Rockets' Ime Udoka Draws Praise for Adjustments Without Fred VanVleet

Ime Udoka has been one of the NBA's young, rising head coaches, dating back to his debut season with the Boston Celtics, a year in which he led the team to the NBA Finals.

As a rookie head coach.

A workplace misconduct investigation caused his Celtics career to end after just the 2021-22 season.

Udoka one-upped his Celtics performance with the Houston Rockets, taking over a team that averaged 20 wins in the three seasons prior to his arrival and leading them to the second-best record in the gauntlet that is the Western Conference.

Heading into this season, the Rockets were dubbed by many as the biggest threat to the Oklahoma City Thunder's chances of defending their championship (which hasn't been done since the Golden State Warriors repeated in 2017-18).

However, a catastrophic and season-ending knee injury to floor general Fred VanVleet changed the calculus quite a bit.

And it sent Udoka scrambling for an internal replacement, as Houston has no viable path for an external replacement before December 15th.

Yet and still, the Rockets rank first overall in offensive rating and third overall in points per contest.

And that wasn't even Udoka's area of expertise.

Udoka's adjustments without VanVleet have drawn praise from CBS Sports John Gonzalez.

"That unfortunate turn of events also forced Houston to adapt. Maybe they don't have an obvious traditional point guard and that certainly complicates matters, but head coach Ime Udoka saw the situation as an opportunity.

Shortly before the season started he pointed to Houston's significant size as a potential advantage and figured there would be nights when they doubled down on "bully ball"."

The writer continued.

"Houston has a ton of big, disruptive bodies to throw at the opposition. Just five years removed from the diminutive Pocket Rockets, Houston has supersized its lineup.

While running double bigs has become increasingly fashionable in the NBA, the Rockets have leaned into a jumbo-sized roster better than most."

Gonzalez pointed out Houston's drawback to playing a bigger lineup.

"Being large and in charge has mostly worked out, but without a reliable ball-handling guard it has also made the Rockets susceptible to turnovers."

To that point, Houston ranks second in turnovers, to the tune of 17.6 turnovers per game.

The double-big lineup was going to be a thing, with or without VanVleet, due to its success last season.

However, the Rockets haven't been using the double big lineup as the starting rotation, as Josh Okogie has been inserted into the starting lineup, while Steven Adams has been relegated to the bench.

That's another adjustment that Udoka should get praise for, as Okogie has been a splendid addition.

He knows his role and plays it well.

The Rockets sit fifth in the Western Conference right now, even though they have some clear kinks to work out.