Ime Udoka Reflects On Houston Rockets Season & Alperen Sengun’s Growth + How It Almost Didn’t Happen

Ime Udoka Reflects On Houston Rockets Season & Alperen Sengun’s Growth + How It Almost Didn’t Happen

On today’s show em odoko reflecting on the Houston Rocket season up to this point what he’s learned about coaching this team in year one and then have you been impressed with alperin shun’s year three leap well it almost didn’t happen we’re going to talk about that and so

Much more on today’s locked on Rockets this is Mission Control Houston ignition sequence start 6 5 4 3 2 1 what’s up and welcome to another edition of lock on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball as always I’m your host Jackson Gatlin native houstonian a

Credentialed 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 lockon Rocket free and available wherever you listen to your podcast including YouTube now today’s episode is brought to you by LinkedIn

Jobs LinkedIn jobs helps you find the qualified candidates that you want to talk to faster post your job for free at linkedin.com loock onba that’s linkedin.com lockon NBA to post your job for free terms and conditions apply and as always thank you so much for making

Lock on Rockets part of your day every single day thank you for being every day whether you’re on the way to work on your lunch break in the gym thank you for making the show part of your day every single day joining us now is your

Weekly co-host the x of the nose man himself alyon bani who can track down on Twitter at Rockets Insider here because we’ve got a couple really incredible articles to to kind of unpack and discuss one written by good friend of the program uh the Athletics Kelly e and then another

Written by Jake fiser of Yahoo sports um both well the the Jake fiser article really concerning Alper and shenon and what could have been with the Rockets uh this season with their pursuit of Brook Lopez so we’ll tackle that you know at some point in this episode because there

Are some tie-ins there as well as with what uh Kelly shared in his article which was a sit down Q&A exclusive with Houston Rockets head coach eeme udoka with udoka kind of reflecting on this rocket season up to this point what he’s learned about himself as a coach what

He’s learned about this group of guys specifically you know Alper and shenon Jaylen green Fred Van vet some of the goals for this team moving forward some of the things that they’re trying to achieve over these last 20 or so games of the regular season and there was a

Lot of good stuff in in both articles Alec com we’re going to kind of start cuz there was there were some really juicy tidbits in the Kelly article and for me one of the things that immediately stood out was just how much em ooca has raved about Alper and

Shingun and I want to highlight that because you know the other day I I I was asked on social you know how I would gauge how the Rockets would kind of evaluate the young core and one of the things that I shared is that the young that they’re probably a little bit lower

On shenon than than you would think given his success this season and I I you know it was a very quick reply I didn’t get a chance to really contextualize that I want to emphasize here that Oka absolutely loves shenon he has you know loved him from the moment

He got to Houston he was really excited about him in the summer his playmaking chops his his offensive versatility these were all things that em odoko was incredibly excited about and he he said as much in the article kind of highlighting Shon strengths the ability to play offense through him and kind of

The adjustment for the team as a whole and for even shenon to have so much responsibility offensively this season adjusting to how teams are scheming against him you know managing double and triple teams generating good looks for his teammates all of that and even comparing him at one point to Joel

Embiid saying that he’s you know a better passer than embiid um but that that he’s coached a lot of really talented big men and been around a lot of really talented big men and that that’s kind of the closest comparison that he had has I I thought it was fascinating the

Way that e was talking about him similar to what he’s talked about him throughout the course of the Season that he’s talented he has these things but he wants to push him he wants him to continue to grow and be mature and e may talk a little bit about that also in

That in the Jake Fisher article later but in regards to the Kelly article I think one thing that eay is e is always honest and there’s there’s a quotee where he says in the Kelly article it’s really about how he adjusts and us putting him in better positions but also

Growing and adapting to the success he’s had this year so far I think it’s like a three-pronged approach there he has to be able to watch the film himself and understand where is a secondary Defender coming from are they coming from the Baseline ordinarily if he’s at the Top

If he’s at the top of the free throw line and you can see the whole floor they’re still sending a double where is that coming from usually he needs to start learning and reacting to you know eventually it’ll slow down for him but he has to start figuring those things

