Houston’s Jabari Smith Jr. is happy to have Ime Udoka as his new head coach for the 2023-24 season and beyond

In the NBA 2k24 Summer League, the Houston Rockets are being led by 20-year-old, Jabri Smith Jr. He was the the third overall pick in the 2o22 NBA Draft. Media members around the league questioned why a lottery pick like himself would be playing. Smith Jr. felt like he lost a year of development under former head coach Stephen Silas. He did not hold back when speaking about Silas and what he did wrong. 

Shortly after the 2022-23 season ended, the Rockets fired head coach Stephen Silas. They were among the first teams to let their head coach go, giving them the first pick at available candidates. Houston decided to go with former Celtics head coach Ime Udoka.

He’s been brought here to coach and develop a young Rockets team, including Jabari Smith Jr. Houston has a youthful roster and players with a ton of potential. Smith Jr. has looked like their next up-and-coming star with his dominant Summer League performances thus far.

Jabari Smith on what advice new head coach Ime Udoka has given him so far:

“Out here at Summer League he’s just telling me to lead. To use my voice. It’s better to learn how to lead earlier than later. And focus on defense and ways to help this team.”

— Salman Ali (@SalmanAliNBA) July 9, 2023

It was more than clear that Jabari Smith Jr. was not a fan of Stephen Silas

In his rookie season with Houston, Jabari Smith Jr. started and played in 79 of their 82 games. He also made second-team All-Rookie last season. Luckily, he has a new head coach that has had success in the past and can push Smith Jr. It’s a smaller sample size from Ime Udoka, but he led Boston to the NBA Finals in 2022. The 45-year-old spent one season with the Celtics, and it was a successful year. Despite losing in the Finals, the Celtics have a promising future.

Jabari Smith Jr. is COOKING with back-to-back 30+ PT games 😮‍💨

(via @NBA)pic.twitter.com/ive6ge8jb4

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 9, 2023

Udoka was not a part of that future after some off-the-court issues with the Celtics. The team let him walk and Houston was lucky to land him as their next head coach. He will be tasked with helping coach a Rockets team that finished second to last in the West last season.

Jabari Smith Jr. is going to benefit from having Udoka as his head coach. He already has from the small advice he’s given him for the summer league. Udoka told him to be a leader on the court and use his voice. Smith Jr. has done that and then some so far. He has scored 30+ points in back-to-back games, including a game-winning three with 0.6 seconds left on Friday night.