If Agent Zero is right, we have every reason to be looking up. We are going to be a very potent force come playoff time. We are a good defensive team and as he said, good defensive teams don't get their offenses flowing until later in the season. So I'm positive we will do well. I look at what he says about Scott Skiles in Chicago the same as what we did to Jeff Van Gundy. Very interesting take on a players view of the NBA. http://my.nba.com/forum.jspa?forumID=400032200 Chicago Coaching Change You seen the Bulls coach was fired? I seen that coming. You can see it coming, especially this year and a little bit of last year, that he wasn’t going to be able to coach those guys no more. One, because, what makes you great is the same thing that breaks you down. What made him great was the same thing that got him fired. He’s a disciplinarian. He’s one of those old coaches with old mentalities of run, run, run. He’s going to put you in the dirt. You make a mistake in practice, you’re gonna run. You make a mistake in this, you’re gonna run. You make a mistake in that, you’re gonna run. When you try to build rookies and young players, that’s going to work. But for four or five years, these were the same guys. They never really got any new guys. These are the same guys … Kirk, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Duhon … these are the same guys that were there in 2005 when he first got there. Eventually they’re going to be like, “Hey, man, we’re too old for this. We don’t want to run all damn day.” After a while, it’s just like you’re beating a dead horse, and one day the horse is like, “Well, screw it. I’m not getting up. I’m just going to sit here until we get somebody else here who is going to treat me nice.” When you’re a coach, you got to have a happy medium. And it’s so hard. Especially in today’s game. Everybody makes so much money, and when you make so much money, you have your opinion on the team. It’s kind of funny, you look at Phil Jackson. He’s a disciplinarian, he’s a great coach, in the Hall of Fame, Mr. Basketball as a coach … if he’s the best and he’s not running his guys like crazy, some of these other coaches should be like, “Hey, let’s take a chapter out of Phil’s book.” It’s like Eddie. He doesn’t run us like that. If we lose a game we’re not supposed to lose he’ll say something like, “We look like we’re out of shape.” That’s something he’ll say. Actually he’ll say, “Oh, y’all out of shape, huh? Alright, since y’all want to be out of shape, we’re going to run.” And we don’t want to run, so we’re going to go extra hard to prove to him that we get his point. There’s way to get to your players. Instead of saying, “Oh, you made a turnover? You know what? Everybody on the line … Oh, you didn’t block that shot? Everybody on the line …” That’s when players start looking at other players like, “Man, how come you didn’t block that shot?” Then it’s like, “Well it’s not our fault, we can’t be perfect, it’s his fault.” At the end of the day, Skiles is going to get another job. He’s going to get another job and he’s going to do the same thing. He’ll take a raggedy team and make them great. He’ll make them a playoff-contending team. That’s not the guy you want to see get fired. It’s not his fault. But at the end of the day, you got to look somewhere. Usually coaches are the first to go. I mean, a General Manager can’t fire himself. The coach has got to work with what the coaches get. I don’t believe in firing coaches like that though. Back in the day they wasn’t changing coaches like that. Phil Jackson never got changed. Truthfully, to be honest, I don’t understand Skiles’ firing. Because, if you ever look back at the beginning of one of their seasons, they always started off the same way. You say the same thing about the Bulls every year: “Oh, they can’t score.” “They can’t put the ball in the basket.” “They don’t have any post play.” This and that and they end up winning 50 games, 47 games, 49 games and then they’re in the playoffs sweeping Miami. So, what’s the big deal? If that’s the way they start off, that’s the way they start off. Most really, really good defensive teams start off bad because they haven’t put their offense together while they’ve been focused so much on defense. Unless you’re a team like San Antonio, you know, but a team like that, I know Pop isn’t there running those guys like crazy. A lot of old coaches have that old mentality of “We’re going to run you, run you, run you” to discipline, but today, players talk to each other. We know whose teams are running and whose teams aren’t. It has a factor on free agency even. That’s why you never see any big-big free agents going to some of these potent teams, or these disciplinary type teams. The player’s like, “Well, I’m kind of old, I don’t know if I feel like doing this … I just came from over here on this other team, and we didn’t run like this.”
he doesn't thread starter just decided it was kind of like in a sort of round about way like JVG and the Rockets..
Hey, it's meant as a comparative situational article. What happened to the Bulls and Skiles happened to the Rockets and JVG. Our downfall is the same as the Bulls downfall. We both can't put the rock in the hole. But Agent Zero says this is what happens to good defensive teams and will get their groove on right about now. I look for the Rockets to bust out of their doldrums and I think we just turned the corner when we inserted Brooks into the offense and the team started to play the Adelman offense.