Out then he made points out that we have to put him in a better position where I would venture to say Jackson pulse Allstar break they’re doing just that you’re seeing things in areas of the floor where he likes and you’re actually seeing things closer to the basket a lot

More elbow pick and rolls uh pick and rolls that are away from the perimeter which makes it tougher for a secondary Defender to come over before the play or I’m sorry after the play they would have to already be showing themselves which makes it on easier on him to be able to

Make a read and then lastly growing in adap to the success he’s had this year so far it’s also a mindset when you’re a young player you see success you can get you can you can kind of get used to it and he doesn’t want alpie to get used to

It he wants alpie to continue to fight and know that he can get better and the more criticism but also with praise I think is is Em’s way of fueling alpie and telling you hey buddy doing a good job but there’s still a long ways to go

If you keep working at it absolutely and I think one of the benefits of kind of the way that the Rockets have have really post All-Star break leaned into you know shingon even more so offensively putting him in better spots making him more comfortable is that we’ve actually seen this rocket team go

From being one of the lowest volume three-point shooting teams in the entire Association to post Allstar break they are currently third in three-point attempts in the entire Association they’re shooting 40 and a half three-pointers per game post Allstar break and we knew like pre- Allstar break right this was a thing where the

Team it had this really kind of rugged almost like grit and grit and grind Grizzlies identity where they would win some really ugly he you know Oka talked about it raggedy kind of games um because they just weren’t generating a high volume of Threes right it wasn’t

Uncommon for the Rockets to walk away with you know 25 or 30 you know is three-point attempts and we were even begging earlier in the season thinging this team needs to shoot more they’re getting out maed by opponents quite often a big part of that was the lack of

Three-point shooting overall on the roster so the emergence of Cam Whitmore has been a big part of having additional shooting on the roster um eliminating you know Jan Tate from the rotation another non-shooter who really wasn’t as effective at you know spacing the floor and getting up a high volume of

Three-point shots so that’s been a big kind of effective thing and it kind of Le you know leads into a point that we want to bring up a little bit later on uh that e even talks about you know at one point in the article with Kelly is

Really pushing the pace right really you know generating some better offensive opportunities um through getting out in transition scoring easily in transition and one of the reasons that they didn’t do that earlier this season is because eme came in with a strict goal in mind

And kind of like you know a multi a multi-step approach of how to rehabilitate this roster and his first approach was hey we were a garbage defensive team how do we not be a garbage defensive team they were dead last or second last in the NBA in transition points scored or transition

You know uh points given up last season so how do you eliminate that you take better care of the basketball how do you take better care of the basketball you slow things down right you don’t have these you know fast breaks with Reckless abandon where you go out and you got

Turnovers on turnovers on turnovers live ball turnovers especially which are absolutely Killers When you turn the ball over and another team is able to get out and transition and then score against you so because of that the team slow things down to a crawl early this season basically they put on like the

Bumper rails the the training wheels whatever you want to call it and they did things as safe as possible in order to implement that high level of defense and be able to play more so in the half court now that the team has those principles understood now post All-Star

Break we’re actually seeing them pick up the pace a little bit more numbers that we want to revisit a little bit later in the show yeah and one thing you mentioned about this concept of habits you know eay talks about in The Kelly article and I’m going to read the quote

That it was very fascinating I’ve coached veteran teams in my career and you understand that even with those guys it’s mistakes habits and tendencies you have to try break you have to try to break continually it will take a little bit longer with young guys whether it’s

Half a season full season or whatever the case may be guys learn grow and change at a different pace that’s the end of that part but earlier in that same kind of response he said when you’re relying on this amount of young guys you’re constantly trying to instill

Habits that will carry them for the rest of their careers that was very fascinating like we’re we saw that early success because they were starting to buy in but you know habits are habits they come out sometimes and in the course of a game I’ll give an example I

Think a very prominent example is Cam w more still a rookie but you know um he may talks about with Cam as well he is somebody who knows he can get his he can get his shot he’s been the best player um uh in on his teams probably in high

