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Coach Ime Udoka wants far more from the Houston Rockets after back-to-back first-round exits despite winning 52 regular-season games in each of the last two campaigns. He made his expectations clear on media day, the first such session held across the league this year.
“We’re not here to just make the first round; we want to make some real noise,” Udoka said Tuesday as he opened his fourth year in Houston. “Everybody’s hungrier for that and to take the next step and not plateau.”
The Rockets will open their preseason slate with two games against the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 9 and 11 in Macao, China. Media day carried a noticeably brighter tone this year following the return of point guard Fred VanVleet, who tore his ACL right before last year’s event and missed the entire season.
“I’m definitely more excited than I was going into last season,” general manager Rafael Stone said. “The way Fred’s injury hit right on the eve of the season, that was hard on everybody and so maybe I was a little bit more nervous. And this year I feel like I know what to expect more from this group, which lends itself to some excitement for me to see what’s going on.”
Udoka confirmed VanVleet has been fully cleared for training camp and is eager to rejoin his teammates on the floor.
“Where I am right now, with the season about 30 days out, I feel really good,” VanVleet said. “It’s going to be a process still, so you guys won’t see the finished product, but I’m in a really good spot.”
Big man Steven Adams also returns after an ankle injury that required surgery limited him to just 32 games last season. The team’s biggest offseason acquisition was 2021-22 Kia Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart, whose presence Houston hopes pushes fellow defensive standout Amen Thompson into another gear during his fourth season.
Kevin Durant stayed healthy through the regular season, starting 78 games in his debut year with Houston following the blockbuster trade from Phoenix. An ankle injury limited him to a single playoff appearance as the Rockets fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.
Udoka wants to trim the minutes for both Thompson and Durant after the pair ranked first and second in minutes played league-wide last season. That plan came as news to Durant, a 16-time All-Star who turns 38 next week.
“It’s been the same message from me for a long time: I’m better on the court,” Durant said. “The team is better when I’m on the court.”
Durant isn’t against sitting out fourth quarters when Houston holds a comfortable lead, but he pushed back on reducing his workload simply to manage his legs.
“Not just for the sake of getting my minutes down just because he’s older or he played a lot of minutes,” Durant said. “That’s what I’m supposed to be training for is to play the long haul, play 48 minutes a night. I get the concern, but if the game needs me to be out there, I want to be out there.”
Udoka pointed to finishing games as a central priority this season. More than half of Houston’s 30 losses last year came in games where the team held double-digit leads at some point.
Solving that issue, paired with the returns of VanVleet and Adams, has Stone bullish on the Rockets’ chances as the franchise chases its first title since back-to-back championships in 1994-95.
“We obviously had some challenges last year, particularly on the injury front and lost quite a few games that we thought we could have won and we still had a good year,” Stone said. “So, I think there’s just a lot of meat on the bone for us to improve upon.”
What This Means for Houston’s Ceiling
Health remains the swing factor. A healthy VanVleet-Adams-Smart mix gives Udoka more defensive versatility and floor spacing than he had in either of the previous two postseasons.
Durant’s workload management will be a storyline worth tracking all year. His stance on staying on the floor unless the score dictates otherwise suggests friction could surface if Udoka pushes too hard on rest.
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Follow TipsGG for continuing coverage of the Rockets’ training camp and preseason results out of Macao.