Playoff success may validate Adelman's departure [Fixed]

In response to an idea started in another thread, I'd like to give a fair shake to this idea that the playoff results have demonstrated that Adelman was not going to be the coach to move us forward.

The Rockets under Adelman were always going to be a team where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts, a team that bought into the system and thrived as a result. If you put superstar players than you could theoretically win a championship, but even with replacement players you would still maintain competitiveness as long as he was your coach.

Now which team does that sound like to me in these playoffs? A team full of talented players who nevertheless lacked elite athleticism and playmaking capabilities, coached by a crafty veteran who maximized every last ounce out of his team? That to me is Denver. During the regular season they played their brains out down the stretch, and I don't believe you could make an argument that team could be better coached than it currently is. In fact, when you think about teams lacking in talent that have used the team concept to outperform their expectations, this Denver team probably ranks with me among the all-time greats, right up there with that Houston team in 2008 that won 12 more games in a row after losing Yao, or in 2009 during the last four games of the Lakers series (also after losing Yao).

So our two teams have a lot in common. And you can't make me believe that this Rockets incarnation under Adelman can do better than Denver did this year. But look what the Thunder are doing to them. They're just getting flat out-talented on that court. Russell Westbrook does his thing, Kevin Durant does his thing, the officials' jaws drop open and they just stop and stare, before blowing their whistles for And-1's or missed dunks or whatever. Serge Ibaka is jumping ten feet in the air to get blocks, offensive boards, and putback dunks. Not a thing poor Denver can do.

And they're not alone in these playoffs. Other teams I would consider "well-coached" include Indiana, Philadelphia, and yes San Antonio. What do these teams have in common besides an emphasis on team-above-player basketball? I don't need to tell you at this point.

My point is that this is a talent-driven league. As long as David Stern is commish it will be. The talent brings in the big bucks, and the rules and officiating will continue to gravitate towards advancing that talent in order to maximize exposure and interest in the NBA. You want to watch strategic basketball? The NCAA's start back up in November, and God knows when the multiple Euroleague seasons stop or start.

So what does this say about the Rockets under Adelman? Essentially, nothing harmful, in that if we could OBTAIN those superstars then Adelman would obviously be integral in boosting those players' capabilities as he would be with any other players. But the rub is just that: with Adelman continuing to draw an overachieving effort out of this bunch, we were never going to be in a position to actually do what it took to get those players. And just because I don't want this post to devolve into a "Let's Tank!" argument, I'd like to add that I don't believe a newer, younger coach should intentionally make us lose games or coach us down in order to get a higher draft pick next year. I just feel like a younger coach with a more plastic coaching style, in alignment with what management is giving him in terms of scouting reports and recommendations regarding the good and bad points of his own players, will be better positioned to share that long-term perspective that management (and we fans) carry regarding the ultimate goal of a championship.

Really right now our #1 priority should not be short-term wins or playoff seeds in 2012. What we need is talent, either by acquisition or development of our existing players. Guys like Hill, Thabeet, Williams aren't going to be contributing much to winning in the moment, but the players they could become could definitely do that. A coach that is open to seeing what we have in them will do more good for us now than a coach that plays the guys he "knows".

We don't want to be an Indiana, Philly, or Denver, drafting in the 15-25 range year after year. Not that we want to tank either, but it needs to be all or nothing. Adelman with this line-up and no prospects for acquiring superstars was going to guarantee that we stayed in limbo for the foreseeable future. And in that sense the first round of these playoffs have told us what we already know: that either up or down, we've gotta make a move to get out of this rut we've been in for the past two years.