What can coach do this season to keep the Rockets’ plans in motion?
Houston Rockets’ head coach Ime Udoka enters his second season at the helm with one overarching goal in mind: lead his team to the playoffs. Accomplishing that goal will be no small task as it currently stands. The Western Conference is stacked, and with all but one or two teams making a compelling case to be among the top eight out west, Udoka and co. will be need to be on their A game to secure a return to the postseason.
For Udoka, this second season with the Rockets represents a second chance following his suspension, and ultimately, his dismissal from his prior role with the Boston Celtics. As you recall, Udoka and the Celtics almost reached the zenith in his first year, falling to the Golden State Warriors 4-2 in the 2022 NBA Finals.
2023 was supposed to be a year of redemption for both Udoka and the Celtics, but scandal struck Udoka, and the only NBA head coaching position he had known came crashing down after only one season. Now of course Boston went on to win the title just a few months ago, led by one of Udoka’s assistants, Joe Mazzulla, but that has to be bittersweet for Udoka.
It was supposed to be him that delivered the Celtics their first title since 2008, but he got in his own way. Knowing that he could have been holding the Larry O’Brien trophy this summer will surely provide Udoka with plenty of motivation for the 2024-25 season. This should close the loop of the unknown, of what could have been.
However, to continue building off of the Rockets first season turnaround, Udoka will need to show that he is capable of propelling last season’s momentum forward, something we didn’t get a chance to see at his previous spot. In order to do that, the Rockets will need to get off to a quicker start than they did last season.
Udoka’s two year sample size has indicated that his teams get off to a lackluster start and eventually pick up steam in the second half of the season. The Celtics got off to a 18-21 start before finishing 51-31 with the second seed in 2021-22. Likewise, the Rockets looked dead in the water at 27-34 before ripping off 13 of 14 games to finish the year at a respectful .500.
If the Rockets can live above .500 going into the 2025 All-Star break, it will go a long ways towards H-Town snapping it’s playoff drought. One way that Udoka can help with that is continuing to lean into his defensive identity. A hard-nosed and gritty mindset can certainly steal you a couple of games in the middle parts of the season, especially when not all the other teams are as bought into the monotony of the regular season.
Armed with a handful of quality defenders, Udoka should continue to excel in getting great results from a unit that ranked in the top ten last season. It would be a bonus if any of his Rockets could receive NBA All-Defense recognition such as Marcus Smart and Robert Williams did during their time under Udoka in Boston. The influx of defense between a healthy Tari Eason and Steven Adams give me added hope going into this year.
Another major piece of business for Udoka to attend to is gaining full buy-in from the Rockets’ two most polarizing young talents, Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun. Udoka is no stranger to the task of managing talent as the Celtics really turned it around once Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown both bought into his system.
For the Rockets, getting Green and Sengun on the same page and encouraging them to sacrifice for the best of the team ties into my recent post regarding what the Rockets can learn from Team USA during the Olympics. Without a mega trade lined up for an unnamed superstar on the table, Houston looks primed on entering the season as currently constructed, meaning that Green and Sengun will be heavily relied upon to be the Rockets’ main points of focus.
Hopefully, most of the trade hullabaloo goes out the window if Udoka can get both players to coexist and live up to their expectations. Even if the chemistry between this duo doesn’t manifest quite to the level we yearn for, it will still go a long way towards overall team success when compared to last year’s Jekyll and Hyde shtick, particularly from Green.
Whichever direction that situation goes will play itself out in the first half, but for now, it’s on Udoka to extract the most out of his two young stars to facilitate a good start to the season.
With that being said, if Udoka continues to instill his fighting resilience in this youthful, yet talented group, while also gathering buy-in from everyone on the roster, at the very least, it will be tough to see this team not competing for a play-in spot. While failing to clinch a top six seed or losing in the play-in tournament isn’t as glass half-full as it may seem, I see it the other way.
Progress is progress. This team rallied to make the play-ins a discussion last year, but ultimately they fell short. Cementing a chance to compete for the postseason this season, especially in a loaded conference, would mean that Udoka did his job in year two.
However, just getting a sense of the type of coach Ime Udoka is, let’s just say he has far grander plans.