Rockets Coach Ime Udoka on ‘Hot Seat’ Before Lakers Series

Just like every other NBA team he’s ever been on, Kevin Durant‘s time with the Houston Rockets has been defined by his once-in-a-lifetime talent, winning games … and mad drama.

For Durant, there’s also usually collateral damage in the form of coaches losing their jobs, teammates getting traded, and overall, just bridges being burned.

The collateral damage in Houston could be 3rd-year head coach Ime Udoka, who 1 NBA insider thinks could be on the hot seat depending on the outcome of the Rockets’ 1st-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“For the Hot Seat Coach Category, I’ve got Ime Udoka,” The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said. “I have not been impressed by the coaching of this team this year. The chemistry doesn’t seem great. I think the offense has just been bizarre … I just don’t understand it. And I would be very unsurprised if he was not their coach next year. Remember last year, I took (former New York Knicks head coach ) Tom Thibodeau in this category … and I was proven correct.”

The Lakers and Rockets play Game 1 on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.

How the Houston Rockets Became Such a Mess

It’s not hard to see where the season went off the rails for Udoka and the Rockets — All-Star Weekend.

That’s when several stories linked Durant to a burner account on X that was critical of teammates Jabari Smith and Alperen Sengun and created several message groups that defended Durant.

In 2017, Durant admitted to using burner accounts while he was on the Oklahoma City Thunder to defend himself online. Durant did not deny the most recent accusations; he just called it “Twitter nonsense” and refused to answer questions about it.

“Durant is one of the more active players on social media — he has almost 20 million followers on X (formerly Twitter, as Durant still calls it) and 14 million on Instagram — and is not afraid to play the troll and mix it up with fans on those platforms,” NBC Sports reporter reporter Kurt Helin wrote on February 19. “He has a history with burner accounts dating back to an incident in 2017, where several tweets from a personal or ‘burner’ Twitter account about his exit from Oklahoma City were exposed, and he publicly apologized for that. In 2021, Durant was fined $50,000 by the NBA for “homophobic and misogynistic language” in an Instagram DM exchange with actor Michael Rapaport (who made the exchange public). He has admitted on a podcast that he had used burner accounts so he could express himself more freely online without the glare of the spotlight.”

The Rockets were 33-20 before the All-Star break and went 19-10 after the All-Star break.

Ime Udoka No Stranger to Controversy

Udoka is no stranger to controversy, having endured 1 of the messier off-court scandals in recent memory.

After Udoka led the Boston Celtics to the NBA Finals following his 1st season as head coach in 2021-22, he was suspended for the entire 2022-23 season for having what was called an “inappropriate relationship” with a female staff member.

Udoka was permanently replaced by his former assistant, Joe Mazzula, and became the head coach of the Rockets in 2023-24 and led them to the postseason in his 2nd season, where they lost in the 1st round of the Western Conference Playoffs.

The Rockets haven’t advanced past the 1st round since 2019-20, when they lost in the Western Conference semifinals.

Tony Adame covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame