It’s a business, too. I can’t believe they would make statements like that. I feel disrespected by the organization because sadly I do care. I try not too but here I am.
The team ain't that good regardless of tactics. They had one trick this year due to a clunky roster - double big and k & pray; Stonetitta got high on their own supply and put too much faith in Udoka who they pretended had Spurs magic (the real Spurs magic consists of getting incredibly lucky in draft lotteries). In reality Ime stubbornness and intensity and staring was not going to compensate for lack of playmaking talent - even in an insolent James Harden or impudent Dennis Schröder. Amen didn't take that leap. Sengun took the leap - the leap to being a bust. No tactics are gonna fix this. They were right they had no superstar level player so the idea to get a player like Durant was good, but obviously not with this unbalanced roster and the extension was stoopid
Ime is an awful coach. I can't stand his takes and he's damn near always wrong but he's right. I've said it a million times. Ime is incapable of making adjustments and plays favorites. We need a new coach
If you weren't such a casual and actually understood basketball, you wouldn't be pissing and whining about how much you hate KD, instead you'd ask why the other 4 guys on the court can't win 4 on 3. Why don't they come to the ball Why don't they cut Why don't they set a screen the list goes on and on. But you go ahead and continue misdirecting your hate on KD while Ime hasn't taught these kids basic basketball 101. Either that or their collective basketball IQ is sub 50. Standing around waiting for superman to do something.
The most glaring example of this that's killing the team is his refusal to remove Tari from the starting lineup. He could simply replace him with Josh or Reed and that alone would improve their performance offensively. But for whatever reason, Ime cannot bring himself to do that.
It is really head scratching from the players to the coaches to the front office. No adjustments, no tweak, no nothing. At least Morey had the guts to do something. Juggling the line up, signing a veteran point guard, adding an assistant coach, in this case, an offensive coordinator. They seem to be asleep. Frustrating to watch as a fan.
No - no it isn't. You have a supposed franchise big man (Sengun) that cannot defend, doesn't protect the paint - isn't efficient and cannot shoot. You have a young guard/forward (Thompson) that cannot shoot to save his life. You have a sharp shooting guard (Sheppard) that is wildly inconsistent and struggles defensively in some assignments. Your best center cannot shoot (Adams) - and your best young players (Sengun and Thompson) cannot play together because neither can shoot. When you play your shooter (Sheppard), then you cannot play your best post player (Sengun) because of defense. There are lots of issues with Udoka, especially when it comes to being stubborn and running the offense.... but this roster is very poorly constructed. Also, the talent isn't on par with the best teams in the league.
He is stubborn - he wants long athletic guys like Tari/DFS, it is a strong bias he has -- that is what he thinks wins games defensively. It is why I think eventually a decision will have to be made between Sengun and Sheppard. I think that he will play one of them 35 minutes a night long term, but I don't think he will long term play both.
He's stubborn and stuck in his ways. I don't get it but it's obviously only his way hes able to accept. Beyond frustrating
I don't want to copy and paste it here, but I posted some stats comparing Tari, Reed, and Josh in the "Tari wants to start" thread. Even if we accept Ime's dislike of Reed and his preference for defense(and even throw in needing Reed as a spark off our thin bench which is a completely reasonable take), there is ZERO justification for Ime to continue starting Tari when he has Josh at his disposal. Okogie is a damn good defender, he doesn't try to do too much on offense, he's actually hitting 46% from 3 in the same stretch in which Tari's only making 17%, and the team is 20-9 in games he's started.
Um. I'm not going to sugarcoat this team's flaws, but.... Amen didn't take that leap but he was shoehorned into the PG role. Stonedoka didn't seem to value getting another point guard when Right Said Fred went down. Sengun played Euroleague until a week before training camp. He started the NBA season looking like a top 15 player in the league. Now he's breaking down. In hindsight, Stonedoka could have traded Jalen Green elsewhere (but trading him was a must) and come out ahead somehow. I don't have it out for Kevin Durant (I think he owes DD money but DD got Trumped?). But trading for him and then praying the roster around him would stay intact obviously wasn't much of a plan. Especially when the GM and the head coach are so hidebound. And the owner has no real drive to make the team great, just to have a team that makes him money (and makes him look cool).
To be clear, I am not defending Udoka on his rotations. Hell, all of the numbers, literally all of the numbers show that defensively the Rockets are the same or within the margin for error when Reed is on the court, compared to when he is off - and that is consistent across different line ups and opponents. The reality is that the numbers are beyond the margin for error.... yet Udoka doesn't like that he isn't long, he isn't as physical and that he doesn't look like a 6'8" wing. Josh Okogie has like a 6'11" wingspan, he is a solid athlete -- but Tari is like 3-4 inches taller, is more athletic and has an even longer wingspan and is more aggressive. It really feels like it is a mentality that Udoka is after -- I saw the same thing with Thibs in Chicago. If you were not "tough enough" or didn't hustle enough, it did not matter how good you actually were. Thibs over time adjusted, but it has been a decade long process.
This is the answer. FVV and Adams will help if healthy next year. The team will win a lot of games like the last Lakers game and the Knicks game a month ago. They could even win close to 60 games if teams decide to roll over late in the season in 2027. The problem is that it isn't going to win deep in the playoffs....... and this is all premised on the idea that a nearly 40 year old KD doesn't slow down or get hurt in 2027, which is a lot to ask. A lot of whining from the Rockets front office about FVV and now Adams, but they never discuss the fact that KD is playing 37 minutes a night, and is on pace to play more than 70 games this season, something that he has done ONCE in the last 7 seasons in the NBA and he is 37 years old. The Rockets are lucky they got 50 games out of him. There is just a lot of hide the ball under the shell game with this organization right now. Maybe the Rockets prove me wrong and are like the 2004 Pistons that won a title.... but that is one team in like 40 years that did that. That is over multiple generations of the game that it happened.
Most reasonable fans recognize this is not a one issue problem. We have both coaching and roster construction issues. From a fans perspective, I think if our issues with the roster would be manifested while still showing progress or while playing a more entertaining style of basketball, the frustration would not be as hyperbolic. Ime’s inability to adjust to the most obvious issues, such as Durant initiating the offense from the half-court line, is more glaring to short term focused fans and causes more frustration. We need both, a roster re-set and a coaching change. The fan hate for guys still learning their trades like Amen, Reed, Jabari,Tari, and Sengun is magnified by Ime’s inability to adjust his system to the talents of the roster. It results in fans blaming the young guys for not being able to execute a scheme incongruent with their skills. Hell, even Durant is being asked to be a PG, a skillset he plainly does not possess. Ime needs to be the first dominoe to fall, before we can even assess what our young players can evolve into.
Ime definitely seems like a guy who doesn't bother looking at stats. He has his perceptions and preferences and he goes by that. Which is a major reason he's so horrible at making adjustments. It's been obvious for a while now(and I posted the data to back it up) that Tari is not playing well and that the team is not benefitting at all from him starting. It's even worse when he starts alongside Alpi, Amen, KD, and Jabari. That unit is a pathetic 9-8 this season. Yet he won't make any changes. The closest he's come is benching Tari down the stretch of the Pelicans game last Friday(which wound up being the right call, BTW).
