I'm happy because I've been saying for several years we need to rebuild through the draft. We ought to be a lock for a top five pick every year over the next three years! Hopefully we'll draft a superstar!
Personally I don't think that McHale was the best pick... but at the same time do people think that we would take Casey or Frank and become a playoff team next year? We're going to be a 30 win team regardless. So in a way the "player development" angle that the organization seems to be saying makes sense. But at the end of the day if you don't have a good offensive/defensive game plan... none of that matters.
jvg tried really hard too. it doesn't mean he was the right coach. i think adelman is good, but he is not god. that makes me a troll.
I preferred to keep Rudy T. Moved on. I preferred to keep JVG. Moved on. I preferred to keep Adelman. Moved on. I hope McHale does a great job and makes believers of us all. Move on. Go Rockets!
Thats exactly what i was thinking. Didnt know how to say it like you did. I think we are more likely a 40 win team unless this means they go full rebuild mode and trade a player or two and develop a rookie or two. Then I agree with your assessment of us headed toward that 30 win team model.
adelman won 42 and 44 games the last 2 seasons. i like the coaching change and i believe the rockets will win more than 44 games next season. that makes me a troll.
that's troll talk. you no acknowledge morey is dirty rat and les alexander is slave owner. you no defend adelman and criticize mchale. you troll !!!!
I think it's just really unrealistic to think we can pull together another 40 win season... unless we just get really lucky with injuries (meaning Yao plays somewhat of a role), or if one of the young players has a breakout season.
this team, as it is right now, is guaranteed to win more games than last season. for starters, we aren't going to have to worry about a cancerous brooks dragging the team down, and a hard headed coach that insists on playing him because he is his favorite. second, yao only played 5 games last season. he only neds to play 5 games this season to equal last years effort. why would next seasons success depend on yao ??? even if yao does not play at all, they should still do better than last season, because of reason #1 above. but if he does play, then they should do even better than that. the only way i can see next season being worse than this season, is if scola/martin/lowry get injured. otherwise, i expect improvements across the board.
Yeah because clearly having two straight winnings seasons is just luck. It's not like we have young and improving talent on the roster or anything.
To make my post clear about agreeing with you agentkirb87. I feel this is a 40 win team even without Luis Scola if we trade him. Thats how highly I think of our young talent Patrick Patterson. My caveat was based on us losing Scola in a trade and Kevin Martin for draft picks. Then perhaps playing a all young lineup to get the rebuilding process going would net us 30 something wins in that scenario only based on inexperience as a team together filled with young guys. If that particular scenario happens. If this team stays nearly the same and only gets rid of Yao and Scola? They are still a 40 win and above team.
Well, part of what could make it happen is if one of the young guys has a breakout year. But otherwise... we were top 5 (depending on your formula) in offensive efficiency last year. I'm not talking about scoring. Offensive efficiency is a points per possession stat, so it factors in pace (which ours was above the league average). Achieving that feat with a core of Lowry, Martin and Scola is just astounding and it really speaks to how good Adelman is as a coach (on the offensive end at least). When JVG was the coach, we were routinely top 5 in defense when our best three defenders were Battier, Yao and Alston. But as soon as Adelman became coach because the system wasn't there anymore, we slowly lost that defensive identity. I see the same thing happening with this new coaching change.
I just think you overrate our talent though. Martin is the real deal, just not number one option on a contender type of player. Lowry, Patterson and Hill can improve... which would have to happen for us to get to the 40 win mark again. Scola is a 3rd scorer type... don't really see him getting better or worse. So if you just look at the talent, I don't really see the difference between our team and a team like the Kings or Clippers minus Adelman. You had young guys like Buddinger, Patterson, Miller, and Lee able to put up 10-20 point games any given night, and that would be the difference. But I think that was a product of Adelman's system. But this is probably a good thing though because 30 win team means high percentage at landing a top spot in the draft.
I hated it when I first heard his name linked to the job. Then I read Solomon's article about how he improved each team he took over. I'm on board with the hire now -- hope we can land the Memphis assistant.
If Adelman were really the reason for the great offense, then last year would not have been the first time he's led us to anything more than an average offense. The reason was mostly our offensive talent, not coaching, as is ALWAYS the case. First full KM year + first full KL year = great offensive team.
It's already been a long fifteen years or so. It's basically been hard to be a Rockets fan since the end of the Dream era/beginning of the Francis era. Sure, we had a brief moment of hope when they teamed McGrady with Yao but it didn't take long for injuries to destroy all hope of that working out. I, for one, am really excited that we might finally get off the treadmill of mediocrity and FINALLY acquire a player worth rebuilding around again. And there is no better year to start tanking than a year in which will likely be shortened by a lockout anyhow.
Before last year, our offense was even worse. It was no more all-star level McGrady. No Yao. We had Brooks, a Lowry that still couldn't hit the outside shot to save his life. Scola was fine, but not as good as last years... partially because he had Landry coming off the bench playing so well and sometimes taking his 4th quarter minutes. We had an inefficient Ariza. But most importantly this was Adelmans first year with no Yao and no McGrady. The offense was completely different. Then this year came around and Lowry comes out of nowhere (to basically replace Brooks' production). Kevin Martin was obviously great and didn't get injured for extended periods of time. Scola found his place in the offense. And Chuck Hayes did as well. But yeah... obviously a lot of that top 5 ranking comes from Kevin Martin being the primary wing instead of Brooks and Ariza. Still... the point is, when you look around the league. A lot of teams on paper beat Lowry + Martin + Scola as your main scoring core. And it was no coincidence that Adelman... a known offensive legend of a coach... was able to get a lot more out of them. Again... just like JVG was able to get more defensive effort out of a team with no real defensive talent other than Battier.