School and college the NBA is different he has to learn to be able to find the best shot not only for himself but for his teammates and so that’s an adjustment and you’re seeing cam get better over the course of the season but it takes time right and and ultimately a

Lot of these bad habits it takes time I’m seeing the progress from jayen I’m seeing the progress from Jabar all these young players but it’s going to take time and who knows how long it’s going to take I thought it would take post Allstar break uh before the season when

I said hey the Rockets will kind of maybe take a or go go take a Next Step post All-Star break with eem udoka they’re starting to in a lot of different ways because e is adding some things but it’s very fascinating to see how a younger team may take a little bit

Longer Jackson actually right in in in in growing out of these bad habits more on those bad habits in just a moment as well as the uh Fisher article the uh alperin shingon emergence that almost wasn’t because the Rockets were so close to signing Brook Lopez this past off

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Apply and continuing on here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basket continue to unpack this uh eme udoka Q&A with the Athletics Kelly Eco uh link to the article in the episode description uh definitely go check it out it’s fantastic article now at one point uh

Alec on emay was asked by Kelly about kind of just the the timeline you know kind of handling development while also trying to you know maintain competitiveness with this roster um and he was specifically asked about the rookies am Min Thompson and cam Whitmore and in that yeah in that answer EMA kind

Of highlighted um you know what stands out about them and he basically said their competitiveness the athleticism their versatility all those things stand out immediately with all those guys it’s learning they have different skill sets and different things that they do well and poorly minimizing mistakes and then

Trying to maximize their game overall we love what they are and I’m probably coaching them as hard or harder than anybody because I want them to avoid some of the pitfalls and things that our younger guys went through a few years ago trying to instill those habits and

Not build the bad ones and I I you know unfortunately you know this is it is what it is it’s a direct shot at the previous regime um you know for what it was you know for what it is you know the Rockets did not have a lot of structure

Under Steven silus there was a lot of just do whatever you want and I think that’s kind of doveet tales into you know what we’ve seen specifically with Jaylen green this year right is is e odok has had to break a lot of bad habits for Jaylen green and he’s had to

Try and make him a more well-rounded a winning player and he’s still in the process of doing so and I think that we can both agree that while this year has been a bit disappointing from the straight up you know scoring aspect for Jaylen green he’s absolutely improved

Everywhere else in his game we’ve been we’ve been consistent here on L and on social media talking about that element that he absolutely has improved as a Defender he’s improved as a playmaker he’s making better reads on the floor um he’s doing all these little things better it’s just that you know because

He’s had to put so much attention to detail in the rest of his game that I do think it’s been a huge adjustment for him understanding you know how to be effective offensively when in the past he could you know walk into and I believe e even says this at

One point in the article you know that anybody can walk into 20 points if you just get the ball all the time something I’m paraphrasing here but something along those lines basically eem May saying that you know anybody in the NBA could score 20 points 25 a night if they

Get unlimited touches and you can shoot yourself out of a rut or whatever and that’s what Jaylen had the first two years he has doesn’t have that now right he has to learn how to score efficiently and within the flow of the offense he

Has to be able to play both off ball and on ball he has to learn how to cut he has to learn how to move he has to learn how to run sets all these different things and this is a big learning curve for Jaylen uh and it’s probably we

Talked about this earlier this season but it for Jaylen he had he probably had the biggest adjustment of any of the core six to make this year and it seems that you know eeme is still very bought in on on what he can be and and his future success with this team

You know part of it is that he wants jayen to make the right reads right in in the half court and there’s a quote before where he was talking about the offense and um is like did he bring in any offensive principles from from Boston because Boston was very much

Guard guard actions right we’re we’re seeing those guard guard actions with the Rockets but not to the same level or extent we’ve seen it with Boston even today with Boston’s offense but he said something that I thought was interesting I’ve minimized what I have done offensively while our guys are catching

