How Ime Udoka Is Asking Alperen Sengun To Unlock Houston Rockets Offense + Needed Adjustments

How Ime Udoka Is Asking Alperen Sengun To Unlock Houston Rockets Offense + Needed Adjustments

On today’s show how the Houston Rockets are utilizing Alper and shenon offensively some of the adjustments that we’ve seen after the All-Star break and also why em ooca coaching is not one of the issues for this Rockets team this season plus some of the adjustments we want to see before their rematch with

The OKC Thunder it’s all coming up right here at locked on Rockets this is Mission Control Houston ignition sequence start throw it up to jayen Green shenon here in the short row oh my that’s the no look Jabari for three and the win look at T here

Comes at 15 seconds guidance is internal the Houston Rocket select amen Thompson and cam Whitmore one thing I have never done is not made the playoffs and so we want to take that step here as well 6 5 4 3 2 1 what’s up and welcome to another edition

Of locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball as always I’m your host Jackson Gatlin native Honan and credential media member I’m also the host of locked on NBA Mondays be sure to follow along on Twitter at JT Gatlin the show of course at locked on Rocket free

And available wherever you listen to your podcast including YouTube now today’s episode is brought to you by fandu will make every moment more right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks if your bet wins just visit fanduel.com lockon to get started and as always

Thank you so much for making lockdown Rockets part of your day every single day whether it’s on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym thank you for being an everyday and making the show part of your day every single day joining us now is none other than your

Weekly co-host the podfather himself Rockets wire editor and host of the logger line podcast Bend Duos you can track down on Twitter at Bend Dubose here for an episode focused mostly on we’re going to talk a lot in in today’s episode about Oka and and his job as the

Coach of the Houston Rockets and kind of how he’s been you know tackling certain things some themes that we’ve noticed as well as Alper and shingun because there there’s been a lot of discussion in the last you know 24 hours or so since the loss to the OKC Thunder about what the

Rockets you know are doing right aren’t doing right and a lot of it concerns uh or a lot of it is directly uh concerning Alper and shenon right and for good reason he has been the Rockets best player for the majority of the season I think you know pretty Undisputed best

Player on this team um and unfortunately this team Rises and falls with his level of play right when when Alper and shingun plays well the team has a lot more success when he struggles like what we saw against the OKC Thunder um the team doesn’t perform as well and that’s

A really simplistic way to kind of present the present the argument but it is kind of what it is now here the the part that gets really interesting is is it oka’s fault when shingun doesn’t perform well is he being put in position position to be successful or is it alp’s

Fault does he need to be better what can he improve upon and one of the standout moments that has a lot of rockets fans riled up from this uh this OKC Rockets game the other night was there was a moment where you know it was it was that

What was like 30 seconds into the second half in the into the third quarter where udoka called that quick timeout and he like completely like tore into alpie on the bench uh he like you know moved Jeff Green out of the way you could see Fred

Van like looking up at udoka with kind of like a you know a look on his face like oh crap he’s really tearing into Alp um and some fans took it you know I think there have been a lot of responses to this right about like oh that wasn’t

Fair of like udoka is in the wrong for doing that or or yes it’s good to see him you know chewing out Alp but why is he not doing it to other players all this what what’s your take on it first Ben yeah so first off I think a key to

Success in the modern NBA is having your coaching style be adaptable to individual players and we’ve heard from alar and shinon himself that coaches that are harsh with him that are upfront and direct it reminds him of home it reminds him of the way coaches coach in

Eastern Europe and in turkey and that works for Alper and shenon it might not for others on the roster we’ve talked about it for example within the context of should they bench Jaylen green or continue him in his current role and I think part of the calculus when you’re

Going through the pros and cons of a decision like that you have to think not only in terms of what is best for the team obviously that’s a big part of it but also so what’s going to get the best out of the player what’s going to get

Them to buy in and while you don’t let that by itself Drive the decision at the same time you do have to sort of adapt your style that’s part of any successful leader to sort of meet the human being where they are on a personal level and

With Alp I just think it’s important to remember it he has said this time and time again that he loves coaches that are direct that are harsh that won’t sugarcoat that’s he’s never directly said a contrast between eay and Steven silus but it has been strong implied in

My opinion and so I think that’s something that really resonates with him and so I think that’s a very important piece of context that’s being lost because I think some fans look at that and say wow why is alar and shenon being scapegoated no I just think it’s more

That eay knows that alar and shenon responds to that level of directness to that voice in a way that certain teammates of his don’t and so I think some of it is just e may being flexible and I also think you know just when you look at this Rockets Thunder matchup

