I always felt like training camp should be longer, not the physical on court part, but just spending time going over lineups and defensive schemes and set plays.
Here it is, Adelman's "I don't know" speech is getting into mid-season form. How can an NBA coach who's had 20+ years of NBA experience not know anything? Surely all his experience should have already given him some insight into a situation such as this
no one knows the answer to how Yao Ming will come along. Adelman seems to realize the constant need for Plan B this season, he'll need it.
Maybe it's BECAUSE of his years of experience that taught him not to be committed to any one thing?? It's possible that Adelman has no clue what he's saying and will just wing it. But because of his experience, I'm more inclined to believe that his coaching staff has multiple contingencies, A, B, C.... that accounts for different possibilities of working Yao back into the fold. But that without actually seeing his players on the court together against real competition, Adelman cannot say anything concrete yet.
I think its common for people to have no idea exactly how things will turn out. However to me its surprising that a head coach of RA's caliber will admit that he knows absolutely nothing on whats going on. I mean, I've never heard of Phil Jackson or Greg Pops say even 1 time they are clueless on a certain issue, yet over the past 2 seasons RA seems to say he has no idea like every 3rd press release he does. Combine his "I don't know" soundbites with the way he just watches passively even while his team gets blown out of the water and he ends up looking somewhat clueless IMHO. True its a mini credibility hit, but its a hit nonetheless. Even if he really didn't have an idea, how about expressing his opinion on the matter? I mean, he's the head coach and along with DM the buck stops with him. If he isn't on top of things, then who is?
During the summer, half the team is gone. They aren't allowed to do certain things because of the CBA.
He probably does know, but doesn't want to say how Yao is progressing. It's worse than we all that. He could say, "Yao is FUBAR He is not FU beyond all recognition, but FU beyond all repair and I am running check Miller and Hayes for the rest of the year." It would kill season ticket sales.
I do feel that Adelman has become a rather frustrated coach in the past two or three seasons and do not blame him. The two reasons are personnel and injuries. He has to be considered one of the greatest coaches in history at dealing with adjustments in his gameplan depending on his team and playing to their strengths. He is probably already frustrated because he walks into camp to find out that his best player(Yao) may not be ready to play at all and will have to slowly be incorporated into the rotation, The entire team could be overhauled by a mega trade, and not only is he not going to be able to use Yao very much this year and Brad Miller is also down with an injury for a few weeks, and we might have to play with a 6'6" Center again. Its not that Adelman "doesnt know" he just doesnt want to get his hopes up that he will have two 7'0" centers this season and overhaul his roster with a mega trade.
Who cares if he says doesn't know. From his accomplishments, he obviously does know how to handle situations. How he handled She-mac last year just gave me more respect for him.
What's all the hub-bub about him saying he "doesn't know" so many times? Has there ever been a head coach or manager that gives specific details about strategy, injury status, etc? There's nothing wrong. There's no conspiracy. He's not an idiot. He's just playing it close to the vest.
This should serve to shut up some of the fanatical T-mac lovers. It really shows R.A. and the Rockets organization are fair and treated T-mac fairly (not to mention all of his waffling analysis of his own health since then). It basically sounds like what R.A. said then. He isn't sure how much Yao can do and how long it will take him to be ready to reach his potential. Until then, he has to earn his way up by getting his wind back, etc. The only difference is you don't hear Yao crying or see him pulling juvenile stunts.