Up you don’t want to install too much or have guys overwhelmed more so thinking reacting and playing and growing in the sets we put in until we can move on and do more that last sentence really stands out to me he says more so thinking reacting and playing and growing in the

Sets we put in until we can move on and do more he wants them to understand when you have a set how to react accordingly how to be able to make reads um postgame e has talked about right jaylen’s learning when that low man is there what is that low man doing

It’s not just about and I’ve talked about on L multiple times this season Jackson it’s not about Jaylen initially getting past that first Defender it’s about okay I know I can get past the first Defender let me not focus on that let me focus on what is that big doing

Down low are and what is that third Defender doing are they rotating over let me make a read based off of the tertiary def line of defense and Jaylen has done that you’re seeing that a little bit more there’s been some passes the last three or four games especially

Post All-Star break to Alper and shenon to others in transition when he’s attacking downhill where I’m like you know jaylen’s still not at the level yet where he’s going to hit a crosscourt pass consistently or take it but he is making better reads once he gets towards

The basket and that’s all you can ask is that growth where it’s low in turnover it’s getting other players in position to score and now that’s opening him up to other things those 10 shots that he I think he was one of 10 from three a few games ago but he was 10

Of 13 from inside the three-point line why because when he started to attack he used some of some of those positions in terms of passing to open things up so part of that is they’re they’re running these kind of introductory sets to get things going and once all of their

Processing improves and gets better then e may can add in some spur sets some sets when he was with Philly some sets when he was with Boston there’s so many sets out there there’s so many variations of things you can do and you’re seeing that post Allstar break

But it takes time you have to break those bad habits build good habits then you can run sets that allows you to Showcase those good habits and I think one of the reasons that we’re seeing you know post Allstar break here Jaylen you know have a little bit more success and

You know by extension you know guys like cam Whitmore and am Min Thompson having some more success is we talked about the pace earlier and E actually eay closed the Kelly article being asked you know what’s your philosophy as it pertains to pace and what has that battle been like

You’ve got a guard who wants to slow things down and another who wants to push Tempo very specifically without naming names right that’s Fred vanet who likes to slow things down play within the half court Jaylen green who’s been very vocal in in some postgame media scrums talking about wanting to play

Faster right wanting to play to his strengths and you know finding that balance has been tough for eeme U but he went on to say we do want to increase Pace especially with all these young guys now am men’s going to play at a different pace than Fred but once we

Solidify certain areas get those down and get our turnovers and shot selection under control we want to build the pace that was a big emphasis coming out of the break in the last few games you’ve seen that and we absolutely have when we look at the numbers for the Rockets post

All-Star break versus pre-all-star break uh as far as their Pace numbers are concerned post All-Star break they are fourth in the NBA and Pace per nba.com they’re fourth in the NBA and Pace um at 102.6 n that’s just that’s solid um a few games ago they were they were kind

Of hovering around first and second so like it’s gone down a little bit Jackson but it’s still it’s it’s it’s much better than it was before Allstar break which I think you have it’s probably 17th correct uh yeah 17th before All-Star Break um and you know I I I

Want to highlight here too that as far as the numbers go so we because we we highlighted earlier right the The increased three-point volume right they’re getting more shots up they’re being a you know a little bit more effective offensively now that the converting on the three-point shots is

Another discussion for another day um they’re still shooting great unfortunately from three I think it’s hovering around 33% um post All-Star break but I did look at some of the lineup data as well for the Rockets um post All-Star break and their starting lineup has increased the pace

Dramatically post Allstar break in 144 minutes post All-Star break the starters are playing with a 103.8 s pace which if we extrapolated that to the entirety in the NBA season that would be good enough for number one in the NBA as far as playing with Pace um and all four of the

Rockets five most used lineups are all well above the NBA’s fastest team this season you know I can go down the list 10746 104.4 one 107.9 five um the only lineup that isn’t uh up there is basically uh the starters with Jeff G or with my I apologize the starters uh with

Amen Thompson instead of Dylan Brooks um which is weird I’m not sure why that lineup is is slower than all the other ones but again again small sample size some of these lineups only have you know 20 minutes 15 minutes here and there so you take that as you will the starters

