[Chron] Players support Adelman, want coaches back

of course they do, Adelman's system pumps up the offensive stats of the players and makes them look more valuable than they really are.

 

No, we're not. You know whose a piece or two away from being a championship contender? The third seeded Mavericks. The fourth seeded Thunder. The fifth seeded Nuggets.

The Rockets are NOT "a few pieces" away from being a championship contender. We're a LOTTERY team.. two pieces is not going to suddenly vault us into 60 wins unless those two "pieces" are LeBron James and Dwight Howard.

I hate that the post trade deadline momentum has people thinking this is a top tier team who only needs a few tweaks. We still have a long ways to go before being a true contender.

Right now, the only thing we're a few pieces away from is the playoffs.

 

Truthhh

 

Oversimplified half-truth.

 

great and realistic post.

the rockets do have a lot of great pieces, but a lot of fans here always exaggerate how "close" we are to championship status. the nuggets are better than we are right now and they're not anywhere close to championship contenders.

we lack some pieces, but those are very hard pieces to fill.

1) a superstar. regardless of what people say, you need a superstar to win in the playoffs (the pistons were the only exception and they had multiple all-stars)
2) a legit big man. i so wish we could have gotten asik.
3) a shut down perimeter defender. we're not going to be contender status with kevin martin and cbud manning the perimeter; that's as soft as charmin defensively.
4) and you need experience together (chemistry, time...)

morey has been trying his hardest to get #1 for the longest time and he still hasn't been able to fill that void. this year, he's been trying so hard to fill void #2 since yao went down and he has been unable to do that. a lot of things take luck and good timing to fall into place. unfortunately for us, none of that has happened.

we continue to be a "really good" lottery team in the west. that's not what we want.

 

If we had Hakeem in his prime at the Center position I think we would be a contender, and that's only one piece. Now I know that adding a hall of fame Center is very unlikely, but that would be one piece that would instantly make us a contender. So, I don't know how you can say a couple of new pieces couldn't put us over the top. I guess you are assuming the pieces that we could acquire wouldn't be very good. But, you never know how things are going to turn out. Sometimes mid-first round draft picks turn out to be stars. Sometimes someone like a T-Will suddenly sees the light and becomes an impact player. These things may be unlikely, but they're not impossible.

 

Well, I'm more dealing in realism. Hakeem in his prime isn't walking through that door, so there's no point in going down that road. We're not trading for LeBron or Dwight while keeping our best players intact, so there's no point in going down that road either.

Let's say we are able to find the next Kobe Bryant in the draft at the 14th pick. We're still not championship contenders next year. Drafting the next Kobe would go a long ways in turning us into a contender in 2-4 years though.

Right now, our two biggest position needs are the C spot and SF spot. Before the season, I was adamant that Morey needed to break up the defense-less core of Brooks/Martin/Scola. We were able to do that, mostly because Lowry has greatly improved his game.

I think the next step is shipping out Scola. Of course, that's easier said than done (trade him for who?? ) and it depends on the deal you're getting. But I believe Lowry-Martin play off each other extremely well. I'd like to see us upgrade our SF spot (Martin-Budinger defense on the perimeter? Noooo thanks) and get a shotblocking center.

Realistically, Samuel Dalembert will be the center we have the best shot at this summer. He's a solid center, but nothing that is going to make you an instant contender.

 

Chuck Hayes is a product of RA's system, so I'm not surprise he likes him.

He will go down in RA's list of amazing big men passers suck as Divac, Webber and Miller.

 

Is Derek Fisher a starting PG in the NBA? And do the Lakers hate Phil, or do the Bulls hate Thibs?

People have this strange obsession with who starts and who doesn't that continues to mystify me, really. Who starts really doesn't matter. Who plays the most minutes does. As Budinger is the most talented SF on this squad ( for the love of god, don't give me T-Will bullcrap), he starts and gets good minutes alongside Lee. That's what counts. While we need an upgrade at the SF spot, I don't see what Adelman has to do with that.

 

Good to see the players standing up for Rick; it's completely disrespectful and absurd that the organization appears to not want him back.

 

if the goal is to win a title, i don't think adelman is the right guy.

he plays too much teacher's pet as far as his rotation and as well as who plays in the 4th quarter. in the same manner, he's stubborn about playing slumping players and refusing to ride players with a hot hand. he's terrible at calling effective plays out of timeouts in crunchtime. he's terrible at making in-game adjustments and not so great at making them between games in a series either. his teams can't stop a pick n roll, period. his entire career, his teams have had a consistent penchant for folding in the clutch and this reflects badly on his leadership.

 

Thats why you need a player as leader in a lockeroom, we should've kept Battier. But we could get him away from Memphis this summer just as another team could've taken him away from us.

 

Upgrade the 3 and the 5.

Find a way to get better defensively without losing offense and win.

 

How many good teams did we beat without those "2" pieces? How many games against good teams were we blown out this season without those "2" pieces? One good big man will do, imo.

 

Um, no. Battier was the started but Morey traded him and theres literally nobody else who can play SF. Poor assessment _

 

So he's winning with two guys that wouldn't start for anyone else? Sounds like a great case for bringing him back.

 

Players will stand behind Adelman because Adelman is a good coach. He has his flaws like pippendagimp mentioned, but if we don't bring him back I don't think it will be because of coaching ability.

If we don't bring him back it will more likely be because he doesn't fit with a rebuilding team, and because we might want a coach who is more on the same page with management. Those are two reasons that players won't have on their minds so they have no reason not to support the coach.

 

I'd love to see some facts to back up these assertions that get mindlessly repeated on this site by Adelman-bashers. When the consistently great W/L record can't be refuted, all there is to turn to are these kinds of baseless slams that can't be proven.

Also, show me a player in the league that was clutch that couldn't deliver in crunch time due to a coach.