All p is the key to having any to having any realistic chance to win you go back to when the Rockets beat the Thunder in December chut hren had four points and five rebounds in that game shot just two of nine last night he was dominant 19

Points in the fourth quarter the bottom line is the Rockets do not have a path to beat the Thunder if Chad holgren out produces Alper and shenon and it’s not all a one-on-one matchup we’ll get into that it’s not like it’s just one-on-one the whole game between those two guys

But just looking at the production if the Rockets lose out in the middle then you’re looking at Shay gildas Alexander and Jaylen Williams versus the rest of the Rockets lineup the Thunder just have more Firepower there’s a reason they’re 40 and 17 so any potential for the

Rockets to compete or beat a team as good as the Thunder starts with the formula we saw in December which is getting alarin shenon at his best winning that interior matchup stuffing him in a locker as I’ve seen some people refer to it that did not happen as much

In round two and I think that probably played into a little bit of the focus on shenon as well simply because in this matchup the Rockets know they really need shenon to out produced chat in the middle to have a realistic chance you know and and where I where I kind of

Land on this discussion is it makes me feel like looking at this is kind of the issue that I’ve had all season long is is udoka has done an absolutely fantastic job turning this team from one of the Laughing stocks of the NBA into a an actually respectable basketball

Organization more on that here in a moment we’re going to talk about why coaching is far from you know an issue with this team yes Oka has his warts yes he has his areas that he needs to grow and get better in as a coach absolutely

I’m not saying eeme is perfect I’m not saying he’s infallible but far from the problem here what I saw in this game against the Thunder though is it very much felt like the Rockets made it a point early on to try to get alperon the ball in a variety of different ways they

Even ran like a double drag screen like to get Alp the ball like where he comes running around the Baseline and gets like a deep seal on a post up which was something new I don’t think we’ve seen that all season long um I think the issue

Is because of oka’s you know kind of equal opportunity offense we haven’t seen them fully lean into Alp at all times right there there really is a distinct lack of a hierarchy with this Rockets team early on when this team was was firing all cylinders and things

Looked really good out coming out of the gate it’s because they completely leaned into hey you know what’s working Alper and shenon Fred Van vet pick and rolls and Alper and shenon isolations and post-ups and that’s like that was like 80% of the Rockets offense early on they

Were running they were spamming those actions early on and then they took a major step away from that and started focusing on getting other guys involved right the the the Jaylen green experiment trying to get Jabari more involved in the offense and then also an unfortunate side effect as the season

Has progressed we’ve seen we’ve seen Dylan Brooks kind of revert back to the Memphis Dylan Brooks version right where he kind of takes over certain possessions and he’s not passing as much as he did early on so kind of this Confluence of factors has led to a

Version of this Rockets team where some games we see Alber and shinon where he has a good game and the rockets do a good job getting the basketball some games we see where Alber and Chun is having a good game but they don’t get him the ball enough so he finishes on

Like you know six of 10 shooting you know respectable stat line but not nearly the usage that he deserves for being the team’s best player and then sometimes we see versions of this team where they do try to get him the basketball but it also coincides with

Him having a bad game and that’s exactly what I think happened against the OKC Thunder Alp did did not like the Rockets did a really good job of getting him the ball trying to get him in spots to be successful but he just didn’t have it in

That game he was missing a lot of easy shots that he normally makes especially early on and he just what he didn’t bring the the the necessary physicality to really like outmuscle Chad holgren in the middle and then on top of that he compounded things whe whether or not

These calls were legitimate or not we can gripe about the officiating of course but he was whistled for a majority of fouls right and eay even pointed out that it was his fault to put Alp back in the game uh you know late in the second with three fouls second

Quarter yeah that was that was probably a mistake on eem’s part but still you know Alp playing with foul trouble he’s not able to be nearly as aggressive as he usually is on both ends defensively and offensively he can’t do some of the things that he wants to be able to do

When he’s in the back of his head he’s think I I can’t I can’t risk you know picking up that offensive foul I can’t hook I can’t do that yeah and the third one is one that I think he’ll look back on film and say he’s got to be smarter

The third one if you recall it was a loose ball just a frantic sequence 70 feet from the bucket and he bumped the guy it was a little soft I didn’t love the call in the bonus but the reality it’s a foul and it wasn’t even like he

Was really trying to defend the rim or make a play it was just sort of a scramble situation and those are the cheap ones especially when you have two that you’ve got to be smart enough to avoid because yeah it absolutely is going to affect how physical you can be

