We all know the importance of team chemistry among players. It is quite apparent now that the importance of chemistry between the front office or general manager and the coach is equally important. JVG and CD just did not have that chemistry or compatibility which a coach and general manager should have. Adelman and Morey work so well together and it has paid dividends for the rockets. Adelman was the main influence in the decision to draft brooks and a chronicle article also stated that after reviewing films adelman expressed his desire to Morey that the team acquire Scola. In contrast, JVG was the main proponent in the James for Alston trade after calling up his brother Stan about rafer (unanimously accepted now as a big blunder considering the breakout season james had the succeeding year) and for shipping out nachbar ( now one of the most potent slashers ) " developing" ryan bowen and Keith Bogans... and for refusing to make a move to address the PG deficiency last season. There somehow was a lack of coherence in the team's direction under JVG and CD. But now with Adelman and Morey the future looks bright for the Rockets. There is chemistry between the team's management and coaching personnel and this will only augur well for the success of the team next season.
i think it had to do with more of jvg and les than jvg and CD. van gundy wanted a particular type of player mold and style of play which was effective, i mean the team did make the playoffs 3 out of the 4 years he did coach in houston and the one year they didnt was probably one of the more injury plagued seasons ever. compare that with rudy's final years in houston when the rockets missed the playoffs for 4 straight years. rudy's rockets were funnier to watch, but les and us all wanted Ws. now with jvg at first it was fine when we got tmac and all the other moves but i really think the last two seasons when the offense was very stagnant and plodding les got fed up and did not want jvg back at all. had jvg had even more success this past year and still got fired les would get a lot of national attention/heat about it. now with adelman whose teams have shown to be very entertaining and successful i think he has more confidence that this rocket team will be too if adelman gets "his type of guys" (contrast to jvg's team which have always been ugly, but successful ball) even morey said that les had to shell out more $ to get scola and he did. if anything this renewed vigor by the front office can only help the team
Not entirely true. Jon Barry said on ABC a few days after JVG was fired that JVG didn't have much, if not any, say in LONG-TERM decisions. He got what he wanted with short-term solutions, a la Mark Jackson, Charles Oakley, Rod Strickland, but as far as big free agent signings or trades or drafts, that was all CD and the basketball ops guys. He never wanted Slowmile. He didn't think Spanoulis was ready. At the end of last season, he told Les that he wanted 3 quality pg's, because he only had 1 at the time. I don't consider JL3 and Billy quality, and apparently neither did JVG. Also, he hosted a breakfast for season-ticket holders, and he told them that he really really really wanted Matt Harpring, Bonzi Wells, and Mike James. We got another form of Harpring in Battier, we got Bonzi, but we missed out on James, who is a quality 1. JVG didn't ship Nachbar. Nachbar's contract option was not picked up by management, so he was essentially gone. It's not like Nachbar did anything in his 1.5 years in New Orleans either. Nachbar thrives in an open-court system, not a half-court one, which he was in under JVG and Byron Scott. I actually saw potential in him though under JVG. He was definitely given plenty of chances, and he seized the opportunities even better than Spanoulis did. Remember what he did in the playoffs to Karl Malone? I liked the way he was coming along under JVG. Unfortunately he didn't work on his game in the offseason of '04, and it hurt his stock in league as a result. JVG called SVG AFTER the proposed trade for Alston. We had just lost Bob Sura for the season, and we didn't have a true point guard, so the deal was on the table, and before JVG signed off on the deal, he wanted to make sure Alston wasn't a knucklehead because apparently the season before Alston beat wrestled Sam Mitchell through a table. Looking at Alston's stats, he was a much better player than James. Furthermore, James was on 97.9 KBXX a few days before the trade, and he said publicly "I will opt out of my contract and go to whatever team pays me the most. Even if it's the worst team in the league, I'm going for the money, because I've worked so hard and paid my dues in this league." Good trade if you ask me. JVG never developed RyBo or Keith Bogans. Bogans played maybe a month for us. JVG had no choice but to play RyBo because of injuries. He'll always be the Germanator in my mind; he did a great job on Dirk in '05, but if Juwan hadn't got injured, he wouldn't have stepped on the court. Same applies for the next year. Like our whole team was decimated by injuries; we even had to get a special 16th player (I think Josh Davis) from the league because we didn't have enough guys. I think if Morey was our GM earlier, as in since 2003 onward, we would have had a very good roster, and we definitely would not have overpaid Maloney, Cato, Francis, Bullard, Moochie, Taylor, etc. CD really didn't get much done as GM here in Houston. All those great teams we had after the championships: that was all Patterson. Kind of like how Purpura didn't really do anything after taking over as GM. Sure we made the World Series, but that was Gerry Hunsicker's team.
