He got that contract because Adelman loves him. No doubt this was the kind of thing Adelman and Morey would have clashed over.
How many times a day do you think Rick kicks himself now for not staying in Houston. All he had to do was put Chris Finch on his staff and agree to Daryl Morey's approach to building a roster. Instead he said no thanks to DM and left for Minnesota. Instead of a roster full of 27 year old or younger studs that are all healthy and ready to kick ass he has a roster full of damaged goods. Sorry Rick, but Daryl Morey offered you the chance to stay and coach the Rockets but you could not agree to his conditions.
Reading comprehension fail. Nook never mentioned anything about Adelman's coaching. The issue here is RA's meddling in personnel decisions/acquisitions of players (i.e. Budinger, Kevin Martin, Brad Miller, etc.) which 'fit' his system. He's 100% correct in this regard. Adelman is not GM material b/c he vastly over values his pet players. So much so that Minny, because of its cap situation, will NOT be positioned to acquire elite talent in order to compete for titles. Perennial mediocrity mill. This is the Adelman effect that Morey smartly rejected.
He got hurt, he was really starting to play well - not sure why he gets so much grief here, the guy is a good player, and a GREAT 2nd round pick. DD
I don't think it was that simple. But this has been argued many times. So I'm not gonna get into that again. Personally, I believe how the Rockets organization handled Adelman was a disaster. Not the other way around. One could argue from the other side. The Rockets could have a great coach who has led talented teams to title contention if they didn't run Adelman out. Instead, we are having an unproven guy in McHale.
It was confirmed by both parties, Rick had certain conditions that he wanted met to remain the Rockets coach and Daryl Morey wanted certain conditions met in order to retain Rick as coach. They could not agree and Rick did not stay. Rick wanted his coaching staff the way he wanted it and did not want Daryl constantly churning the roster. Daryl had a vision and like many others, Rick did not believe in that vision. Rick is a great great coach. Having said that, had he believed in Daryl Morey's vision he would be coaching D12 and JHarden right now. Unfortunately there was just no way that Rick was going to stick around while Daryl forced a coach on him and traded away an entire competitive roster. All that being said, I think Rick and every other analyst, sports writer, commentator, etc... can see that there really was a method to Daryl's madness. The Rockets roster is so much better than the Minnesota roster that it's a no brainer that Rick would prefer coaching the players on the Rockets than the group he currently has on the floor.
Rick Adelman understood X's and O's at an elite level. He was and is overall a very good teacher as well. The problem is/wasn't his system, play calling or substitution patterns. The problem was that Rick wanted a lot of say when it came to personnel decisions, contracts and the draft. Morey gave Adelman input, as he has with McHale, however Adelman wanted more. The problem is that Adelman is nothing great when it comes to executive decisions. Rick has been around a long time, he wanted more control in Houston and thank God Alexander sided with Morey.
The Rockets got extremely lucky in the Harden sweepstakes. If that did not go their way, we would be enduring another season of spiel about the potental of players like Jeremy Lin, Marcus Morris, & Royce White.
If Daryl Morey had not been prepared then he would not have gotten lucky. You know what they say right? Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. If the Rockets had chosen not to make all of those trades last summer then it's very unlikely they would have had the opportunity to trade for James Harden and it's very unlikely that D12 would be a Houston Rocket. So sure... DM got lucky.
The Rockets would need to sign Josh Howard off of the streets 1st and then convince Minnesota that Josh for Kevin Love is a good trade for them. But yeah I'm with you, I would trade Josh for Kevin every day of the week.
I can't believe the hate Rick gets. Some of you are mildly r****ded. I cannot fathom how you wouldn't prefer Rick over Kevin freakin McHale. There is NO contest between the two. I hope Chase recovers, but I wish some of you recognized HOF coaches versus guys that don't belong on the bench.