You know I do still worry about his back a little bit because we know he missed some time earlier this month that’s something that can affect your willingness to be physical but in this one I think it was largely the fouls that the first couple of two I I think

He was the victim of some shaky calls the third one he just needs to be a little bit smarter and credit to Alp I was in the locker room postgame he’s the first guy to sort of point the finger at himself and say look I’ve got to be

Better and he pointed to you know beyond the factors that you laid out when you look on the offensive end of the Court he noted that teams are sending a second Defender to him much more quickly than they were earlier this season and he pointed out that he needs to you know

Make his decisions be more decisive and find Shooters and you know he’s not going to ask the question but I will do they have enough Shooters and in that game they they did but by in large the Rockets have not this season and that goes into roster construction so you

Know there’s a lot of different things that sort of come together but I I will agree with you that by and large Sunday was a bad game for allp I don’t think it was anything structurally but when you when you take a you know you zoom back I

Do think you can see sort of some structural issues that they could do a bit better if they really wanted to maximize shenon and eoka had some interesting comments post game as well about how they’ve been kind of deploying Alp what they’re asking him to do offensively want to talk about that as

Well as we’re going to get into some of the adjustments we hope to see in this rematch with the Thunder now the the the two teams going back playing in OKC for this next game we’re going to get there in just one moment first today’s episode is brought

To you by Nissan are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further there ever wonder what Adventure could be around the very next Corner well our friends at Nissan have a lineup of SUVs with the capabilities to take your adventure to the very next

Level the 2024 Nissan Rogue is perfect for City drives and Great Escapes class exclusive Google butin is your always updating assistant to call on for almost anything gone of the days of having to connect your phone Google Assistant Google Maps and Google Play Store are built right into the 12.3in HD

Touchcreen right there at your fingertips but hey maybe you want a full size SUV the 2024 Nissan Armada will change what you expect from a full-size SUV picture a rugged 4×4 that can eat up to eight In First Class luxury and style tow bigger and explore further in the

2024 Armada take the Nissan Rogue Nissan Pathfinder or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure shop nissanusa.com and continuing on here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball ball now then when we look at how this Rockets team has utilized Alper and

Shenon I think there was kind of an Illuminating answer from em OD DOA in the postgame interview after this loss against the Thunder where he discussed the fact that they they they do want Alper and shenon to kind of use him as bait right to bait the double team to

Then generate th those open shots offensively and I think that’s that’s kind of where there’s a bit of a learning curve for Alp where you can almost see it where when he catches the ball he’s there’s been moments a lot this season and and this is a newfound

Occurrence because I feel like he was much better at this earlier in the season maybe before this became kind of the directive from the coaching staff of hey hold the ball wait for the double team and then kick it to where now he’s kind of having to think about what he’s

Doing and really trying to read and see what the defense is doing whe versus earlier this season where he was just he’d get the ball and he would just go or he would do a thing and it was just Instinct yeah and and and he looked a

Lot better doing that whereas now and and I’ve remarked on this a couple different times now where it looks like he’s he’s holding the ball way too long right where the double team shows and he’s not getting rid of it quick enough right where he turns it’s a double team

Or sometimes it turns into a triple team where he’s incredibly crowded and then you’ve also got the the factor that the Rockets have done a really piss poor job honestly of moving without the basketball cutting those kinds of things thankfully there’s been a bit of an uptick in that the last few games

Against the Suns against against the thunder we’ve seen some motion off ball we’ve seen guys actually cutting you know make the entry pass cut through the lane we’ve seen some you know we’ve even seen some Alp get some assists off of those actions but I do think that that

Is an area where the coaching staff is clear clearly understands how they can utilize him how they can build and use his gravity to open things up for his teammates but it’s also asking a lot of him to to sit there and understand hey okay you’ve got to see and gauge where

This guy is coming from and then kick it out and then expect the other guys to make the requisite passes right to move the ball to to generate good offense yeah it’s a lot to do during the season I think I think it’s something that if you wanted to install that type of

Offense in the off season it would be very realistic but on the Fly there’s definitely going to be bumps now I see why they’re doing it I actually thought the most Illuminating quote that eay had over the weekend the two games at Toyota Center was when he mentioned after

Friday’s game that they had an emphasis coming out of the All-Star break that they wanted to shoot 40 plus threes every single game which I respect because too often this year the Rockets were putting themselves at a math disadvantage there just is not enough Talent on this roster for them to beat a

