In my opinion, the flaw with the Rick Adelman's rotation is that he keeps players in who are playing well at the moment in the game for too long of a stretch. This may be a paradox, but players like Bonzi, Steve Novak, Chuck Hayes, and the rookies seem to play well in a stretch but their playing time becomes extended past their production capabilities. I believe its better to always have the defense guessing with a more consistent rotation.
not necessary consistent rotation because that would kill the motivation of players but definitely we can't play players too long if they have a good night, role players are role players, they need time to develop
Rick overplays his guards too much...Tmac and Rafer played the entire 2nd half I believe. And that is just too much....got to get them some rest..... And Scola is the answer to that "Everyone cover Yao" defense, he moves to open space and hits the shot. DD
He tends to stick with Rafer and T-Mac in the fourth quarter to protect leads. Both would have been well served with a rest to start the quarter. T-Mac wanted Novak in the game in the fourth, but I thought that hampered us because it forced McGrady to guard Artest. I think we would have been better served with Bonzi or Chuck staying in the game and guarding Artest. That's all I got for this game.
Scola or Landry need to be finishing games... not Bonzi or Novak. With Yao being this team's primary option, you eliminate his rebounding late in games.... meaning you have a bunch of guys standing around the perimeter when the ball goes up. Scola and Landry give us extra chances, hustle plays, loose balls, etc. TMac, Shane, and Yao are anything but quick to loose balls. We need the energy, enthusiasm and relentlessness of Scola and Landry late in games. PLUS... With the power forwards in the Western conf, Scola and Landry need to learn to finish games because they'll be finishing games in the playoffs. Don't tell me that Novak or Bonzi will be out there guarding Duncan, Stoudamire, Dirk, Boozer, Gasol, etc. Adelman is doing a great job but I completely disagree with this coaching decision and this needs to change.
Adelman is playing some players too much and too long and this reminded me of JVG. Rafer is our weakest link in the 4th especially we were are pressured. We need a PG that is not proned to sloppy play and making mistakes in the 4th when the pressure is up.
He needs to keep up the engergy late in games with Landry/Scola. He did that in the last several games, why did he stopped now?
Rafer has been playing the entire second half for a while now - it drives me nuts. Brooks looked good in the little PT he got - let him start the fourth at least before you bring Alston back in. Leave a man out there for too long and he's going to get tired and start bricking - no matter how hot he is. I think our rotation tonight was screwed up by Tmac not taking Artest. Forced our PF's to guard their SF, and we ended up just playing small because of it. What? Come on now.. Artest was killing Bonzi and Chuck the entire game. If anything, McGrady should have been on him from the start. Heck, let Shane take him and Tmac can guard the weaker Martin. I just couldn't see any logic behind having Scola guard Artest. Poor coaching, imo. Novak was only brought in because up to that point, we had 7 points in the quarter - freakin 7! Someone needed to score if Tmac was too scared to shoot.
No idea. I have no idea why he kept Novak in for so long in the 4th. Dude is totally clueness half of the time and has to have teammates direct him on where to go. I rather have scola or landry for hustle. Hustle plays=keeping the lead and offsets choking.
Adelman needs to play more guys more minutes. Scola should get at least 20 minutes of run and AB should get 20 when it's possible. We'll depend on these guys in the playoffs.
Whatever it is he's doing, you can bet that it is not 'Random'. Don't forget that we are one of the most technologically advanced teams and our coaching staff has tons of information about which combinations are good against certain defenses, which combinations are good against certain offenses, which combinations are good for rebounding, what player shoots great against a certain team, what player plays great defense on an opponent's star. Adelman has a set pattern for his rotations in the 1st 3 quarters. Adelman normally uses an 8 man rotation: Landry, Brooks, and Bonzi all get consistent 1st half minutes, Chuck and Novak are used when the situation calls for it (Chuck comes in when we need to stop a hot scorer, like Artest, Novak enters when we need to bust a zone or take pressure off the doubling of Yao and Tracy). As others have noted, Adelman likes to win the 3rd quarter, he goes with his starters almost the whole way, the big 3 of Alston, Mcgrady and Yao will play the 3rd quarter unless they get into foul trouble. The 4th quarter is interesting, I think Adelman uses lineups that counter what the other team is doing. He obviously wants Alston, Yao, and Mcgrady on the court if possible, the other 2 spots are really mix and match depending on how teams play us. Adelman has been sitting Scola on the bench the last few games in the 4th. He wants to get Bonzi on the floor to start the quarter (Bonzi has started the 4th quarter in the last 5 games), presumably so that Bonzi can draw fouls and get us in the bonus early. If Bonzi plays well then he'll get lots of run, again because Bonzi is the only perimeter player that draws fouls.
They still mystify me. Scola could have helped during the "collapse." Bonzi should have been on the bench, he had 0 points for the game. Rafer played forever, and TMac wasn't much help.
Every coache's rotation can be second guessed, and has been second guessed. There probably were guys second guessing if Red Auerbach played Don Nelson too much.
You hit the nail right on the head. Except I am not ready to call Adelman a great coach until he shows that he can put the right guys on the court to finish the game.
I think Adelman has tries to keep Yao, Tmac, Rafer and Battier on floor as much as possible and then rotates with Scola, Landry. Hayes and Novak come into play in certain situations. Brooks will get some time to give Rafer a rest. I think Adelman is doing ok with his moves, the team is playing more as a team and he using players based on their specific skills. As to the previous question why he is not playing Scola in the 4th quarter, thats a good question, maybe we get lucky and get the answer at a press conference. What grade would you give Adelman and his rotation of players. I think he deserves at minimum B particularly in the last 20 games.