When Adelman coached the Kings he had a really deep rotation...almost replacing the starting 5 with new 5 fresh players. I think we'll see a really major personnel overhaul in order for Adelman to coach this team the way he wants to. So who do you think is gone for sure and who do we keep?
the Kings were not as deep as you think they were. those Indiana (Bird) teams and the Portland (Dunleavy) teams were deeper. Adelman's Kings featured a quasi-superstar in CWebb and two marginal all-stars in Bibby and Peja although neither are anything close right now (Bibby's numbers were almost Raferish last season). Duncan, Manu and Parker (and Nash, Amare and Marion) are way better. Dirk, Howard, and Terry, however are about the same level as those Kings' big 3. rounding out the starters were Christie and Divac (later Brad Miller). fairly solid, but nothing special. their best bench player was Bobby Jackson. they also had Turkeyglu (who was actually the starter in the WCF against the Lakers), Pollard, Gerald Wallace, and Keon Clark. if they had anyone else, i don't know who they were, and they were probably nbdl level players. only Wallace, whom they let go in the expansion draft ever amounted to anything after they left the Kings. after the Kings traded Webber, they never sent anyone to the all-star game.
IMHO, every player not named Yao or Battier is on the table for a trade. (Not saying I agree...just that I see that as how the Rockets will approach the summer). They've got a sure-fire athleticism gap even compared to Adelman's Kings. But as long as Morey doesn't drink too much more of the $Ball Kool-Aid...it should turn out OK. There is a draft pick who'll likely get PT, an MLE should net no less than a solid rotational player, and the Kings always did well with vet minimum type players...Corliss, John Barry, BJax, Funderburke. In addition, there's a high probability Novak and VSpan will be get more "battle testing". I'm not convinced on either, but if VG underestimated them, it's like a "free" player to your depth chart. Not saying we can get them...more than likely not...but Chris Mihm, Desmond Mason and Mo Pete are all unresticted this summer. And there's always the possibility that MINN will put Mike James back on the table for Juwan. Color me optimistic.
OVERHAUL, BONZI HAUL YOUR ASS BACK INTO SHAPE U FAT ASS LAZY MOFO. he really annoyed me last season, maybe another coach can get more out of him, he probably wont stay, but if he was going to, the coach with the highest chances of doing that is adelman, and hopefully can utilize some of that playoff magic we saw when bonzi was under adelman, but personally im sick of bonzi and would like to see some new faces. if we can get some magic deal to offload juwan for a decent backup pg, or PF, i would be over the moon, i hope alston, snyder and head all stay, but if neccessary, and if for that VITAL extra peice, they are expendable..... but only for the RIGHT peice, id much prefer to keep hold onto them, rafer is a good pg, just needs to share heavy minutes with a decent pg, our PF position is lacking, chuck shouldnt be seeing more than 15-20 mins, so need someone to fill that hole and i really hope deke stays, im confident he has another year in him and he makes for an excellent back up for yao. I dont know much about adelman, how is he with developing players? Tmac, rafer and battier i dont see much developing, Head, Snyder, Vspan, novak... we have alotta potential for GREAT improvement from these players, if they can have a breakout season next year it wuold be great, hopefully Vspan can be that vital backup for a solid 15-20mins a game, so that we dont have to shop for a pg and use more resources in finding a better PF, which i believe is our biggest gaping hole right now. Yao is an in betweener, i think he can improve a significant amount, but not as much as the previously mentioned, no reason why he cant have a MVP season next year and hopefully under adelman he can really blossom into his full potential (i reckon his still got a bit in him). so yeh, in general i just hope that we can develope our own talent for breakout seasons (CMON VSPAN!!!!) so we can focus our resoures on what i believe to be our greatest weakness, a decent starting PF. tmac, battier, yao, alston are all fine in my books (though some might disagree with alston, i think he will be MUCH more efficient with limited minutes). theres my rant done
Adelman is nowhere near the caliber of coach to warrant giving him free reign over personnel decisions. Van Gundy didn't have much of a say in who we went after, simply who played. And thats after years as the Rockets coach. Adelman's job is to get the maximum ability out of the players we give him. Nothing more. He is no Larry Brown, Phil Jackson, or Jerry Sloan. If he can't adapt to OUR personnel and requires we mold the team into his style then to hell we go.