Solid NBA team if they’re just getting killed basically by math not making enough threes not taking enough threes relative to their opponent and I think when they sat down and looked at this offense they realized that hey since we don’t have Elite shooting maybe it’s not worst in the league but it’s certainly

Not Elite then how do we justify taking that many threes how can we get good looks to where we’re not just jacking and I think they recognize that playing through shenon is the best way to get the volume they need need because of his gravity that’s what’s going to lead to

Opportunities to drive and kicks at a leverage situations basically four on three that’s what we saw in the first half when the Rockets hit all those threes it was basically shenon drawing the second Defender and then you’d have Jaylen or Dylan driving and many times Jabari was the recipient because he was

The guy in the other corner and you’d basically just be working a fouron three and try to find yourself an open three and from a math perspective I understand why the Rockets are doing it and I think you know the calculus for eay is that look even if we do everything for Shon

As it was earlier this year that’s probably not enough for us to win at a high level especially without T een so we’ve got to try something else and in this case it’s sort of trying shinon in different ways to try and boost the team’s three-point shooting to where you

Don’t have that math disadvantage you had for a lot of January in particular and so on paper when you’re looking strictly at the data I can understand the thought process and by and large it has worked well I think you know certainly the Phoenix game I think they

Were 15 to 45 from three and then the first half of the OKC game it worked for a while but you know as with anything there’s going to be adjustments and then there’s going to be adjustments to the adjustments from other teams and it felt like in the second half in particular

OKC changed up some things with their coverages at the half bredin Fleet alluded to that in his postgame comments last night and the rockets didn’t have the immediate answers and that’s why I’m sort of interested to see what happens on Tuesday when these same two teams get

Together okay we saw OKC at halftime draw up some different schemes to take away what the Rockets were doing in terms of generating those threes and I think it made shenon look a lot more hesitant now you had a practice today you’re going to have a shoot around

Tomorrow can you you know from a Rockets perspective can eay sort of adjust to that adjustment that’s what I want to see for tomorrow and I I would just say while on paper it makes sense I understand why they’re doing it it is a lot to ask of alp in particular because

Of course he’s the Hub he’s the the focal point for opposing defenses he’s who’s drawing that attention so of course it affects him more than anyone else because because he’s who you’re generating offense through most of the time it’s just unrealistic to do it on

The Fly even after I know they had the week off for the allstar break and that’s probably why they thought this was as good a time as ever to sort of introduce a little bit of a tweak a change to the system but yeah even after a week it’s unrealistic to think that

It’s going to be just smooth sailing and all of a sudden you got it figured out no if you try to do something like this during the season then yeah there are going to be some bumps and I think the second half especially that’s what we

Were seeing but I do think overall from a macro View it’s an encouraging sign that the eme finally has kind of addressed and at least you know publicly on record hey we know what we’re doing with LP we know we’re trying to use him

To do this I know very early on right we saw eay trusting and going to alpie and he’s gone to him pretty consistently at times throughout the season you know in crunch time when they need a bucket right they know what they have with Alp but I do think that by and large

Throughout significant portions of the season eeme has kind of had to you know he’s been tasked with trying to be competitive but also with the experimentation of this roster right trying different things and trying to get certain guys going and seeing seeing what he has with Jaylen green seeing

What he has with Jabar M junr am Min Thompson cam Whitmore and so in a perfect world yes if the Rocket’s only goal this season was to try and be as competitive as humanly possible then yes they would be absolutely spamming the hell out of Al and shenon you know

Touches pick and rolls uh post-ups whatever but we’re also seeing you know eay try to balance doing other things and that’s why we haven’t seen them you know use Alp as if he was the team’s Superstar which you know uh he’s not he’s not a superstar yet he’s on a he’s

On a Star level trajectory yes he’s you know taken the the year three leap this year it’s been awesome to see but he’s not a star yet right he’s not a Bonafide True Blue Star quite just yet um and that’s evident by what you’re seeing with with how the coaching staff has

Decided to kind of run things so far this year I did dig up I I was so curious about this because I wanted to confirm if this matched like my eye test but this team is so much more effective when the ball goes through alperin shingon but not necessarily when he’s

Scoring at a high level but when he’s facilitating at a high level so I dug up this number because I was just curious uh Ben this team when Alper and shingun has a 25% or better assist rate which again for those unfamiliar assist rate is the number of assists you know that

You roughly generate for your teammates when you’re on the floor um the Rockets have a 14 and 12 record when alpie has a 25% or better assist rating now when Ali has a lower than 25% assist rating the Rockets are 11 and 19 so when Halper and shingun is more involved offensively

