Don't you guys think Adelman deserves blame for this too?

every time we get to a clutch moment in a close game....ron will come out and want to be mr clutch. damn it for once think with your head and not let the spot light get to you please. i'm not sure if he is trying to show case for the contract or just being overly confident in his own skills. neither is good for the rockets because he doesn't have the talent to take games over. rockets are much better if we can get into the pick n roll if the yao option is taken away. but hell, we can't have this. all those TO's. and why not try driving a few times instead of taking all those 3's. we keep on shooting those 3's like life depended on it...

 

I blame Adelman not to figure out how to pass the damn ball to Yao in the 4th Quater.
He seems to let the players decide what to do in the clutch time rather than telling them how to do.

There is no point to keep Yao on the court and not set any play to pass him the ball!

But at least we all know one thing: Artest should calm down otherwise he will screw the game again.

 

Ultimately, players play the game. However, when players *ahem* Artest *ahem* go away from the game plan when emotions are running high, it is the Coach's job to take control.

Adelman is to blame just as much as the players, specifically Artest and Yao. I think this game has exposed this team's major weakness and that's their ability to close out games.

WE CAN NOT WIN DOWN THE STRETCH WHEN THE GAME IS ON THE LINE.

 

I was at the game and I think Adelman did a poor job on a couple of things:

In the fourth ... if something isn't working change the strategy to get Yao on the move through ball movement or do a pick and roll play with Scola or Yao.

I didn't like Adelman's substitution patterns. Yao is a rhythm player ... giving him a big rest in a middle of a quarter and bringing him back under 5 minutes is not a good strategy.

He needs to reign in Ron Artest. Everyone and their mother could see Ron Artest fell into Kobe Bryant's trap and made it a personal battle. Bench him to calm him down.

The Kobe defense was too simple. It was just Battier or Artest one-on-one with him. I think JVG would have come up with a better scheme. You don't contain Kobe with one player ... it's got to be a group effort.

 

We just need Duncan's time schedule. Whether you lead or not, how many you drop behind.

 

and how the GARM turns. Yesterday there were a bunch of threads praising Adelman and now come back the threads blasting him. I might as well start warming up another "FIRE ADELMAN!" thread.

 

Truthfully, I am not THAT big of a Adelman fan and haven't been for most of this season.

Still, while Adelman deserves some blame, he shouldn't get it all and that goes for both Artest and Yao as well. A lot of people had problems in this game, including my man Scola who in the second half, didn't put in the production, I would have expected from him.

Can a lion's share of the blame fall on the coach, a case can be made, but this is the Lakers we are talking about. Despite the flaws we perceive they have, when you have a living legend like Kobe Bryant, an above average player like Pau Gasol and role players that do their role consistently, that is not a team where you can put it all on your team for not being able to match up.

 

Adelman has to find a way to minimize Yao's slowness of foot, that alone would make the team a lot better.

DD

 

it'll get better

 

you can't blame missing wide open shots. he's over 50% the past few games from out there. you have to take those. but the ones that he took that were contested when he could have driven...that's a different story. you can however, blame yao for turning it over. furthermore, to an extent, you could blame the passers. and finally, you can blame the coach for not seeing this much earlier in the 4th quarter - that the defense had tightened and they weren't going to give up the low block. you run a different play, let yao set a real friggin' pick, and let the offense run to get an open look. that, in my opinion, is smarter offense.

 

That's the worst possible thing a team can do... It's easy to do it for a perimeter player like LeBron or Kobe because they can get open by themselves, but trying to throw it down low every time to a Center is too predictable. And honestly, they try to do it too much. The Lakers started playing the pass down to Yao and it killed our offense.

The Rockets just need to find somebody else. Personally, I think Aaron Brooks needs to be our guy in crunch time. He obviously doesn't mind taking those shots at all, and he's pretty damn good at making them too.

Anyways, it was good to see Ron Artest take responsibility for this loss. He knew he played bonehead basketball in the second half. Maybe next time he will actually play some offense.

 

The Rockets haven't had a practice in forever. They could have really used one before this game.

 

If this is true...I would never ever never commit max dollars to a center. If he can be taken out of a game that quickly by someone like a Pau Gasol, then you're better off spending precious resources elsewhere.

Try to do it too much? Yao had like 5 shots the entire 2nd half.

 

Well his amount of shots doesn't show how much we were trying to get the ball to him.

Besides that point where Ron Artest decided he would try to be Tracy McGrady, we were pretty much trying to get Yao the ball the entire second half. Unfortunately, it would usually end up in a turnover because they started double teaming him from every direction.

And there are definitely Centers out there that deserve max dollars. Like Dwight Howard and Shaq... that's because they bring more than just offense to the table. They can secure rebounds, they block a lot of shots, and they can get open.

Yao struggles to get open by himself, and everytime the other team misses a shot and it goes to Yao... I cringe a little and hope that the ball doesn't get knocked away.

With all of that said, against teams that try to play him one-on-one (like Phoenix, with Shaq), he can be a deadly center... and if he would improve his vision of where the double team is coming from, he would be even better. He just doesn't have that vision, though.

 

Are you blaming Rick for Tracy being done?

Yao is not going to be done soon. I will bet you 100 dollars to the Tip Jar, that if Rick keeps coaching Yao/Rockets, Yao will still be able to play at his high level barring any unseen injuries. I just can't imagine any coach ruin a player's career like you mentioned. I don't understand with your hate with Rick. Your hate towards him just completely makes you post some confusing statements. "Yao is going to be done soon if Adelman keeps coaching him." Yea... okay. Just the same way you posted something that you didn't mean earlier in this thread... Here's part of the post...

Now, I know you didn't mean that... but your hate towards Rick makes you post things like this. Stop being (un)biased.

Our goal was to win it all. When you have a 20 million dollar player out, you aren't even suppose to be in the playoffs. Who knows what we'll do with Tracy. We have to remain hopeful. 1. Tracy might not be done. 2. Morey will get some productive players out of Tracy's 20 million dollar expiring contract.

 

Fully potential?

We've been overachieving each year with Rick.

Without Yao last year, we went to finish our winning streak to 22.

Without Tracy this year, we might be in good position to get out of the 1st round.

You call that under achieving?

And did you know that Rick has been doing a great job with our youngsters?
Brooks? It is widely known that this was pick was partially Rick's pick. Rick was unemployed, so he was home in Oregon watching Brooks play. And Morey found out that the Suns and Spurs were interested in him, and they picked him.

Who else?

Landry. Morey picked him, Rick has developed him. I say he did a great job.

Or was it all Landry that led him to be a decent player?

Fine. What about Wafer?
Bouncing from team to team, which includes George Karl and Phil Jackson, and now finally shows his potential. Coincident or is it showing Rick's strength?

Everyone knows that Rick is a great coach for young players. Same couldn't be said with our ex coach Jeff.

Developing is not one of Rick's weakness. He knows how to use young player's potential.

And about our veterans potential. I guess it's Rick's fault for Battier having a career low in 3 point shooting. I guess it's Rick's fault for Yao not able to get rebounds or sealing his man off. I guess it's Rick's fault for Artest shooting 0-8 last night for 3s. I guess it's Rick's fault that Brent Barry has been making some bone headed plays. How can any coach fully use the players potential?

You want the truth? We are 18 games over .500; that includes: the inconsistent rotation due to Tracy's and Ron's health, Tracy being out due to surgery, and a key rotation change due to Rafer being traded.

I say Rick did a fine job.