Bullard knows basketball; Matt is high on RA's offense, understands it, and seems to think it will be a good fit for our team. I agree. The team IQ is low. RA's system requires above average IQ's to execute it. Therefore, departures are coming soon. RA will be around till at least next year. Guaranteed (barring a sub-500 season this year). MJ, Bonzi, SF, Head, Snyder will all be gone along with a couple of other guys. Who do you think?
Bonzi is a RA guy. Why would he be gone? I don't see too many teams offering him much with the way he is playing this season.
I'm sorry, I just don't see a talent problem. The onus is on Rick Adelman to make this work. If we don't make it to the playoffs with THIS level of talent on our team, then he has to go. A team with Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Bonzi Wells, Shane Battier, Luis Scola, Steve Francis and Luther Head on it cannot be this bad. It doesn't add up. Everybody is performing below their career levels. Yao's production is down. Luther's production is down. McGrady's production is down, at least assist-wise. Shane's production is down. Even Steve Francis is way down from last year, and last year he was playing for the freaking New York Knicks. Hate to beat the dead horse, but firing JVG is looking more and more like a huge mistake every day. Adelman has to make THIS team work. If he can't, then he is an incompetent coach.
Flogging a dead horse! Coach and Staff, McGrady,Alston,Battier,James, Francis,Snyder,Head and Mutombo Build with Yao, Scola, Wells, Hayes, Brooks, Landry and Novac Set a goal Championship in three seasons.
There is a talent problem though. There's a lot of dead weight on this team -- James, Francis, Hayes, Mutombo. Adelman's style is one of versatility; one where each player should be a triple threat in some manner. For example, Yao and Scola are adequate fits because they have height, can shoot and can pass. battier can defend, pass and shoot. alston can defend and pass. Wells can rebound well at the guard spot, post up, and is an adequate passer. Head is a shooter who has shown an ability to pass well and defend at times. But Francis, hayes, james and mutombo are all one-dimensional. If Francis or james aren't scoring, they aren't helping. period. We Hayes and Mutombo are in the game (God forbid at the same time), you're at a five-on-four disadvantage all the time. So that's a third of our 12-man roster which is practically useless. And that means only eight players should be serviceable given Adelman's tendencies and style of play.
We have a winner . . . Damn JeopardE, we truly think alike. It seems every thread I run into that I want to say something, I scroll down and you have already said it.
Sorry but this is the incorrect question, thanks for playing. You say we should win with all the talent we have on paper. See: last US Olympic team. Lots of problems that can be mentioned but the one that is most significant, hits you in the face like a 30 volume encyclopedia set, and can be corrected the most readily is Team IQ. Another factor is our lack of a true leader on the court that directs not only the plays but also the emotions and energy of the team. Scoring alot of points and hitting jumpers or dunking on people every now and then doesn't make you a leader (T-Mac or Yao).
BackNthDay, you're at a magical post count. You should step back from your day to day activities and think about what the universe really wants to give you.
And that's the coach's responsibility. The example you give - the last US Olympic team highlights exactly what I'm saying -- when you have a ton of talent but the resulting total is less than the sum of its parts, then the coach has failed to maximize the talent that he was given to manage. When players are making poor decisions on the court, the only person who can see that is the coach, and if he isn't correcting those mistakes and turning the players into high-IQ performers, then he is failing. How is it for example that T-Mac, who has all the tools to be a shutdown defender and was a great defender last year, has suddenly turned into the team's worst defender? How is it that Rick is supposed to be a better offensive coach, but the SAME players are performing worse offensively under him than they did last year? Sure, there's plenty of blame to go around, and I agree -- missing leadership is one of the biggest issues this team is facing (see an article I wrote on the subject here.) But this is a fact: the coaching has not lived up to expectations. Coaching must improve, or something has to give. Anybody can introduce their own system. The best coaches are the ones who know how to bring the best out of their players, and so far, Adelman has only succeeded in making our players regress.
