Rockets Crunch Time FAILURES A Major Coaching CONCERN With Ime Udoka | Can The Mistakes Be FIXED?
Rockets Crunch Time FAILURES A Major Coaching CONCERN With Ime Udoka | Can The Mistakes Be FIXED?
Houston Rockets face tough questions about their offensive struggles and Ime Udoka’s coaching ceiling. Can a defense-first approach carry Kevin Durant, Alperen Şengün, and Reed Sheppard deep into the playoffs—or is offensive stagnation holding this talented roster back?
Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) breaks down alarming late-game trends, including blown fourth-quarter leads and lackluster crunch-time execution. The episode features pointed feedback from Boston Celtics fans about Udoka’s tenure, explores whether the Rockets are maximizing their emerging stars, and asks if organizational loyalty to Udoka is clouding critical decisions. Are roster changes ahead, or is it time to rethink the coaching staff’s offensive blueprint? With playoff seeding on the line and expectations high, the Rockets’ next steps could shape Houston’s NBA future.
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23 Comments
COMMENT: How do YOU feel about Ime Udoka's coaching so far?
I just hope these internet brained optimist biased people learn something if we go to a likely first round exit.
Here the thing…i think our roster is good and can go far possibly even CHAMPIONSHIP but you need both offense and defense if IME doesn't get his act together this season will be lost and that will be AWFUL
Go Rockets ❣️💯❣️
FVV would certainly help, but he is not here right now. It is not our year with FVV and Adams out. Trading for a PG would not fix us to compete for a championship. We turn the ball over way too much. It is killing us. DFS needs to go to the G-League. Okogie is almost as bad on offense. Ime consistantly removes Reed in the 4th to play DFS or Okogie and we lose. He has favorites. What annoys me is Ime is not changing by trying to with with defense. It is not working. I am think Ime is more of an assistant coach and we need a coaching change. Sounds like the Celtics fans have him pegged. I would take Mike D'Antoni as head coach in a heartbeat with Ime as an assistant.
I know you don’t wanna outright say it Jackson, but the time has come for Ime. Idk if Stone has the balls to move on from him, but be real: If he did, you’d be just as happy as me
He needs help with offensive schemes.
There is no doubt that Rockets need to make offensive changes (coaching AND roster additions/adjustments) but I would get rid of Stone before even thinking about moving on from Ime. Rockets fans are a fickle bunch who have forgotten when Silas and Stone used to run this franchise. Rockets roster was poorly constructed in offseason even before the injuries to Fred (pre-season) and Steven (prior to trade deadline) and the elephant in the room is that Stone has refused to do his job to upgrade roster at every trade deadline since Udoka was hired. Whatever the reason – abundance of caution, financial restrictions, CYA – Stone has done nothing to improve the team's in season opportunities going into the postseason.
"If you need good defensive players to be a good defensive coach, then you might not be a good defensive coach" couldn't be said better.
Ime’s problem is accountability. He blames his players and never himself. He’s arrogant and I hope he’s gone after this season. Because, we’re going to disappoint in the playoffs.
Does Ime actually teach anything? Make anyone better? Or does he just get players that are already good at what he wants in a player. It seems it's the latter. Because nobody improves drastically on skills and fundamentals under him. Yes, they play better defense and rebound more effectively. But, it's likely that he's like, "just go out there and do what you were already doing before we drafted you and go out there and do what you were already doing before we signed you. However, crash the boards harder and play as hard as you can and give everything on defense".
That's why Pop was so great. He'd draft players who were rough around the edges, but with potential.
Improvement would always seem to happen with hard work and good coaching. i.e., Manu, Tony Parker, and Kawhi (there are more). And he made already really good players, great. Maybe Stone drafting wasn't so bad as much as the staff isn't capable or willing enough to help the drafted players grow into their best versions.
We need to pull a page from Mike Dantoni’s playbook: hire an offensive coordinator & let Ime focus on defense
Ime Udoka for all his faults and poor roster construction, he has the Rockets as top 3 in the West for the 2nd straight season. How much more painful was it to watch Rockets basketball prior to Ime Udoka's arrival? Rockets Nation has unrealistic expectations after Rockets overachieved last season and ended up 2nd seed in West.
I agree that offensive adjustments, especially late in games, have to be made but I have been screaming for another volume scorer/secondary ball handler since the beginning of the season to fix the glaring holes in the half court offense. And now Rockets also need another young Big that is playable alongside Sengun in their historically elite Double Big lineups. But the recent game vs Jazz with the new emphasis on off ball movement, playing faster, not letting ball stick too long with one player and All Wing lineup generating 2nd chance points via defense to offense gives me hope that Udoka has figured out another adjustment (similar to when he fully unleashed the Double Big lineup around this time last season after tentative use early in season).
But Mazulla as offensive genius but was responsible for Udoka's defensive success when he led Celtics to Finals in his first season as HC is just gaslighting. Jazz HC Will Hardy was the primary offensive assistant under Udoka during his Celts tenure and Udoka is universally regarded for his defense which has translated from Celts to Rockets.
Rockets getting into the Finals would be a friggin DREAM in any HC third season but for Udoka it would be underachieving? We need to take a breath fam. I am just as disappointed with all the blown double digit leads in 4th and playing his starters ridiculously heavy minutes too but we need to calm down before we throw out the baby with the bath water.
Who do you credit for last season and this season's Double Big Lineup with historically elite production?
Udoka needs another offensive assistant, I agree, but I believe one of Ime's strengths is recognizing coaching and attracting coaching talent. How do you feel about Tiago Splitter's recent success with Blazers this season (and winning French Cup championship as first year HC), same with Royal Ivey with his shocking success as South Sudan's HC in Olympics.
Udoka is a miserable coach. He does not mind throwing the players under the bus to save his ass. There are two snakes in the team: KD and Ime. :))
I get it but don’t ignore what happened to the Knicks. Fired Tibs thinking the grass would be greener on the other side. Good convo though
Ime will coach a 42 win team to 51 wins and a 60+ win team to 51 wins
An offensive coordinator won’t help because Ime controls the rotations.
It’s going to suck when we let reed slip away and he goes to like Dallas and kills us with cooper.
Ime has offensive flaws, true, but Nobody talks about Kd's fit to the rockets and the locker room, i know he is an amazing player but notice how the vibe last year with DB and JG, they win together and most importantly you can see that if they get the L, They lose together, you dont see anyone blaming eachother, you dont see awkward body language. KD we all know is not a leader, he works best with other stars, not with youngsters, he is different from FVV. You can see that from other teams hes been with. He is in a different phase than most of rockets players, star hunting is so in the past decade, we were in the trajectory of OKC and pistons, the next gen movement before until it got messed up, and DB is so underrated, hell look at hjs impact with the griz, rockets and now suns and notice how those teams looked when he left
We need to chill tf out we are stills contending team this season we are all over thinking it just go look at are records to the teams that are the others contending teams and games are like 1 score games and losses we’re acting as if this team isn’t a good team
It seems to me that everything will be better with only putting in one more classical PG into the rotation, even Davison will be enough. That will resolve the clutch problem. Since all of our star players have to carry the PG burden in the entire game, in clutch time they can neither function well as a PG nor as a star. Overall I hope that version will be enough for a good playoff run. Where the hell is Davison? Just give the guy his contract, we have a long season ahead of us.
Je pense que l’équipe n’est pas aussi mauvaise que les gens le pensent. Je trouve que Udoka fait du bon travail et on verra peut être que sur une série ce sera une autre question