HOUSTON (AP) — Coach Ime Udoka is looking for much more from the Houston Rockets after they won 52 regular-season games before losing in the first round of the playoffs in each of the last two years.
“We’re not here to just make the first round, we want to make some real noise,” Udoka said Tuesday as he began his first year in Houston. “Everybody’s hungrier for that and to take the next step and not plateau.”
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The Rockets kicked off the NBA season Tuesday as the first team to hold media day. They’ll open preseason with two games against the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 9 and 11 in Macao, China.
Houston’s media day had a much more optimistic tone this year with the return of point guard Fred VanVleet, who missed all last season after tearing an ACL just before last year’s event.
“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 said VanVleet has been fully cleared for training camp and the point guard can’t wait to get back on the court with his team.
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“Where I am right now, with the season about 30 days out, I feel really good,” he said. “It’s going to be a process still, so you guys see won’t see the finished product, but I’m in a really good spot.”
Along with the return of VanVleet, the Rockets welcome back big man Steven Adams, who was limited to only 32 games last season because of an ankle injury that required surgery. Their biggest offseason addition was 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart, who the Rockets hope will make fellow defensive star Amen Thompson take another step in his fourth season.
Kevin Durant was healthy throughout the regular season, starting 78 games in his first year in Houston after a blockbuster trade from Phoenix. But he was limited to only one game in the playoffs because of an ankle injury as the Rockets lost to the Lakers in six games.
Udoka said he hopes to get Thompson and Durant’s minutes down after the two ranked first and second in minutes played in the regular season last year.
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That was 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,” he said. “The team is better when I’m on the court.”
Durant said he isn’t opposed to sitting out in the fourth quarter if the Rockets have the lead but he’s opposed to doing so just to get him off his feet.
“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.”
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Udoka said a big focus this season will be finishing games after more than half of Houston’s 30 losses came in games where they had double-digit leads.
Fixing that problem combined with the return of VanVleet and Adams has Stone optimistic that this could be a big year for the Rockets as they chase their first title since winning 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 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.”
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