i don't know what you are talking about. That's a pretty good team. There are a handful of all-stars, both past and present.
Yao didn't become a dominant player that everybody feared by hitting outside jumpers and nice passes. You're not a threat when you're a 7'6 outside jump shooting center. He became dominant because JVG parked Yao on the low post and fed him the ball every time. Which is exactly what you do when you have a player like Yao. Much easier to guard Yao face up than when he's backing down. So what if he wasn't shooting elbow jumpers, he was doing his work from a more efficient spot. Since Rick came here, Yao shoots only 42.8% when shooting beyond 10 feet or more. Many feel he started taking too many outside jumpers. Honestly, its not even fair to compare the two coaches. They had the Rockets at different stages. JVG came in when the Rockets were trying to rebuild and Rick came in when the Rockets were trying to contend. Both had different GMs and different coaching styles.
I think Rick Adelman is a great coach, but I think there is too much credit given here. The players that come in and play, either they play well and earn the time or they don't. Look at the whole Tracy fiasco. We've had players here that have shown the tools, but just don't perform, so they don't get playing time. The players that are playing are good players, and ones that Morey (and I'm sure Adelman) scouted and brought here. Adelman, to me, seems more of the coach to give you a shot, and you earn it or don't. Fair or not. See Francis. Not much coaching there. I'm not trying to diss his coaching. Hell, he's a winning NBA coach, I'm not. Just saying, I think his style is more, "show me what you can do to earn time." Not, "I'll coach who I have to play to their max capabilities." He's more of a system coach it seems. Here's my system, if you can play it, we'll be good. So, I guess we'll see how well his system fairs. So far, it's not on pace to be 50+ wins which we've had since the Yao+Tracy days. Rick's system did not gel well with those two. /babble
Bingo! This is one of my biggest criticisms of JVG's coaching philosophy. He is too dogmatic and narrow minded. He doesn't stop yapping in the sidelines when his players are playing which I am pretty sure caused some degree of distraction. Look at Phil Jackson and RA, they trust their players to play based on their system and game plan and they allow their players to make the decisions on the court. Non of the players mentioned above would have had a chance to develop under JVG.
That Sacto team had more talent than we do now, quite a bit more. That being said, I get your point, but this team will finish with a slightly better record.
OK, where do we start? Chuck was a contributor, but you didn't hear the Wes Unseld comparisons when he was working under JVG. He's always been able to defend bigger guys, but you could argue that his biggest strides this year are as an interior passer, which is a pretty direct development from working with RA in the offense. With Head, you saw a perimeter jump shooter with no handles and weak defense get worse every year.
1. I'm not old enough to have seen it, but didn't Portland-era Bill Walton make a living as a ball distributor and scorer from the high post. Also, RA has had a lot of success running bigs at the elbow over the years. 2. Yao, at his best, has been a dominant low post scorer early in games, but fatigues quickly and is often marginalized in the fourth quarter. While Yao is more efficient scoring from the post, I am beginning to think that it was the wrong decision to move him down off the elbow. First off, the training load necessary to be in shape for the pushing match has probably contributed to his injuries as much as the wear and tear of the contact. Secondly, like a lot of other bigs, he doesn't get the right calls in the low post. Finally, the rest of the offense stagnates when it runs through Yao, and the principals that you follow in that offense don't work without a dominant low post scorer. 3. Yao's development as a low post scorer is really manifest of working with CD and Patrick, not really a JVG thing IMO.
No other coach would even think about starting Chuck Hayes except for Van Gundy. Without JVG, I don't think Chuck Hayes would be here. He opened everyones eyes to the workhorse that is Charles Hayes. Pretty much a prototype for the Van Gundy type player.
