MDmA.. the man took us to game 7 in the Western Conference Finals against a stack assed cheating team who had the refs in their pocket. Woulda won too if CP didn't get hurt. Anyone saying anything else is full of **** and hates life. That argument that Rick the Ruler taking bad teams to new heights of mediocrity is horse manure. Who friggin cares. Dude was losing with TMac and Yao and Ron Ron too.
I dunno if the Adelmam teams were all that talent deficient. Yao was a top 3 center in the league TMac was considered a top 10 talent I don't think DanAndToni is dripping with talent. Harden is an overwhelming talent. I think hindsight has some folx gripped. Rockets have had the talent and coaching to win championships. But have hit some unfortunate circumstances and luck. Rocket River Rocket River
I know you always dismiss Adelman for whatever reasons, perhaps because you have never forgiven his "sin" of replacing your beloved JVG. But are you seriously trying to argue that the current team is superior BECAUSE of coaching?
BTW, it would be interesting to see what JVG and Adelman could do if they had Morey as their GM. I know Morey was there at the latter part of Adelman's tenure. But by that time, Morey's hands were already tied due to blunders of previous deals. Morey would be much better in finding the role players around the stars with Les's ownership.
*When healthy Rick never had Tracy & Yao together in the postseason. Spoiler Yao: 07-08: 55 games (DNP postseason) 08-09: 77 games (Hairline fracture 2nd round vs Lakers) 09-10: DNP (DNP postseason) 10-11: 5 games (DNP postseason) (Last year in NBA) McGrady: 07-08: 66 games (L First Round Utah; .425 FG, .208 3pt, .623 FT, 27 pts, 8.2 reb, 6.8 ast) 08-09: 35 games (DNP postseason; Tracy picks Lakers to win title while Rockets are playing; Rockets advance to 2nd round without him) 09-10: 6 games (with Houston; traded--24 games with New York) 10-11: 72 games (with Detroit) 2007-08: 55-27 L First Round Utah Rafer Alston - Aaron Brooks - Bobby Jackson - Steve Francis Tracy McGrady - Luther Head Shane Battier - Mike Harris Luis Scola - Carl Landry - Steve Novak Yao Ming - Chuck Hayes - Dikembe Mutombo - Loren Woods 2008-09: 53-29 L Semifinals Lakers Aaron Brooks - Kyle Lowry Tracy McGrady - Von Wafer - Brent Barry - James White Metta World Peace - Shane Battier Luis Scola - Carl Landry - Brian Cook Yao Ming - Chuck Hayes - Dikembe Mutombo - Joey Dorsey 2009-10: 42-40 Missed Playoffs Aaron Brooks - Kyle Lowry Kevin Martin - Trevor Ariza - Jermaine Taylor - Garrett Temple Shane Battier - Chase Budinger - Mike Harris Luis Scola - Jared Jeffries Chuck Hayes - Jordan Hill - David Andersen - Hilton Armstrong 2010-11: 43-39 Missed Playoffs Kyle Lowry - Goran Dragic Kevin Martin - Courtney Lee Chase Budinger - Terrence Williams - Mike Harris Luis Scola - Patrick Patterson Chuck Hayes - Jordan Hill - Brad Miller - Hasheem Thabeet - Yao Ming
Rick Adelman was the best by far imo. But he was just as stubborn as Dan Tony in a way with in game adjustment. I remember his style of coaching was basically about teaching his system in practice and then sit down with his arms crossed and watched in game. That offense was really great to watch compared to this PnR and Iso heavy offense. We shot a lot of threes too in that offense but it had more options. Could you imagine if we had Rick's system combined with Harden Iso to bail us out.
He never had all three in the playoffs. He only had Tmac in 2008 He only had Yao for 3/4 of playoffs in 2009 Harden and Chris Paul in 2017 - 2018 would have beaten Jazz + Timberwolves with a lot of people coaching them.
It's Mike D'Antoni, I saw people saying Van Gundy was better when Adelman was here. Although we shouldn't be satisfied until we win a ring, I understand. I appreciate what we have in comparision. Let's look at thier resume and numbers: Rick Adelman Career Win Percentages: Code: Regular Season Playoffs Season Tm G W L W/L% G W L W/L% 6 seasons POR 445 291 154 .654 69 36 33 .522 2 seasons GSW 164 66 98 .402 -16.0 8 seasons SAC 624 395 229 .633 69 34 35 .493 4 seasons HOU 328 193 135 .588 19 9 10 .474 3 seasons MIN 230 97 133 .422 -18.0 Mike D'Antoni Career Win Percentages: Code: Regular Season Playoffs Season Tm G W L W/L% G W L W/L% 1 seasons DEN 50 14 36 .280 -11.0 5 seasons PHO 389 253 136 .650 51 26 25 .510 4 seasons NYK 288 121 167 .420 4 0 4 .000 2 seasons LAL 154 67 87 .435 4 0 4 .000 4 seasons HOU 264 185 79 .701 39 23 16 .590 Adelman coached 23 seasons to D'Antoni's 16 so far so his career percentages are higher due to more seasons, but D'Antoni should do as well or better with his pace. D'Antoni has had results on par with Adelman with different talent, including when Adelman had prime Clyde Drexler at Portland. But D'Antoni has had an excellent winning percentage here at Houston, higher than any one of Adleman's peak percentages with a single team over seasons. I think we're just a solid bench, with perhaps a couple good 3&D wings with length who can rebound from being right there.
They're superior because they're better. Coaching is probably an element thereof. Isn't that what we measure coaches by in the end?
By that logic Mike Brown is one of the best coaches the NBA has ever seen he went to ECF or Finals every season as HC of the Cavs. And Ty Lue is a better coach than every Houston head coach besides Rudy T cuz he has a championship.
