His record is not great but he doesn’t have Harden/Westbrook leading the charge and accessory pieces like Eric Gordon/Covington/House/Rivers/Ben Mac on the G-league squad. As I’ve said many times to you.....Harden/Westbrook run the offense just fine. The coach that comes in will be a puppet coach that can manage the minutes and rotation. That’s all the Rockets need.
Finch, Nurse, Brase and Blair - every single one of these Vipers' HC - did not need Harden/Westbrook to win championships in D/G League. Baby steps.
Hard pass on Thibs .... But I wouldn't say no to JVG if he brought in a top offensive assistant and let that guy run the show on that end of the court.
Baby steps?! Rockets system is facilitator surrounded by 4 outside 3-pt shooters Vipers system is facilitator surrounded by outside 3-pt shooters *The better the facilitators, the better open shots for the outside shooters *The better the outside shooting, the greater space for the facilitators to operator Works hand in hand. Have you seen the Vipers roster? Sindarius Thornwell..........40 gms............29% (3P%) Jacobi Boykins..................31 gms...........37% (3P%) Kerwin Roach....................36 gms...........35% (3P%) Matur Maker......................30 gms...........30% (3P%) Shawn Occeus..................18 gms...........26% (3P%) Brandon Sampson.............42 gms.........36% (3P%) Ronshad Shabazz.............4 gms..........50% (3P% small sample size) Angel Rodriguez................20 gms........38% (3P%) Ray Spalding....................20 gms.........36% (3P%) Blossomgame...................27 gms.........22% (3P%) Jabari Brown.....................8 gms...........21% (3P%) Michael Frazier.................17 gms.........33% (3P%) William Howard.................21 gms..........32% (3P%) Roger Moute A Bidias........9 gms............29% (3P%) Isaiah Taylor........................21 gms..........30% (3P%) McDowell-White.................17 gms...........34% (3P%) Only about 5 respectable shooters Rockets...........3P% Harden.............35% Westbrook.......36% since trade of Capela Tucker..............37% Covington.........36% Gordon............32% House..............36% Rivers.............36% Jeff Green.......41% Sefolosha.......28% McLemore.......40% Fine tune machines need fine intact pieces in order to operate smoothly and efficiently. The Vipers players system is the same......but does not run like the Rockets because the pieces are not good. Popovich couldn’t win with that group.
C'mon @ApacheWarrior you cannot be saying that Abdelfattah is next Popovich? He is not even the next Chris Finch, nevermind the next Nick Nurse. I understand you like this young coach but give him some time to earn his spurs. He was just given his first professional HC position last year and took a perennial championship contending Vipers team nowhere. The Vipers system makes a lot of coaches look good, except for Abdelfattah.
"With Mike [D'Antoni], what's ironic is for years people said his style couldn't win championships, and then the team that ended up proving the skeptics wrong was the team he had to beat," Phil Weber, who served as D'Antoni's assistant with both the Suns and Knicks, told CBS Sports. "Those Warriors teams were just fantastic, historic, you give them all the credit, but that's Mike's game they're playing, and Houston still might've had them [in 2018] if [Chris] Paul doesn't get hurt. That's how thin the line is with these great teams, and, you know, coaches can only do so much. That old saying, you make your own luck. The best teams tend to have the best luck, you know? But that's why it's so special to hold up one of those [championship] trophies. It's not easy, man. Like I said, you have to be really good and then you have to get a little lucky, too." Indeed, look no further than the 2019 Toronto Raptors. First they land Kawhi Leonard in what was, at the time and certainly in hindsight, an unlikely stroke of fortune for all the factors considered. Then Leonard hits a time-stopping, ping-pong-bouncing, Game 7 buzzer-beater that barely gets Toronto past the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round. Then, after all that, they face a Warriors team in the Finals that is playing without Durant and eventually loses Klay Thompson to a torn ACL. Now Nick Nurse is a championship coach. That isn't taking anything away from Nurse, who is a fantastic coach by all accounts. It's just the right-place-right-time reality of the NBA. Steve Kerr might not have gotten his first title in Golden State had Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love not been out with injury for the 2015 Finals. That series goes the other way, and David Blatt is a championship coach. Maybe Tyronn Lue never gets the job. Now Lue is the champion. It's all timing. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...-being-denied-titles-by-even-greater-players/
