The 23-24 season belonging to the Houston Rockets has come to an end, and while still in the lottery zone, the Rockets have made significant progress. For example, with the same change of head coach, the Detroit Pistons hired Monty Williams, and the record is still at the bottom of the league. The Rockets, on the other hand, were in stark contrast and ended up in 11th place in the Brutal West, with the arrival of Amy Udoka, along with several other experienced assistant coaches, allowing the Rockets to progress and move in the right direction.
According to local media analysis, the Rockets have improved their winning margin to 16th from 29th last season, and are already in the middle of the league. The defensive end has improved by leaps and bounds, and efficiency has improved from the second-to-last last season to the top seven in the league today. The offense is almost meaningless, and it is still at the bottom of the league in terms of efficiency, only moving up from 27th to 20th.
The Rockets started from defense this season, especially during the best period of the opening period, and the Rockets' defense directly ranked first in the league. This has to be analyzed from two aspects, first of all, the Rockets coaching staff emphasizes defense, Amy Udoka played for the San Antonio Spurs as a player, studied with Popovich for many years, and later went to coach the Green Army, and also attached great importance to defense and discipline, as did other members of the coaching staff.
And from the perspective of the Rockets lineup, except for Jalen Green and Alperen Shenjing, two young players, the rotation lineup can be called defensive giants. Especially when Jabari Smith, Tari Eason, Dillon Brooks, Jaesha Tate and Cam Whitmore are on the floor at the same time, the Rockets have a full size and can fully show suffocating defense, and even the main point guard Fred VanVleet has a serious underestimate of his defensive contributions. It's a pity that in the second half of the season, Tari Eason was reimbursed early due to injury, which naturally affected the Rockets' defense and overall performance, but even in this case, the Rockets' defensive efficiency ranked high, and there was basically no problem to be found.
But the Rockets' offense is still not scored, and in this regard, it can only be said that it is difficult for Amy Udoka and the coaching staff to cook without rice. Because of the Rockets' offensive approach in the first half of the season, mainly Fred VanVleet and Alperen Shenjing played blocking and dismantling, even if Jalen Green's state warmed up in the second half and Cam Whitmore was reused, the Rockets' offensive end was still unstable, mainly due to the lack of superstars in the year of play, so that a headwind or a critical moment may indeed be taken away by a wave.