When he’s creating for others and obviously the other the other point here to to emphasize is the others that he’s creating for have to knock down their shots that’s the important part um but when when the offense is flowing through Alp things look a lot better and one

Additional Point here of the 14 and 12 record when alpie has a greater than 25% assist rate nine of those 12 losses nine of the 12 losses 75% of them came by single digits a lot of them were very very where the Rockets were like right

There and and a even a bigger point to hammer home that point is the Rockets have been in the clutch a lot this season when you look at teams that have played clutch minutes which is any game that is within five points either way within the final five minutes of a game

That’s what defines the the clutch statistic for the NBA the Rockets are top six in games played in the clutch they’ve played 29 games in the clutch and they are unfortunately 11 and 18 they have one of the worst record in the NBA this season of clutch Time games so

Part of it is some of its youth some of its execution down the stretch uh some of its the shooting factors there there’s a lot of things that kind of pour into this but it’s important to note because the Rockets are they they’re so close right and we talked

About this recently how close this team actually is to being so damn good and we’re I know we’re going to get into this a little bit more in the next segment about Oka and why he is not the problem with this team but the fact that you took essentially last last year’s

Team turned it around made it a top 10 defense and then you’re this close in a lot of these games in the clutch you know singled digit losses that’s really encouraging stuff yeah absolutely and one more point on shenon that I want to get in at least in the context of the

Thunder matchup while a lot of people were disappointed with his turnovers I think he had five in his first 16 minutes and six for the game which obviously led the team at the same time the fact that he has that many turnovers tells you that it’s not like the Rockets

Are freezing him out it’s not like they’re DM emphasizing him no it’s that they are using his gravity and playing through him through that attention that he’s drawing and hopefully using that as sort of a conduit to generating more open threes and that math advantage that we talked about earlier e may looking

Not just for the short term you know what’s going to maximize this group of players right now but also looking at the big picture and what’s a formula that’s actually going to work for this team moving forward and so I think while last night’s a frustrating game and you

Know certainly there’s things I mean Alp will be the first one to tell you that he should have played better at the same time when you look at it from a coaching perspective yeah they were absolutely still using him they get that he is their best player I think that’s also

Part of why you know there’s all that tough love that we talked about leading off this pod I mean the standard is high when you’re the team’s best player so beyond the fact that you know allp likes that type of treatment it’s also what happens when you’re the focal point for

Opposing defenses and your coach places a high degree of expectation on you because he has been this team’s best player this season so I think that plays into the approach that eeme has but I would just note that in terms of the eeme component was it shanon’s best game

No but I absolutely would not say the coaching staff you know had a huge role there well I guess you can say that they’re trying to use him in different ways and perhaps that’s a factor but it’s not like they don’t realize what he’s doing no they absolutely do realize

His potential and that’s why he’s being used as sort of the the centerpiece to this new offense not entirely new offense but a new version of the offense that they’ve tried to introduce since the All-Star break coming up we’re going to get into a couple adjustments that we

Want to see ahead of this or in this next matchup with the thunder it’s always fun going against the exact same team in back toback games because it’s a little bit of a kind of minseries type Vibe so you can see exactly how each team makes their uh respective

Adjustments uh from one game to another as well as we’re going to tackle this conversation surrounding eeme Oken why he is absolutely not the problem with this Rockets team we’re going to get there in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by better help look sometimes we

All need the opportunity to get something off our chest big or small certain things can really start to get to you it’s important to let that out especially to someone who’s unbiased when it comes to your life maybe it’s you know a situation that happened at work or maybe it’s just you’ve gotten

Into an argument with you know a close friend or a loved one but it’s important to be able to unpack these things and and discuss them with an unbiased third party and that’s where therapy Can Help Therapy can be different for everyone most of us have bigger problems than

Just what’s going on with our our favorite sports teams and it’s important to get those things off your chest every once in a while if you’re thinking of starting therapy give better help a try I’ve done therapy in the past and it’s been an incredibly cathartic experience

For me it’s entire and with better help it’s fantastic because it’s entirely online designed to be flexible and suited to your schedule visit betterhelp.com lockon NBA to get 10% off of your first month that’s betterhelp hp.com lockon MBA and final segment here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for

Everything Houston Rockets basketball now Ben mentioned this kind of early on but there was in the aftermath of this thunder loss uh and I this has been a bit of a theme you know kind of maybe dating back month or two U maybe after I guess the you can call it the honeymoon

