I am skewing your point here... but I agree. So now you have to ask, is Adelman at fault for not playing to Artest and Yao's strengths more? Our best players! Or is increasing the effectiveness of those role players worth more? Adelman has done a solid job of adjusting his style to suit Yao but still...
Ziggy, This is where being smart and understanding the game as well as the person defending you comes to play... Take for instance Yao on last night.... He has to understand that Hollins is going to play him totally different than Dampier. He also has to adjust when they adjust. I truly believe that Aldeman is playing to Yao's strength, look at the first half when Yao was having a great game... Then the defense adjusted in the 2nd half; but Yao nor the Rockets ajusted.
the sad part of that is Yao started the 3rd where he had left off the previous half, he scored 4 quick points, them inexplicably they started using him as a picker or going elsewhere for the next several minutes, when they finally tried to go back to him is when Dallas adjusted, completely wasted his minutes in the second half...
Jeff is a defense coach who doesn't understand offense . I totally agree about his analysis of defense. But doesn't agree his offense analysis. Actually who doesn't rotate well also doesn't rotate well at offense. Rotation is about BB IQ. Carl/Von Wfer/Ab also don't rotate well in offense, But with superstars as Yao/Tmac/ron who always demand double/triple teams, it's much easier for them to get open look and garbage points by their pure athelitic gifts. Tmac/Ron may not be very well on offense rotation. But they are so talented that they can score anyway. They are just very good at isolated play. That's why they are superstars.
I'd say Lowry is a pretty traditional facilitator. He has outstanding court vision and is good at getting the ball to perimeter players and bigs in scoring position. I expect we will see him getting the crucial minutes in the playoffs as we've seen in recent games down the stretch. Artest should never be bringing the ball up the court, even when Brooks is in. If you're going to let him initiate his own offense, it has to start closer to the basket.
Jeff thank you for your level-headedness. I kept asking myself why why why after a full season of practice in dealing with the front they are so inconsistent being effective countering it. Brooks, Lowry and Wafer are learning on the go. However Artest is a veteran and really should have shown improvement. I've been disappointed with his basketball IQ, I thought it would be better. They will have to win despite him when he goes cuckoo and hope his defense makes up for those lost possessions. You know another thing I didn't understand is in the other regular season games against the Mavs, Adelman put Artest on Dirk during short stretches and Artest made it hard for him to score. But in the such an important game where Dirk is having his way, Adelman doesn't use the matchup. Just weird.
Howard played in the first game, which was on TNT, and I remember Reggie Miller talking about how versatile he was defensively. He also played in the Feb 20th game.
How could you forget Luis Scola? The player that rotates the BEST on offense. Actually, I think He, Landry, and Wafer are probably the only players who are good at finding the open spaces off the ball. Shane, Ron, and Barry pretty much stay behind the 3pt line and the PG's lack the size to really be effect at the rim and off screens. Defensively, I think it's obvious Wafer is a weak link but i don't think Landry is as poor at rotating as he seems and i don't think he's a dumb player. I think alot of the time he just gets caught trying to make up for a perimeter player being blown by. Honestly, i don't think defensive rotations are as much about intelligence as they are about chemistry. For instance, i'd say the nuggets are around the bottom of the league in terms of bball IQ but they aren't bad defensively. The key is that they know each other and how they react to certain plays. The rockets are a very different team from what they were last year, it takes time to learn when to cover for your teammate and when to stay at home.
