Coaching and comfort foods

Give Brad some time, he's still playing his own preseason. Will help a lot when we gain chemistry.
He has played bad defense so far, but will be ok. I've followed him in previous years and can help defensively too. He's a tougher than Andersen, smart, and has experience.

PATIENCE. PATIENCE.

 

chuck is the teams best low post defender, but the team's worst blocking big man; hill on the other hand is the team's best blocker and athlete down low, but lacks hayes' acumen. battier is the team's 3rd best perimeter player right now behind lee and lowry. lee and lowry must play. VERDICT: hill, lee, lowry must play more minutes.

 

The only problem I could have with your analysis, DD....

...is that it doesn't take into account the severity the uncertainty around Yao Ming is causing the team in terms of cascading effect.

It is more than probable that Coach Adelman's "comfort zone" players are overexposed (I have personally always thought that both Battier and Hayes were costing the team games for seasons because they were too one-dimensional on a team that needed more for them both...or at leats the positions they play)....

...but the truth of the matter is that any team has to have its core players in place before it can entertain notions of contention. Those three-to-five players who are good on both offense and defense, and can be counted on in the toughest situations against the toughest competition nightly.

We do have a dearth of one-way players now...symptomatic of a very young team, generally. But if the idea, in transitioning the roster, is to build that stable core of players, then the Rockets are in a very real sense rebuilding, as opposed to retooling.

If Yao is supposed to be the best player on the team (or perhaps more accurately, the most impactful player on both ends of the floor)...a proven commodity and all-star/all-NBA level player...

..it is a mistake to unnecessarily guard his minutes. Now is the time to find out what Yao can do. There have been proclamations from many mountaintops about Yao's full recovery. If the Rockets need Yao and he's medically healthy, he needs to play. The only hindrance to Yao's on-court participation should be Yao himself and his head coach.

Again, to me....an unintended by-product of last season was the team forming a type of identity outside of Yao Ming, as opposed to players gaining enough confidence in their own abilities to be able to work and perform in whatever role they are required.

Aaron Brooks, for example, must be a different type of point guard for the team with Yao Ming....or even Luis Scola or Kevin Martin. Brooks must be a facilitator for those other players....a tablesetter, decision-maker and controller of game tempo for a team of scorers. This runs directly counter to Brooks' current bent of offense-first.

Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks are perhaps your core, along with Yao. As such, each of those players have a responsibility to be better at both ends of the floor, because they will have to be on the court if the Rockets want to win consistently and rise into legitimate playoff contenders.

Every player on the team has to find a way to fit their talents around Yao, if the team is committed to him going forward, and if Yao can show a return to health and dominance. Some players will have to sacrifice shot attempts for defensive balance. everybody has to work together, no matter what the rotation happens to be.

But you can't build a rotation before you decide who can or cannot play.
You can't find the players who complement Yao if Yao isn't playing.

Coaches have one-track minds. They are interested in winning. They will play the people who they feel give them the best chance to do that. The onus falls to the players to distinguish themselves. Some of us want to crucify players we do not like of have no particular interest in, and elevate other players who have just as large a responsibility, but almost no accountability.

We're fans. That happens. We've got the luxury of spur-of-the-moment coaching.

Adelman doesn't have that luxury. He has to play who he feels gives him a chance to win. Coaches work with a much tighter leash.

The Rockets knew last season that the only way they could compete was to up the game tempo and score in transition as often as possible. Now, with Yao back, they have to acccount for and use him. Yao doesn't have to alter the up-tempo approach a great deal. But he does have to be accounted for and used.

If you commit to Yao, I feel it's easier to work the people in you need to work in. Adelman has shown an ability and willingness to use whoever is playing well enough to trust....the roster turnover in the last two seasons is evidence enough of that.

Right now, something other than the players and coaches is determining who should be playing....

 

we all know Lowry will play more minutes and Lee will too in what's his names absence.

all you are saying is Hill should play more minutes. You are disagreeing with the Coach of this team. You know that, right? It's like the Dorsey fans all over again, with some summer league impression of a guy and translating it to the NBA.

don't be a fool. Hill sucks...or he would play. Are you really trying to say Adelman sucks or Hill would play.

You are completely turned around, just like the OP is. Now, in 2 months when Hill finally gets it, or not, you can bump up this thread and say you were right. But for now, Hayesfan is correct. Hill sucks in practice, otherwise he'd be playing. Just like Dorsey.

 

I really enjoyed your post until I got to your last sentence.

Are you saying Pat Riley is in charge? Isiah Thomas? Jerry Jones?

That's like saying Les is in charge of picking the RPDs.

stop it. Coach is in charge. Morey does NOT influence that.

 

Rafer wasn't a comfort guy? I beg to differ... and though it may not of forced him out of the rotation Adelman did move him out of his role as a closer. That's taking a younger more talented player and reducing the role of a "comfort guy"

Same thing with Scola and Landry... moving Chuck, your "comfort guy" from a starting role to virtually out of the rotation.

Yes they were different situations, but the justification for what you are asking is the same as what happened in those situations.

As for talking about your three specific guys in the original post... Miller has seen a LOT fewer minutes than any of us suspected... so coach is seeing the same thing you and I are. Chuck may still have his issues offensively, but more often than not if Chuck's man scores, it's because he had to help someone else and the rotation wasn't there. Shane played Kobe, Monta and Melo in five days time... let's cut him a bit of slack shall we. Plus if you are watching the defense as a whole and not just picking on one player it's a help/recover defensive problem, most of the time rather than a "Shane can't guard his man"

The bottom line, the coaching staff believes that Hill can't be trusted on the court or he would be there.