Period kind of wore off for some Rockets fans and I’ve seen some frustrations with eay and again trust me I I’m I’m not going to sit here and say that eay has been flawless that he’s been absolutely perfect he has his warts as a coach he needs to improve especially

With you know things like offensive creativity or establishing maybe a more a clearer hierarchy amongst the players because it does kind of feel random on a game by- game basis where as we alluded to earlier sometimes Alp is the focal point and sometimes a lot of the offense

If not all of it does run through him when he’s on the floor and other times he does get frozen out a little bit and it is frustrating to witness that when he when the guy that I think we can all agree as the best player for the team

Isn’t being involved offensively and some of that coincided with Fred Van’s absence for those few games there all of that right but when you look at where this Rockets team is at what they’ve achieved so far this season even though it it things have kind of you know uh

Cooled off a little bit after the hot start early on they’re still very much on schedule and you look at the roster that eeme has to work with and I it’s more or less almost the same roster as last year like they’ve made their main additions right they added Fred they

Added Dylan they added Jeff Green those have been the three you know largely the three components that are brand new this year and you pretty much lost T you only had him for 22 games exactly right so you lost one of your biggest differen makers um so e is essentially trotting

Out another you know an incredibly young roster of of unproven NBA talent and he’s turned them into a top 10 defense and one of the things that I one of the arguments that I keep seeing thrown around is um you know that e isn’t doing enough for certain guys or that he’s you

Know that he’s actively uh hurting the development of certain players on the team and I think that’s absolutely far from the case like he has given so many different guys on this roster so many different chances Jaylen green number one of all of them because jaylen’s gotten probably way more chances than he

Probably should have gotten this season based on his what he’s produced so far and how he’s played so far um alpie has has you know met the expectation and he’s you know risen to the challenge and he has become this team’s best player and then you’ve got guys like Jabari who

You know he’s had some up and down games here and there but by and large I think you’ve got to be happy with his development tar looked more or less the same in the games that he was playing um and amen and cam have both looked absolutely incredible in in the way that

This team has decided to handle their development amen kind of overcoming some of the the early absence in his rookie year cam Whitmore going down to the G League kind of refining his game a little bit so I would just argue for Rockets fans that I think there there

Needs to be a a little bit of level of patience with eay but that he is also not the problem with this team because he basically took last year’s roster with the the one that Steven Silas had and turned it into a top 10 defense that is really really impressive to to do

Yeah yeah and it’s worth noting that after the All-Star break one of the big concerns I had especially when you look at that New Orleans game right in the aftermath was whether we were approaching a point in which the Rockets would succumb to the rot of losing and I

Think what these last two games should tell you is that no they have not they shook off that 16-point deficit against Phoenix came back to beat a Western Conference playoff team against Oklahoma City the best team in the west by record they were up 16 in the first half and

They competed hard throughout that game the Thunder just have more talent and a more cohesive system at this point in time they’re just a little bit ahead of rockets in terms of the schedule so beyond just the overall record which they’re on Pace to I think be 36 and 46

Which let’s be honest for a team that’s won 20 22 games the last couple of years that’s a phenomenal jump in the NBA I think you know as someone that follows all the Houston sports teams I think something that’s sort of worked against the Rockets I in terms of I guess

Setting unrealistic expectations number one the rocket started the year hot so I think that sort of raised expectations a bit high but then you also look in Houston the success the Texans had in year one of demo Ryan and CJ stad getting fairly deep into the playoffs

Winning their division I think there’s a lot of fans that say well why can’t the Rockets do that and the answer of course the Texans ended up getting a top five quarterback and helps that he’s a rookie so he’s also dirt cheap and so they can build the entire roster around him it

Does not work that way in the NBA unless you acquire a veteran superstar in the NBA the path forward is a lot more linear than it typically is in football you do see big jumps in the NFL especially if you have a big change at the quarterback position with the NBA

It’s not like that and so just to see a jump from around 20 low 20s wins to Mid to maybe upper 30s if they get hot again you can’t argue with that that is clear results for this franchise they have taken a step forward even if we don’t

Like every single thing that’s happened in every game my only concern over the All-Star break and especially after that New Orleans game coming right off it was whether I guess the Rockets would succumb to some of those losing habits now that the playin is becoming increasingly unrealistic but I will say

After watching the last two games in person I don’t think that’s going to happen I think they are still bought in they are still trying even though the play in dream is pretty much dead or close to dead at this point and I think that speaks well to the coaching staff

As well that he still has these guys bought in even though the playoffs are largely off the table and they’re probably not going to get tar back at this point let’s just be realistic and the trade deadlines come and gone so it sort of is what it is it’s not like

