Rick Adelman on why Terrence Williams isn't in the rotation

It's 2011, are you seriously bringing the race card into this? Read my earlier post.

 

He won't get playing time until we're really struggling?
Open your eyes Rick, we're not exactly setting the world on fire.
Define 'really struggling' Rick.

And saying you know what your veteran guys can do is all well and good, but if they're not doing it SIT THEM & LET THE YOUNG GUNS OFF THE LEASH TO PLAY!
It might actually spur the vets to pull the finger out and put in the effort.

If our whole team played with the effort and heart of the Chuckwagon we'd be in the top 4.

 

I totally agree with you, of course Morey is trying to upgrade. Just sounds like RA is frustrated with what he may see as acquiring redundant talent, and then expected to find a spot for everyone, while winning and keeping everyone happy.

 

I think the main reason he is not playing and probably will not get much minutes is his style of play.

T-Will is not a great shooter his best impact on a team is creating for other with the ball on his hand. His impact is more like T-Mac, he gets the ball in and iso then read the defense then create for other or for him.

But Adelman will not play someone who don't go there and play his offense, the problem is TWill is not a great fit, he is not a shooter or a good off the ball player and is not a Vet how can impose his game over Adelman system.

That is why when ppl want to get somebody like Nash or CP3 on this team it will not go well with this coach who don't like players who control the ball 90% of the time.

 

Lol I was tottaly kidding I was not about the other part though!!

 

Interesting..

 

I think you are reading too much into this (even if the end of the RA era could be near)

I would understand Adelman having a problem over this if we gave up one of Adelman's favorites, as far as Adelman is concerned, we lost nothing in acquiring Williams, this is a move for the future, it was never meant to make an inmediate impact.

 

Ugh, this can get ugly soon if T-Will doesn't get some communication done with Adelman.

Adelman doesn't seem to be on the same page as many of the players including Terrence Williams, Aaron Brooks.

As a result, the veterans are getting unnecessary minutes and the veterans aren't really feeling any pressure from within the ranks to do anything beyond whats necessary. They just want to put up the minutes knowing their backups aren't going to threaten their minutes.

Adelman doesn't know to promote the young guys and gain their trust and confidence. He is not on very good terms with Williams, etc so he just lets them sit in his doghouse while riding the "reliable" veterans game after game.

Adelman is just not cutting it in terms of long-term foresight and preparation. What good is it if we keep on playing guys like Scola who's massively exhausted from the FIBA tournament before the season began? Why aren't we playing Jordan Hill and just really seeing what kind of a player we actually got on our hands?

The NBA is a players’ league, and the results that any team achieves are overwhelmingly driven by the quality of that team’s players. Coaches are necessary, even important, but in the NBA they have less impact on the variability of a team’s result than is popularly attributed. The reason for this is that there is less variability in the quality of coaches than is popularly thought.

I believe that there are a select few “great” coaches, and, surprisingly, even fewer “terrible” coaches. Most are qualified individuals with their own collection of strengths and foibles. Most will succeed with good talent, and fail with weak talent.

The most successful coaches have their biggest impact before the game starts. Their primary job is to teach the players what to do and prepare them for what the opponent will do. In general, I consider in-game moves, particularly play-calling out of time outs or in late-game situations, to be highly overrated. Those times more than any other are dictated by the quality and the execution of the players.

Because of this, I consider the greatest sin an NBA coach can commit is to over-coach. To think that he can “out-coach” the game, or win a game in the huddle, as opposed to the players winning it on the floor. Or, as I like to say, “To become Isiah Thomas.”

Right now, Rick Adelman is over-coaching. He seems to be over-coaching, because he has no faith in his players — at least most of them. The lack of faith in a lot of his players (guys like Aaron Brooks, Chase Budinger, etc.) is well earned and well deserved. But that is beside the point.

A classic rule of management says that people will perform to expectations — whether that be up or down. So by assuming failure on the part of his players, he changes that assumption from being probably right to almost certainly right. Therefore, he’s creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that these guys will fail.

So, while the root of the problem is, was, and will continue to be the issues related to the inadequacy of the players, Adelman has become a contributor to the problem by confirming those flaws, predicting failure and, therefore, ensuring failure.

Perversely, the thing that seems to have happened here is not so much — as one poster said before — that the coach has “lost” the players, but that the players “lost” the coach.

So, the Rockets management is faced with a problem I’ve seen before in my professional life: How do you remove an under-performing manager without letting the under-performing workforce off the hook?

I’m of two minds on firing Adelman mid-season.

Firs of all, I don’t like it because it gives credence to the overwhelming fan voice that says Adelman is the problem. To me, that’s a gross oversimplification of the situation, and much of the vitriol is based on style, rather than actual substance. Put more simply: it’s always easy to blame the coach, particularly one you don’t like.

On the other hand, there doesn’t currently seem to be any signs that the team will turn around under Adelman. It is possible that even a temporary (and false) bounce would be enough to get to the playoffs. That’s something I think these players and this franchise desperately needs, and should weigh heavily in any considerations.

