lets all make a pact...lets give adelman two full seasons before we judge his coaching ability for the good or the bad. lets just support him. let him find out about the team. let the schedule even out. let our players get healthy. let brooks develop. let morey make a couple of season altering trades. let cd continue to work with yao on all facets of his game. just let adelman be. it will get better but he needs time. at least two full seasons to implement his system at both ends. the defense is better than i thought. the rebounding has been great. the offense just stinks right now because we arent shooting well.
The short answer: NO! Get it together by the end of this year or ship him out. When you have two superstars and a decent supporting cast, you are not supposed to suck. Good coaches make players better, not the team worse. What have you done for me lately? should be what we are asking Adelman. I personally wouldn't give him past the All Star break, but realising that this would scare off many other coaches, I can see giving him until the end of the year.
Two years would be a nice luxury for us to have as fans. Personally, I would like to give Rick as much time as he needs. Unfortunately, the players on our team - most importantly the McGrady-Yao duo - don't have that long of a window. Sure, they have at least 2 more years of prime left, but we'd have to give the new coach after that 2 years by this same principle. Do they have enough time for Adelman to prove he's not the right coach, and get it together under a third? That's my main concern.
Why should we be content? We were better last year with Yao/McGrady missing extended time meanwhile Van Gundy gave us an I identity and even had Mutombo looking good. Now we beefed up the roster, added plenty of 3rd scoring options. Even if Wells left we would be considerably better on paper. We were 1 game from beating the Jazz, 1 game from beating the Mavs years ago... But we should be content? Even as our franchise player (Yao) is clearly having doubts? You want us to allow Morey time to make trades, round out the roster to fit Adelman? How about Adelman shows some coaching aptitude and do something with what he has! This isn't college, you can't recruit system players. Do what you can with what you have. Pat Riley does it, Rudy did it, why the hell would you cater to a coach who has never won a championship? Maximize the talent thats out there, its a hell of a lot deeper and deadlier than any team JVG has ever had.
Thats why I dont understand. Yes sure Adelman gets those 2 full seasons --- BUT WE WERE A 52 WIN TEAM. and we barely lost to a west conference final team in game 7. I dont know about you guys but I was pretty proud of THAT Rockets. If Adelman can get a free 2 years ticket why JVG couldnt?
52 wins and over achieving in the regular season is a failure and a waste Forget 52 regular season victories if you can't get your team out the first round. Those games are irrelavent if you can't do anything with them in the post season. The playoffs are different from the regular season.Teams have a whole 7 games to prepare for you ineptitude on the offensive end of the floor. They start locking in on 2 on 5 basketball,you become an easy target to defend. All everybody is worried about is the regular season when playoff time coems those victories havn't meant anything for this core. Up 2-0 going back home agaisnt dallas and lose Game 7 at toyota center against utah and lose
We don't have that much time. Our window of opportunity with Yao and T-Mac will be closing. He needs to figure it out now. If we don't make the playoffs and at least get past the first round, he will have failed.
This core of Yao and T-mac have failed for the last 4 seasons,If they do fail a lot of it has to do with them not getting anything done in 4 years.Rick is trying bring his formula to the table that was already set to lose in the first round. Tracy and Yao have waisted their own window together. They need to figure it out as well.
