Ime Udoka Joins the Show Ahead of Trail Blazers Matchup

Ime Udoka Joins the Show Ahead of Trail Blazers Matchup

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is twelve oh one on Sports Talk seven OUTI
it is a Matt Thomas Show with Ross Ross Off
this week MT with you here until two pm. We're
gonna spend ten minutes right now with the head coach
of your Houston Rockets, who picked up his one hundredth
career victory as the head coach of the Houston Rockets,
Ema Doka, with us here on the show. Coach, thanks
for the time. Congratulations A pretty fast run to one hundred,

(00:21):
my friend, It's got a lot more to go onfortunately
for us.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, it's a nice little mouse on to hit.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
But you know, with the team we have in our expectations,
I think that was kind of foregone conclusion.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
But we're looking for bigger things. Anyway, you ran some.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Youth teams when you were still playing in the NBA. Correct,
I mean, so this, this coaching bug was part of
your assistant for a long time, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I sponsored au team out of Portland, Oregon or some
of the guys on staff, Mike Mozy, Garrett Jackson were
part of the team. So I started way back then,
did some coaching clinics at the Show Basketball Players Association
three four summers in a row, and it's early.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Who was the coach he made that was the guy
that said, all right, I'm gonna follow this guy's path.
I want to be the head coach ultimately at the
highest level.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Who told me that or who.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Was your biggest influence?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
I'm curious, obviously Pop.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
You know, Pop offered me my first job, you know,
when I was still finishing my career and kind of
expedited the process. I wanted to play a few more years,
and he gave me a great opportunity. So spent seven
seven years coaching with him before I went to Philly
Brooklyn in Boston and played two and a half years
from so the longest playing career with him, playing the
team I played with, and then coaching. Obviously, so he's

(01:41):
been the biggest influence on me by far.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
You made a donker with us here on seven hine
eighty coach last night Washington. We knew defensively just not
very good. Giving up the most points in the league
eighty one. You'll take all the time. Doesn't happen a lot,
but a combination of you took advantage of their deficiencies
on the defensive side with some hot shooting. How did
you see how the first twenty four minutes in particular
went for you against the Wizards.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
It was good.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Obviously, you got off to a great start of forty
point first quarter, it is always nice, and then forty
one in the second, so we were consistent there. But
you know, we didn't just want to get in the shootout,
go up and down. We wanted the fan at a
high level as well, and so to hold them the
fifty four in the first half was great as well.
I think a lot of times when you play an
inferior opponent, a lot of times you relax and just
getting to that up and down, open gym style game.

(02:29):
But we wanted to maintain our discipline on defensive end, obviously,
share the ball, and.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Only three turnovers in the first half.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Twenty assists in the first half. All those are great numbers.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
The turnover number has been something that you've talked about
on a semiregular basis, and sometimes they're influential in games
I even in San Antonio and maybe against Oklahoma City.
Do you feel like things are getting a little bit better,
that we're going back to more of the norm, because
especially that first half, as you're not only scoring all
those points, but you guys took tremendous care of the basketball.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, it's been an emphasis since day one. I think
when you look at the Oklahoma City game, you know,
giving up twenty eight twenty eight points on twenty five
turnovers in a double overtime loss, that really stands out.
And then to your point, thirty three points in San
Antonio giving up off of our turnovers. So we know
what we can look at when we lose certain games.
Specific things and taking care of the ball is one
of our main main points of emphasis.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
You know, he's scoring eighty one points.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
And us being the best offense, the rebounding a team
in the league where almost like this, get shots up
and we'll have a good chance to get it back
if we miss. But that's not turning over and field
teams in transition.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
You may this has been I don't know if it's
a four or five game stretch now for Reid, He's
come off the bench for you and has really provided
some nice offense. He's also very active in terms of
stealing the basketball. Turnovers have been Okay, did the light
bulb just turn on or is this the midges just
making the most of his opportunity he've been given to him,
especially now that Fred's gone for the season.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
It was gonna be a little bit of both.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
You know, he gained some experience last year, but getting
this opportunity to play now, it's always going to help
a young player, and just being aggressive and confident is gonna.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Those things are gonna show up in the stats sheet.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Offensively, we want him to take those shots, make the
right plays, and you know, be a backup point guard
and play some off ball off of LPNKD, but also
defensively take on the challenges.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
And he's done that.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
You know, we stick to the assignment, to the game plan,
and he's just a really a really good smart plug
for us. Every team has that and we want him
to be that for us.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Then, the offense in this league, just in your game
last night, the league in general, we are seeing some
incredible performances. And you and I have talked about this
at least once before about usually sometimes the offensive ahead
of the defense, but it feels like, I mean we're
talking about it. Most teams have played at least ten,
eleven twelve games. These offensive production numbers are incredible. Are

(04:47):
we gonna see this for a forty two, or do
you think it's gonna regress a little bit at some point.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Or youd think it would come down and teams would
be a little more stingsy on defensive eventually. But you know,
teams played towards their strengths and a lot of time,
you know, a lot of those teams are really gifted offensively.
Try to get in those shootouts and like I said
to our team, like I said, quite often we can
do it on both sides. And so we're scoring at
a great pace. Uh, but we still want to not
to get our identity and what gave us success the

