You're right he's not a part of the plan. He wasn't brought here to mentor people though, he was brought here as a last resort. No Pau, No Nene, No Dwight, No Marc... We had to settle.
I agree that #3 is what is happening. We are simply a bad team with no real defensive leadership without Battier and Hayes. Then we seem to have no real direction with McHale coaching versus Adelman. I honestly don't know what we are running out there on offense or defense. I don't understand the rotation either. Like last night I thought T-Will and Patterson would have ended up with 30+ minutes, but they still only got around their same number of minutes even in the blow out. Also, is Thabeet so terrible that he couldn't even sniff any kind of game action? I don't get it. Also, why is Hill still starting? Dalembert looks good out there and Hill has regressed big time on offense. He was afraid to shoot the ball even when we were getting destroyed for the last 3 quarters. We heard during the preseason how much Hill had progressed, but man that is just not reality. We aren't tanking. We are just really bad defensively with our personnel and we don't have a Hall of Fame coach game plan on offense. That's reality.
I see Dalembert as the vestiges of the Les plan to rebuild without sucking. He has been pushing Morey to "do something" and this was the only option left after the trade imploded. Les doesn't seem willing to accept the reality of rebuilding and what it entails.
So if the Rockets are trying to win even though the result is closer to tanking, I guess that means they are battle fighting.
I wouldn't say your completely out of line with that statement. It ultimately does fall back on the coaches. McHale and co. were sold to the Houston front office as a coaching team that could run alot of the same offensive sets but dramatically improve the defensive side of the court. They were, however, going to do away with alot of the high post sets because it takes your biggest post players away from the basket where they cannot collect offensive rebounds, and they dont have the personel anymore to run those plays (good passing bigs like Hayes, & Miller) I would say honestly that the coaching should get a pass for the first few months of the season because of no summer camps, training camp, or preseason to work with the players. That being said, the offensive sets, like I mentioned before, are very easy sets to learn, but the players just haven't built that chemistry that teams develop on every level of play. High School to the pros. The defensive end in the NBA is where most of the work is done with offseason preparation, and practice. Ultimately you're 100% correct that a coaching staff should play to their best players strengths, but in the case of the Rockets, they are just going to take longer to develop offensive chemistry, and learn the defensive sets which were not run under Adelman. However, if the defense is still this bad by the all-star break then it speaks volumes about the coach. Im not worried about the offense as much. Kevin Martin and Chase are good enough offensive players that they can find a way to score within the most basic basketball plays that they have been playing all their lives. If having Brad Miller dish them backdoor passes are the only way they can be effective NBA scorers, then they arent good enough NBA players to begin with.
These are professional NBA players - they arent going to tank on purpose. Just too much pride to do that. This team is just BAD ..... 80% of the statring group are sub par defenders in Martin , Budinger , Scola and Hill. Add to that Hill not being very productive offensively , Bud not being consistant and Martin not getting to the line because he hasnt taken it to the rack and the rules changes .... The injury to C.Lee hasnt helped a bit either .... while Patterson has looked rusty coming off his surgery. They are just not very good. I'd like to see Martin , Hill and Bud moved for a bag of chips .... and Twill at the SG spot instead of at SF.
The worst team in the West (we would tie with GSW if they are going to lose j*zz today). Tied for the third worst team in entire league (just behind terrible Nets and winningless Wizards). This guy certainly likes this
After watching tonights game, we are lottery bound wether we like or not. We simply do not have the talent out there to win games on a consistent basis.
I'm starting to agree with those that say Scola should be traded. I love the guy and he's one of my all-time favorite Rockets. But he deserves to go to a contender while he's still in his prime instead of wasting away on the Rockets. By the time we are ready to contend he will probably be past his prime.
