Houston Rockets Practice: Ime Udoka talks Amen Thompson and Kevin Durant
[Music] have to have a little bit of a break here before you go into that. It’s good. I think anytime we can kind of recharge and get some practice days for us. Energy is always good coming out of the break. A little hungry to play again. I think our game days good energy, but it’s always good to kind of take a dive into what we’ve done for 21 games and uh look at some friends and then goes on. Coach, how would you assess, you know, these first 20 games? Obviously early in the season, uh, but how would you assess, especially with the integration of KD? I think we’ve been we’ve been good. Uh, you know, we want to be great, but I think we’ve been good overall. You look at the record 15 and six. Um, there’s some positives there, but you also feel like we’ve let some slip away and try to find areas where we’ve grown or had some slippage in it. So, overall good. Um, so we’re trying to be good and good. So what we looked at, you know, today was um you know, where we were at the first 10 games and what was happening in the last 11. See some good and bad trends overall, but um for the most part when we were plus minuses where we’re at and um offensively and defensively where we’re at, we’re taking some good strides, especially good for some with Kevin being integrated, but um we understand we there’s a whole another level we can get to. As someone who played in the league, you know, the ups and downs of grind of the NBA season. Um, for Katie to be doing it for 18 years at such a high level, what impresses you the most for still be doing it right now? 19. 19. Um, I would say the consistency and his approach every day. Um, never gets bored with the process of, you know, trying to be great and he’s here with his pace and game speed and everything he does in his workouts. And so, you know, he’s not a surprise why he gets in the game and does what he does. You saw his behind the scenes. uh work, you understand why. And I think you just can’t get complacent or content with what you’ve had, accolades and all those things. Just continue to grind to to try to be great and help elevate us. To that point, do you notice a difference of what he might do behind the scenes when you when he was in picking versus now that he’s getting a little bit older? Yeah, I think the work ethic and that that stuff doesn’t change. Um, you know, he’s talked to some of our younger guys about going game speed and making it realistic. And so, um, that rubs off on guys, but behind the scenes is the leadership is a little bit different here. Um, you know, you got the older group there with James Harden and Kyrie and some guys where you don’t have to teach or be as vocal at times, but with our younger group, especially starters that he’s starting with most of the time, um, he understands he has to take on some more of that. So, he’s always going to lead by example. But, um, pulling out his side and, you know, being a coach on the floor and you know, some of the things that Fred did, um, he was here last year and prior years, I think he’s he’s taking on some of that. Of course, our man is, you know, already one of the better defenders in the entire NBA. Does a little bit of everything, but what’s some of the things you talk to him about on the offensive end that you want to see him improve on and kind of help him take that next step? Yeah, biggest thing is recognition. And I think overall um you know point guard is one of the toughest spots to play and understanding when to be aggressive, when to you know pull back a little bit and you know your guys involved and so he’s finding that balance but uh you know continue to be to be aggressive and confident in the work you put in this summer with your mid-range shot. um you know over penetrating at times. We want to take the the simple shot and take what’s there. But um I said game by game after 20 games he’s taking some steps offensively as far as the point guards we need to continue to go as far as that over that second set of 10 games. Feel like the defense maybe had an uptick outside of the second game on Saturday. you know, we were we were much better and we, you know, we were after the first 10 games, we’re a second in the league and so understanding what got us there. Um, you know, we created more turnovers. Uh, I think the main thing is defensive rebounding. Anytime we have some struggle is to do that with our our size. That shouldn’t be an issue for us, but that’s the biggest thing overall. Well, I think defensive sometime games push those numbers up, but better across the board schematically. We’re figing out some things there as well. Now, right now, can I ask you off the court question? Morgan made it to the college football playoffs. What chance do you get in that last chance? I I’m not looking that far ahead, but James Madison is a great person. I think when you’re looking at second round, you know, you got Texas Tech, Ohio State, [Music] Ohio State, Texas Tech, the other team there, Indiana, and I can’t remember the 14. Texas Tech is probably the team that you would like out of those four. So, you look at James Madison, Texas Tech over the others, and I think they are on a good uh course.
Houston Rockets Practice: Ime Udoka talks Amen Thompson and Kevin Durant.
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1 comment
19!