Rumors

“I thought about it and the only reason why I was upset about it was because I loved playing with Fred, playing with Ime,” Brooks said. “We grew something there and Ime and the coaching staff was family oriented and it was like a brotherhood. That was the only reason why I thought it was a little bit sad.”

Houston Chronicle

Adam Wexler: Official: #Rockets announced the 7-team trade to acquire Kevin Durant & Clint Capela w/ Atlanta, Brooklyn, Golden State, the LA Lakers, Minnesota & Phoenix. Details below plus comments from GM Rafael Stone & HC Ime Udoka on Durant & outgoing Jalen Green & Dillon Brooks.

Twitter

"What was that shift like though, man, from getting coached? Was it that Ime Udoka? That's how you pronounce it? Yeah. How—what was that shift like?" Jabari Smith: "Anybody who knows Ime knows that he’s got some missing screws. You know what I’m saying? I don’t know how to put this, but he’s gonna coach you hard. You know what I’m saying? As you see, like, he’s made the team play hard. Like, everybody knows we’re gonna play hard, and that’s just who he is. And he’s good to talk to—just a players’ coach, honestly. You can talk to him. Obviously, somebody who played in the league, he can relate to his players. So I mean, he helped me a lot. He obviously helped the team, helped the organization a lot. So I mean, things are looking up, man."

YouTube

Michael Scotto: The Houston Rockets declined the $4.9 million team option on guard Aaron Holiday, sources told @hoopshype. Holiday is expected to return to the Rockets on a 1-year deal. Holiday, a favorite of coach Ime Udoka, averaged 5.5 points, including 39.8%, from 3-point range, this season.

Twitter

Shams Charnaia: Over the last 13 days, the Rockets have reached deals to acquire Kevin Durant, extend Steven Adams and coach Ime Udoka, and bring back their free agents Fred VanVleet, Tate, Holiday and Green.

x.com

Initially, Rafael Stone and the Rockets organization made public and private commitments to their developing young core. They emphasized that trading away these promising players for a superstar was not part of their strategy. However, circumstances shifted in recent weeks, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. "I believe he wanted to have his young team grow, but something happened the last few weeks," said Brian Windhorst. "Ime Udoka, who had him in his Brooklyn—Royal Ivey is on his staff—he was his teammate at Texas. He wanted him. He went to ownership and front office and said 'Can we can get Kevin Durant? Get him.'"

RealGM

Two factors proved decisive in the Rockets' change of direction. First was Udoka's strong advocacy for the move. Second was the surprisingly reasonable asking price. "Another thing was they also couldn't say no to the price. The price was just so low they just couldn't say no. It's meant to say look what they still have on their roster. So they now have optionality. They can say 'let's keep letting Amen Thompson develop. Let's keep letting Jabari Smith. By the way, they love Tari Eason there. He can be the guy that replaces Dillon Brooks as that key defender.

RealGM

The possibility of Phoenix expanding the Durant trade remains since the deal can’t become official until July 6th, HoopsHype has learned. Durant reunites with Rockets coach Ime Udoka, whom he spent time with on the Brooklyn Nets. Udoka was the head coach of the Boston Celtics and was in favor of the organization trying to acquire Durant when the organization dangled a package centered around Jaylen Brown, league sources told HoopsHype. Now, while finalizing his contract extension with the Rockets, Udoka encouraged Houston to trade for Durant, sources said. This time, Udoka got his man.

HoopsHype

While a long shot to join New York, Kidd — who is under contract for two more years and the Mavericks, per league sources, have shown no interest to this point in allowing their coach to leave — still hasn’t agreed to an extension like other currently-employed head coaches who the Knicks showed interest in during the first stage of their search. New York reached out to Houston to speak with Ime Udoka and to Chicago to speak with Billy Donovan. Udoka agreed to an extension with the Rockets last week, league sources told The Athletic. And according to multiple reports, the Bulls and Billy Donovan are in the process of working on a contract extension.

New York Times

And Udoka, who recently received a lucrative contract extension, was a strong behind-the-scenes advocate for adding Durant's bucket-getting to the Rockets' very youthful core despite Houston's well-chronicled timeline concerns given that the future Hall of Famer turns 37 in September.

marcstein.substack.com

Shams Charania: Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has agreed to a long-term contract extension with the franchise that makes him one of the highest paid NBA coaches, after a 52-win season and top-2 seed for the first time in seven years, sources tell ESPN.

x.com

Hollins expressed his immense admiration for head coach Ime Udoka, calling his impact on the Rockets’ culture “tremendous.” “Oh man, Ime is a ten. He’s a real gem,” Hollins said. “Everybody around the league is trying to figure out how to pattern and model their young rebuilds after what Ime has done—bringing culture, bringing toughness, bringing physicality.”

Responsible Gaming

As was the case with Kidd and Udoka, Brown interviewed for the Knicks position in 2020 before it went to Thibodeau. Yet while he didn’t get the job back then, with some believing that Thibodeau had already been deemed the unofficial choice by the time Brown’s interview took place, league sources say he left a very strong impression. He was hired by the Kings two summers later, then went on to deliver the best two-year stretch in nearly two decades for the long-struggling organization before getting fired midway through this season.

New York Times

Right now, I expect the Rockets to return all their assistant coaches. Royal Ivey has been on short lists for some head coaching positions and is receiving the most interest from other teams, so look for that to be a continuing storyline. The rest of Ime Udoka’s assistants are also highly regarded around the league and Houston’s front office is fielding inquiries about them, but the Rockets’ upward trajectory lends itself to staff stability.

Houston Chronicle