Bzdelik a sight for sore eyes

DENVER — Jeff Bzdelik worked for a few minutes with James Ennis III and Gary Clark. He sat and talked with P.J. Tucker, with Tucker at times gesturing toward the Pepsi Center court as if there was a screen and switch to call out the way Bzdelik taught.

The Rockets’ associate head coach and architect of last season’s defensive resurgence was not entirely back. He spent Tuesday’s 109-99 win over the Nuggets in the visitors’ locker room, rather than to Mike D’Antoni’s right on the bench. But it felt like old times, and the days ahead when he returns full time Nov. 23.

“It felt great,” Bzdelik said. “I appreciate the opportunity. I’m thankful, grateful and ready to go.”

Bzdelik would not say why he chose in the weeks before training camp to retire or what led to his decision to return once he completes “some commitments” in Denver. He would not discuss the Rockets’ recruiting efforts, led by owner Tilman Fertitta, to bring him back.

“The honey-do list started getting really long,” Bzdelik said. “When they called me, it was like, ‘OK.’

“I stepped away for some reasons I want to keep private. I’m grateful for the opportunity to come back. When they called, it was something my wife and I thought long and hard about. We love the organization. We love the people we work with. I love the players.”

Improvement certtain

But he did say the Rockets’ defense could be better than last season, citing the turnaround since the start of the season and potential as young players gain experience.

Since their 1-5 start, when the Rockets had the 25th-ranked defense in the NBA, their defense has been ranked as the league’s seventh-best going into Tuesday’s win. In the five games prior to beating the Nuggets, the Rockets had been fifth defensively.

“Roy Rogers, Mitch Vanya, Matt Brase and Saagar (Sarin), those four gentleman have done an awesome job with the defense,” Bzdelik said. “When you take some new players and then you have some veteran players that are hurt — because they’re hurt, they’re not in great shape because they haven’t been able to be conditioning the way they should — it’s a perfect storm. It’s a recipe to get off to a slow start, and they did. But they’re getting better every game. They’re doing a great, great job.

“We can get it to the point like it was last year at the end, but we want it to be even better. We need to continue to grow. You have some young players that are finding their way right now and learning. There’s no substitute for experience. It takes all five guys to get a stop.”

The guys who were part of that success last season, when the Rockets had the third-rated defense in the second half of the season, seemed especially happy to see Bzdelik back, even if only for a day before he returns next week.

“I miss Jeff,” Tucker said. “He was one of the voices on our team we kind of missed. I just loving having him around because his attitude toward our team and our defense is probably the reason we were so good last year.”

Bzdelik said he has watched every Rockets game and studied the games as he had as an assistant. He and D’Antoni have spoken on occasion since Bzdelik agreed to return Nov. 5.

D’Antoni said moving Bzdelik back to a more formal role should be seamless given the time together in the previous two seasons.

D’Antoni pleased

“It’s just another set of eyes,” D’Antoni said. “Obviously, his philosophy is the exact same as ours. We talk the same tune.

“Just having a head coach’s perspective and talking to young players is good. And the chemistry was good last year, so it’s going to be good this year.”

Bzdelik, 65, has held various coaching roles with Washington, New York, Miami and Memphis before joining D’Antoni with the Rockets for the 2016-17 season.

He was Denver’s head coach for 2½ seasons, taking the Nuggets to the 2004 playoffs.

“We’re very excited about Jeff coming back,” D’Antoni said. “Obviously, he had his personal reasons he had to go for a while.”