At least have a sample size of 144 minutes um post All-Star break but I think what this tells us right is that eme has has absolutely pushed these guys to to understand hey we can get these opportunities in transition we can increase Tempo increase the pace a

Little bit um and we’re seeing that right that matches the ey test and I really think that’s that’s again it’s it’s helping some of the younger guys like Jaylen like cam like amen who can and it’s even helping Alper and shenon to a lesser degree right because I think

There’s a misconception about Alp that because he’s a big man and because he’s got this kind of like old school back to the basket postup Style game that he can’t play in a fast-paced offense which is so far from the truth like we see Alp get rebounds and run pretty frequently

Right like when he when alpie has people that are running with him he makes things happen in transition and so he’s very capable of being a big that can actually get out and play with pace and play and transition especially with his his playmaking chops I I I do think it’s

Also really interesting Jackson in regards to the the way the Rockets are currently playing right now the you’re starting to see you know tandems or lineups formed that are also effective together like in aen Tompson with Jaylen green right amen Thompson with Cam and I I really like this lineup from an oncore

And off Court perspective because the numbers back it up to a jayen green came with more lineup and you know we’re St to get this data I I’d like still for them to keep trying to win these games because there’s no there’s no kind of match to playing playoff basketball

They’re likely not going to make the playoffs but the more they keep pushing to try to make a 10 spot the more games they’ll be in against teams that will be scouting them and trying to take away their best option and the more film the coaches will have the more experience

The players will have in understanding these are the weaknesses in my game right now these are how teams and defenses are trying to explore void it and this is what I can do to be successful so a lot of things to come come with this and a lot of really good

Things hopefully for ok and the coaching staff to be able to work with going into the offseason I’m GNA call you bad vibes bani from now on for for saying that they’re not going to make the playoffs how dare you okay we’re we’re we are maintaining the utmost optimism here no

I don’t know look wait we don’t know what’s going to happen at this point if if they if they catch I hope they do man I would love to see the Rockets back in the playoffs I mean granted you saw how fun games are when like that Clippers

Game the crowd was in to it right U but you know I I I love to see the Rockets crowd back at a playoff game that’s always fun so I’m rooting for it let’s see what happens give me a 10- seated Rockets team unfortunately that means

They’d have to win two games on the road to be able to make it into the postseason but and we know how hard Road games have been for them this year but coming up uh we’ve got the Jake Fisher article to tackle the uh alun shenon year three explosion that might have

Been a little bit different had they been able to sign Brook Lopez and bring him into the fold as one of the veteran Acquisitions this off season we’re going to get there in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by LinkedIn when you’re hiring

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Linkedin.com lockon MBA that’s linkedin.com SL loock on NBA to post your job for free terms and conditions apply and final segment here at lockon Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball now this Jake fiser article Al it’s look it’s no secret the Rockets were you know

Pursuing a trio of names this off season a trio of veterans they were oh my God it’s big big news for bani um look they wanted Fred Van they wanted Dylan Brooks and they really wanted Brook Lopez um they were unable to get Brook Lopez we

Know how that played out the Rockets had made the the series of moves and then the Rockets opted to not back out of those series of Moves In order to clear cap space in order to be able to sign Brook Lopez um it looks like he basically

Leveraged um you know the Rockets into a bigger payday with the Milwaukee Bucks and he ultimately elected to stay in Milwaukee this team would look very very different alian had the RO been able to sign Brook Lopez and we would not have gotten well let me I I’ll I’ll I’ll back

That up a little bit I won’t say we wouldn’t have gotten this year three leap from Alper and shenon but it wouldn’t have looked the same because even though playing time would be different 100% playing time would be different starting lineup would probably be different because again e knew that

He needed vets to provide stability and structure to this lineup now even though and and I I maintained this and I talked about this originally when the rumors were out there and what the Rockets would look like if they had signed Brook Lopez there was definitely a world where

Eeme has used dual bigs in the past and I definitely think there was a world where Brook Lopez and Albert andu would have had time sharing the court with one another but there’s no way that the starting lineup would have been Brook Lopez and alperen shenon like at the

Four five and there’s no way that you’re signing Brook Lopez to that payday and bringing him in to not start now maybe he would have come in as the starter originally and Alp through hard work through his determination through his play would have earned that starting spot back especially because we we’ve

Seen the year three explosion that he’s taken and we’ve also seen a little little bit of honestly regression from Brook Lopez this year in Milwaukee so if all those stay the same then yeah I think there’s probably an argument to be made that you know a transition would

Have taken place but I I it’s honestly one of those things where the Rockets are kind of lucky that the Brook Lopez thing didn’t happen because now we’re seeing Alper and shingon play like a star right he’s he’s having an All-Star caliber season didn’t get the nod this

Year unfortunately um but the numbers are there and this is the one player so far for the Rockets of the core six that has been able to solidify himself as an All-Star caliber player the the piece that you can clearly most build around right now now what is the Upward Bound

Ceiling of an Alber and shingon Lead team we don’t know yet but we also don’t know what shingon ceiling actually is yet we just know that he’s the best player on the team and the sooner you can start putting the right pieces around him then the

Better I I I do think it’s also fascinating Jackson that if you look at kind of his growth and development and kind of Jake fiser talks about it too defensively how things would be different right so Brook Lopez was going to be brought in to be a shot blocker

Right and I want to read you this quote it’s a long quote but it’s it really shows how reflective Al shenon was when all this news was coming out about Brook Lopez he says quote I didn’t understand that as Brooke was going to come and I

Need to I I just know I have to do a better job on defense if you want to win you have to be a winner winner player you have to everything on the court I mean Brook Lopez is a really good player a really good defensive player you know

But I mean he’s a good shot blocker I don’t think he’s as good one-on-one player as me we have different physical body like he’s so tall he’s big he can block all the shots I know I can’t block all the shots I know that I don’t have

Long arms I’m not that tall I just need to be where I have to be and just stay vertical to jump straight up and just make that job make their job harder I I I want to I want to that’s the end of the quote but I want to say something on

That growth in development from Shang gun as a defensive player last year in about 24 minutes of playing time okay he averaged around I think three three and a half fouls per game okay just freshing know his first two seasons combined he averaged around three and a half fouls a

Game for like 24 minutes played this year in about 32 33 minutes per game played he’s averaging around three and half so last year was on averaging on Pace about four five five fouls a game if you play more than 30 minutes now it’s around three that is so much more for

You because you can still rely on Alp to be there in the closing moments with three fouls you can you can also run an LP to be aggressive defensively if he needs to because like he talked about here his strength is staying staying vertical saying all these things I’d

Argue one of his strengths is his hands and be able to create deflections and Steals and being able ble to in pick and roll whenever he is in drop or high drop getting into the passing lades and creating deflections him and Fred together I don’t have a stat on this I’m

Just doing ey test but when him and Fred Van Fleet are both involved in pick and roll and then the backline is in good position right it all depends on the backline and Fred and Alp can afford to be aggressive almost always you see them you know obstruct a passing lane or all

Get a hand on it and I do think that’s not that’s by Design but e putting those players in positions to be successful he’s learning where they are now and I think now with shenon you can play more of a perimeter oriented defense because you know that he can hold his own in

Terms of using his arms and being smart with his arms in his hands to be able to get things for you so um I I I think it’s a big credit to Alp but also a big credit to the Rockets coaching staff of making this R young Rockets team the

Seventh best defense in the NBA and Alper was incredibly complimentary of the Rockets coaching staff basically saying uh e is a perfect coach he’s the best coach I’ve ever had probably but not just em our whole coaching staff is amazing everybody’s doing a great job everybody wants to win I’ve never seen a

Coaching staff like this in my life and when you see you understand they’re tough they’re talking to us they’re not scared of anything and I and I really feel like right you know an NBA team is ultimately usually a reflection of the coaching staff right they they embody a

