I agree about Adelman, he's as good as a 6th man coming off the bench with some of his coaching decisions. I liked the small backcourt he used yesterday, he had Yao catch the inbounds pass to use his FT skills in the last minute. He put Battier on Kobe and Artest on Lamar when most people thought Artest would cover Kobe, great matchup IMO. His timeout speech was a classic and after that terrible game 5 by AB, he's played a lot better, has to be the coaching staff that did that.
Lowry in there was good. He's getting used to the heat. He's going to start hitting more freethrows and jumpers.
i agree, he did a very good job with rotations, although i wanted yao out at the end of the 3rd so he could rest the start of the 4th, but with kobe and bynum/gasol in we couldn't afford to lose him so props to him and yao for playing through the fatigue he most certainly must have been dealing with
Props to Adelman Hey guys - I love all the props being given to Hayes, Artest, Yao, Brooks, etc. but I didn't notice any for Adelman. A few points to consider: I think JVG is a great coach, and by association, extend it out a little to his brother in Orlando. Stan, however, freaked out during the Celtics run. Granted the Lakers led for less than a minute, and their "comeback" was from nine points down as opposed to 29 - but still. Adelman showed a lot of composure and poise, which I believe, helped calm our players down, especially considering who his counterpart was. The zen-master has had Adelman's number, whether it was MJ's Bulls against Portland, or more recently with the Lakers against the Kings. I know his teams have played well against Coach Jackson's teams in the past, but isn't it at all plausible for the former to have their respective playoff records in the back of his mind? If so, his comments and moves didn't seem to indicate that he was intimidated at all. The little moves, such as pulling Yao at the end of the first half, favoring Barry over a clearly amped up Von Wafer, were all good. The best however was the unexpected play in the fourth quarter of playing both PG's at the same time. I know Rafer and Brooks played together some, but I was surprised with this adjustment and thought it paid dividends. What worked even better was how he handled the most inexperienced part of our starting lineup - Aaron Brooks. The moment Aaron forego an open three pointer for a pass that led to a shot clock violation, Adelman was on him and his play turned around. Another example of his poise calming our primary ball handler down. The absolute best thing he said was during one of those TNT looks in the coaches huddles or whatever, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he said, "It's about US winning this game, not them losing it." The Magic last night barely didn't lose, whereas the Rockets won. Well played Adelman, well played. Now is however not the time to let up, as arguably the greatest coach in professional basketball history, will have his #1 seeded team ready to play. Go Rockets.
My bad - didn't notice this thread, but I totally agree with the OP. Glad we're all on the same page here.
Surprised not many more people are fessing up to their remarks. I've always been a fan of Rick; it seemed as if I was the only one arguing against Rick haters. Though, I think this thread is created to early. We'll have to wait to see until the series is over. (I'd like to see Nick, ambrose, and adoo, and what they have to say.)
Absolutely. Adelman just outcoached Phil Jackson--was one step ahead of him the whole night and by getting Brooks to attack Fisher, he forced Jackson to respond by putting in Farmar who is just not as good at setting up the team. Totally took the initiative away from the Lakers. I've been thinking this the last few months that Adelman uses the season as a learning tool for his players. So sometimes he just tries to let the players make their mistakes so that come playoff time, they know what not to do. This is the difference btw JVG and RA. JVG doesn't want to let young players make mistakes, so he can't develop young players. Now we've got some great athletic young guys who are learning to play. This team's got a good few years ahead.
After past contests between Rick Adelman and Phil Jackson, it may be that Coach Adelman is more fired up about this particular series than any player on the team. It just might be that Coach Jackson is the great white whale that our Coach Ahab is obsessed with sending to the bottom of the ocean depths. I hope he gets it done.
Rick deserves his props. He made the right adjustments and our execution down the stretch was championship caliber. With that being said, I still believe the Lakers were taken off-guard the first game. I expect a totally different series the rest of the way.
I think the fact that there is bad history between jackson and adelman helps out alot.. gives adelman alot of motivation and he knows what phil is thinking.. from jackson's standpoint, he'll let his pride and ego take charge and be stubborn to not make the adjustments just to prove that adelmen hasn't outcoached him..
Didn't Ahab end up dying at the hands of Moby Dick? We'll see how focused Captain Adelman has his crew tomorrow.
he did great, At first i was like many who think jvg would have taken us further but now i see how good of a coach, Rick is. THank you Rick.
Great thread, 5* stars, he doesen't get the credit he's due here. It was pure genius leaving the 2 PG back court yesterday atthe end of the game and trusting Brooks.
