Team record reveals the Rockets offseason mentality: Still trust Jaylen Green or have given up KD& Booker?

Translator's note: This article was originally published from The Athletic, and the authors are Kelly Iko and Sam Amick. The data in the article are as of the original article as of May 12 local time (local time). The views in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform.

It has been six years since Mike D'Antoni directed the game on the sideline of the Toyota Center, but the pain of losing to the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 playoffs is still burning like a new injury.

"We thought we could beat them," D'Antoni said in a phone conversation last month. "We could have won that series... You need some luck, some favorable penalty, and a key goal. The secret to the championship is that you have to have many factors to overcome that hurdle. It's just that fate is not on our side."

D'Antoni was talking about his Rockets in 2019, but that also applies to current head coach Ime Uduka's team, who were eliminated by the same team in the tiebreak. As the Rockets usher in a critical summer, they were eliminated by the Warriors again, and the choices they faced seemed familiar. The team is now at a crossroads - whether to continue to train young players or pursue stars - this choice may open the door to progress and may lead to stagnation of development.

In the 2018-2019 season, D'Antoni's team achieved regular season record of 65 and 53 respectively. In the first year, they lost to Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and head coach Steve Cole in the Western Conference Finals, and the following year they lost to the same opponent in the Western Conference semi-finals. Two weeks ago, Uduka suffered a similar fate, the second time he had lost to the Warriors in the playoff series in the past five seasons as a coach. The tiebreaker battle may become a turning point for this team. Uduka was frustrated. He thought he had found a way to defeat his opponent, and in his opinion, the opponent's team was not as strong as his own. What makes him even more uncomfortable is that this feeling is not the first time that it has happened - in the 2022 NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics he coached were defeated by the Warriors three consecutive games while leading 2-1.

Despite disappointment, this playoff loss is a necessary experience for the inexperienced Rockets. Many young players on the team are on the playoff stage for the first time and this shouldn’t be their last.

"Uduka has created an incredible team trait for them," Kerr commented on the rising Rockets, "Tough and tenacious, you know what kind of confrontation you will face when playing against them."

Although Uduka's team is talented and full of fighting spirit, it is not yet ready to welcome such a stage. But this bodes well for the future, with Uduka's expectations for the upcoming offseason and next season growing day by day.

"We have taken steps, which is not only reflected in the record, but also in the growth and perception of players," Uduka said. "As the coaching staff and the team, we always desire more - whether it is selfish or greedy, whatever you want - so we are not satisfied with such an ending. We feel that we should continue to compete, but there is a lot of learning experience that will help us move forward in the future. Everyone's goal is to get better and return with a stronger attitude. This is a crucial offseason for everyone."

When the Rockets learned of their first round opponent on Wednesday afternoon, a familiar scene appeared in the training center: long after the training ended, Uduka was still having an in-depth conversation with Amen Thompson.

Amen Thompson and Uduka understand each other, and they have similar personalities - top competitive genes and defensive instincts. Houston has no way to completely limit superstars like Curry, but hopes to offset their influence are largely placed on Thompson. This season, Thompson established himself as the Rockets' most comprehensive and aggressive defender. The 22-year-old was a substitute at the beginning of the season and Amen was transferred to the starting lineup in January after Jabbarry Smith broke his non-shooting hand during training. Since then, Amen has refreshed almost all the high-level defensive data at the end of the regular season, becoming Houston's most important defensive player and a core figure in Uduka's tactical system.

"In many ways, he set the tone with Dillon Brooks, Fred Van Freit and others," Uduka said. "Since he entered the starting lineup, we have felt his comprehensiveness everywhere on the court. He is a player who can defend multiple positions. This may be one of the key reasons, because he can defend almost any type of player and is extremely destructive at the defensive end. We rely on him to complete these tasks throughout the season."

Uduka has been able to work with Thompson and the entire Rockets because of his own career experience as a tough defensive player.

In preparation for the first round of the series, Uduka and his coaching staff held what they called "second training camp" a week before the first game. During this period, the tactical concepts were re-organized, key links were strengthened, and a large number of video analysis was carried out.

As a player and coach, Uduka has experienced the playoffs and is well aware of the key points of playoff preparation. He made his own game plan.

"As a coach and a player, the feeling is different," Uduka said. "When you prepare for the game as a player, you may just need to understand the basic tactics. But as a coach, you need to keep all the details in mind. As a player, just prepare mentally for the upcoming challenges. If your game style is established, deal with it your way, without suddenly changing your playing style.. But what I want to convey to the players is that, in the final analysis, we need to continue the good aspects of the season without deliberately seeking change. ”

But the cruelty of the playoffs was soon revealed: the problem facing Uduka and his young team is that sometimes even if the plan is thorough, there may be deviations. Rockets fans know what happened later.