There’s Hope of a better tomorrow or you know catching lightning in a bottle the fact that they’re still competing it’s not perfect but that speaks well to the coaching staff that they’re still going in and working hard and trying to improve as opposed to succumbing to the rod of losing which we’ve definitely

Seen at this point in the schedule the last couple of years I wonder if the Rockets could maybe pick up CJ strout on like a 10day or something because during the all celebrity All-Star game he looked pretty good I’m just going to put that out there um I wonder how his three

Ball is honestly but uh look uh before we wrap this thing up we want to get a couple thoughts in here about you know a couple things we want to see differently in the second go around with the OKC Thunder this time in Oklahoma City I’ll

Let you go first Ben what’s one thing you want to see this team do differently or an adjustment you want to see ahead of this next matchup quick and I’ll give you one on both ends of the floor offensively I would like to see a few more minutes

With amen Thompson and Al and shenon I felt like that was a bit reduced on Sunday and I think it’s probably because of what we’ve been discussing for a lot of this pod the Rockets trying to use shenon to get more threes but I feel like with how the Thunder adjusted to

That in the second half and started taking away the same volume of clean looks I think I know with with a men there is the spacing concern but if it’s just one out of five I think you can work around it and where I think that’s really valuable to the way the Thunder

Were switching aggressively and closing out hard in the perimeter is that when you have a Relentless cutter the way a men is willing to do and we’ve seen the synergies between him and shenon at times this season I think that might be the counter to sort of unlock the next

Layer because okay if the if the Thunder are going to take away the high volume of Threes that we saw early in that game then perhaps having someone that’s willing to dive to the rim and has good chemistry with shenon in those situations can be part of the solution

To sort of unlock that and then on the defensive end I I just want to see Alp look a lot more competitive I think this is going to happen because I do believe that a lot of his defensive low lights on Sunday were due to the early foul

Trouble and e may alluded to that postgame but I will say that you know if he struggles again defensively gets to be more concerning I think a lot of what’s happened and you’ve talked about this in recent weeks those double big lineups like um Minnesota New Orleans those are especially tough on the

Rockets it’s not just shingun it’s also the pairing of shenon and Jabari and so we’ve seen them get overwhelmed by physicality and that’s something that you know perhaps shenon having a back injury plays into that as well we saw against valunas in particular shingun was not as good as he was earlier this

Season so I’m willing to buy that some of it could be that but I think just overall the matchup is difficult Oklahoma City is not one of those teams Oklahoma City is a team that on paper shenon should be much better defensively against I’m willing to treat Sunday as a

One-off because I think there are some extenuating circumstances but I do want to see him bounce back because again a lot of shun’s defensive progression over the last month or so I think the Rockets have just had some tougher you know scheduling draws the double big lineups

Are hard they’ve had a lot of games in a short time frame he’s had a bad back which makes him less willing to bang against those really big bodies I can make excuses for all of that I think it’s probably a short-term blp but Oklahoma City is not one of those teams

And so I think Sunday was an exaggeration but I would love to see shenon go out there and compete hard on the defensive end Tuesday stay out of foul trouble and show that especially against that type of front court that he can get back to being the defensive

Differen maker that he was especially for the first half of this season uh for me and I’ll I’ll do one quick on defense and then and then go back offensively um for me defensively I think where this game really started to get out of hand right was obviously when OKC decided to

Kind of go small uh there in the fourth quarter and that’s when Chad holran started really getting loose a lot of the pick and Pops the wide open threes it was just a a difficult adjustment to go from for alpie kind of what we saw early in that first match up right where

Alpie was able to guard Josh Giddy and kind of roam a little bit and blow up a lot of OKC’s plays and and they were just content to let Josh gy continue to shoot threes and that was an ugly game because they got exactly what they wanted Josh giddy was just firing away

This game Josh giddy much smaller role not nearly uh the uh liability offensively in this second matchup between these two teams so how does eeme play off of that right because I doubt OKC is not going to change the starting lineup giddy still going to be out there

To start so yes you can get away with hiding hiding shingon on giddy andari on on Chad but what do you do after that right what do you do when OKC goes small and puts chat and then like four Shooters out there how do you then deploy shingun right can can shingun be

Better on Chad defensively because he’s going to have to guard Chad at that point you’re not going to be able to get away with the switching that you do when you put shingon on gidy and then switch all the other actions one through four so I want to see how the Rockets respond

