Rocket Science: Ime Udoka on What’s Fueling Houston’s Surprising Start

AP Images/Getty Images/Ringer illustration The Rockets are winning with a dominant defense that merges old-school toughness with cutting-edge principles Shortly before this season started, I wrote a column that characterized the Houston Rockets—with all their depth, trade assets, and blue-chip prospects—as the NBA's most fascinating team. Now, after watching them pummel everything in front of them for about a month, it's officially accurate to call them this season's most pleasant surprise. The Rockets are 12-6, third in the West, and outscoring opponents at one of their most impressive rates in franchise history. Zoom in and the root of their success is simple: a disciplined, analytically sound, hair-raisingly hostile defense that's allowing fewer points per 100 possessions than every team except the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's early, but the foundational seeds that head coach Ime Udoka planted last season may officially be in bloom. Houston is electric and adaptable. The pieces fit, the roles work, the scheme has believers, and the players are mercilessly intense. The Rockets' established defenders have been excellent—Dillon Brooks and Fred VanVleet are tone-setting linchpins, Amen Thompson and Tari Eason strike like a rubber band with teeth, Jabari Smith Jr. guards everyone—while even those who draw more skepticism are making positive contributions. Coming into 2024-25, with some of the most roster continuity in the league, Houston wanted to improve every area of a defense that already made a massive jump last season—from rim protection, to deterring 3-point shots, to short-circuiting pick-and-rolls, to getting back in transition without sacrificing second-chance opportunities. In order to do so, and become the switch-almost-everything spiderweb Udoka wants them to be, the biggest focus was getting everyone to take even more pride on the ball. "We're only as good as our one-on-one defense," Udoka tells me. "We're only as good as all our five on the court, and any weak link is exploited." Everything flows out from that philosophy, which makes a ton of sense on paper but is quite grueling in practice. "It's not a lot of schematics to it. There's a lot of will and want to it, for sure. But it's also very eye-opening when you show them the numbers from the previous few years in those areas. If you're honestly tired of losing and want to change the perception of the team, I mean, that's where we all start." It's impossible to cut it in this system without self-reliance. While most teams worry about being compromised, the Rockets are relatively allergic to double-teams. To help is to save, and Udoka is essentially demanding his players save themselves. That's inherently risky and mentally exhausting. Houston switches a ton but doesn't believe in mismatches. That means every Rocket pretty much has to know, stone cold, all their opponent's mannerisms and tendencies. It requires a ton of downloading and processing in a split-second, over and over and over again. The Rockets are young and imperfect, but so far they've bought in and shared a basic trust in each other's ability to keep the ball in front of them, coaxing and then contesting difficult shots. Houston's approach removes the complexities from a team sport and turns the competition into a series of individual confrontations. Opponents tally only 20.9 assists per 100 possessions, by far the lowest mark in the league. More importantly, this defense is ideal in a league that's shooting more 3s than ever. Despite ranking 26th in offensive 3-point rate, Houston has still launched 23 more 3s than their opponents because they rank third in defensive 3-point rate. "All of our schemes would be kind of tailored toward stopping the 3-pointer," Udoka says. "If we can switch things and take teams out of their actions and make them beat us one-on-one, it takes down the 3-point numbers." (The Rockets were dead last in defensive 3-point rate the season before he was hired.) The stout defenders in his rotation make that possible. Here's Brooks, who's 6-foot-6, battling the 7-foot Karl-Anthony Towns in the post. Houston doesn't even think about putting two on the ball: "That's the beauty of Dillon," Udoka says. "We don't look at Karl-Anthony Towns or Wembanyama and the 5s that we put him on as a mismatch. Him and some of our big wings, you know, whether it's Amen, Tari, Jabari, we don't look at those as mismatches." Here's another example, with VanVleet switching onto Draymond Green. Help defenders not only stay home, they physically prevent Golden State's cutters from going where they want to go (watch Jalen Green step in front of Buddy Hield late in the play): Houston's on-court brainpower, versatility, and willingness to make multiple efforts is huge. But Udoka's scheme would fall like a house of cards if everyone on the court who isn't known for standing their ground can't, in fact, stand their ground. The Rockets address this issue in a few ways. First, they deploy non-traditional matchups, with Brooks, Eason, Thompson, and Smith each able to start on a center and then switch freely onto primary ball handlers without any real concession. It's a luxury that reduces the number of pick-and-rolls Alperen Sengun is engaged in. Instead, he's able to spend more time roaming off the ball and helping at the rim, where opponents are only shooting 54.9 percent when he's nearby contesting the attempt. From last season to this season, no one in the NBA has seen his percentage of minutes guarding a center drop more than Sengun's—down 17.5 percent—per Bball-Index. That's in line with a growing leaguewide trend, and one Udoka used to great effect with Robert Williams III as head coach of the Boston Celtics. In Houston, it's mutually beneficial. "For us, I think one thing that's helped is moving Alperen off ball some," Udoka says. "Alperen kind of being a roamer, coming across to help has helped him as well, not just being a traditional two-on-one situation in a pick-and-roll. … He's been so much better from last year, and he showed