Rockets' Ime Udoka displays why he's the leader this team needs

Houston Rockets fans are counting their lucky stars.

When James Harden left this team, the future was unclear. Nobody knew what would come next. Tanking for three years to maximize their volume of young talent made sense. Trading Harden for badly needed draft capital was logical.

What would it all mean?

In 2024-25, we're getting answers. The Rockets are the second seed in the Western Conference. This is a team with a distinctive identity.

Ime Udoka is at the center of it.

Rockets' head coach shows unique leadership style

In Sunday's win over the Warriors, Udoka reminded us how he leads the Rockets.

He had an interesting exchange with Warriors star Steph Curry. When asked about it, Udoka was coy. He classified it as "friendly banter".

It didn't look particularly friendly.

That's Udoka for you. This man's competitive fire burns relentlessly. Udoka does not let anybody care harder than him:

The young Rockets have taken that identity to heart.

Rockets resemble their head coach

When it comes to outworking opponents, few teams - if any - can match the Rockets.

They lead the NBA in Rebounds Per Game (48.8). They lead the league in Offensive Rebounds Per Game (14.8) by a considerable margin. Their 109.4 Defensive Rating ranks fourth in the NBA.

Pick a stat that reflects the less glamorous side of basketball, and the Rockets reside somewhere near the top. This team has taken on Ime Udoka's physical, competitive identity.

It's hard to overstate the significance of that.

Rockets rebuild could have gone differently

As the Rockets tanked, there was much handwringing about culture. Won't these kids forget how to compete? Won't they get used to losing? Shouldn't the Rockets build around the corpse of John Wall and scrap for 35 wins instead?

Some of those criticisms were shortsighted. Still, there was some legitimate concerns. Even those of us who felt that these were necessary measures couldn't shake the feeling that these kids could internalize some bad habits.

It seems the front office had a solution all along.

The Rockets induced culture shock to fix a potentially broken culture. They hired one of the most unforgiving coaches in the league. Udoka doesn't care where you were drafted. If you're not competing, you'll be on the bench before long.

His approach has offset any damage done during the tanking years, and then some. Udoka has made winners out of this collection of young players. He won't back down from anybody, including Steph Curry:

And neither will the Rockets.