His winning percentage coincided with getting a stacked PHX team and then a stacked Houston with MVP James Harden. His best teams always coach themselves when your team has Steve Nash or Cp3 and James Harden how much coaching are you doing exactly? What we have seen is when MDA doesn't have top tier talent like in Lakers or NYC his teams have all played like trash. Is that an amazing coach? When you don't have a hof pg your teams suck ass? By this logic Mike Brown is a better coach than MDA since he went ECF and Finals in the 5 years he was coach of Lebron James.
I don't think that's how we measure coaches by. If that was, Steve Kerr should be considered among the greatest coaches in history because his team was one of the greatest teams, and McHale achieved more than JVG did.
Why shouldn't Kerr be considered great? He definitely will be. And JVG took a team to the finals, btw.
Adelman had a Portland Blazer team in the 90s with HOF Clyde Drexler who was second in MVP voting to only Jordan in 91-92, he also had three all stars in Drexler, Duckworth and Terry Porter. Here is the all star game box score: https://www.basketball-reference.com/allstar/NBA_1991.html https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/1991.html In Sacramento Adelman had prime Chris Webber who is a borderline HOFer and may likely get in with future votes, as well as two all stars in Webber and Peja Stojaković. https://www.basketball-reference.com/allstar/NBA_2002.html https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SAC/2002.html Both had talent and it's the coach's job to maximize that talent, Harden and other players like Nash improved under D'Antoni. Guys like Shawn Marion only had all star games when D'Antoni coached them and D'Antoni has been apart of two historic offenses all time. Adelman was an excellent coach, not taking anything away from him, but I think D'Antoni is a little better.
Adelman also had a team that had Chuck Hayes starting and almost made the playoffs in the West. If they were playing in the East they would have been in the playoffs. JVG had a team who had Ewing as the best player and they reached Finals. He also had a team with just Tmac and a bunch of no names like Rafer Alston and old ass Juwon Howard and they got 4rth seed (Yao was out). That was a time when West had PHX, Sas, Kings, Jazz, Dallas etc. Those types of achievements are only possible due to coaching, because the rosters sucked ass. MDA had a team with Kobe and Dwight and he failed to manage egos. In NYC he didnt have the best team but it was in the LEast, sub par 0.500 could reach the playoffs. He failed there as well and got fired pretty quickly both times. Shawn Marion having a resurgence had to do with Steve Nash and not MDA. It's funny he only wins when he has a HOF playmaker doing the actual coaching for him. I keep trying to look for it but there was a video of either Jalen Rose or somebody else talking smack about MDA. They were about to play SAS and he asked MDA what their adjustments are gonna be. MDA went "D'oh" and said they dont do adjustments and just had practice as usual. Sure enough they lost to Spurs. He seems like a nice guy and I def think he is better than Mchale, JB and Chris Finch. But he isnt the best coach the Rox ever had, he isnt even a top 5 coach in today's league gets routinely dumped on by Popovich and co.
You fail to remember a time called "Linsanity" in NY. It proves that MDA is a good coach with a great system but was thwarted by incompatible personnel. Let's recall the story: MDA came to NY and tried to run his 'system' (the same system that made JH an MVP) But, they had a player named Melo who was going to have NONE OF THAT. Melo thought it was HIS team and he was going to get his touches and his shots no matter what. D'Antoni's system won't work well with selfish players (hello Kobe). Sure, the Knicks were a middling mediocre team until something happened. Melo got hurt. He was out of commission for 14 games. In his absence, MDA's Knicks bought into running his 'free flow' system and what do you know? An Asian Harvard grad named Jeremy Lin was put at the helm. They ran off a 7 game winning streak! Jeremy Lin put up 38 points over Kobe in defeating the Lakers. Lin's 89 points in his first three games are the most by any NBA player in his first three starts since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77 During those 14 games in Melo's absence, the Knicks went 10-4. That's a .714 winning percentage. Jeremy Lin is a star, and MDA is relevant again. Then, something else happened. Melo came back, Linsanity promptly died, as did MDA's system, as well as their winning percentage. The Knicks return to mediocrity as Melo bogs everything down. In ADDITION, the well-celebrated and touted (5 championship rings) Phil Jackson comes in to replace MDA with basically the same personnel (Melo and company). What happens? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. The GREAT Phil Jackson can't make it work with Melo either. Rumors begin circulating about moving Melo, but Phil Jackson is discharged instead. What a LOSER, right? So YOU tell ME. Who was the better coach here? Clearly, if MDA can make an unknown like Jeremy Lin a star and run off a 70% winning percentage, THAT says something doesn't it? People trash MDA because of his stint with the Lakers and the Knicks. This story proves that his system works when the players buy in. Even unknowns can make it work. James bought in and PRESTO, we're running off 1st and 3rd seed in the West and have a .700 winning percentage OVER 3 YEARS! Kobe and Melo sabotaged him, plain and simple. They are all about Kobe and Melo. Hard to argue with success. The numbers don't lie. A .700 winning percentage is cream of the crop in the NBA. But some aren't willing to admit. "It's because he has James Harden" people like you say. But, Harden was 'good' but not a Mega-star during the McHale/JBB era. MDA unlocked his true potential. But if "It's because of James Harden" is applied to Mike D'Antoni, cannot not the same phrase apply to Phil Jackson? Ever heard of Micheal Jordan? Scottie Pippen? (BTW, Phil Jackson never won any rings without MJ). How about Kobe Bryant? Shaquille O'Neal? I'm sure they had NOTHING to do with Phil Jacksons' success. Sure, MDA does not yet sport a ring. But he's proven he's NOT trash
