Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun & Dillon Brooks BENCHED By Ime Udoka In Houston Rockets Loss To Warriors
Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun & Dillon Brooks BENCHED By Ime Udoka In Houston Rockets Loss To Warriors
Can the Houston Rockets reclaim their early-season form? After a tough loss to the Golden State Warriors, questions loom over the team’s performance and future. Coach Ime Udoka’s bold decision to bench starters like Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun due to lack of effort sparks a critical analysis of the Rockets’ strategy and identity.
Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) explores how the Stay Ready Crew of Jae’Sean Tate, Jock Landale and Nate Williams, alongside Aaron Holiday and Amen Thompson, nearly turned the tide with their hustle. The episode dives into the Rockets evolving dynamics, the impact of Udoka’s coaching choices, and the team’s outlook as they approach the NBA All-Star Weekend.
Will the Rockets find the spark they need to compete at the highest level? Tune in for an insightful discussion on the team’s path forward.
#Rockets #NBA #ImeUdoka
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#HoustonRockets #Rockets #NBA #JalenGreen #AlperenSengun #JabariSmithJr #TariEason #AmenThompson #CamWhitmore #ReedSheppard #FredVanVleet #DillonBrooks #JeffGreen #StevenAdams #JaeSeanTate #JockLandale #AaronHoliday #NateWilliams #NFalyDante #JackMcVeigh
37 Comments
I loved the benching, not only did the stay ready crew shine, the players benched really showed support from the bench for those guys….great TEAM first attitude!
Yeah keep playing the bench Ime, you will be in play offs soon.
I completely disagree with the benching at this phase. immature and way too emotional. I understand last year was giving a message to the whole team and setting a culture. But we supposed to be more mature, calm and collected. All of us but it starts with Ime. He is emotional and immature for a team contending at a high level all year around. Ime needs to ask himself a question about his offensive strategy first. We need a top 10 player and to pair with Alpi. But before we urgently need an offensive coordinator to help Ime.
Sit their asses down. I scream it all the time. To hell with the weak $#!+.
I loved it
Jalen Green is not it
Alpi has not played aggressive lately
Cam plays like he he high
FVV just took a early vacation
Shout out to Aaron Holiday and Nate Williams
I'm disappointed in Cam ,I see why he got sent to the GL.. He doesn't play with Noooo passion.. if he doesn't get the ball,he just stop playing.. I was pulling for Cam but now I'm not
I don't think Ime would concede games to make a point, the bench did better due to their effort so they got more time.. maybe too much but they didn't look that tired and if we lost due to putting the starters back in he would have got more flack. I did expect Jock to be a better match up than Adams against warriors though so that's on Ime.
I think people are being a bit too hard on the starters.
in the last nine games, eight of them have been back to back games.
Before these last 3 games (where we went 2-1) at home, we had 8 away games in 9 games.
These 11 games in 19 days has been the hardest part of the schedule, even before we talk about injuries. In this stretch at some points Tari, Sengun, FVV and Jabari have been out.
Lastly January we had the hardest SOS (strength of Schedule) in the NBA by a big margin, and in February, our SOS was much easier but we are tied for most back to back games this month..
hopefully we come back healthier after the break and with our legs under us and we finish these last 27 games strong so we can go in strong into the playoffs.
McVeigh should get some minutes too, he's shooting well in the g league.
The Rockets are tired. Let’s just call it what it is. I know people say not to use that as an excuse. But it’s not an excuse. It’s reality. The Rockets are tired.
Go Rockets 🚀🚀🚀
Go Rockets!!!
Udoka is the big boss….He should not have let the things to reach this point.
He looks like the ceo of a bankrupt company….Firing all the employees…
I realize that Rockets need a player like Durant, Curry,Butler, Booker, Jokic, SGA, Antetokoumpo, Tatum; only one guy who will not back down even against demon.
…and totally ignored Jock Landales contribution in 16 min of 13 pts and 8 boards. He’s not a game changer but always gives 100%…. Efficiency personified.
Completely ignored jock landales contribution?
In that 6 games losing streak, 2 losses were bad and unjustifiable (both vs Nets), but the rest of those were probably expected, because it was all road games against stronger teams (MEM, DAL, MIN, NYK).
The sooner we accept the fact Rockets were playing above their possibilities (comparing to the true contenders) up until lately – the better for us. This is not THE season.
If we manage to push ourselves directly into the playoffs, that's gonna be success by itself for this season. Direct playoff entry with the home court advantage would be above all expectations, but that's the max this team can do, in my opinion. And this team is first round exit team, regardless of the position. At least in this season.