They are both disciplinarians. The difference is that JVG was inconsistent. Some players got the Golden Boy treatment like T-Mac while others got the doghouse like Bonzi. This along with rumors of a rift between Les and JVG caused the early departure of JVG. The offical party line is more uptempo basketball style. If ya want to talk about something directly related to Agent Zero and the Rockets then here ya go. http://www.nba.com/blog/gilbert_arenas.html Clearing Something Up When I told Complex.com that the L.A., San Antonio, Dallas and Houston would be cities that I would like to play in if I opt out, they all come after D.C. If something did happen weird where Antawn left and we lost our team and it wasn't a good situation for me to come back, those are the four cities that I would want to play in. I would want to go back home and play in L.A. I would want to go to San Antonio because they're a championship-caliber team -- same thing with Dallas. Houston is on the come-up with Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Three out of the four are contenders right now. That was my reasoning. It wasn't like I said I want to play for the Hawks. You know, nothing against the Hawks but I'm talking about going to a championship team. I would have thrown Miami in there, but at the end of the day, if Shaq leaves that team breaks up. You never know, but the four teams I mentioned have a solid base. If anything happens with the Wizards, that's my Plan B.
JVG got us a decent record, albeit misleading once we hit the playoffs (but he wasn't far off from the second round). Though I agree Adelman has a better chance to utilize the talent beneath him than JVG could or did. The difference with the Bulls is they were, and are, downright sucking.
The Bulls start off bad every year and everyone always writes them off. The point is both the Rockets and the Bulls were playoff teams last year that started off the season less than stellar. But I think you'll see both teams in the playoffs.
I was going to read all that. And then it was like "Look at all that text". "Is the Rocket's somewhere in that mumbo Jumbo" Then it was "I ain't readin' all of that", so I scrolled down, "Hey there no bold text to look for" So what to do? "I don't know" After a while you jist have to give up. Then it's like "uuuuuh, is this really written by an adult?" "Naaah, it kan't be"
I thought there was a post about Rockets and Adelman?! Whatever, I enjoy reading Gil's blog, he's a great player.
I do think the contrast in Bonzi from last year has been extremely interesting. He never could get in shape and the basketball season 7-8 months. Yet, as soon as Adelman is hired, Bonzi is able to get in tip top shape in 3 months??? Don't tell me it was salary reasons. He didn't opt out. He's still playing for NBA pennies. Dude actually wanted to come back and play for Adelman enough to get his fat hiney in shape and not take free agency route. That should tell us something. I agree with the article. In a league of superstar multimillionaires, discipline is only gonna take you so far. Rudy T was not known as a disciplinarian, yet, he did have discipline. Don't ever forget how fast he cut Two Sandwiches after he started some mess. Adelman has discipline too. He's not gonna holler and cuss out his players on national TV but his discipline is very basic. Act up and you get a seat on the bench. Don't do what you are asked to do in the scheme of the offense/defense? Here's a seat on the bench. No public rant to the media. Just, very simply, have a seat on the bench. Everybody always praises Van Gundy for his honesty, and he is honest.......brutally honest, which most of us really appreciate, because he is so honest that he gives you more detail, more inside skinny, which is what us fans want. But, sometimes, like in the case of Bonzi, it backfires, and it turns into a public pi..ing match, and it hurts the team ultimately. Van Gundy always complained about not having any knife fighters on his teams, all he had was milk drinkers. Well, it's because he wouldn't coach knife fighters. He kept booting them off the team or trading them or turning them into milk drinking panzy passers who slapped the floor defensively and read his mind concerning every dribble, pass, and shot on offense. The bottom line is you can't win a championship with 12 Shane Battiers out there. And that was something Van Gundy specifically said he would like to do, coach 12 Shane Battiers. The difference with guys like Rudy T and Adelman is they look for guys that are already motivated to play, that have bball skills, and a good bball brain. They balance the yelling and screaming with the attaboys. They balance the discipline with reward for outperformance. And they realize this game is ultimately about the players and it is their job to get the most out of the players, even if that means they have to deal a little bit differently with some of them. Bonzi has busted his behind this year, played injured, come off the bench without complaint, the whole bit, warrior mentality. Why? Well, it's gotta be the coach. Yao was complaining earlier this year about nobody being at the gym early anymore like they were with Van Gundy. He said something about he always gets to the gym early and when Van Gundy was coach, Van Gundy was already there when he got there, and some other players were there too. Well, that doesn't mean Adelman isn't putting in the time. And it doesn't mean the players aren't putting in training time. They all have access to gyms in their homes, fitness centers across the city, and you can tell Adelman spends a lot of time coming up with ideas of how to run this team, the offensive scheme, etc. Adelman doesn't have to be in his office at the TC at 3 am everyday. He's in his office when he gets out of bed. Shoot, he's in his office when he's laying in bed. He eats and sleeps basketball just like Van Gundy does. Just because he isn't sitting down there in some stuffy office pounding down coffee at 3 am doesn't mean he isn't working, isn't creating. Adlman's system is a system of.....TRUST. And the truth is told