NBA Rumors: Rockets Not Only Team Interested In Ime Udoka

Ime Udoka reportedly is a “prominent candidate” to be the Rockets head coach, but he apparently is drawing interest outside of Houston as well.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Sunday identified Udoka as one of the top options to potentially replace Stephen Silas, who reportedly won’t have his fourth-year option picked up by the Rockets. Less than 15 minutes after the report, Wojnarowski revealed the Pistons also are poised to target Udoka. Dwayne Casey, who’s held the head-coaching gig in the organization since June 2018, is expected to move from Detroit’s bench to the front office, per Wojnarowski.

Both the Rockets and the Pistons have a real chance of presenting a great head-coaching opportunity to Udoka, or any other finalist for the respective jobs. Detroit and Houston are two of the three teams with a 14% chance to win the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery, which all but surely will be parlayed into selecting highly touted prospect Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 overall pick June 22.

Udoka has been officially without an NBA job since mid-February when the Celtics removed the interim tag on Joe Mazzulla and promoted the 34-year-old to head coach. Mazzulla initially replaced Udoka after Boston issued the latter with a season-long suspension for violating franchise policies. Udoka, who led the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his first season as a head coach in the league, reportedly had an improper relationship with a female member of the organization.