Lot of the traits that the coaching staff kind of passes along to them um take on taking on the identity of their head coach and the rockets have absolutely this season taking on the identity of imodoka they’re hard-nosed they’re gritty they don’t back down from any they’re not afraid of any team they

Go in every single night with the belief and and genuinely the capability to win any game they step foot into um now there are certain pitfalls they have from a talent perspective from a shooting perspective some nights but they don’t hang their head we’ve seen

This team get down by as many as 15 20 25 whatever and they fight and Claw their way back into games and we’ve talked about this with our other weekly co-host Bose but you know this team is so close they’re they’re right there on the precipice of being so good you know

They they’ve dropped a lot of games in crunch time this season and that’s not an uncommon thing for young teams to do right they they’re still figuring themselves out they’re still understanding um where and how to be effective how to close games out um we saw it just the other night against the

Clippers right a few different things could have gone a few different ways in the closing moments of that game and we’re talking about you know a Rocket’s win versus the Clippers instead of you know an unfortunate loss uh I will say to your point about alp’s quick hands

And Fred right I think you can you can look back no uh no longer than just a few days ago against the San Antonio Spurs that game was almost a perfect example of how when alpie and Fred are both incredibly active defensively with their hands they’re great at generating

Turnovers right playing passing Lanes um I don’t know how many different times we saw alpie in that game either kind of poke the ball away from Victor on a postup or you know uh tip away an entry pass that kind of thing and I think when when shingun is given more freedom

Defensively he has risen to the challenge and and really excelled at being a good Defender when when given that trust to perform defensively um you know in Pre you know previous years he was stuck in a drop coverage and you know I think uh Jake Fisher refers to it

As like trial by Hellfire right just you know getting scorched every single night um and it sucks because it was just it it wasn’t very creative it was unfortunate and you know shingon was often times made to be the scapegoat of the Rockets defensive woes when realistic the whole team with Swiss

Cheese and putting shingun into drop coverage do does no favors to him I hope I hope people are realizing now and we’ve talked about this you know sh shenon like the foul issue was there like I’m not going to say that he did not have a play or a fall in it and

We’ve talked about this extensively last year but it’s also about your point of attack right like if your point of attack defense is not good does not matter how good of a sha blocker or sha deter or kind of paint Defender your big is right using different terminologies because they’re all different players

But you know Alp can do what Alp does without fouling and stay consistent but he still needs on ball Defenders to be able to limit the amount of penetration that occurs or to be able to funnel them towards where they want that when they where the defense wants to on the floor

And that just wasn’t happening the last two years you’re seeing Jaylen be better at point of attack you’re seeing Jabari actually and something that I did not see happening this early or see him falling to this Rule now becoming more of a weak side shot blocker or a

Better weak Side Health Defender you know Jackson I was very vocal about Jabari not knowing when to help and when when to stay in the corner he’s done a much better job of reading offensive offensive um sets this season and making decisive moves on when to be able to

Help and deter at The Rim versus when to stay back and help on rotation so Jabari has been great as well so you’re starting to see these principles all these different things come into place and it he may have this quote for Alp but I really think this quote can apply

For a lot of the players his IQ and his skill set is all there is just a matter of maturing and kind of kind of taking that step and he’s done that alp’s taking that step hopefully Jabari and jayen continue to do so amen and cam Ken

And when tar comes back he continues to take those steps because if they can all take those steps and hone in on these principles and make it a good habit for them a consistent good habit this team’s you know ceiling is that we probably can’t even imagine right now you know I

Want to highlight one more thing here before we wrap things up and this was actually closer to the beginning of the Fisher article but just to to illustrate alp’s mindset right this is a guy that was drafted by the rockets and yes the Rockets should get credit for uh

Swinging the trade and and and picking up alpie just outside of the lottery when so many other teams overlooked him um when even when you can revisit interviews that alpie has done where he thought he was going to go you know inside the lottery where he thought he

Was going to go top 10 where he thought he was going to maybe go to the the Spurs or the Sacramento Kings and and those all those teams W up passing on him and the rockets were the team that ultimately walked away with the prize uh

One of the what looks like one of the best players from that draft class now um but the Rockets did kind of they marginalized him right the couple years they did they didn’t really buy into him they they started Christian Wood and Daniel Ty ahead of him and then credit

To the coaching credit to the front office once they realized how good Alp he was they swung a Daniel Ty trade they open up some minutes for him but even then the following year right we saw we saw the team opt for Bruno Fernando to start over Alper and shenon because he

Was going to be a better complimentary piece for the pieces that they really did believe in which was Jaylen green and Kevin Porter Jr at the time um and even this most recent offseason right they were ready to and willing to bring in Brook Lopez because they thought that

That was going to be the answer at the five so alpie has had you know obstacle after obstacle after obstacle in front of him and his quote to to Jake fiser talking about you know potential the potential of Brook Lopez coming into into Houston he said you don’t want to

Lose your spot but if Lopez was coming I was ready for a fight that’s the mentality that Alper and shun has that is a dog mentality that is a star mentality that is I’m going to earn whatever I can get and I’m going to fight and Claw and this is exactly what

He’s had to do in Houston and the sooner that the Rockets organizationally all come to terms with the fact that this guy is their best shot at playing competitive basketball and the sooner that they recognize that this is their franchise Guy moving forward at least for the time being until if somebody

Else emerges right if a Min or cam or if Jaylen figures out his consistency problems and is able to get to a place where he can play consistent star- level ball awesome then maybe you can have multiple pieces that are on the same level but right now Al brening is a

Clear Cut Above everybody else and the sooner the organization realizes that the better off they’ll be for it so I wanted to highlight that before we wrap things up because I do think that that alpie has all the makings he’s got the talent the drive the mental to be a star

In in today’s NBA we already know in fact no he’s already a star in today’s NBA how much of a star can he be right can he become a top 25 top 20 top 15 type guy he’s putting up numbers that that say he can be that one day um he’s

Not there yet but I have high hopes for him yeah absolutely for him um it he’s he’s he’s been just so impressive and I think now these last handful of games you’re starting to see this kind of that vision of or his vision improve his his dissection of defensive coverages

Improve um the ability to now consistently score one-on-one but when the secondary defense comes knows hey I have to do this to also find my own shot it’s not just about finding shots for others how do I effectively find my own shot within the flow of the offense and

You’re starting to see th those things happen so know I’m excited to kind of see what what happens over the course of the season for me man in these kind of final handful of weeks that we have watching Rockets basketball it’s about staying competitive being there towards

The last few weeks of the season and having this team play play meaningful basketball so we can get defenses honing in on the Rockets so we can have a better understanding of what are their weaknesses going into next year we want your thoughts on everything that we

Discussed in today’s show let us know in the YouTube comments we read those every single day but alyon you know the drill let everybody know where to track you down at well shout out to Jake fiser and Kelly EO for incredible work with their articles is honestly it’s been

Refreshing to be able to hear and understand from the players perspective and the coaches perspective and also quick um Ramadan Mubarak and wishing a successful and prosperous Ramadan to all of our Muslim Rock lock on Rockets listeners as they embark on that coming up here in the next few days but you can

Follow me on Twitter at Rockets Insider and looking forward to talking to you next week Jackson 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 whether 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

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Ime Udoka Reflects On Houston Rockets Season & Alperen Sengun’s Growth + How It Almost Didn’t Happen

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) is joined by weekly cohost Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) to discuss head coach Ime Udoka’s thoughts reflecting on the Houston Rockets season so far, Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green’s growth, his coaching style, playing with more pace post-All Star Break and more as well how different this year would be for the Rockets and Sengun if they had signed Brook Lopez this past offseason.

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UDOKA ARTICLE: https://theathletic.com/5315924/2024/03/05/ime-udoka-rockets-interview-jalen-green/

SENGUN ARTICLE: https://sports.yahoo.com/impressed-with-alperen-senguns-impressive-breakout-well-it-almost-didnt-happen-162352087.html

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