And adjust there and then offensively I think a big issue for shingon when he does turn the ball over uh which just just kind of a a broad stroke thing here take better care of the basketball but specifically for shingon I I would like to see the Rockets stop using him like

Like facing him up at the elbow as much as they do right because when he has Defenders creeping in when when teams pack the paint against him and cheat in off the shooters and it’s kind it’s almost like a one4 flat like ISO spacing where he’s at the top of the key

Or kind of at the free throw line and he faces up and he’s got you know guys on either side of him and he’s got help Defenders from the corners the Rockets just aren’t a good enough three-point shooting team for for those Defenders to have to worry about getting back out to

Those Shooters in time so it becomes hard for shingon to find his his pockets his windows and he’s still really good at he can still face up and you know do a Power dribble and then get to his spin move and and body bump and still make

Things happen but I feel like he’s much more effective when you just get him on one side of the floor clear things out and let him go to work right get him the clean postup opportunity and and we saw a lot of turnovers because the Rockets

Just were abysmal at getting him a clean entry pass right because they weren’t they didn’t the right angles they didn’t have you got to have a shooter that passes the ball into Shing cuz if you have if you have a non-shooter passing it into a shingon then the guy is just

Going to cheat off of him so if like am Min Thompson is the guy passing it in the defender doesn’t have to worry about a Min Thompson shooting a three so he’s going to back up and and go kind of you know double you know an early double

Team on shingun on the entry pass and that becomes problematic so I want to see them handle those post-ups a little bit cleaner in this next matchup but and he can use the Baseline as his friend in those situations too because of course it’s much more predictable in terms of

When and if they’re going to come if you have that Baseline as opposed to being at the elbow when they can come from pretty much anywhere yeah absolutely another great point so uh you know the drill bin let every know where to uh track you down at yep uh bendubose on

Twitter SLX uh the Rockets wire on the same and Rockets wire. usatoday.com for all your daily Houston Rockets news coverage that’s going to do it for another edition of locked on Rockets as always thank you so much for checking out the show if you haven’t done so yet please consider subscribing wherever you

Listen to your podcast or on YouTube just search locked on Rockets be sure to like comment and subscribe but as always thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening and we look forward to having you back right here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast

Home for everything Houston Rocket basketball

How Ime Udoka Is Asking Alperen Sengun To Unlock Houston Rockets Offense + Needed Adjustments

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) is joined by weekly cohost Rockets Wire Editor Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) to discuss why Ime Udoka coaches Alperen Sengun harder than any other player on the roster, how Udoka wants Sengun to bait opposing defenses to generate good offense, the adjustment from Sengun in recognizing double and triple-teams, why the Rockets play better when Sengun is used as an offensive facilitator, how the individual struggles of certain players are NOT the fault of Udoka, adjustments ahead of the rematch with the OKC Thunder and more.

Follow Ben & Rockets Wire:https://twitter.com/BenDuBose & https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/

📺 Subscribe On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnRockets

📲 Twitter: https://twitter.com/JTGatlin & https://twitter.com/LockedOnRockets

🎧 Follow/Subscribe/Listen:

Locked On Rockets Anywhere: https://linktr.ee/LockedOnRockets

Locked On NBA Anywhere: https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

If your business wants to advertise on Locked On Rockets, DM Jackson on Twitter or email JacksonTGatlin@gmail.com

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! | Offers: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/offers/

Stitch Fix – Style that makes you feel as good as you look—get started today at StitchFix.com/LOCKEDON

Grammarly – When it comes to writing, Grammarly is there to support you from start to finish. With one click, you can easily and easily brainstorm, rewrite, and reply with suggestions based on your context and goals. Go to grammarly.com/PODCAST to download for FREE today.

Nissan – Our friends at Nissan have a lineup of SUV’s with the capabilities to take your adventure to the next level. Take the Nissan Rogue, Nissan Pathfinder, or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure. Shop NissanUSA.com.

LinkedIn – LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNBA. Terms and conditions apply.

eBay Motors – For parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.

BetterHelp – This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDONNBA today to get 10% off your first month.

PrizePicks – Go to PrizePicks.com/lockedonnba and use code lockedonnba for a first deposit match up to $100!

Gametime – Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase.

FanDuel – Make Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get started.
FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

#HoustonRockets #Rockets #NBA #JalenGreen #AlperenSengun #JabariSmithJr #TariEason #AmenThompson #CamWhitmore #FredVanVleet #DillonBrooks #JeffGreen #JockLandale #ReggieBullock #BobanMarjanovic #AaronHoliday