Among the young teams with high potential, Houston is perhaps the one that has made the least progress this season. Disappointed with the record of 22 wins for 60 losses returned at the end of their exercise, the Rockets quickly drew at the end of the regular season by replacing Stephen Silas by Ime Udokaofficially appointed as head coach on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Ime Udoka held his first press conference in his new suit, alongside GM Rafael Stone and owner Tillman Fertitta. The latter in turn spoke about the arrival of his new coach, first sweeping away the controversy surrounding his suspension from one imposed on the coach in September by Boston, his former employer.
“The NBA told me they don’t mind Ime becoming the coach of the Houston Rockets”, did he declare. “So I felt very good after having long conversations with him.”
A mission in three stages
Tilman Fertitta took stock of the past three years without the playoffs after starting a reconstruction project following the departure of James Harden. After having rebuilt a young workforce to be developed around a “franchise player” named Jalen Green, he explained why he had bet on Ime Udoka to begin the second phase of his project: to requalify the Rockets in the playoffs.
“What we appreciate about him is his ability to lead a basketball team and make those players tough, respectable and take responsibility. That’s everything I love about running a business: the structure and the fact that everyone has the right person to communicate with. “, he added. “We are very enthusiastic. This is the second phase. Phase 2 is to find the playoffs, to relearn how to win. The third phase is to win the title. So, let’s move on to phase two. You had to crawl and now walk, and finally run. But we are all expecting a lot”.
Youth is no excuse!
Ime Udoka, for his part, spoke of the rather interesting future prospects which prompted him to accept the challenge, pending the Draft which will help to draw the outlines of the Rockets project. “ Looking back at what we have in Houston, it’s already a very attractive destination for players, but there are also young talents, and that’s the most important thing. We have a lot of very good young talent. The potential is limitless on this. We can also talk about the payroll and the flexibility we have because the franchise has done a good job of building for the future. »
Ime Udoka also spoke about the new challenge he will have to take up by moving to a completely different status, from a confirmed team like Boston to a formation of young players to be developed like Houston. Recruited for his rigor, he should only keep the same philosophy and will not take tweezers to lead his group
“My role will be to speed up the process for them to become professionals. They heard me say that my first message to players will be that age is no excuse. On all counts, whether it’s repeating the same mistakes, not keeping up with defensive missions, or having poor shot selection, that sort of thing. These are things that must be analyzed and that we will have to work on, also keeping in mind that we will have difficult times because of our youth. But it will be my message, it is not an excuse”.
