Ime Udoka: "Chet Holmgren shouldn't be pushing guys around so easily"

They did what they were asked.....

Close outs, defending the 3 point line as well as those teams, the Paint Defense could be much better though.....

Transition Defense has been much improved but lately due to Injuries inconsistency happened.

 

Tari and Brooks are not Offense players, they might trick into believing because they have good scoring nights but consistently they are not viewed as players that can generate consistent Offense.

They are really good defenders........OKC has players that are good offensive players that can play a lick of Defense when needed.

That is the difference right now plus SGA and the Mystery that is Chet.

 

1. I see 6 guys under 22 playing heavy minutes.
2. Fred is an expiring contract next year.
3. Dillon Brooks has a contract that declines. 23 million now, 20 million in 2026, when the salary cap will likely be 155+ million.
4. I see 25 wins with 24 games left to play. Last year we won 22 games.
5. I am disappointed in Jalen Green.

 

To be a pretender implies someone had us as a contender...that person is smoking crack.

This was always a play in team at the absolute best. Nothing more than that. Play-in teams aren't even that good either.

 

SGA is the difference, if you give the Rockets an MVP level player guys would play better around him too.

If suddenly Jabari or Sengun or Amen or whoever turns into an MVP level contender then the rockets instantly go from 20-30 win team to a team competing in the top 4.

You see this same thing with every team rising through the ranks. The difference is basketball is a sport where one guy can lift his team and make them look better than they are. Look at ANY team that took a jump and the one thing is that either they acquired a superstar player or developed one.

 

Wake up! Presti drafted studs and Stone drafted duds.

 

Pointing out one weakness in our defense doesn't make us a non-excellent defensive team. The #1 defensive team in the NBA will have something to exploit. That's not a serious way to measure your defense. The defense is good enough and on average pretty great. Top 6 when healthy, top 8 even after a slide. That's a gold medal for a bunch of 22 and under players plus Brooks and FVV and no natural rim protector.

Udoka has no idea what to do if they take away the pocket AND close out expertly (since the pocket is not too far from the 3pt line). Opponents are not worried about anything else. If it's about hitting open shots, how come we don't win when he benches Jalen and uses Holiday/Cam more?

Maybe we lost because FVV had 5 points on 11 shots (only 2 points in his final 34 minutes), was a team-worst -17 and only had 5 assists in 36 minutes. He started the game having to guard Lou Dort - why the F do we have one of our best defenders on their worst scorer? Dillon Brooks had a terrible night as well, everyone he guarded scored well and he had 7 points on 9 shots (second worst -14). God forbid Ime comes out and says "to be honest, the vets didn't make their shots and didn't defend great, but it's ok since they rarely have an off night".

It's just not enough Udoka. Rightly or wrongly, the players can't do better at the shots you're asking for - they have proven the hell out of that. Either take this season as a development opportunity for their off ball play or it's time to do something else. I doubt we're changing the offense with 20 something games left, but I also want him to stop throwing his players under the bus and acting like we're a little bit of toughness away from winning these games.

Do we really believe that Ime has told them what to do and they keep ignoring him and he has not changed the starting lineup once this season? What a ridiculous story. Other than the 2 rookies bless their souls, this team does not believe in Ime's offense. He is trying to force-fit them into the only offense he seems to know to coach. It's clear as day our offense does not suit our personnel except FVV (and FVV is a willing soldier no matter what we ask of him).

Has he said "this one was on me" even one time this season other than when he was a drama queen before the break threatening to change the lineup because he was so sad? Change the lineup Ime. If Stone is forcing you, go against him. Responsibility for the lineup will always be on the HC, Stone won't take the blame when it doesn't go well.

 

Nice post.

I do think the offensive system needs to change.

We are towards the bottom of running DHO, yet we are one of the best teams in the league at it, and our SG is absolutely excellent in DHO situations, and struggles everywhere else.

We need to bring in a Princeton guy. Make use of your big that can pass.