steps last year." In taking away all those 3s, Houston has seen opposing shots at the rim go up, which makes sense. What doesn't, given how often help defenders stay put, is that they're allowing a lower percentage at the rim than every team except the Thunder. Udoka believes this number is sustainable, citing the relative lack of blow-bys his team allows off the perimeter, physicality, and Sengun's embrace of a new role. (According to Sportradar, the Rockets rank first in points per chance on drives that are tracked as a blow-by, while only six teams allow them at a lower frequency. Also, opponents are shooting 5.5 percent below their typical average on all two-point attempts, which is best in the league.) When Sengun's man does set a ball screen, the Rockets want him up to touch, taking away pull-up 3s but still keeping his own man in front. Houston doesn't want to pack the paint behind him and give up open kickouts. All this is not easy, but Sengun has done a solid job keeping the terms two-on-two. "We don't do a drop or a center field or anything where the bigs are back," Udoka says. "We want them to be up and be a deterrent, and the guards are fighting through … even when it's not the small in it, Alperen and our guards are doing a great job. They've really improved in that area." When it comes to help, Udoka instructs his players to worry less about the threat inside and more about who they're checking on the perimeter. Two points are fewer than three. "If you're guarding Kyrie Irving, you don't want to help off as much as somebody else who's a non-shooter," he says. That doesn't mean help never comes. Udoka thinks back to his time with the Spurs, watching Gregg Popovich let Manu Ginobili freestyle off his own defensive instincts, knowing the pros ultimately outweighed the cons. He doesn't want to handcuff his defenders, even if it burns his defense from time to time. That freedom is enabled on a variety of factors, ranging from how capable the ball handler is passing on the move to, well, being prepared to anticipate what may happen before it does—as was the exact case on this play: "Fred knows (Pascal) Siakam from their time together ," Udoka says. "He got the steal and smirked right at our bench because he talked about it in our pre-shootaround meetings." The alchemy feels right and the strategy makes sense. But the Rockets would not be as fierce if not for Thompson and Eason, a pair of apparitions who don't guard people so much as haunt their soul and infect their spirit. Pound-for-pound, these two are in the conversation for the most entertaining non-stars in the league, and both will be deserving of All-Defensive consideration if they can stay healthy. (They combined to miss 80 games last season.) Lineups that feature the Terror Twins are allowing just 99.6 points per 100 possessions, which is second best out of 130 duos that have logged at least 300 minutes together this season. Thompson is top five in defensive estimated plus-minus this season. He's twitchy, blink-your-eye-and-he's-gone fast, and—conservative estimate incoming—takes a backseat athletically to 0.0000000001 percent of players who've ever suited up for an NBA game. Watch some of this stuff. The way Tim Hardaway Jr. doesn't even think about challenging Thompson here almost made me feel bad for him: Or marvel at the way he seamlessly snuffs out Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby on the same play … … multiple times in the same stretch of game. What he does in the play below—bottling Brunson up and then scampering across the floor to contest Anunoby's jumper—is a good example of the advantages that come when players make use of the freedom Udoka gives them: And then there's Eason, whose relentlessness on the offensive glass almost single-handedly helps Houston's transition defense, a misnomer when read aloud that makes sense when you watch the way his incessant threat to create second chances prevents opponents from leaking out into the open floor. "We felt you could crash at a high rate, and it's almost the first layer of your transition defense," Udoka says. So far they're right: Houston ranks first in offensive rebound rate and allows the fewest fastbreak points per 100 possessions. To take this point one step further: Sportradar uses player-tracking cameras to measure the number of possessions when one team has a numbers advantage or disadvantage crossing halfcourt. The Rockets are at even strength 81.7 percent of the time, which is the second-highest mark in the league. They hustle, impose pressure, and hold each other accountable. Unsurprisingly, Houston also ranks third in the frequency of opposing shots that are tightly contested and first in points per chance on plays that don't feature a defensive rotation. They're good on the defensive boards and force a ton of turnovers. Everything is not perfect, though. As one of the youngest teams in the league, Houston's approach often resembles a tightrope walk with no safety net. Communication is paramount and not always where Udoka wants it to be. Consistency is a daily goal that won't always be met. The Rockets foul quite a bit, and an injury or two to some of their better defenders could have a dour trickle-down effect. As Udoka said, so long as they choose to play this way, the Rockets are only as strong as their weakest link. But getting such an inexperienced roster to prioritize defense and buy into a demanding game plan is a monumental achievement. Udoka has made it Houston's identity. He regularly challenges everyone on the roster, especially those who tend to be tested by the opposition. (Reputations die hard, but they also aren't the most accurate reflection of reality.) Houston doesn't have enough offensive juice to win the title this season, but everything it's built on the other end is a strong indicator of where the organization is trending. "Every team that's won a championship is usually a top-five ranked defense," Udoka tells The Ringer. "That's a non-negotiable for me."

Rocket Science: Ime Udoka on What’s Fueling Houston’s Surprising Start

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