 

I agree except that Lee cannot guard SF. He's on the small side for a SG and would get murdered by the 6'8", 235lb dudes playing SF now days.

I do think that Martin and Brooks have no business being on the court together. Pair Lowry with Martin and Brooks with Lee.

 

What I mean, heypartner....

...is that either fear or politics is handcuffing Yao Ming, Coach Adelman, and the Rockets.

I'm from the old school. The first thing you do with your team is win games. You win games, you make all the money and get all the endorsements and notoriety you heart desires.

Adelman being RESPONSIBLE for what's happening is not quite the same as him being IN CHARGE (or control) of it.

The Rockets are struggling. Coach Adelman's taking heat for it. Rightfully. It's his team, his gameplan.

But people walking into his office with doctor's notes for Yao that say he can only play x-amount of minutes before the sun goes down is insane.

How can we applaud the job Adelman and the Rockets did last season, when he knew what he had to work with and what he had to get his team to do in order to be competitive, and decide that somehow, it's all his fault when he can only use Yao (and therefore not rely on Yao) except for what amounts to spot duty.....

...and also expect the rest of the team to not be adversely affected by that instability?

Players need to know who they can count on from game to game, heypartner. You can't begin to build a team identity until you identify who the TEAM is.

Shortening the playing rotation, or cherry-picking our favorite Rockets for playing time isn't going to solve the problem until you either commit to Yao fully....

...or move him.

I don't want to seem mean-spirited, heypartner. But it's as simple as that to me. Move forward with Yao, and complement him (meaning, other players have to do better jobs individually no matter their age or cheering section)...

....or go back to last season's track meet, give the team to Aaron Brooks, and let other people fall in behind him.

What the Rockets learned last season isn't translating to the team this season, to me, because guys established individual reputations, and can't find a way to share time with others (notably Yao).

Yao plays more, you can find out who can play effectively on both ends with him. The coaches and players will "shorten the rotation" the good old-fashioned way....

 

Hayesfan, DaDakota simply does not remember that the Rockets 22 game winning streak coincided with the launching of Scolandry. Hayes got benched...only when Yao went down at game 12 did Hayes reappear.

But people to this day say that Coach was late doing this...that he was an idiot for waiting so long.

OK, fine. They are saying a coach that pulled off a 22 game winning streak didn't know what he was doing by benching Hayes much longer in the season than they would have, and now he is playing Hayes, yet again, so he's an idiot again. um, ok.

I don't get it. Honestly, it is just stupid talk. For those reading this, if you are going to call Coach an idiot, be ready for others to call you an idiot....game on.

 

I agree with you on shane, i feel that lee/cbud should of played a bit more last night, especially in the last few minutes when we were down and desperately needed to score.

I have to disagree with chuck though. I felt he did a good job last night. Yes Harrington scored heaps, but IMO that was because we were trying to help out on defence cause of their guards and melo. Our perimeter defence was the problem, not chuck. he was helping on D and as someone else have said, the rotation was not there. I don't think JJ or Hill could of done a better job. Hill played in the first quarter, and was horrible. 2 quick fouls. He just doesn't seem to have the IQ for good D.

Miller was Miller. Everyone knew he is not a great defensive player. Especially playing against a atheletic front line like denver, he is going to have problems. I think its cause of the matchups, not really his skills/dedication on defence. He did crap last night, but i don't fault him. Its like yao trying to guard amare, its not gonna work.

IMO, if we are going to judge players from last night, I would say we need to stop giving AB the green light. A couple of plays down the stretch where he made bone headed decisions cost us the game IMO (plus the martin three as well). We had a horrible night shooting from the 3 last night, but there were a few plays where i felt he could of handled it better. His defence was non existent. We were lucky that billips was also having a bad shooting night. If he was on fire like the GSW guards, we would of been blown out. AB was great for us last year, but his performance so far this season has been disappointing IMO.

 

sorry for double posting, but i don't feel that it is a good idea for GMs to interfere with couching decisions. I have no problem with trading our players away for better talent. but for GMs to tell couches who to play will only create more trouble IMO.

 

I remember it vividly... and in fact they started phasing Chuck out slowly over the three weeks or so before the streak started... and I was freaking out because I had tickets to the Indy game (game 2 of the streak) and I was afraid Chuck wouldn't get to play.

Chuck did end up playing a bit because Luis got into foul trouble early, but it was Carl's coming out party.. I think he had something like 20 points and 8 rebounds.

 

yeah, that was yet another great post.

But we aren't moving Yao. Yao is the Rockets. This is his season. Yeah, maybe JVG would argue with the doctors more than Coach, but we do agree....it's all about Yao, not Battier and Hayes vs Jordan Hill. The only savior is Yao Ming! oh, and maybe melo. lol

 

thank you.

 

One of your best posts, DD.

Agree to sitting all of the above players. For Shane and Miller, father time has caught up with them. Chuck is being abused and his lack of length becomes really pronounced with extended playing time.

Let us see what Bud, Lee, Hill, Patterson have in themselves.

 

We're last in the league for points allowed and you only talk about Shane and Chuck as the big problem, but no mention of guys like Brooks and Scola.

 

When you lose, the guys who don't score but defend are usually the scapegoats. Doesn't matter than after an 0-3 start the Rockets are currently 5th on offense and 30th (i.e. dead last) in defense.

I'm with you -- it would make a little more sense to shore up the defensive side of the ball. If we're relying on more Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger for that, we're in trouble.