when these guys get out there and play. Are they playing together, are they in shape? Or are they getting blowed out, not running the offense, with no legs to get up and down the floor and missing shots like crazy??? Little kids have to have a coach blow the whistle and line 'em up to run lines. Little kids have to have the coach tell them to get in the weight room for 90 minutes, etc. But grown up men do what they need to do to be successful. It is virtually impossible to motivate ESTABLISHED PLAYERS in the NBA by continually threatening discipline if they don't do what they are supposed to do. You may motivate the rookies and 2nd year guys or guys that are knocking around the league trying to carve out a career. But, guys like McGrady, Bonzi, Yao, Deke, Francis, James, etc., that stuff don't work. They achieve and fail based on their own work ethic combined with effective coaching strategy and both player and coach trusting each other that they are both going to do what is best for the TEAM. The thing that was so frustrating last year was watching Van Gundy continually put the hammer on these guys and never let up, never adjust offensive strategy, never try anything different when something wasn't working, just simply drilling and drilling and drilling on the same strategy, keep running Yao around setting a dozen picks on every possession, keep running him down in the low block and having him post up against the double and triple team, keep trying to throw the ball directly into him, and then when that failed, let McGrady let fly with a bunch of jump shots and have Rafer stand around to shoot the low percentage 3 ball, which provided very poor to mediocre offensive success and basically continued to tear down 111 until they completely broke down in the playoffs.................again, and then blaming the players for lack of heart, etc. There was not enough TRUST nor imagination in Van Gundy's system even though he worked hard and was at the office early every day. It wasn't about working harder in his case. It really wasn't about working SMARTER in his case either since Van Gundy is extremely bright. It was about working WISER and developing TRUST. 111, Battier, and Alston to a certain degree somehow earned Van Gundy's trust but he never really earned enough of their trust, even though he played them 35+ mpg. When your team superstars questions the rotation and wonder why guys aren't playing, that's a serious indicator that there's a trust issue. Van Gundy blew it with Spanoulis, and him and Bonzi both blew it with each other. When the Rox signed Bonzi, Van Gundy knew he was 280 pounds. Why sign the guy if you ain't gonna work it out with him? Why make the commitment? NOT WISE.
^^ Helluva post man. It annoys me when people refer to coaches like Rudy and Adelman as "players coaches", or "hands-off".
Good post overall, jopatmc. A couple more thoughts, however: 1. Just as we think Bonzi might have played better with Adelman as coach last season, there is an argument to be made that guys like Tracy, James, and Francis would have worked better with Van Gundy this year. In any case, different guys respond to different coaching philosophies (and some guys, apparently, don't respond to any-- see Zach Randolph). 2. About Bonzi, a lot of his problems were caused or compunded by loss of $35 million. Not that Van Gundy would have worked much better had he not been mourning the loss of money, but it's at least possible he wouldn't have eaten himself out of shape had this loss of contract thing not happened. Another thing is that the problem may not be so much one of personality, but one of game plan. Jeff build a strategy around Yao and Tracy of basically loading up on 3 pt shooters and let Yao and Tracy go to work-- that's how the team ended up with a really high # of 3 pointers attempted last year. He couldn't figure out a way to use Bonzi-- a non-3 point shooter as we all know-- without clogging up the court. Adleman's system with the cutting high post play leaves more room for a guy like Bonzi to slash and cut. So far, the result has been a mixed bag-- Bonzi has had good and bad games both and team offense has gone up and down a lot-- hopefully we'll see the full effectiveness of this system soon when Tracy comes back. The Rockets have been getting better at it of late). 3. Spanouis: Not sure if he wouldn't have get frustrated with Adelman. Given the way he played and the % he shot, would Adelman keep feeding him minutes? Also, another point about the actual fit of skill to team strategy-- I remember Jeff was said to have told Spanoulis "I don't know how to use you." I think his problem iwasthat, again, a non 3-pt shooter at PG clogs up the court in the offense. Rafter at least shot 35-36% from the arc. Adelman may use his PG more around the rim and less at the arc, but his guys in SAC had 3 pt range. I'm not sure a total non-3 point shooter wouldn't hurt this team.
JVG belongs to a school of coaching style that has been pretty successful in the NBA. Had we had more potent role players last playoff, It might have been a different story last year. JVG's discipline approach made us an elite team in the league that was well respected. We lost that status this year, and are trying to earn it back. It can be argued that hands free or player's coach can only take a team that far. After two wonderful seasons, Rudy.T by large failed. Adelman with this team, we shall see. Beating a string of bottom teams doesnt necessary mean the season has turned around. Offensively we still cant score as much as we would like. Much of our weakness last year still exists. But I am enjoying our winning streak right now. The ball movment is beautiful. We have more ways to score. And it seems opponents no longer can predict when and where we will hit our shots. Those are the positives.
Your second paragraph sort of contradicts your first. It is true that we are just beating some weak teams in the streak. But even against weak opponents, JVG's team could never play offense like this without T-Mac. This is the major difference between JVG's offense and Adelman's offense.
