Yes it is. That and the schedule. 6-2 w/McGrady, 0-3 without. 4 games in 5 nights, 5 games in 7 nights. Pretty simple.
When he's not there, other guys have to do more than they should. Of course that affects energy. 4th game in 5 nights, 5 games in 7 nights also affects energy.
Yeah right, the loss to the Lakers is one of the 0-3 records without McGrady when he actually played 19 minutes, while Yao is forever part of the *official* 2-5 records without McGrady in the 06/07 regular season even though Yao only played 5 minutes in the loss to the Clippers on 12/23/2006. Gotta love the fuzzy math.
Excellent post,He should have went bigger with bonzi and controlled the tempo with a low post game of bonzi and yao ming. Rick feels to beat the suns you have to score points. They didn't CHALLENGE shots and they failed to DEFEND the 3 point line.
Anyone can coach him and be successful. Only one team wins the championship...it's not the Magic's coach's fault they had to go against the greatest Center in the finals. Most teams with dominating big men don't have trouble coaching them... you just tell everyone else to pass him the ball. I believe that was the intent of the original poster you responded to. Pat Riley got a ring with Shaq and the Heat too. I guess that means two coaches "take him to the rings." -V
Yes and as pryuen said you must control the tempo to beat the Suns. If you let Nash run up and down and fast break on every rebound you have no chance to beat them. What the Spurs play the Suns and you'll see Tony Parker control the tempo by slowing things down and going to TD in the post. Plus they get back and play transition defense which we never did all night against the Suns. We don't seem to understand this concept. Maybe we just don't have a PG who can control tempo at all.
You're crazy if you think Bonzi has a better shot of defending Barbosa than Mike James. And considering he's 1-15 in the last 2 games, I'm not sure why you'd be second guessing the decision to bring him off the bench.
Not like Van Gundy's Rockets teams faired well against the Suns either. But boring and plodding as it was, the defensive style of last year's team can be appreciated now. I'm neither here nor there with Van Gundy, didnt matter to me if he stayed or left. Just being fair for the Rockets and whoever's coaching it - everything else being the same ALL his team needed was a Mike James in place Alston last year to advance. If they gave a Van Gundy team more talents like Mike James, Luis Scola, Steve Francis who he's coached before, and 2 up and comers in the draft, his team's fortunes would look to improve too. Van Gundys past history showed the 2004-2005 team with David Wesley, Bob Sura & Jon Barry was a putting up very good OFFENSIVE numbers at the end of the season along with the same defensive effort. Because the talent was there to make it work regardless of his defensive focus, and even he had to let it play out the way it did. He wasnt creative on offense but not like he's going to take points OFF the board if the players can generate them. Adelman's one plus is "potential" to advance, and re-invigorating Bonzi to be a contributor again. Thats why there's pressure on me for the Adelman move to work cuz I'm kinda convinced Van Gundy with the same players improves at LEAST 5 more wins and possibly advances in the playoffs. (But those first round exits, eck...)
You have to make them adjust to your style,Rick tried to play the suns game and we got ran out the building and Your crazy if you think Barbosa can defend bonzi in the post. You have to pick your poison and trying to out score the suns was suicide from the GO.
Did you realize that only 6 coaches have won the last 21 NBA championships? So, no, it's not a matter of "anyone can coach him and be successful". The only guy in the group with just one championship was LB with the Pistons. Coaches matter A LOT in the NBA. For the record, the two coaches that led Shaq to his championships have 14 rings between them: PJ has 9; Riles has 5.
Coaching matters less in the NBA than any other major pro sport. All you have to do is look at those coaches once their championship players left - we know about Rudy; Phil has struggled, Larry Brown was terrible w/the Knicks, Riley was awful with the Heat until they got good and he decided to take the team away from SVG, Chuck Daly was nothing special with the Nets, and Popovich will probably leave once Duncan is gone - after all, we all know that's the only reason he's accomplished anything as a coach. Bob Hill should have all those rings. Take the players away and the coaches are nothing. The rings follow the players, not the coaches.
Yeah, then we don't need to pay huge $$$$$ for any head coach or their coaching staff, now that we have 2 superstars, TMAC and Yao Ming in the team..... You have to be kidding.
You've gotta be kidding! So if the Bulls had kept Doug Collins, they still would have won 6 championships? Don't think so. It's no coincidence what happened after PJ took over. It's no coincidence the Lakers won 3 in a row when PJ went to LA. If the Lakers had kept Paul Westhead instead of firing him (thanks to Magic), they would have won 4 championships anyway? Don't think so. If Pop hadn't fired Bob Hill and installed himself as coach, do you really think the Spurs would have won 4 championships? If you do, stop doing drugs. Bob Hill is NOT a championship level NBA coach. Any bozo who had the best roster in the NBA and who continued to single-cover Hakeem despite him toasting your regular-season MVP to a crisp, let his players down big-time. It is a fact one reason the Rockets beat the Spurs was because Hill wasn't up to the task. IMO, when the Spurs evened the series at 2-2 after losing both of the first two games at home, the series should have been over right then. But they lost the next 2 games. Championships don't follow players, they follow teams, and NBA coaches are a very important part of the team. They are MUCH more important than managers in MLB by far. In the NFL, coaches are more important than the NBA. That much is true. On a final note, as much as I dislike Riles for ruthlessly firing SVG like he did, it was the right thing to do. He cracked the whip hard on that team, challenged their pride in a way SVG couldn't dream of doing and they won a championship. The Heat players feared him and feared letting him down. SVG didn't get that kind of respect from their players. So if you look at Riles and PJ, it appears championships did indeed follow them from team to team. It takes the right players AND the right coach to win a championship.
So do the players. Each team that has won the big one had the best player or one of the best players in the league on the team. The guy says that anyone can coach a dominating big man...there is nothing wrong with my statement...anyone can coach one and win their fair amount of games...he never said win the championship..and I said that...my point was that only one team wins the championship. The point wasn't that coaches don't matter, but that a great coach becomes an exceptional one win great players. Phil had Shaq and Jordan, and he hasn't won a championship without those two guys. Riley hadn't won in a while until Shaq came to Miami. The Pistons, Spurs, Rockets, Lakers, Bulls...those were great teams and no doubt they had great coaches. The guy I responded to said Shaq only won with Phil...I responded that he won with Phil and Riley and possibly could have won one in Orlando had he stayed or didn't get stomped by Clutch City. Even Pops admits that the in basketball the players play the biggest role in whether the team is successful. I admit Pops is great, but without Duncan...you might not even consider him top ten. The NBA is a trend....some dynasties just get lucky and dominate... sure the coaches play a role, my point is a dominating big man helps...did you know that 24 of the last 30 Championship teams had a dominating Big Men? during the playoffs...replace Rudy with a mediocre coach or The Dream with a mediocre center...which would give us the best chance at success?
I guess we agree that both good coaching and good players are essential to winning it all. But to say "rings follow the players and NOT the coaches" is dead wrong and to say "coaching matters less in the NBA than any other major pro sport" is ludicrous. To answer your question: Replace either Dream or Rudy with mediocrity and the Rockets would have no championships.There was a reason Don Chaney was fired.
We'll see if the first round exit will be missed or not this year...The team hasn't changed much so far.
I really hope Adelman knows what he's doing. But seeing as how the Rockets are worse in almost every phase of the game than they have been in recent years, it's hard to make the case that he does.
Adelman has repeatly said that he wants to make Yao's life "easier". So far it does not appear that way...