 

SGA is an MVP contender and Chet and JDub are future superstars. If the young core is as good as those 3 we would be contenders and a top 2 seed too.

FWIW the only guy we have missing is SGA aka the MVP contender. Chet and JDub we have Amen, Jabari, Cam, Sengun and Tari who are comparable. We lack the MVP level talent but hey those guys don't grow on trees. Maybe Amen or Cam becomes that in a couple of years.

 

Obviously would be a dream to have a Princeton offense or MDA's 7 seconds offense, but I would settle for just taking notes (and a lead offensive assistant) from one of Malone, Kerr or Mike Brown.

We don't even know who Udoka's lead assistant coach is on the staff. Does anyone? It sounds like they had too much of an ego to bring in someone other than Udoka's "boys". Kept a tight mafia-like ship with no threats to his own job. Is it Ben Sullivan - who has 0 years experience doing it? Or Udoka - who has 0 years experience doing it? Mazzulla was Udoka's offensive coordinator and both Stevens and Mazzulla have posted better offensive numbers than Udoka. Looks like it was a mistake to get rid of Abdelfattah as well, that guy had some offensive chops.

IMO Udoka is overrating his own and his staff's skills as an offensive tactician. That's a major problem this team has had all season and it is systemic just as much as it is about individual players. Since the NBA adjusted to what we did in the first 20 games, nothing has changed, no adjustments have been made. About 1 month ago we started increasing the pace, but we did so by asking Amen and Jalen to grab the defensive rebound and beat the other team the whole length of the court. It's only because they're elite athletes that this increased our pace and it's a totally unsustainable way of playing at a high pace. Sengun and FVV have to push the pace and lead by example.

The problem is Udoka, FVV and Brooks suck at doing/teaching it but they are the leaders because our whole defense is thanks to them. Let's see what the leaders do.

 

Presti is also the difference to getting someone like SGA.....

Stone is all dandy but he is in the league of a mediocre GM that was not even meant to be a GM when he was young....

He stumbled into this profession while Presti was the Quentin Tarantino of basketball......gradually doing all minor jobs to prepare himself for the big one.....

You cannot have a great team without at least a good GM....not to say great GM.
Stone is not even scratching Morey level.

 

Chet is skinny asf man, Bari shouldve definitely been tougher against him also kinda wished he had Chets rim protection ability since we kinda lack that with Sengun

 

Deputy is Ben Sullivan, at least he is doing a lot of those duties, when Ime was ejected, Ben was the leading assistant who stepped in.

 

I find it more and more obvious with each post-game interview that Udoka gives the vets a lot more leeway and criticizes them almost never, while always putting it on the young guys. Brooks is stinking up the place and FVV even if he's not 100% healthy is not doing enough. FVV drives as much as inside with nowhere to go, empty possessions as much as Jalen does, if not more. Both should look at how Holiday does it. Brooks jumping into shooters is just funny to me since he should be a great defender. So yeah...nice try Ime but you are losing me here.

 

I've been posting it a few times already.
People discuss thousand problems and improvements.. while the obvious -THIS TEAM CAN'T SHOOT- is rarely mentioned.

 

This team just simply cannot shoot. They generate enough wide open and open shots. They just suck at hitting them.

Ime knows they aren’t going to suddenly become the prime warriors so he wants them to focus on things they can control which is not getting pushed around by string beans.

 

Looks like this might be OKC's year.

Thank goodness we have UH.

 

Ime thinks he is coaching the Celtics where that tough guy talk works, these kids ain’t listening

 

We played better bball tonight. We just missed too many shots. Yes, basically you need Jalen Green's role guy to appear and he's just not good enough (turns it over, misses everything). Fred level has gone down as well as the season goes. But we played better basketball tonight: better spacing, more balls to Alpi on the block... better off the ball movement, better shooting selection. This is the way. If we keep playing like this, we will fight for the 40 wins.

 

OKC and Houston are not comparable franchises. This is obvious to everyone other than delusional Rockets fans.

OKC has a much, much, much better team.

All 3 of those guys are better than anyone on our team.