And that strategy has been successful for the Rockets. It's always a delicate balance about how much control a coach gets for player personnel... a lot of times, even the best coaches have a hard time juggling both (see: Riley, Pat)-- the coaches job is to look at the here and now, and management needs a longer view. On the other hand, you can't take the coach out of the equation or else you end up with ill-fitting teams. No doubt Adelman will get a say, how much of a say is to be determined. With CD and Lindsey still around, it's hard to even say how much of a say Morey gets... Also, don't think Adelman is going to just play whoever they have on the roster... he definitely plays guys who fits the team's system best, whatever system it happens to be at the time. There will be guys in the "doghouse" minutes-wise and people will complain about them.
I think having aldeman agreed to coaching the rockets and morey admitted that rockets needed more and better players. I see anyone beside Yao on this team are tradeable. aldeman favors a inside person like Yao and a 3 pt deadeye, which we still lack, and a playmaker. certainly a PF with size would help too. There is no way for Rockets to get any meaningful players without trading away one of our big two.
huh? he's never coached a guy who showed the kind of inside presence that yao did last year. he coached guys he moved out to the high post because they didn't have exceptional low post skills.
A few months ago I was watching a clip of Yao practicing. He was being fed the ball by a coach at the elbow and was turning around and shooting and hitting most everyone of the shots. I never understood why Van Gundy insisted that Yao be a one-trick pony. I know his percentages were great down low but so were his turnovers. When he sets those screens for T-Mac out high, why not get the ball and shoot from the elbow some of the time. It doesn't mean you can't feed him in the low post as well. Maybe Adelman will use Yao in the high post some and, to me, that would be a good thing.
i'm not sure an overhaul is needed...even with a whole new philosophy coming in. a few roster moves should do it. i think rafer and billy will thrive at the 1 under adleman. i think hayes and howard will thrive at the 4. they are both great interior passers. adleman will love them. one can defend, the other can shoot. this is actually the perfect system to maximize our 2 weakest possitions (PG, PF)
i don't think an overhaul is necessary...but we do need a new starting pg and pf...also a little depth off the bench wouldn't hurt....
I dont think there will be overhaul. The Rockets probably will bring in some unproven players and let Adelman play them. A trade for Mike Jame to get rid of Juwan's contract is also a good idea and a very possible trade since T-wolves dont want James.
Wow. With great respect I ask: Do you really think trading T-Mac is possible? The Battier thing, well I agree Adleman may be able to make him more effective than JVG was able to, but: He's untouchable? I liked your post and your optimism. It just blew my fragile mind.
Regardless of what I would or wouldn't do, if Les wants to go with an uptempo style, I don't see any players being off-limits. Not even Yao. Yao's value is still pretty high. If they want to run & gun, he may be the only tradeable asset we have to get young, athletic players. *I am not suggesting we trade him* - I'm just saying nothing would surprise me at this point.
Potentially on the trading block- Mc Grady, Battier, Alston,Howard, Mutombo, Bonzi, Sura, JLIII , Luther Head,Snyder,Tsakalidis. Keep for sure Yao, Hayes, VSpan, Novac [ team should try to keep McGrady if possible] Most important to find in order of impotance Tall athletic Power Forward. Playmaker Point Guard one really good scorer/defender who can play defence like Artest. an athletic scorer who can go to the basket. Decent bench.
that's a huge overhaul. i don't think the team needs to take another year off to adjust to 11 new players and a new coach. we won 52 games w/o yao for 33 of them. with an offensive coach, and a couple more scoring threats, we will be an elite team.