Still, what happens if Morey walks into Toyota Center today, tells Adelman they’re letting him go, promotes Turner, and then says to the players, “OK … no more excuses”? Does the team turn it around? Who knows? But there probably would not be a major windfall of victories immediately. This isn’t an incredibly talented team whose coach is holding them down. This is a flawed, immature team whose coach isn’t making things any better or easier.

Ultimately, I think Adelman is committing what I consider to be the worst coaching sin. However, I don’t think he’s the core problem, and I don’t think firing him is the core solution. It’s self-serving, but my suspicion is that Morey’s opinion isn’t that far different from mine.

So can Morey stage an intervention?

What happens if Morey does two things?

1. Goes to the players and lays it all on them. Says, “Grow up. The reason you’re losing is because you aren’t playing well. Adelman will be here for the rest of the year, so man up, and do your job.”
2. Then goes to Adelman, and says, “Look, I’m not going to tell you who to play, but I am going to tell you to make a decision. By tomorrow morning, I want you to come back in here with a rotation that you will go with for the rest of the season, along with contingencies for injuries. It will be entirely up to you. I don’t care who it is, but you will lock down a 9- or 10-man rotation, and you will communicate this to your players with your commitment to stick with it for the rest of the year. I will back you completely. If a necessary change becomes apparent, then we will discuss it, but we are done with the constant changes. I know what you think the problems are, and I don’t necessarily disagree, but I don’t care any more. We need to pick a course and stick with it.”

Is that the happy — or even unhappy — medium that gets this team back on the same page?

Just as it would take a total team effort for these Rocketsto have gone 15-5 over the last 20 games, it has taken a total team effort for them to go 5-15. Everybody had to come to the party on this one, including Daryl Morey, who has been with the Rockets in some function when every player on this roster was acquired.

Ideally, problems are handled as they arise at lower levels of any organization. The best teams have strong leaders in the locker room to head off trouble early. Should that be insufficient, then it’s the coach’s responsibility to get things back on track. If it moves past that, then you have a team in crisis.

Right now, the Rockets are a team in crisis, and Daryl Morey is the guy who must step up and resolve it. He needs to make sure the players understand their ultimate accountability for their own (and the team’s) performance. He must address any problems he has with Adelman’s performance without scapegoating him. He must put a fractured team back together.

And if he can’t or won’t do that, then I don’t know what this franchise can do to change the path they’re on. And I don’t know how they come back from where that path leads.

 

It was hard to tell, specially without one of these smilies: :grin:

 

very interesting. no spot for him and other players are playing very well. let me add one more sentence to his comments. and we keep losing.

 

I must be missing something here... what makes you guys think he is actually better than the players in the current rotation? I've yet to see that. Do you really think that Adelman would just come out and say "Well, the fact of the matter is Terrence just isn't that good." No, he's being as politically correct as possible.

The crush that this board has for TW is insane.

 

adelman's an old geyser who needs to get some metamucil and a rocking chair

 

coz RA didn't say he is not good as other players. he just said there is no spot for him and other players are playing very well. of coz, add my commnet, "we keep losing". i bet you got confused. :grin:

 

No mins for him unless Bud gets traded.

 

We have too many wings.......sort of makes me want to bump my "Comfort foods" thread.

This is exactly what I was talking about, Morey may need to force his hand.

DD

 

100% Agreed. People see him making some good passes and he is god. How many decent games did he had when he was in NJ? Not many. How good are his stats?

He got 20 minutes there: Shot 50% from free throw line, 33% three point line, 40% overall. Averaged about 3 assists and 2.5 turnovers...

There is nothing that much special about him. Guys we have right now puts up better numbers than he has had in the past.

People think he has unbelievable talent hidden. If he really had, he would have proved that in NJ... Like Griffin is in Clippers... Good players with good IQ can single handedly make a horrible team better. He did not do that in NJ, but we are damn sure that he is our Melo.

 

I wasn't confused one bit until you posted this piece of work. Translation?

 

I think TWill would be assigned to D-League (which would be a good idea IMO....why not....get him some minutes), but he's probably not mature enough to handle it and it would be the beginning of the end. He definitely needs to get some time on the court, but it's hard to say that he deserves it over other players. He may be an injury or trade away from seeing some PT. We've come this far.....need to be patient just a little bit longer.

 

Oh well, RA will have to adjust once again when a trade gets done. TWill will get his chance by that time either here or with another team.

 

Backup Quarterback Syndrome, guys. Backup Quarterback Syndrome.

Honestly, I really like Terrence Williams as a player and was very happy when the Rockets traded for him. But Adelman is doing nothing wrong by not playing Williams over the players who are currently playing. Now, if Chase hadn't broken out of his shooting slump, I would be clamoring for Williams to replace Bud, though.

Williams was acquired with an eye towards eventually unloading other players by the February trade deadline to open up room in the rotation for him. Nothing "totally unforeseen" has happened yet with this entire situation.

Just be patient.