of Udoka during press conferences or clips of him coaching, but not nearly as much as I could find on Nurse. Sorry. I know some are primarily excited because he'll "fix" our culture issues (aka he'll yell at KPJ and JG ), but this should be pretty exciting too.
Players I feel like will benefit from this hire: Jabari Smith - Alperen Sengun - Josh Christopher - Usman Garuba - The Rookie Players I feel like will not benefit from this hire: Kevin Porter Jr - Daishen Nix - Frank Kaminsky - Boban - Jaesean Tate Players I'm not sure: Jalen Green - KJ Martin - TyTy Washington - Tari Eason Green is the wild card in all of this because I'm not sure how he's going to react to Udoka's coaching style. Udoka is going to want players who are focused and not distracted. Jalen has seemed to not prioritize off season training. Wouldnt surprise me to see Udoka drag his ass into Toyota Center in the middle of a Paris trip or something. Tari still just doesn't convince me as having much of basketball IQ. He's the basketball equivalent of a really talented racoon. Excellent scavenger that thrives in chaotic situations which the Rockets should not be in moving forward. The one's at the top are players that I felt "dealt" with Silas the best and still got playing time even though they weren't the favorites. They also seem like they can be coached hard and you don't have to worry about them. The middle crew are all dudes that shouldn't be on the team anyway.
