It's the other way around. If Adelman was here we would still have Ariza, Brooks and Martin in major roles, instead of Harden and Howard. Adelman fell in love with his role players, he stated many times how he enjoyed coaching that 2010-2011 team. He wanted stability in his roster instead of Morey's asset turn over approach. He left because of a difference in opinion on the direction of the team. Morey made his stance very clear, when you are a mediocre team, stability is the last thing you want. I enjoyed watching those Adelman teams too, but prefer winning a championship just a little bit more.
Maybe it's just me and I am still a Morey believer and a RA believer as well. Adelman often demanded a contending team. I doubt that he would have stood by those role players for long. Morey always waited upon Yao Ming. That one was on him! Kevin Martin was going to paired up with him. Ariza was definitely a Morey move. He made a mistake and he undid it very fast. I give him that. Let's just leave it at the fact that Les, Morey and Adelman could not figure it out together. Entering McHale.
Morey did not give Adelman the pieces to figure it out. Adelman could not wait for Morey to give him the pieces to figure it out.
What do you mean he waited on Yao.... Yao was signed to a max contract and was injured... you think they could have just traded him for Blake Griffin like the rumor DD conjured up years ago??? Other than the Scola contract, Morey structured all his finances in a way to where they could overhaul the roster overnight if they needed to. Players he acquired like Kevin Martin were all on contracts that could be moved at any point. I think Martin was brought in for multiple reasons. 1 being he's a legit 20PPG shooting guard who can either be a piece for the future or a nice trade piece on a short term contract. The first year after Yao was officially done, Morey was setup to revamp the team overnight with the vetoed Gasol/Nene deals. Martin was probably the most sought after piece in this deal, and then later in the Harden trade. Morey never banked on Yao coming back and being the centerpiece. IMO it looked more like he was doing more doomsday prepping than building his house up for the future. Adelman didn't want consistent roster turnover, and I don't blame him. He was at a place in his career where he didn't want to babysit young players he didn't know and trust anymore... I don't blame him for that. However, if Adelman knew that Morey would get Howard and Harden in a short 2 year time span, I would be willing to bet that Adelman would still be in Houston. He didn't believe in the direction Morey was taking most likely because he didn't think(and few thought) it could get done so quick. No harm no foul. McHale is here now. He seems to be the right fit now being that the Rox will probably eventually be an inside-out team here in the future, and he was a big draw for Howard in free agency. Everything worked out pretty well regardless.
I think the simple way to put it is, Great GM >>>> Great Coach. Because in the NBA talent is the most valuable commodity around. If your owner is willing to pay ~$5mil/yr, you can get any good-to-great coach to coach your team. But no coach is getting you stars. Brown flamed out in NY and Charlotte. Carlisle is coaching a perennial .500 team now. Current 2-time championship coach is some guy no one heard of 3 years ago. Basically, if you think you have a top GM and he disagrees with the coach, you always side with the GM.
Sure, he only obtained Scola, Landry, Brooks, Artest, Lowry, Budinger, Martin, all for very little to nothing. Let it go. Adelman was an old school coach and not compatible with the Rockets new school approach for the last few years.
I love RA more than most on this board, but he's too loyal to scrub players. Bud would have been lucky to get a 2 million dollar contract, and the wolves gave him 5. That's just plain stupid.
I am not pro or against. I try to recall what happened and during the end of the Yao era Morey did seem to have made some questionable moves.. like the Ariza for Worldpeace signing and banking on the class of 2009 pre-Harden. (Flynn, Squid, Thabeet, JHill) and having mediocre talents in Patterson, Marcus Morris, .... The NeNe and Gasol trade would have been a minor upgrade at best Buying out Yao's contract or trading him for pieces like when almighty Hakeem became a Raptor would suggest an earth shattering move but it would have meant a new beginning. Adelman's situation was most unfortunate.
McHale can be old school or new school or middle school. The important thing is that he knows his job description is to coach, the player's job is to play, and you leave the GM to go do the GMing. In fact, during his introductory press conference that was one of the first things he mentioned, that he was going to stay out of the way and let Morey do his thing. Les and Morey had to butt in and say that they valued McHale's input.
This..... The Rockets and Morey look for leadership from their head coach and X's and O's from their assistant coaches. That is why they have McHale. If you are just talking X's and O's, Adelman is a very good coach and well beyond McHale. Really it comes down to the style of coach you want. Morey came up in the Celtics organization, which has a long history of coaches that lead and rely on the organization for the X's and O's... KC Jones, Doc Rivers, Bill Russell and Bill Fitch all left the X's and O's to others and tried to lead.
I'm not sure how McHale vs. Adelman is even debatable at this point. I have no idea if this was premeditated by Morey at the time, but in hindsight the fact that McHale was a huge draw and one of the top reasons outside of Harden that attracted Dwight Howard here is by itself worth 10 Rick Adelmans, and however many sons he has to bring along with him.
Under a rock when he signed with us? I'm not going to look up all the links, most were in interviews, here are a couple: http://sulia.com/channel/basketball/f/c3c128b6-2727-4723-8a00-fd53ef967b71/?source=twitter <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Why is Kevin McHale off limits to Celts in their coaching search? One reason, I'm told: Rockets see McHale as a key to Dwight Howard pitch</p>— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/statuses/349764969346240512">June 26, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> And from Daryl Morey: [–]Lakersah****sticks 86 points 1 month ago What'd you say to Dwight in the meeting? What were your main points? permalink [–]Rockets GM Daryl Morey!dmorey 213 points 1 month ago 1. You need multiple elite players to win titles and James Harden is an elite player. You will be on a contending team. 2.We have the most draft picks, free agency $$, and young players to improve the team going forward among the teams he was choosing from 3.Coach McHale http://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comment...ton_rockets_gm_ama_offseason_addition/cbp6ide
Look up the Stephen A. Smith commentary after Howard's decision was made in July. He said he just got off the phone with Dwight and he repeatedly kept on mentioning two names.... Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin McHale. Its Stephen A., but in this case there is no reason for him to lie about this conversation.
Thanks. <iframe style="display: none;" allowtransparency="true" id="rufous-sandbox" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
But unclear is if Adelman would be a real killer in this deal. For all I know Chris Webber, an allstar big did well under him.
