Ime Udoka says Tari Eason is ‘much more bouncy’ and lays out Reed Sheppard’s bench role before the Rockets open

Ime Udoka was asked on Tuesday what looks different about Tari Eason compared with a year ago. The Houston Rockets coach started with the simplest answer. “First and foremost is the health,” he said.

Udoka said Eason looks “much more bouncy and kind of back to what he was a few years ago,” after leg problems that slowed him in the previous season or two. Then he went through the rest of the list. “He put in a ton of work, and the shot is more consistent, the handle is more consistent,” Udoka said. “I think his recognition overall is improved.”

I asked Ime Udoka about where Tari Eason has improved, relative to last season:

“First and foremost, his health. He looks much more explosive. Bouncy.”

Ime then pointed to improvements and better consistency with Tari’s shot, handle, and “recognition.” pic.twitter.com/liihtixsx7

— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) October 20, 2026

That last point is about passing. Udoka said the Rockets had players last season who would get into the paint and only look for their own shot, and that Eason now finds teammates on the kick-out. Put that on top of what Eason already gives Houston off the bench, the defensive intensity, the rebounding and the slashing, and Udoka sees a more complete player. He also said Eason’s handle “looks more tight.”

The contract and the summer

Eason, 25, was a restricted free agent this summer. He did not sign a rookie-scale extension last fall, then re-signed in July on a fully guaranteed five-year, $81.5 million deal that includes a player option in the fifth year. When camp opened, he said the new contract gave him mental clarity.

Udoka agreed, up to a point. “I would say that takes some weight off his shoulders,” he told Ben DuBose. “But the work he put in all summer was regardless of the contract. We were out in LA quite a bit. He was working out with guys, and you could see in the gym in the scrimmages, how good he looks. And he’s had good carryover into camp.”

Last season Eason averaged 10.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 25.8 minutes over 60 games, and started a career-high 34 of them. He is expected to be one of the first players off Houston’s bench this season.

Reed Sheppard’s role: ‘a spark plug every night’

Udoka also spelled out what he wants from Reed Sheppard, whose place in a deeper guard group has been one of the questions of Houston’s preseason. Fred VanVleet is back after missing all of last season, Marcus Smart and Bogdan Bogdanović arrived in the summer, and Udoka said on Tuesday that Smart, not Sheppard, will start at point guard on nights VanVleet sits. VanVleet and Steven Adams will not play both games of back-to-backs.

Sheppard, the No. 3 pick in 2024, will come off the bench. Udoka described the job like this: “Come in and be a secondary handler, play on and off ball, be a spark plug every night. Obviously, one of our best shooters.”

Udoka said the threat of that shot, and the way defenses guard Sheppard because of it, helps both the player and the team.

“Come in and be a secondary handler, play on and off ball, be a spark plug every night,” said Rockets HC Ime Udoka about the defined role for guard Reed Sheppard. “He is obviously one of our best shooters.” #Rockets #Sarge @TheRocketsWire pic.twitter.com/HhBL7bUq3U

— BIG SARGE MEDIA LLC (@BigSargeSportz) October 20, 2026

He said it should open things up for the rest of the second unit, and he pointed to a specific kind of sixth man. “Whether it’s that Malik Monk role or whoever it is you have to account for every night, that you know you’re going to get a certain amount of points, shots for,” Udoka said. “That would be a great role.”

Sheppard played all 82 games last season, starting 21 while VanVleet was out, and shot about 40% from three. Two days earlier, Udoka had already said Sheppard “will be a huge part of what we do,” and that he wants a 10-man rotation to start the season, partly to keep Kevin Durant’s and Amen Thompson’s minutes down.

Houston has gone 52-30 in each of the last two seasons and lost in the first round both times, most recently to the Los Angeles Lakers this spring. The Rockets open at Toyota Center against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET, which is 3:30 a.m. Thursday in Cairo, and then visit the San Antonio Spurs.