I am of the opinion that none of the decisions in the past 10 years are on the coaches. I am not gonna pull a denniscd here but Carroll Dawson must cave easily. Rudy T was a player's coach. As a player's coach it is his just to be the proponent of current players and players he knows around the league. This means he pushed to get his guys. CD said "sure thing Rudy". JVG has a strong personality. He also has his guys. Not as a player's coach, but as a philosophy dependent coach. He would push for us to get hard-working defensive players. That is not to say that we didn't sign guys Rudy and JVG didn't like. These were CD's guys - players he liked from scouting that Rudy and JVG didn't ask for. The point is CD ended up getting guys at bad value or just bad talent levels in general because he was easily persuaded by the coaches. We are now in the Morey era. From what I can tell he is not a yes man. He helped Les run JVG out of town and had no problem not being nice about it. He knows that ultimately it is his decision who this team acquires. He will not overpay for a guy even if Adelman wants him. He will not deplete the team of all it's depth just to acquire a guy like Mike Bibby just because Adelman coached him before. If Adelman asks about a guy Morey will research him and come back with a yes or a veto. He is not a puppet GM because he knows that he will take the blame if personnel moves do not work out. Would you endorse something you didn't believe in even though it is completely your responsibility?
haha.. im more worried about TEAM than team chemistry. miami's fluke championship had Dwayne Wade vs Gary Payton and Antoine Walker vs. Jason williams.. and they won the championship.. i wouldnt mind Steve vs James and us winning in 08
morey actually really liked jvg and it appeared didnt want him gone. The problem was with les. Plus, its hard to tell anything about anyones relationship after a month or 2. Its like people on their first date bragging about having never been in a fight...no kidding, its the first freaking date
he wanted crapy old slow players so he does not mess with developing them and never played the young ones that management got him and when it was all said and done only the team and us fans suffered. I am so glad he got fired.
you must have mis-understood the word LONG-TERM. Not true. Morey believed in JVG's credentials as a coach. He wanted him back. Les wanted JVG and his coaching staff out of there. There was no communication between the 2. Remember, it was Morey who gave JVG a consulting position with the team because he wanted him to help him out. JVG declined. JVG stated publicly many times that Morey was on his side, it was just the owner who he bumped heads with for a few years.
Refreshing. I get tired of all the JVG bashing around here. The guy was a great coach. It is time for a change, but that shouldn't take away from JVG's qualities as a coach and evaluator of player effectiveness. He is very good at both. When you have JVG's pedigree (or lack thereof), nothing in the NBA gets handed to you. He earned it.
JVG received nothing but praise from the coaches around the league (Popovich, Sloan etc.) and from the good players (TMac, Yao), while getting trashed by roleplayers, scrubs, and headcases (Boki, VSpan, Bonzi). JVG is gone. At least now all the roleplayer/scrub/headcase lovers are happy.
I disagree that none of the decisions are on the coaches. Some teams even practically merge the GM and Coach in one person. The Suns particularly acquire players that will fit into their system. And since the coach is the one most familiar with his system, it is indispensable that the General manger first consult the coach as to which players will most likely fit into his system, or as some teams have done in practice, they merge the GM and Coach in one person, as in the case of Riley at Miami.
This isn't about roleplayers, scrubs, headcases... This is about acquiring quality players through the team play between the coach and the GM.
I bet you if JVG was still the coach , we wouldn't have acquired brooks. Anyway, this isn't about the personal relationship between the GM and the Coach ... its about their professional relationship which must complement each other at their positions in order to improve the team. The analogy would be a team that has players that like to play one-on-one. You don't see a lot of teamwork coming from this team. And in the end the team suffers. In contrast, a team with " chemistry" works together by communicating and learning from each other. As was stated in a chonicle article , Adelman , after watching tons of video, particularly saw interest Scola after watching his game. Adelman made a recommendation to Morey, and Morey after evaluating the adequacy of the team's resources and the cost effectiveness of this move, got it done.
All of these Assistant coach whiners in here. Let the stubborn egotistical control freak go. He's gone for good. It's ironic how this thread is titled team chemistry when none of the playes had issues with eachother but it was always assistant coach who had issues with the players, and pet players.
.. and who will be our starting 5 on the court, let me see.. Adelman, Morey, CD, Clutch, pacman I see success going to the second round of postseason..