No, I think you are out of touch with the Rockets situation. It appears you are judging Abdelfattah on his record. If D’Antoni was the coach of the Vipers he would only play 6 players because Mike tries to win every second of every minute of every game. Not much player rotation in the regular season and even less players in the playoffs. Abdelfattah’s job is to train and develop players first and foremost. Winning is secondary. G-league use to be called D-league for a reason. D for developmental. Which means Abdelfattah plays even the crappiest Viper on a regular basis.......again not fair to judge him by record. David Blatt had virtually no NBA experience before getting the Cavs job. Irving/LeBron made Blatt look better than he is as a coach. Spoelstra was a video scout for the Heat before getting the head coaching job. Was around .450 winning percentage before LeBron and Bosh joined the Heat. Resulted in wins and Spoelstra looking better than he is as a coach. So I’m saying Harden/Westbrook plus Eric Gordon/Covington/Tucker/Rivers/Ben Mc/House etc would make Abdelfattah look 80% better than he looks now. The out of touch part is, IMO, is that you might be thinking Steve Ballmer is the Rockets owner. Mr deep pockets is not the owner......and I’m guessing Tillman wants to pay less for a coach that basically sits back seat to Harden/Westbrook.. Tillman could go the Harden player/coach and the team would be just as successful. Plus Harden would expand the rotation imo. So in summary: the Rockets 2nd in the NBA points and 2nd in ORtg (which would be better numbers if the Rockets traded Capela sooner) will remain........Abdelfattah is familiar with the system and currently runs it.........and the cost for his services would be dirt cheap (basically mostly managing the time outs and rotation)......is right in Tillman’s wheel house. It’s not like D’Antoni is not being very imaginative.....Abdelfattah can do as much and even design a creative after timeout play here and there. Defense, is the only Rockets problem. Where D’Antoni is know for not having the team practicing defense much.....Abdelfattah would probably allow for more defensive game planning/practice (allowing a Bzdelik type more time with the team). More needs to be said than just, “Give me more energy!” Again we agree that we disagree. P.S. the players rave about Abdelfattah You can read about it in this article https://closeup360.com/insiders/mah...g-head-coach-houston-rockets-g-league-vipers/ Perfect temperament for Harden/Westbrook
not sure why someone like Abdelfattah is even being talked about...I can’t see Tilman ever making him HC Tilman is far more likely to go with some retread coach like a Tyronn Lue, Thibs, JVG, etc IMO...a guy with some name recognition
Current Rockets assistant Matt Brase should get consideration before Abdelfattah. At least Brase won a championship with Vipers.
Not a fan of Thibs (nor apparently are many of the players who played under him) I like JVG, but he's not our guy that can take us to the promised land. So, I don't know who the answer IS, but all I keep hearing is FIRE MDA. You don't ditch 2 Jacks and a Queen hoping you'll get three Aces in return. Not likely to happen. And neither of the hands shown above are an upgrade. Right now, WITH MDA at the helm, we're still one of the top teams in the league. You only make that move if you can upgrade, right?
Its true that the next coach will run Morey's offense. To that extent we don't need an offensive mastermind. Harden and Westbrook will go one on one. On defense the rockets try to switch everything, forcing other teams to play more one on one, knowing our stars are better at that style. However defense is more nuanced and takes more preparation than telling harden to iso again. Aside from O and D we need game management. MDA seemed to never make an adjustment, call a timeout, make the right sub at the right time. So we need 2 things: 1. defense 2. management JVG does both, thibs is ok at defense (antiquated pack the paint style that allows too many 3s,) and terrible at management. Ty Lue is great at management but won't bring the defense.
Never wanted Thibodeau anyway. He always looks like he's about to bust a blood vessel. Doesn't fit the vibe of a Harden team. And Matt Barnes is one of the most perpetually stoned looking NBA players ever.
If there is a new HC, the other element to consider is what *assistants* are added to the staff. If you get a new HC that is good at management, perhaps you can find assistants that are good at defense etc.
i agree with you 100%. Many here on CF’s are naming high priced head coaches to inject different offenses or defenses when that’s probably not in the Rockets future. They seem to be out kicking our coverage....or dressing in a tuxedo for a backyard bar-b-que. Even D’Antoni may be priced out. Read an article dated May 2019 on how extension talks broke down. Involved D’Antoni’s agent saying Rockets offered base salary of $5 million; but stipulations of Rockets making the playoffs and D’Antoni still being with the team could drop the salary down to a base amount of $2.5 million. Of course those were pre coronavirus talks. Back then the salary cap was projected to go up to about $116 million. Now the NBA is claiming the cap may be a $30 million hit. So Tillman who had a reputation as a cheapskate before Coronavirus....may be even more of a cheapskate, seeing how casinos have been closed and restaurants have been operating by way of pickup or deliveries only. Now Tillman has to invest on coved precautions.
