This is what was reported as the most accurate reason. Morey also has stated that Les and the front office also wanted to infuse more of a defensive focus with the coaching staff. Cant say I blame them for that one.
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Call BS on this one. Check out the deal Rick got in Minny. 5 years for 5 mm each. Mchale is on a 3 year deal, maybe getting the same as Adleman last year, (4mm). So one deal is 25m, the other is 12. Do the math.
This is it in a nutshell. They wanted him to get rid of guys who have been with him forever for a guy he doesn't know. He manned up and left. Now he has his guys on a young and talented team.
Who cares what kind of money Kahn wants to throw away on a coach who will get that team 39 wins a season instead of 32? Guess what.... 4mm a year is still in the top half of what all coaches in the league make. Hell... Presti pays Scott Brooks, one of the best up and coming coaches in the league, 1.5mm... McHale isn't even on Brooks' level yet of coaching so why would he be getting paid 3.5 mill more a year then? Les being "cheap" is getting to the most ultra ridiculous level on this board. Yes, he doesn't have the deepest pockets of the owners in the league, but your reaching far if the only answer to your frustrations in the Rockets franchise is that Les isnt willing to spend like a drunken and think that those results will get this team any closer to winning a title. Les has shown that he will spend the market level for either players or coaches that will make it worth paying for. If paying Adelman 1 million more would have gotten the Rockets to the championship this year, then I have no doubt he would have made that investment.
A coach like Rick Ademlan will have plenty of opportunities to coach elsewhere. Rockets, OTOH, will not get too many coaches of Adelman caliber to coach their team.
1. Mature Day Rockets simply don't have enough asset to trade for a superstar or to upgrade the roster to a champion contender level... Even we were lucky enough to get Pau and Nene, it was reasonable that we could only go deep into playoff, but we were still one or two steps from a contender level... Therefore, we might need another 2 or 3 more years to make us there... Not to say the trade is vetoed, and we are now set back by 2 or 3 years... Rick is now 65... It is questionable if he will still be coaching when Rockets are good enough to challenge the title... It was believed Rick supporting cast do nothing, but held the whiteboard for him. And none of them were qualified to be the next head cash of the Rockets... Therefore, Daryl tried to assign Chris to him as an assistant coach, so when he retired, we would have Chris running Rick's system... This would prevents massive changes of the playing scheme and roster... Unfortunately, Rick refused the assignment... So Les and Daryl needed to search for a new coach who could grow with the team... 2. Coaching System Les and Daryl believe under the massive information flow now, a bureaucratic coaching structure will no longer capable to win a champion. They were planning to introduce a matrix coaching structure to Rick, but he didn't like it, and he felt offended... 3. Communication Les complained about lack of communication with Rick multiple times... 4. Development of Post Players Les and Daryl believed bringing up height will make us closer to the champion, and Kevin was said to be the most polished low post player in NBA history... And the believed Kevin was capable to use the bigs more effectively...
I can give you one reason why, his defense sucked. Great offense but horrible defense. We should do like football. JVG defensive cord. RA offensive cord.
The overlooked factor is that the Rockets want a collaborated effort between front office and coaching staff. That they want to incorporate the statistical analysis, D-League development, etc. into the actual coaching staff. They wanted the entire basketball operation to be an integrated machine. Adelman wanted separation of powers. In Les' tenure, he has never had a single coach NOT on the caliber of Adelman.
Really? I don't. People here keep b****ing about the record so far, didn't we start 0-5 last year? And that was with an easier schedule. I always hated his substitution patterns, and I hated how the team would always end up botching plays out of timeouts. I also hate how he lets people off for not playing defense (AB, C-bud, KM). Plus, seems like Adelman kept his own boss (Les) out of the loop, he also pooped all over the $Ball analytical information DM gave him. Freezing the owner out and disrepecting the GM, that's not really the way to go.
best response so far i think. i guess we are going through a rebuilding/tanking phase right now (of course Les and Morey won't say it), and hopefully the 'integrated machine' comes into play in a couple of years.