I can't take anyone seriously if they don't realize Ime is one of the worst NBA coaches...he literally does nothing well....at least not anything of value. That's why the few Ime apologists that exist never actually say what they think he brings to the table or what they think he actually does well....they just say he's good without any elaboration. Honestly I think even the apologists know he's a terrible coach, they just feel like they have to defend him for non basketball reasons. Many such cases.
Udoka does nothing well? The Rockets finished the season with a top 10 defensive/offensive rating despite having a lack of players that can shoot. It's been widely recognized that he's good in dialing up ATO plays. It's a complete lie to say all he does is claps on the sidelines and shouts play harder. The offense looks like trash because you don't have a dominant offensive player besides KD. The offense would look a lot better if Udoka had a player like Cunningham, Luka, or Shai. The fact that he won 50+ games with a team that clearly lacks offensive talent is proof that he's a good coach.
Yes, he does literally nothing of value well. I think I've seen him draw up a competent play maybe a handful of times ever, they are almost always terrible. The offense looks like trash because they don't run any coherent form of offense....because Ime is entirely incompetent when it comes to anything related to offense. Give 65 IQ Ime the original Dream Team and somehow he'd manage to make them struggle to score. He's THAT bad. You're going to have to do more than point to regular season wins...I get that's how your favorite con man managed to rob the Rockets with his absurd contract, but you'll need something more if you want to convince anyone. The Rockets were a complete joke of a team that EVERYONE looked at as essentially a first round bye in the playoffs.
Objectively speaking, Udoka is the worst non-tanking coach in the league. it’s even worse when he’s not trying to lose and still manages to set the rockets up for one of the most frustrating regular and post seasons in franchise history. In the 2 seasons the rockets have been in the playoffs, they’ve lost to the 7th seed, and then lost to a bunch of role players and a 42 year old guy they were strongly favored to win against
This article is just a bunch of BS and the poster is a massive Udoka fanboy and wants to blame Stone for everything. Look at Knicks. They literally only changed from Thibs to Mike Brown. And people think Thibs is a good coach. Stone has not been perfect, but if you disregard Presti and the Spurs who really just lucked into Wemby and Dylan Harper Stone has done a good job as GM.
I dunno how many coaches it takes .... but they definitely aren't going to emerge as stars when the offense is garbage. It was Ime forcing KD to play the point - KD said himself he'd rather stand in the corner than play the point. It was Ime who wouldn't put players on the floor to create outlets for when KD was doubled - instead he got 3-4 dudes who couldn't dribble or pass and we wonder why the turnovers were such a problem. It's Ime who has Sengun catch the ball outside the 3 point line and back'em down like Charles Barkley. How about the 5 forward lineup? It's Ime who won't play Reed .... and have him run a pick and roll with Sengun (or even Amen). If it's not our year, maybe we should be working on making next year our year and developing guys who need reps. Ime was over rated in Boston - he had two dudes who were All NBA to work with. @DoubleDipshiit coulda coached that team to the NBA finals in the East that season and that guy's totally clueless.
A lot of people aren't happy about that ....but I still think it was a good deal for the Rockets, Twitter burner or not, KD is the better player - By Far. It's Udoka who forced him into the point KD role that everyone is pissing and whining about.
I think it's a mix of all of the above. It's the GM who acquires the talent. It's the coach that puts them in a position to succeed or not. It's the players who execute the plan.
Udoka is a decent coach, and he is effective when needing to guide a group of veteran players that already have a defined style of play. that is what we need a few years ago but now we need somebody that can innovate with our different parts. We have a lot of talent, but somebody has to kind of mess it together.
Stone has been here the longest, tanked for high lotto draft picks, and has no clear star players to point to besides 37 yr old KD. Since Udoka came, the Rockets haven't had a losing season, the most recent being two 50+ win consecutive seasons. Those are just facts, not feelings. Things didn't start to improve until Stone hired Udoka and brought FVV and Dillon Brooks with him. They got eliminated in the first round both seasons, but that's largely because of Stone's failure to find star players in the draft. You bring up Mike Brown, but he got ran out of Sacramento before he got hired by the Knicks. So was it poor coaching or the bad Sacramento Kings roster that led to him being fired? If Udoka had the Knicks roster, he'd look as good as Mike Brown now.
Yes he did but what choice did he have? They had 2 inexperienced combo guards that they had to develop and no fred. The only other option at point was Holliday but they clearly prioritized developing Sheppard. So they toggled and experimented using all 3 (amen, shepp, KD). I don’t blame him for this and I don’t think it was ideal for anyone. Unfortunately the fans suffered having to sit thru the pg development/experiment with Amen and Sheppard.
Also, it's widely recognized that being hard capped at the 1st apron with the DFS and Capela deals, and not trading for a point guard once FVV got injured were huge mistakes. At the beginning of the season Stone said they expected this roster to compete for a championship since they were the #2 seed last year and this was no longer a developmental team. He also used the same justification for trading Cam Whitmore by saying he wanted to find a place for him where he could continue to develop and 'play through mistakes.' He even said his expectation was for Reed to be 'really good for us.' So this prioritization of Reed Sheppard's development is at odds with his stated goal of competing for a championship. Udoka got a lot of heat for it this season, but undeservedly so. Reed did get the opportunity and played a lot of minutes, but he didn't put his stamp on the position like he should've unlike Amen Thompson who played his way from the bench to the starting lineup. Re-watching Stone's interviews before and after the season are fascinating because you see how effortlessly he moves the goal posts. After the season he says that not making the Finals doesn't mean that he didn't fail to put together a roster that could compete (YES HE DID), and he says he never said that this is championship or bust team after acquiring Kevin Durant (then why trade for Kevin in the first place rather than continue to cultivate younger talent).
You literally created your entire post talking about how the coach's role is diminished and its all the GMs fault but now you are crediting Udoka with the 50 win seasons? So which is it? How come Thibs had the Knicks roster and didnt have the same result as Brown? This literally contradicts your entire argument just like how you contradicted yourself.
So you expect the team to still compete for a championship after 100M in injuries? lmao pathetic as expected of an udoka groupie. Reed was indeed very good for us maybe if Udoka was better at developing players Reed would be even better and not flop in the playoffs.
