Chronic: Baptism by fire — Brooks stands up to the heat

then guess a lot of butts will be drawing splinters.

 

I agree with bexcelant about butts

 

That's not true at all.

When he had deep teams in Sacramento he had a 10.5 alternating rotation, which is about 3 to 4 more players than Van Gundy would ever allow.

 

My recollection was different. I remember Adelman's teams as deep, deep, deep. And I remember turning to the bench a lot to change momentum (more like how Pop and Phil J do).

I checked two of his best teams.

The 01-02 Sac team gave regular minutes in the playoffs to 8 guys, Web, Bibby, Divac, Doug C, BJ, Peja, Hedo and Pollard, in the regular season Funderburke and/or Wallace got regular minutes, so basically 9-10 man rotations.

Then the 91-92 Porland team in the playoffs he played 8 guys, Clyde, TP, Kersey, Cliff, Buck, Duck, Ainge, & Bryant, in the regular season Abdulnaby, Pack and Whatley all got significant PT, so I would also say 9-10 guys got regular action.

In short I expect Adelman to use his bench a lot more than JVG (who really only played 7 regularly in the playoffs, typically no more than 8 in the regular season) and I expect him to trust/give more PT opps to a lot more players further on the bench.

 

Checked the stats. Last year's JVG team had 8 players that averaged 20+ minutes, the same as most of Adelman's team. Of all the teams that I looked at coached by either, the 04-05 Rockets had the most used bench. Adelman did tend to use the end of his bench slightly more than JVG, so that is a valid observation. All of this ignores what talent was on the team, but Adelman going to a 9 or 10-man rotation would be a significant departure from his coaching history.

 

Signs are certainly encouraging.

 

That's not the same thing as rotation. Bonzi got over 20 minutes are you actually trying to argue he was a rotation player?

 

I considered number of games in that, too. But to answer your question, Bonzi was in the rotation for a couple of dozen games.

 

I'm more concerned with Adelman's history of playing rookies. Is he going to be the guy who's willing to run a 19 year old Peja out there for almost every single game, even when he's shooting a Rafer-esque .378/.320? Or is he going to be the guy who buries Gerald Wallace and Kevin Martin, who have gone on to become very good players in his wake?

I personally believe that anything beyond a 9 man rotation starts to be more of a harm than an aid to the success of the team, not giving guys enough minutes to get into the flow of the game. I expect at least one of Wells, James or Francis to be a total non-factor this year, so that will leave one regular slot to be claimed by Head/Brooks/Alston. That's a difficult scrum for Brooks to come out on top of, considering Alston will most likely be showcased before the trading deadline, and Head's a better replacement if Bonzi can't perform. Still, Brooks seemingly defies the odds at every stop he makes; he's already made me eat crow, when I thought he was undraftable (due to his lack of passing ability).

But all that's for later. For now, it's all good to hear that Brooks is doing well.

 

Maybe we could trade Alston to the Clippers for Yarolsav Korolev (sign and trade)?

I know he's listed at 6-9 203, but that was at age 18.

If you look at his profile listing at this year's summer league at age 20, he's now listed at 6-10 244.

At 6-10 244 at age 20, he should eventually develop into a PF and one that is skilled.

He was the #12 pick in the draft at age 18 out of high school if I remember correctly.

He's very talented and can light up the score board. He has an outside shot and is athletic. He brings everything at PF the Rockets don't have yet with Hayes and Scola. He could be either a 3rd PF or a backup SF until he was ready for more minutes.

He would be a nice upgrade over Novak, and if Wells leaves after this year could step in as the backup SF as he can play that position very well too.

Since Alston makes $4,550,000, in order to make the trade work, Korolev would need a salary within 25% plus 100k of that salary.

So he would need to start at $3,500,000

If he signed a 3 year deal then (So Rockets would get his full Bird rights), let's say at $3,500,000 for each year, then that's a 3 year deal worth $10,500,000, which is about around the deal that Amir Johnson got from Detroit.

Korolev should have about the same market value as Johnson.

Also this would of course lower the cap number this year by about $1 million, which would be a $2 million savings if the team goes over the tax. They could save money too from having to sign Harris or Landry if they cut Reed.

Korolev has a lot of upside.

PG Francis/James/Brooks
SG McGrady/Head/Snyder
SF Battier/Wells/Korolev
PF Scola/Hayes/Novak
C Yao/Mutombo/Butler

Brooks, Head, Snyder, Korolev, Novak, Butler, Hayes is a nice group of young talent to develop.


The Clippers would get Alston and he could help them a lot because they are really weak at PG.

PG Cassell/Alston/Brevin Knight
SG Mobley/Ross/Guillermo Diaz
SF Maggette/Thornton/Livingston
PF Brand/Tim Thomas/Josh Powell
C Kaman/Paul Davis/Aaron Williams

Considering Brand's injury, Livingston's injury, and that Cassell is absolutely at the end, this is a good trade for the Clippers.

 

Yes... many (at least 1/3 from what I recall) of which were when TMac was out... you can't just find all the 20 mpg people and count them to see how deep the rotation was.

Adelman, when he's had talent, has given 12-14 minutes and more to 9-10 players. There was a year in Sacramento where everyone on the team who played more than 1 game had at least something like 10-12 mpg.

You also need to look at when Adelman gives minutes to the Pollards and Bobby Jacksons of the world... it's during meaningful time, not just at end of games. So Pollard's 10-15 mpg are meaningful minutes.

 

I'm just saying that the biggest knock on Adelman's work with the Kings early on was that he didn't play and develop rookies much, he wore out his starters during the regular season, they overachieved during the regular season, and they didn't have enough left for the playoffs. (Sound familiar?) I must admit that I didn't watch his Portland teams and quit watching his Sacramento teams after the novelty wore off, so my experience with him is limited to about three seasons. The Rockets are, on paper, deeper than any of those teams, so I can see him adding to the rotation. But it would be a new thing.

 

very glad to hear this

 

I remember his best squads. I showed the PT he gave on those squads a couple of posts above and he was going 9-10 deep in the regular season, at least 8 in the playoffs (consider JVG only really went 7 in the regular playoff rotation, despite having a quality vet in Deke on the bench). RA also clearly gave time some young guys to see if they could give him anything, Cliffy (though he was very good by that time, but Adelman also gave him a chance earlier), Abdulnaby, Bryant, Pack, and then latter on that Sac team Hedo, Wallace, etc.

Adelman's best teams tried to beat you with depth and quality throughout the line-up, which they had to because they had to beat squads with greater players on them (they beat Magic at least once, should have beat Shaq/Kobe once, pushed Jordan's Bulls to 6 I believe).

If I had a criticism of Adelman from then, it was never lack of using the bench or burning out his guys. My criticism would be I remember seeing him ultra whine at the refs and not getting after his own guys for not playing better at times. Some times it seemed guys like Bibby and Ainge just had to seize the moment and be coaches/leaders on the floor. Defintely gave me the impression of a "players coach", I don't remember him getting in his players face, maybe he did behind the scenes.

So I worry less about him not using bench or burning out guys, but letting players, particularly vets, get away with less intensity than they should have at times. Pretty much opposite of my criticisms of JVG.

What I remember and my impressions anyway.