Feels like Adelman is overacheiving with this team, with a $20 million roster hole

WTF are you talking about? Anyone who won't admit JVG had inferior talent is out of his mind. Are you saying Adelman could have made something out of Flyin' Ryan Bowen, Juwan Howard, Rod Strickland and Derek Anderson? I can guarantee you we wouldn't go anywhere with that kind of talent AND Adelman's chicken-head-cut-off (Samfisher TM) plays out of time outs. No matter how much you hate it, the ole' "But they had inferior talent" argument holds because guess what, JVG had inferior talent You're like the exact opposite of the joker who posted before saying coaches don't matter in this league. Why don't the both of you create a thread and have a straight up smackdown to see who's right?

Btw Rudy T. led the Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom combo into oblivion. How's that for coach motivation? Period.

 

ur giving coach adelman too much credit man. the players have a lot to do with it. i lost count how many times adelman screwed up with the subs, and his out of timeout plays are just appalling.

 

He was able to do this in half a season? Why don't you check Phil's record after the first 40 games the following year. You have no idea what you're talking about (which fits right in with most of this thread actually).

 

Here's a gem. What do you call what Popovich is doing then? I guess you would have him fired, seeing as he's currently behind an "underachieving" team in the standings and has better players than that team does.

The Rockets are #2 in the west. Before the season, that was about the absolute best you could expect, with a HEALTHY team. Who was picking the Rockets to finish #1 in the west? So you have the Rockets, currently in the best place you could expect prior to the season, without their supposed best player for the entire year. What more do you people want? Some of these posts are simply mind-boggling.

 

REEEEEAAAAALLLLLLY?

 

Hmmmm NO!!!! Season games and Playoff games are totally different. If we win tomorrow that doesn't mean anything come playoff time. 1 game vs. 7 game series. You can make adjustments.

 

Overachieving? I don't think so. We have an all-star player in Yao Ming, an international champion in Scola, and a seasoned hall of fame worthy Ron Artest, plus young talents in Landry, Brooks, Lowry, and Wafer.

I think the team has underachieved for most of the season, and that was due to the always changing roster. I really really enjoy the group of guys that are put out on the floor every game, as long as consistency is on our side, I expect us to do some serious damage in the playoffs.

PS. Using Yao to set passes from the high post when he's fronted isn't a bad idea.

Go ROX!

 

stupid newb,

Rudy T only coached for 43 games as the Lakers coach before he left because he came back too soon after battling cancer.

Don't talk about Kobe/Lamar, Phil had issues with them too and it took how many seasons for them to finally get it right?

And Odom didn't show up to the Finals. He was crap.

Half the newbs wanted Rick Adelman fired at least 50 times this year and last. You KNOW you are just jumping on the wagon.

I was on the train when it first came here, I started the Rick the Ruler thread LAST YEAR. I know he was a good coach cause he's taken teams to 2 NBA Finals. Whereas the wagon jumpers only thought he coached 1 game against the Lakers where it was his fault Horry shot that three.

Rudy T is forever. Look up at Toyota Center.
Oh and Rudy T is scouting for the Lakers, so Laker fans can thank him for Ariza and Bynum.

 

Brother preach on!

 

Good post and agreed totally. I think it's also worth noting how Adelman kept control of the team and locker room following the near mid-season meltdown we had that seemingly culminated with the Milwaukee game. I remember Rafer, Artest and others dropping hints that suggested that team was questioning Adelman's coaching and were borderline ready to quit on him. Adelman was obviously having none of that and pulled us out of that ugly pit.

 

Actually, I think the opposite. The team is still making stupid mistakes, having poor shooting nights (due to aforementioned mistakes), but still winning. I think we can be a lot better than our record indicates, actually.

We have a lot of young talent: Wafer, Brooks, Landry, Lowry, Scola (only b/c he's a second year player in the NBA). We also have veterans to help them out: Battier, Yao, Artest. This is a wonderful combination that helps the youngsters learn quickly, as you can tell my their talent increasing steadily as the year wears on. Thus, the Rockets haven't hit their ceiling yet, so are not overachieving.

Regardless, we're still doing all of this without Tracy McGrady but with his $20 million salary. Imagine what will happen when we can get rid of that salary in 2010, which conveniently is a great year for free agency.

I think this speaks volumes about what Daryl Morey and Rick Adelman have done for this organization (and Les Alexander for letting Morey operate). It has to be one of the best roster management tandems in the NBA, really. Adelman is a surefire Coach of the Year candidate, and I don't see why Morey wouldn't be GM of the Year.

 

Morey should get infinitely more credit than Adelman. Morey is the reason we are where we are, not Rick.

 

Morey hired Rick. There's some credit.

But the Spurs are .500 without Manu Ginobili. The Rockets are 16-4 without Tracy McGrady. T-Mac is a better player than Manu, so his presence is a bigger loss (the pick and rolls work so much better with him). Yet, still, we're doing better than the Spurs.

Popovich is obviously a great coach, but his team is only batting .500 with a significant injury. We're batting .800. Rick is a great coach, too. The combination of Adelman/Morey is what's worked out so well, not one or the other.

 

funny which perspective you decide to see.

maybe his out of timeout plays are great and it's the players execution that is appalling.

 

I can't believe how far out in left field some of the people posting in this thread have gone. Adelman is doing an outstanding job as he did last season with some serious distractions and injuries. Adelman like Rudy T is better than any current coach at getting the most out of players who were afterthoughts on other teams.

 

Morey absolutely did NOT hire Rick and desired to keep JVG. It was Les Alexander that made the transition all happen.

The reason why we were able to sustain the loss of T-Mac this year (first year we were ever able to do so) was because of Morey's acquisition of Ron Artest. Couple that with improved years for Scola, Landry, and Brooks, along with surprising production from Wafer.

 

Completely true. If Adelman had the talent that JVG had, we'd be fighting for the bottom position along with Phoenix, Dallas and Utah.

Morey was the one that got us Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry and Luis Scola in one offseason. And during the next off season, got us Ron Artest, right when we needed him with Battier starting the season injured and McGrady finishing it injured at the mid way point. Now time will tell the ultimate success of the Rafer trade, but for now, we are slightly better offensively and in speed at the point position.

Really, its all been Morey's moves that been the absolute backbone for our team's recent success, although that isn't to say Rick is a bum or something. It is just that if you had to choose between the keeping anyone in the current Rockets organization, Morey should be held in higher regard then probably anyone and maybe even Yao.

 

Who is playing these guys -- because under JVG they would be on the bench or we wouldn't have even added them in the first place.

 

I saw that play. To me I was wowed by the play. There was a legit chance that Battier could catch and shoot the ball.

Anyways, Pee Wee coaches don't manage Bonzi and Artest on the same team as well as RA did in Sac, not even in their dreams.