If reports are to be believed, the Houston Rockets have already made a decision on one of the biggest questions of the offseason. According to The Athletic’s Kelly Iko, the Rockets have “no plans” to move on from either Ime Udoka or Rafael Stone.
The report
says:
“At this juncture, there are no plans to move on from either Udoka or general manager Rafael Stone. Ownership has remained steadfast in its belief in a three-pronged leadership sector because of a combination of the turnaround in recent years and consecutive 50-win seasons, the latter of which was marked by major injuries, resulting in confidence from the top down.
“One of the prevailing internal beliefs concerning this roster is assuming that Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams are healthy, along with Durant, the Rockets aren’t too far removed from Western Conference powers Oklahoma City and San Antonio.”
So there you have it, folks. It’s sounding like the coach and GM are staying. I’m not ready to give up on Rafael Stone just yet, but Udoka is trying my patience — like he is for many Rockets fans. It would be nice to see Udoka welcome an offensive coordinator, but I wonder if he’s too much of a control freak for that to be sucessful.
That leaves any potential Rockets changes to come via the lineup, and my biggest fear is sounding like it might also be close to coming true — that the Rockets make no roster changes and simply run it back with Adams and FVV and keep their fingers crossed.
The team needs more bandling and shooting and less forwards, and I don’t think that’s a secret to anyone. They also need another big, since Clint Capela isn’t used much by Udoka. I’d personally love to see the Rockets trade Durant. With KD not getting any younger, how many years does he have left at this level? One? Two? I think the one thing we learned this year is that the Rockest are more than one or two years away. For this reason alone, I’d like to see the Rockets move KD for assets that allow the Rockets to retool in a sort of soft rebuild. That’s to say nothing of the KD burner incident that compromised another locker room, especially since it’s essentially been released that it was all true.
While we wait on roster changes, however, get ready for more Rafael Stone and Ime Udoka. It appears that they’re not going anywhere.
