How Ime Udoka built the Houston Rockets' new identity

AMEN THOMPSON TROTS back in transition defense a half-step too slow, when LA Clippers guard Norman Powell catches a pass on the right wing and attacks during an early possession in the Houston Rockets' road win Sunday. Powell takes a couple of dribbles with Thompson on his hip, bumps him and gets Thompson to bite on a pump fake.

After Thompson watches Powell's floater go through the net, he glances toward the Rockets' bench.

It doesn't happen often, but when the man Thompson is guarding gets a bucket on him, he tends to look toward the sideline to see how his head coach reacts. There isn't much mystery.

"I am bothered," Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka told ESPN.

That's an understatement -- and not an unusual state of mind for Udoka. As Rockets point guard Fred VanVleet put it, "Well, he is always pissed off."

Udoka's brow furls and his eyes narrow when he's disappointed in any of his players' defensive effort. But he's particularly perturbed when Thompson falls short of the coach's high expectations. It's an especially seething sneer any time Thompson gets scored on.

"Imagine the most mad face ever, just staring daggers at you," Thompson told ESPN after a Dec. 1 win over the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, who shot 2-of-10 from the floor with Thompson as the primary defender.

Thompson quietly admits he's amused by the visible angst he sees from Udoka, who has a reputation for orneriness and is as physically imposing as any NBA head coach with broad shoulders on his 6-foot-6 frame. Thompson also appreciates it, considering it's evidence of the confidence his coach has in his ability to be an elite defensive stopper.

"He's not particularly happy when someone scores on Amen," Rockets general manager Rafael Stone told ESPN. "In Ime's world, that should be an impossibility. And if it occurs, it's because Amen did something wrong."

Udoka doesn't expect that type of defensive dominance from every player on the Rockets' roster. But the standards for attention to detail, intensity and toughness do not waver for anyone.

"That's just the bottom line with him," Rockets power forward Jabari Smith Jr. told ESPN. "He lets you play free, but he's going to expect you to play hard. He's going to expect you to defend, and if you're not doing that, you're probably not going to be in the game."

Udoka's personality has been a driving force in the Rockets' rapid ascent from abysmal to awesome on defense during the coach's 20 months on the job. Only Oklahoma City has a stingier defense than Houston, which allows 105.4 points per 100 possessions.

It's a dramatic turnaround that has allowed the Rockets, who are third in the West standings and host the Golden State Warriors in an NBA Cup quarterfinals game Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET, TNT), to return to NBA relevancy sooner than anticipated in the franchise's rebuild.

"Hard-nosed, no bulls---," forward Dillon Brooks said.

"PHASE 2," AS Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta termed it, started when Houston hired Udoka in April 2023.

The Rockets had bottomed out over the previous three seasons -- all part of the front office's plan -- as Houston launched a rebuild when James Harden demanded a trade in 2020. But it was painful nevertheless, as the Rockets averaged fewer than 20 wins over the three-season span with defenses that ranked 27th, dead last and 28th in the league, respectively.

Fertitta's expectation when he hired Udoka was that the Rockets would make the massive leap to being competitive again. Udoka had the coaching credentials, having led the Boston Celtics to the NBA Finals with the league's top-ranked defense during his lone season as a head coach before being suspended and fired for violating team rules by reportedly having an intimate relationship with a female employee.

But he needed veterans who knew how to win and could help create a new culture in Houston.

The Rockets' front office had three free agency targets in mind before it began the coaching search: Brooks, VanVleet and big man Brook Lopez. They all fit Udoka's vision as tough, defensive-minded vets. Lopez changed his mind at the last minute -- after the Rockets had made salary-dumping moves to clear space to sign him -- and returned to the Milwaukee Bucks. But the Rockets landed Brooks and VanVleet, signing them to deals worth a total of $215 million, providing Udoka a pair of relentlessly competitive tone-setters for the defensive turnaround.

"That approach just rubbed off on our whole team immediately," Udoka said. "We can only say so much and teach so much and try to scheme around guys so much. But to have guys out there that do it on a nightly basis that have carved out their niche in the league with toughness and that edge, that defensive mentality, it was invaluable for our team. We needed it."

VanVleet, whose résumé includes a championship ring and an All-Star appearance with the Toronto Raptors, serves as an extension of the coaching staff on the court and in the locker room. According to Udoka, VanVleet sometimes "goes against his natural inclination" and plays "the good cop" because the coach can be so harsh on young players.

VanVleet, like Udoka in his playing days, scrapped to earn a roster spot as an undrafted rookie and approaches the game with an "edge," to use the coach's term.

"He is a little grumpy old dude and half the time he always finds something to be mad at," Udoka said, "and we need that with our team."

Brooks, Stone said, is "locked in every possession of every game, 365 days a year."

