Houston Rockets trainer Ime Udoka showed that he sought after the workforce to pursue Fred VanVleet reasonably than James Harden in loose company. Udoka told ESPN’s Zach Lowe that the desire used to be about ball dominance — or, in VanVleet’s case, the lack thereof. VanVleet will get started at level guard, however he is additionally a very good spot-up shooter and can permit the Rockets’ younger guards, Jalen Green and Amen Thompson, to make performs with the ball of their palms.
“Nothing against James, but Fred is just a better fit,” Udoka mentioned. “I coached James in Brooklyn. He’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around. The words ‘Ime doesn’t want James’ never came out of my mouth. It was, ‘Let’s look at the best fit.’ If we want Jalen and the young guys to take the next steps, we need them to have the ball. As for me saying I don’t want James, that was never the case. It was about fit.”
Some earlier reporting on this:
- On June 23, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reported that Udoka did not need Harden and the workforce could be shifting in a other course.
- On June 30, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer reported that, as soon as Houston employed Udoka, VanVleet moved to the most sensible of its checklist.
- On Aug. 19, Heavy.com’s Steve Bulpett quoted a league source saying, “From everything we’ve gotten out of there, it was a matter that Ime didn’t want him. At the beginning, were they thinking about Harden? Yeah. But then they hired Ime, and Ime said, ‘It’s not going to work here.'”
- On Sept. 6, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that the Rockets’ hobby in Harden lowered after hiring Udoka: “Udoka was trying to set a new culture in Houston, not bring back the past. He wanted to target defensive-minded players like Memphis’ Dillon Brooks and Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez.”
- On Oct. 3, Fox Sports’ Yaron Weitzman reported that Udoka used to be not a fan of Harden’s in Brooklyn, so the hiring intended there could be no reunion.Â
Udoka is disputing a few of this reporting, however this is most commonly about semantics — he is pronouncing it is not that he did not need Harden, it is that he did not need Harden on this actual workforce, specifically when there used to be a lower-usage choice to be had. It unquestionably additionally helped that Udoka knew VanVleet would get after it on protection and mentor the Rockets’ younger gamers.
All of this is … smart! It would had been bizarre for a rebuilding workforce, even one seeking to take a step ahead, to convey again its former franchise participant at 34 years previous and, as Paul George put it on a podcast with Green, impede Green’s expansion. Given that Udoka sought after to ascertain a defensive tradition and get the ball shifting on offense, there have been no scarcity of basketball causes to select VanVleet over Harden.