The Houston Rockets have agreed to a long-term contract extension with head coach Ime Udoka that will see him become one of the highest-paid coaches in the NBA, according to sources that spoke to ESPN’s Shams Charania. This comes just a couple of weeks after the Rockets denied the New York Knicks’ request to interview Udoka for the franchise’s head coaching vacancy.
Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has agreed to a long-term contract extension with the franchise that makes him one of the highest paid NBA coaches, after a 52-win season and top-2 seed for the first time in seven years, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/fah9NMuWyj
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 19, 2025
“It makes Udoka one of the highest-paid coaches in the NBA right now,” Charania said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show earlier today. “You think about Tillman and Patrick Fertitta – Rockets Ownership – their general manager, Rafael Stone. They went out and hired Ime Udoka in 2023… They scooped him up fast. They got him. He obviously is a championship-caliber coach already. [and] showed it in Boston.”
Under Ime Udoka’s leadership, the Houston Rockets have won 93 games since the start of the 2023-24 season. This season, Udoka led the Rockets to the number-two seed in the Western Conference after finishing the regular season with a 52-30 record, their first postseason appearance since 2020.
An easy decision for the Rockets
So far during the Udoka era, the Houston Rockets have a record of 93-71. In the three seasons before his arrival, Houston went 59-177. Clearly, Ime Udoka has created a new, winning culture in H-Town, so it only makes sense for the franchise to continue to build on that.
Ime Udoka should be giving some thanks to the New York Knicks. If the Knicks hadn’t reached out to try to interview Udoka for their head coaching job, it’s possible that this deal might not have gotten done this soon. At the very least, the Rockets probably wouldn’t have thrown as much money at Udoka as they did had the Knicks not inquired about his availability.
Though Houston is the 18th-oldest team in the NBA, their best players are incredibly young. Of the nine players who led the Rockets in scoring during the regular season, seven of them are 23 years old or younger. Guys like Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr., Amen Thompson, and Alperen Şengün have not hit their athletic primes. I imagine they will only get better as Udoka’s tenure continues.
The Rockets this offseason:
• Signed Steven Adams to a 3 year, 39M contract
• Extended Ime Udoka to a long term contract.They’re cooking. pic.twitter.com/UuvTtRy3Hi
— Bradeaux (@BradeauxNBA) June 19, 2025
Also, it’s much better coaching younger players in the NBA as opposed to older players, in my opinion. Though older players might give you a better chance to win a championship, they’re also often set in their ways and refuse to change their approach to the game. More importantly, older players have hit or are past their physical prime and are at a point in their careers where they can do no wrong. Nobody ever blames Kevin Durant or LeBron James when the Suns or Lakers underachieve. The blame always seems to fall on coaching. That’s not the case for young teams like the Thunder, Rockets, and Timberwolves. They allow their coaches to progress and grow with their up-and-coming superstars and attribute any shortcomings to inexperience, which undoubtedly played a factor in the Rockets’ playoff series loss to the Golden State Warriors.
With this contract extension in place, though, there will be incredibly high expectations for the Rockets next season. Losing in the first round of the NBA Playoffs will not be acceptable during the 2026 postseason. Houston’s front office let it slide this year because it was the team’s first real playoff experience with this core of players. But the expectation next season will be a deep playoff run or at least a first-round win.