(05:13):
last two years. So improve defensively, continue to talk communicating
our zone specifically, and start to hold teams down to
those lower numbers. And when we're scoring, you know, one, ten, twenty,
we should win easily.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
If you and I were talking during the preseason and
I said to the first ten games of the season,
the Rockets would be the number one team in three
point percentage, would you have said, all, that's nice and
a pleasant surprise, or would you have said to me more,
we better be.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
No, it is a great surprise. It's not not unexpected
that teams are going to guard Opera and Kevin the
way that they do, and that's going to lead to
some wide open shots. And so credit to our guys
for putting in the work in the offseason. Obviously, our
numbers weren't where we wanted them to be last year.
But when you're getting these wide open looks, the percentage
are going to go up.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Confidence is going to go up.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
And you continue to work off with Kevin and the
Opera and with the double teams, guys are going to
be shipping into those open shots.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
It feels like to me, I may please tell me
if I'm wrong. It's a lot of teams. Guys will
use a slidestep to get a little bit of a
better angle. It feels like to me this year it's
a lot of catch and shoot from your guys. That
the guys are positioning themselves well that once the ball
reaches their hands, they're letting it fly pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, our spacing has gotten much better. Anytime we have success,
it's been a large part due to that. And when
we haven't, guys have kind of been out out of
their spots. But we're really encouraging guys to be aggressive,
not pass up any shots and Like I said, we're
such such a great offensive rebounding team that we know
teams are gonna double, they're gonna be in scramble mode,
and it's gonna lead to some mismatches on the glass

(06:42):
as well, and so get the shot up, not pass
up shots. So guys are kind of learning on the
fly as far as that. You get some guys early
in the season passed up some shots and you don't
always get a better look, And so we're encouraging them
to be aggressive and then hammering the glass like always
of Steven out being Clint.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
A couple more minutes here with he made You know,
I don't remember much about Steven Adams early in his career,
but I've obviously watched it intently the last four or
five years and last couple of year in Houston. Is
he playing the best in terms of just not only
getting his fair share of offensive rebounds, the putbacks, the
pick and rolls, and then he's able to now hit

(07:18):
some free throws. Is is he even exceeding what you
thought he could bring to this team when you first
originally brought him here.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I wouldn't say I'm surprised at all.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
If you've coached against him or you're played against him,
you know what he's all about. You know, he does
a lot of the things that don't always show up
on the stat sheet. But one of the best screen
setters in the league. Defensively, really smart, has a high
Q and then offensive rebounds is one of the things
he's been great at throughout his career. So more of
the same guys that played against him or played with him. No,

(07:48):
he attracts all the attention on the boards and frees
it up for other guys. But he's gonna get his
five six a game himself, it feels like, and those
are obviously boosting our numbers. But I think more than anything,
to put back to some of the things you mentioned,
is due to health and rhythm. Getting back after being
out for almost two years, and you can kind of
see his legs and him and training camp. He was
just a different player than started last year.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
You have a huge sports performance department that monitors just
about everything what these guys do in terms of eating
and resting and working on and playing and how they
do during the game. The Rockets have kind of caught
a break. We've played some of the least number of
games so far this year, it's gonna eventually catch up.
So how do you kind of manage that knowing that
we're going to be in a spot here not before
long where there are some back to backs and there's

(08:28):
gonna be some three games in four nine situations.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, well, we'll discuss that and take a look at,
you know, scheduling and who we need to play, who
we need to rest based on that schedule and matchups
and things of that nature. But for now, we haven't
had any early I think it's helping us out and
getting guys' legs and rhythm and conditioning under them. But
that's where our depth comes into play. You know, you
brought Clint here for a reason, and Josh and Dory

(08:53):
and they'll be back eventually. And so when guys do
have to rest, some guys coming off injuries or surgery,
we have capable. As you've seen in the past, I
feel like we have a three deep roster at every
position that can come in and contribute.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Last question for you, the loss of San Antonio stung
because that was a game you felt like you could
have won. It was also an nd season tournament game.
You got one of those coming up tomorrow night. Do
you now we've done this a few years, are you
sensing any extra juice in the guys and maybe even
even more of a importance on tomorrow night's game, because
obviously you guys enjoyed being in that tournament last year

(09:26):
and having to go to play in Vegas with a
chance to win it all.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah, it's something we don't really talk about, but guys
know it's there, and obviously to give to lose that
game to San Antonio being at the first one, I
think was something that we want to get back on
the right step, regardless it's a Western Conference opponent and
trying to maintain a certain standard, regardless of what the
implication is. But everybody knows about the n season tournament.

(09:50):
We got there last year and we want to take
another step this year by winning it.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Well, I'm all for that. Thank you for the time
as always, We'll see you tomorrow night against the new
Portland Troublesers appreciate the visit as always, Thank you guys,