This seems to be a reappearance for Uduka, who had experienced a similar plot in the Boston Finals. The Rockets' plan to disrupt Curry's rhythm has achieved some results, and the score of 111.3 in a hundred rounds has reached 111.3, but the Warriors rely on overall performance to win rather than just Curry's restraint. The painful lessons of the Celtics' defeat linger in Uduka's mind once again.

"The experience and basketball IQ they brought are key factors," Uduka said, "the continuity of the lineup over the years is also an important reason. Now they join Jimmy Butler, adding new dimensions, but the overall style of the team has not changed: this is an excellent team that cooperates with tacit understanding. Their experiences appeared many times in that Boston series, handled just right in many ways, and we first experienced them on a stage like that, and it cost us to pay. ”

Despite the pain of defeat, the Rockets' ambitions are far more than just crossing the Warriors. They not only want to build a championship team, but also want to build a long-term competitive lineup. Although it is disappointing to lose to the Warriors, the team still believes that as long as the players are fully trained, the lineup is expected to grow into championship contenders.

This complicated the situation. According to the development in the coming months, such as Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns NBA stars such as Kevin Durant and Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans may enter the transfer market, and the roster may continue to expand. The opportunity to introduce such stars has brought a key choice for the Rockets - with the draft picks and young assets accumulated in recent years, they have the chips to trade superstars. But they will choose to bet all the time (which may cost them a young star or more assets) or adopt a patient strategy to resist accelerating the championship The temptation of the process?

Although Durant is widely regarded as the most likely to be introduced by the Rockets among this group of players, and he himself has made it clear that he is interested in joining Houston, team sources said that the Rockets still have major concerns about this potential cooperation, mainly because Durant's age (36 years old) is seriously inconsistent with the team's rejuvenation timeline. It is worth noting that team sources revealed that the previous negotiations between the two teams on Durant were initiated by the Suns.

Rockets had previously discussed The Suns' Devin Booker showed a strong interest, but team sources say things have changed. Not only is the team's management still confident in Jaylen Green - he is five years younger than Booker and earns $66 million less than Booker in the next three years - but Booker's struggle last season has also changed the team's mind. As for Zion, he has not met expectations for most of the first six years of his career and has suffered from injuries, team sources say the Rockets think he is too risky.

Next to talk about Antetokounmpo. Of all the possibilities this summer, the idea of ​​the "Greek Monster" wearing the Rockets jersey is seen as the most attractive option within the team. The cost will undoubtedly be high, and it may require packing multiple draft picks, veteran players (to match salaries), and one or two young players. Moreover, due to the playing characteristics of Antetokounmpo as the main organizer and offensive core, if he partnered with Shin Kyung (assuming it was not traded) in the frontcourt, he would face a challenge of cooperating with Shin Kyung (assuming it was not traded). But Antetokounmpo Bo is not only widely regarded as the top three players in the league, but is still at his peak at the age of 30, which can provide a long window for the Rockets' future.

But as Rockets general manager Raphael Stone made it clear in an interview after the end of the season, even if he does not chase stars, the team is full of confidence in the current lineup. Thompson, especially, is regarded as the cornerstone player of the team and a promising offensive and defensive genius, and is only showing his strength. Shin Kyung was selected for the All-Star Game for the first time this season, making a major breakthrough , expected to continue to improve. The Rockets also have high expectations for other players, from Jabbarry Smith to Tari Ethan, to Reed Shepard, the No. 3 pick who rarely appeared in the draft last year.

Regarding Jaylen Green, his struggle against the Warriors is widely seen as a warning sign for the future of its Rockets, but the team's views are completely different. In the Rockets' view, the Warriors chose to use double-teams and pressing to limit Green on the offensive end, while his teammates should have punished more This strategy of the opponent. From this perspective, this is a common mistake for the whole team, and everyone will learn from it and grow together.

In the short term, the Rockets need to solve the problem of staying and leaving two players who play a key role in the playoffs: Van Vreet (has agreed to postpone the decision to choose the $44.9 million team until June 29) and veteran inside Steven Adams (will be a free agent).

"We are engaged in a career related to people," Stone said. "People are unpredictable. If we trade to get a player, it doesn't always hold true that assuming he's as good in our system as before. You have to make the best choice. But our first plan is always to develop the existing roster, and hopefully we can become strong enough with this roster. We have made progress in this regard and I am very satisfied with this progress. ”