The Rockets needed to establish that type of accountability because it was lacking in the early stages of the franchise's rebuild, when prized first-round picks, such as shooting guard Jalen Green and center Alperen Sengun, were guaranteed minutes and developed bad habits while enduring one lopsided loss after another.

There was extreme skepticism around the league that Udoka, as respected as he was for his demeanor and defensive schemes, could construct a solid defense with Green and Sengun in the starting lineup. The Rockets disproved that theory, finishing with the 10th-ranked defense en route to a .500 record last season, a stepping stone to this season's success.

"The reason why we have overall made the jump is the buy-in and improvement from the 'non-defenders,'" Udoka said, referring to Green and Sengun. "The first thing was challenging our guys to obviously take pride in one-on-one defense and then trying to build some schemes around guys to protect them and put 'em in a better position to be successful."

The 22-year-old Sengun is the Rockets' best offensive player, averaging 18.5 points and 5.3 assists per game, but he lacks the length and physical ability to anchor an elite defense. So Udoka doesn't ask Sengun to fill that role.

"Having him in a traditional center-field drop, whatever you want to call it, which we don't do, is a disadvantage for him," Udoka said. "And then you couple that with the guards and wings that they had before and some of the guys we have now that didn't do a great job of navigating through screens, and so it was true 2-on-1s coming downhill at him and putting him in a poor position.

"We want our bigs to be up and be a deterrent on the ball initially while keeping the roller in front of him. So we don't put the onus on the big; we do a ton with our guards to fight through and be more physical on the ball."

The Rockets' rebuild also produced a core of young talent that had havoc-wreaking defensive potential.

Smith, the No. 3 pick in the 2022 draft, is a rangy, 6-11 power forward who is agile enough to defend on the perimeter and has proven adept at protecting the rim when used as a center in smaller, switchy lineups.

Tari Eason, selected No. 17 in that 2022 draft with a pick acquired from the Brooklyn Nets in the Harden deal, has been compared to "a young Kawhi Leonard" by Udoka, who coached Leonard with the San Antonio Spurs. Eason has that sort of frame at 6-8, 216 pounds with long arms and massive hands. He also has that sort of disruptive game, as Eason is the only player in the league averaging at least two steals and one block per game.

Eason and the 6-7 Thompson, whom Stone calls "as impactful a wing defender as exists in the NBA," form arguably the league's most dynamic bench duo.

For Udoka, one of the challenges is anticipating when to let Eason and Thompson unleash their natural playmaking instincts outside of the scheme. That often means gambling by helping off an opponent's star, especially for Thompson, who typically gets the toughest defensive assignment.

"We got the personnel," Brooks said. "We have the length, we have the attributes to play defense and we have the will and passion for it. That comes from Ime."

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Scuffle ensues after Dillon Brooks, SGA fight for the ball

Dillon Brooks gets tangled with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kenrich Williams while fighting for the ball, leading to pushing and shoving into the Rockets bench.

THE ROCKETS AREN'T the prettiest offensive team.

"The most connected, together, tough, hard-playing team is going to win on most nights in the NBA," VanVleet said after Houston's recent win over the Thunder, which was the Rockets' fourth victory this season in which they shot worse than 42% from the floor, twice as many as any other team.

For Houston to become a bona fide contender, the Rockets likely need one of their young players to emerge as the go-to guy capable of being the offensive engine or they need to acquire that sort of superstar in the trade market. Houston has accumulated a stockpile of draft capital that can get the Rockets in conversations for that sort of deal, but team sources are adamant the plan is to take a patient approach, not make a core-altering trade before this season's deadline.

For now, though, the Rockets are one of the league's poorest shooting teams. The Rockets are tied for 27th in effective field goal percentage (50.3%) and true shooting percentage (54.1%).

But Houston manages to be in the middle of the pack in offensive efficiency, tied for 15th with 112.4 points per 100 possessions, for two reasons that are also significant factors in their defensive success. The Rockets rarely turn the ball over and are a relentless offensive rebounding team. Houston's turnover ratio (13.1%) is tied for the fourth lowest in the league; its offensive rebounding rate (34.7%) ranks first. That correlates to the Rockets cleaning up their transition defense, allowing the second-fewest fast break points (11.8 per game) in the league this season after ranking dead last two years ago.

"We basically say the first layer of our transition defense is attacking the glass," Udoka said. "Teams won't leak out as much. And we can still get back. There's not a direct correlation between crashing the glass and not getting back on transition defense. We feel we can do both. And we have."

Of course, the Rockets know better. The choices are to sprint back on defense or sit down. Scheme and personnel play significant roles in Houston morphing into a tenacious defensive team, but the foundation is a mentality and effort level that Udoka demands.

"I think our young guys bought into that and obviously were tired of losing, but a huge part of it is shifting the mentality and doing our part on that end," Udoka said. "Most coaches lose that battle as they go through the season and focus on other things, but understanding how much that impacts winning, that's a nonnegotiable for me."