I bet your boss is the reason you're still making $6.75 an hour at the Taco Bell right? Dangit, i promised to stop taking pot shots at the posters on this board. I'll try harder next time. Seriously dude, that is a pretty lame excuse. When you're not doing your job well, it is not because your coach/manager/mentor/parents/government is making you perform weakly. Sure, I'll give you that these entities could make it harder for you to perform well or place unnecessary barriers in the way. However, if you're a legitimate 'top-level' performing professional in your industry, those barriers will not stop you. You will find a way to get yours. How is it, you ask? It is because the guys on this team possess a LOW IQ (feel free to call it a Basketball IQ if you wish, the only difference is that some people have a high Instinct for the game of basketball which can at times compensate for a low Basketball IQ). For golam's sake man, how can you intellligently argue that Adelman is causing this team to regress? They have only played 24 games. By the way, the lower the Team IQ, the longer it takes for them to u n d e r s t a n d new concepts.
I had to vote for changing role players. Don't get me wrong. TMac and Adelman would both get on my nerves, if I let them. Neither Yao nor TMac will be traded. I wouldn't trade Yao at all. I'd only trade TMac if we could land a really good point guard in the process. But neither player is gonna be traded, so forget it. They won't fire Rick Adelman. I don't know his contract, but he'd be owed a lot of money, and no one wants to give up or admit a mistake so quickly. (Even though I am beginning to miss JVG as a coach.) Since we have TMac, I guess you're gonna have to change the players around him. TMac seems to have a problem with Mike James and Steve Francis, especially "Mike James, beeyotch!" For some reason he just doesn't want someone else being floor general. Or maybe he's okay with the thought but just has some kind of personality clash with those two guys; maybe MJames and SFrancis have taken it waaaay too easy, coming home to Houston, and they don't add to TMac's game---rather, their apathy is infectious to someone like TMac, who wants to care, but let's face it, could use a good kick in the ass from time to time. And when TMac plays with his head up his a$$, so does Yao. Vicious circle, I guess. (Note to TMac: Don't eat heavy ass fried foods before a game, whatever it is you're doing.) We need to bolster this team right quick. Our PF spot and our PG spot both have too many question marks. Even Shane at 3 isn't really getting it done. Why not Shane and James for Tayshaun? Shane gets to go home, James gets to play for a team he enjoyed. Call Mike Harris. Whatever it is that needs to be done, Morey, DO IT. Because we are going nowhere quick.
But as others are arguing, it's not the talent that's the issue with this team. Their collective lack of discipline, desire, bball IQ, leadership, execution, and professionalism is causing them to play beneath themselves. It would be fair to say that this is a problem plaguing the league as a whole. The major exceptions out there are Utah and San Antonio, with the Lakers, Suns, and Pistons decent in those regards. NJ would have been a basement team the past 5 years without Kidd's leadership. Boston is the only team I can think of that's tearing things up without relying much on strategy and execution. They're feeding off of the big 3's determination, especially KG. As for a side example, look at the Pats this past decade. They win because they play like a marine unit. Add the talent, and they slaughter everyone. We're pretty awful in all those things across the board. I'm not calling for him to return (can't look back), but JVG said it right when he said that teams at this level don't win because they out-talent the opposition. The talent is too even overall. Teams win because they are better prepared and execute more sharply than the other guys. We need a leader. We need guys that can touch pass the ball around the arc. We need guys that mean it when they say they're going to do whatever it takes to win. There was plenty bad with the Gundy era, but he brought the tough discipline you HAVE to have in this league. It does NOT come from guys like Adelman, McGrady, Francis, or Mike James. Evan
I guess your IQ wasn't high enough for you to prevent yourself from issuing stupid insults like this. Your posts aren't even worth consideration anymore. It is funny as an electrical engineer to see some random fool telling you that you make $6.75/hour at Taco Bell, though.
There we go, now we're on the same page. The coach is not providing leadership. The players are lost. Last year's team had three people who could be considered "leaders" in some form: JVG, Juwan Howard and Rafer Alston. We already know what JVG brought to the table. Juwan Howard was the huddle guy, the locker room guy, the guy who competed hard every night even though he was outmatched most of the time. Rafer Alston has been the guy who keeps the offense going. You subtract all of those elements all at the same time, add a passive coach who just sits on the bench and hopes the players figure it out for themselves, and you end up with disastrous results. The talent is not the issue. That's why I disagree with all these trade suggestions and people claiming that the personnel don't fit the system etc. Leadership is THE issue. And as much as we need leaders within the team itself, are we going to resign to the fact that we have a coach who won't claim the responsibility of leading his team?
