To say 'only' is like blowing up a big balloon to wait for someone to stick with a pin. No thanks. Obviously, it was complicated. But, Adelman said that they wanted to replace his first assistant and he couldn't in good conscience re-up and let that guy get canned. That seems to be the deal-breaker for Adelman. And the Rockets wanted to do that because of their player development scheme. So, that seems to be the crux of it. What people said that? Not Morey. From everything I've read, it sounds like that settled on McHale because he's a natural leader. But, this season the competition to get into the playoffs was not as strong. If the Rockets had stuck with Adelman, I think we'd be in. That said, I do think McHale did better than I expected. Considering he did change the offense, lost our first two options to injuries, gave significant roles to new players, and all in a compressed season, I think .500 ball is a pretty good job on the coach (excepting the season-ending swoon).
It sure baffles me. It seems to me that folks get too locked into their own opinions. It probably starts on the very first thread about the new coach. Some folks may have hundreds of posts proving that the new hire was a mistake. It would probably take at least a trip to the Western Conference Finals for McHale to get credit from some. Even then, there would probably be some that would just credit the players; surely our team would need some upgrades to get there. It is clear that he has done more with less or at least same with less. Take a look at the rosters from the past few years and compare them who is on board now. It should be eye opening.
Sam and Camby are a huge upgrade from last year. I probably watch more than you if you're even asking this.
Which goes back to my original point. McHale has had to deal with an inferior roster most of the year. He has done more with less. No one on our roster cant even measure up to Love and thats just one big man in the paint
Camby and Sam were here and that is an improvement from last year. One of the major weaknesses since losing Yao, especially last year, was a lack of a true center. This year we had not one, but two. That was my original point. It doesn't matter that he wasn't here the entire season. He has a positive impact and made contributions.
Yeah but this year McHale has not had the teams leading scorer for the last two years. Then you add losing another starter in the backcourt--cmon man Sam and Camby do not make up for those losses It was a worse team this year that over achieved
I assume you are referring to Martin, who was a defensive liability. Losing Martin actually helped this team, because Lee is not only an offensive threat in crunch time from the three, he's also a defensive SG. So your assumption that we are worse off with Martin on the bench is wrong. It's addition by subtraction. This team was much better than last years, except the coach.
Who'd have thunk it? Loosing the guy who is your leading scorer two years in a row is now an upgrade. My understanding of basketball is even poorer than I thought.
How anyone can think Adelman had more talent? He had Hayes and Battier...one can't start in SAC and the other has finally been exposed for the prodding, one-dimensional slow poke he always was. And before you get your panties in a wad, go see what Adelman's W-L %age was last season after Battier was traded. Give Adelman the tandem of Dalembert and Camby and it's not even close. Not even for VG.
Adelman had to deal with the lost of 2 leading scorers every season, Yao Ming and T-Mac. It's not like Yao and T-Mac's backups, Hayes/Hill and Battier/Budinger, replaced even half the load. Three of them went on to be 2nd/3rd string players for other teams. Budinger is a 3rd string player for the Rockets. Courtney Lee replacing Martin is not so bad, because Lee can score in double digits and his defense is better. He may have replaced 70-80% of Martin's scoring. Hayes and Hill replaced maybe 40% of Yao's 20-25 pts/night. Lee can outscore Hayes, Hill, Battier and Budinger, even if you added their totals together. Rick's challenge with losing his 2 biggest scorers was certainly worse than McHale. The gap between Lee and Martin is smaller than the gap between Hayes/Hill and Yao Ming. The gap between Hayes/Hill's scoring and Yao Ming is like a huge cliff for Adelman. While the gap between Lee's and Martin's scoring is like climbing the Toyota center's stairs.
Not sure why people would use the Lee>KMart argument for Adelman. Because by this logic, Adelman an inferior player 50% more minutes than a superior player in the same position. That would speak pretty badly about his coaching. Just to be clear, I think KMart is better than Lee. Just pointing out that if you truly believe Lee is better than last year's KMart, then Adelman actually screwed us of a few wins last year by playing KMart so much.
The reason I asked was because you seemed to claim that player development was THE REASON both sides clearly say why they parted ways. I just wanted to set it straight whether it's as simple as that. You are right, on Adelman's side the assistant coaching was the deal breaker. He didn't say IIRC why they wanted the change. It was management that said that. And I don't think that was the only reason they gave. People like me are pointing out that all those reasons for letting Adelman go at that time have been proven wrong after a year. The coaching change did not bring in much of a change in terms of team direction other than the obvious changes of coaching style. But "direction" was the overarching reason everybody claimed.
Unless the player improves, like many young players on rookie contracts. It's like JVG says, sometimes it takes 6 years for a player to develop. Lee has only been in the league for 3 years. It took several years for Steve Novak and Kyle Lowry. For other guys, we can look at other former bench warmers like Pekovic, Jeremy Lin, and Ryan Anderson. I still can't believe the Rockets picked Adrien over Linsanity.
