How Ime Udoka Can Win Coach of the Year for the Houston Rockets

After keeping an eye on the NBA's Coach of the Year betting odds, Ime Udoka didn't appear to have a great chance at winning. This was despite the Houston Rockets having a lot of potential on paper, but people still needed to see it to believe it. Thankfully, everyone got that opportunity last week, and their play seemed to change some opinions.

With the odds shifting into favor for Houston's head coach, what would the Rockets have to do in order to actually get him that award? As previously covered on Roundtable, it isn’t automatically given to the best team in the league, and it’s oftentimes won by a coach that just simply overachieves. 

With most projecting them to finish in third place, they’re already expected to surpass the Lakers and Nuggets. They should stay ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves too. That means they have to do the impossible to exceed expectations. 

The Rockets need to prove they can beat the Western Conference finalists from each of the past two seasons. As previously covered on Roundtable, they only won two games in seven matchups against the OKC Thunder and San Antonio Spurs last year. That’s just not good enough. 

The win against OKC (112-106) came on February 7th, and the back-to-back MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t play. A win is a win, but it’s sort of hard to say you beat the best team if their best player wasn’t suited up. 

The only victory against San Antonio (111-106) was on January 20th, but at least this time everybody on the opposing team was healthy. Reed Sheppard saved the day, going on a second-half heater to help sneak past the Spurs. 

I wish I could say more, but that’s all that Houston has to brag about. Thankfully they split the season series against each of the top three Eastern Conference teams and swept the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers, so their problems remain in the West. 

Ime Udoka is a great coach, as back-to-back 52-win seasons has shown everybody. If he wants any chance to win that award in Houston, then they’ve got to figure out how to beat OKC and San Antonio.

To me, it’s as simple as that. The Rockets might not have to surpass either of those teams in the standings, but they can’t have a 2-5 record against them again. Hopefully their improved offense can help level out the playing field. 

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