P.S. Rockets don't need an offense coordinator because they're not very talented offensive team in the first place. They are in the middle of the nba with offensive rating, which is above the expectations for our offensively limited talents.
It's not like we're the Phoenix with Durant, Booker, Beal and we got stuck in the mud so we need an coordinator to unlock our true offense potential.
It would be fairer to call Alpi "the good of the bad," who made a double-double in 26 minutes in a game where everyone else was so bad. Our shooters (3 players) who couldn't even score 10 points are the ones who are responsible.
These are guys are 1st round playoff target practice. Massively talented bunch, but still don’t know the SUSTAINED effort level required to win in the NBA. This includes Sengun.
What was the point of Ime sending a message? Sure, you can send a message to players who haven’t signed contracts yet, but Jalen and Alperen already have. Are you going to keep them on the bench for 2-3 years? If you push away a victory that’s right in front of you just to prove a point, it will only hurt Ime more in the long run. He should be grateful that these players respect their coach otherwise, many players wouldn’t mind just taking their paycheck and sitting on the bench. In professional settings, there’s no room for grudges; you have to be pragmatic. The message had already been delivered by keeping them on the bench until the last three minutes. I think Ime made the same mistake in the game they lost against the Warriors.
If Ime had brought Alpi into the game in the last part of the game, maybe it would have been different. Keeping a player on the bench is not a message, it is an acceptance of losing. There is a Turkish saying; '' He who races with his piss, pisses his pants''
What about Jock Landale? Quick to be criticised, but no shout outs when performing well.
I agree with the coach sitting the starters. We want wins. If, you don't want to play right watch from the sidelines. Period!!!
Ime is lucky to have such a group of players. He cannot do that in any other team in the NBA. I also do not think it makes a lot of sense to call the team soft after every loss. You gotta be kidding me. Rockets is very limited on the offensive end and forcing guys to play harder than the opponent in a 82 game regular season is not sustainable. You should win games sometimes through better execution with less effort. That's what some of the other teams other doing, right. Every opponent is going after mis matches against us. They want the switch on AlP and attack the pick-and-roll defense. Why don't we do the same thing against the other teams. Why don't we get a mismatch for Jalen? Why don't we get a mismatch for AlP instead just dumping the ball to him in the post or elbow against the defending big. Why is Cam always shooting offdribble / standing jump shots? Why is evryone standing and watching every single time AlP has the ball in the post?
If we find out that we could have gotten Durant and passed on it, then that's management malpractice. It's one thing to want to see what you've got first. It's another to pass on a top ten player and a legend. It's very obvious that we don't have a top player on this team and betting on one of these guys to get there in the next few years is foolish. We also have only one decent point guard on the team. We have to improve there.
The coach did the right thing!!!
The problem is jalen green, he play like he is playing one by one ,he dont have IQ ,trade jalen and put shooters to fill his hole ,bc other them shoot or drive green dont provide nothing for the rockets
My issue is that Amen made some of the biggest mistakes this game and Ime kept playing him…but Sengun got benched for what? Sure he went 4/10 but we went 1-12 at one point in the 4th. In my opinion, we give the ball to jalen and amen too often. We need MORE Sengun. Put the ball in his hands and let him create open shots for his teammates. Also, give Sengun more downhill opportunities. He's undoubtedly going to create an open shot for someone. Jalen and amen don't create the same openings for teammates that Sengun does. Sengun also easily could've had a triple double and wasn't on the floor when Ime did his 5 man swap in the first half. Sengun tried helping covering for the other starters including amen but nobody helped cover his back.
Nate > A Holiday. Lets give him a shot. Asap
I can forgive errors from trying, but not errors made for lack of effort. Udoka did the right thing. Rockets need to grow up before they get to the playoffs.
Put in Dante
That’s the only thing that scares about this team is the offense. Tbh I don’t think the effort was the problem , I actually this game just showed a lack of shot making
We need to get Kevin Durant this summer them guy's not going to listen to him go in one way go out the other way.
We need to trade Jalen this summer while his value is still high, dude has no killer instinct, gets bodied by aggressive defenders and inconsistent as hell. He is still a good player but not what this squad needs, we need someone who wants the ball and has the skills to do something with it when the game in on the line. Jalen, FVV plus more for an All NBA'r. I think Cam can give you the same production as Jalen if given the role and minutes and he wants the ball when he's on the floor where Jalen seems scared to shoot.