Eventually Rafer stepped up and 'called out' Grady,dunno it's real or not.But well done.We need to sit down and talk to each other to figure out a way to solve the problem we have right now instead of pointing fingers at somebody and say It's Your Fault.Well Grady said it was his fault last season,bet he won't do that again if he's aware that his azz is already on the line.
If Rafer was calling out people, he definitely wasn't calling out Artest. Artest has been playing through his injury like the beast he is.
If Artest hadn't taken on the scoring load against Utah, we would've lost that game, too. Maybe if the offense would work like it's supposed to, people wouldn't be forced to do their own thing.
It does work, but only when everyone is committed to running it, funny you mention Utah...because they are a prime example of players committed to running a system. DD
There's nothing wrong with having a system, but if Adelman can't get his players to commit to playing the way he wants them to, either the system isn't all that great to begin with, or he has no control over his team. And about Utah, they are a consistently good team under Sloan, but I don't see any rings to back them up.
Or Adelman doesn't have control over specific individuals on the team. There might be plenty of guys on the team who are amenable to running the system and who are unhappy that one or two of the Rockets are ruining the team's chemistry. Hence the title of this thread.
Fair enough, but the fact that the one or two players he can't control are his "superstars" says a lot.
How do you propose he control them? This is the problem with guaranteed contracts. Tmac has the team by the short hairs, so much so, that he is sulking and taking games off. Ron is in a contract year, and needs decent numbers to get a better deal. It is an oil and water mix. And neither of those players are superstars...they are stars. DD
About him or the "superstars"? I notice that Yao doesn't seem to have any problems playing the system.
I find it strange that with the exception of Ron Artest, the guys playing big minutes has not changed, and yet chemistry this year is poor as compared to last year. Does that mean Ron Artest is the problem? Is he a bad influence on McGrady rather than the other way around? I don't know because it seems like Artest has been a good citizen, but who knows? I'm going to reserve judgement until the team is healthy. It's impossible to win consistently with such a musical chairs line-up.
That brings me back to my original point. Artest has played under Adelman's system before and liked it, so it doesn't seem logical that he would abandon it now, meaning Rafer most likely wasn't calling him out. Adelman needs to not be so much of a player's coach and learn to develop a mean streak. If that means benching McGrady until he starts acting like an adult, then so be it. And I called them "superstars", quotes indicating my sarcasm. But I agree, having guaranteed contracts is a big problem.
I agree with your analysis, well said..... One of the biggest reasons I was against getting Artest was that our leaders were so weak that they would be swayed by his strong personality. I hope that is not the case, but.... DD
OK, but the question that I haven't seen a concrete answer to is why McGrady is sulking. The only answer from a reliable person thus far has been from Feigen who has said that he is reacting poorly to his own poor play. I guess we'll see soon enough.
There's speculation that McGrady doesn't like the offense or that he doesn't get along with Adelman. There's speculation that McGrady's pouting because he's been displaced by Yao as the team's primary scoring option. What's not debatable, in my mind, is that the guy's getting paid $20 million a year and he has no right to sulk. He should be putting out effort every game instead of acting like a spoiled little man child.
He sulked last year too about the offense, then sat, the team took off, and he came back and talked about getting with the program and upping his athleticism as the team was leaving him behind. Basically, he is a talented basket case. DD
I am not sure it's the case. TMac said many times he had no problems to defer to Yao. Actually, Yao became the primary scoring option long time ago. However, he may not like Adelman's system. A: he has to move without the ball (he's too lazy) B: he cannot dominate the ball all the time (less Pts and Assists) I started to realize the Battier trade was mainly for TMac. On D end, battier covers tmac's defense laziness; on O end, battier became a pure 3 point shooter (he was not extreme before came here). And Gay would have made TMac very insecure.
Sure, there is alot of speculation going on. My own opinion is that I don't think he cares that Yao is the primary scoring option, but I think he feels like he's left out of the offense entirely. Lately, the offense has been for the most part: pass to yao in the post--double team--pass back out--repost--pass back into Yao--Yao scores, turns it over, or passes out for a 3 pointer. That's not going to work consistently game after game, McGrady or no McGrady. But you're absolutely right. He should quit being a baby. I don't care if you make $20 million or the league minium. You're playing a kid's game for a living. Man up.