No way. Remember when Flip took over for Larry Brown? The Pistons showed now signs of digression to the entirely new system. RA inherited a 52 win team. Heck, had Yao and TMac been healthy all season long, the Rockets were easily a 61-win team (according to Daryl Morey the day he was promoted to GM). Couple last year's "61-win team" with all our offseason acquisitions, then we should easily win 65 games. But no, that's not even a possibility now, unless we go 52-2 the rest of the way. I'm not judging RA on anything yet. I'll give him until the rest of the season. But if we fail to make the playoffs, that would be a major disappointment, because everything stayed the same from last year, except we actually added more talent and firepower that JVG could have definitely used. I know RA is one hell of a coach based on his record, but in the limited games I've seen of him in the past, the worst continues to haunt him. His Kings team rightfully deserved the nickname "Queens". I never saw so many soft players/floppers. ANd now it has carried over here. Last year, the ROckets starting 5 led the league in +/-. This year, I don't know the exact statistics, but I don't even think they're in the top 10. That's a change in system and philosophy. I thought Jeff deserved another year because of injuries and lack of talent. CD was on his way out, and Daryl showed his promise. I never liked the Adelman hire from Day 1. I loved the moves to acquire Scola, James, and Francis. I loved how we nabbed Justin Reed and Jackie Butler in the process. I thought Mike Harris was a helluva find by our basketball guys. I think Brooks was drafted as a project and thought he'd make a heck of a backup NBA point guard. He could be even better than that. But our 2 guys are getting older and older. 2 years ago, i thought Tracy had 3 years of greatness left in him. This is year 2, and it's going nowhere. Next year is Tracy's final straw, because, according to my prediction, he won't be the same player he was in 2004. Not so great jump shot, not so great at spotting up, not so great free throw shooter, doesn't take it to the basket, loses to adversity every team he faces it, official spokesperson of Choko Puffs, got a brokeback/brokelbow/brokeknee. He'll be a solid number 3 on a Utah-type 3 down the road, but at this moment, it's WIN NOW, which we are not doing. I already threw this season down the dump in November. Even if we slip into the playoffs with the 7 or 8 seed, we'd have no chance against whoever's number 1. Next year's it. Yao can't do it by himself. RA needs get something done. I've been particularly unpleased with his demeanor, postgame comments, lack of emotion and fire, etc. Look at SVG, calling out his guys the other night after a loss to Utah (it's in the General NBA discussion board). That's what these softies on our team need, and it's something they greatly miss, whether they know it or not. Adelman's assistants, other than Jack sikma, seem nonexistent. His own son left the team. That spot could have easily been given to Thibodeau or Elie, but no, RA clearly believed in nepotism. This season has been a complete failure, and I think RA should man up and accept responsibility for this team's lack of preparation, execution, and energy.
No free rides for RA. I'm not saying we were quite a title contender last year, but we were pretty close. Get a rebound here, get a stop there, and we are in the second round. Rockets are in a win now mode. We could have kept Jeff Van Gundy's system, and been alright. Now we gotta wait three full seasons for these players to run it correctly? By that time, Tracy is going to be broken down.
We were the 4th best team in the league last year. We have the same sqaud, plus added talent, and right now we're not even in the playoff picture. I'm all for giving Adelman time, but not time for getting us into the playoffs as a 7th, 8th seed, then having San Antonio bounce us in the first round every year...cause thats what we're shooting for this year. Same Squad, plus more, and we're way worse. That means it aint the squad.
Don Nelson, George Karl, Flip Saunders, etc... Didn't need any grace periods. Hell their teams surged. We aren't exactly switching from the triple option to the west coast offense here...
TMac and Yao have been together for 2 seasons. It's like CNN media around here or something. Everybody denies the season neither of them played because of major injuries. So for lame brains such as yourself, Tmac and Yao and JVG were together for two seasons. TWO SEASONS. merry Christmas.
I agree with the overall premise. However, Don Nelson in a similar situation did struggle mightily. The GS Warrior job was a different story though. they had athletes and could run his system with ease.
I think that T-Mac is broken down already. After his long spate of back problems two seasons ago, I don't really think that he is the player that he was beforehand, so his trade value might not be as high as it was. RA might want to consider making changes to the starting lineup--put the kind of lineup that fits his uptempo style better. The kind of lineup I would like to see him try is start Aaron Brooks at PG since he would look to push the ball up the court real hard when he gets it, Luther Head at SG, move T-Mac to SF (his natural position), continue to play Chuck Hayes at PF for his rebounding, and start Luis Scola at Center. If the team's opponent doesn't allow that group to run and gun like I would want to see, then I would go with the team's current starting lineup. I would only be playing certain guys based on matchups against the opponent. As for the team's current disappointing start, it may have a lot to do with the fact that the acquisitions of Mike James and Steve Francis haven't worked out like what prognosticators had expected to see.
