http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090603&sportCat=nba pretty entertaining read, but as always, there is some annoying stuff in there. this caught my eye: "The one recurring theme in this playoffs: coaches' unwillingness to steer the ship away from the iceberg even as the "DANGER! DANGER!" sign was going off. We just covered Mike Brown. Doc Rivers played the same eight guys the exact same way in the exact same style for seven straight Orlando games; never changed a thing, never threw a curveball, never extended his bench, never did anything … and by Game 7, Orlando had the Celtics mastered. Rick Adelman played the Lakers exactly the same pre-Yao and post-Yao. Nate McMillan refused to go small against Houston or turn the tempo up and got smoked. " does this seem true to you guys? I think we played a very different style offensively. it seems to me bill is just not informed on this point
That is completely ignorant ...we went from a post up offense to a drive and kick it back out offense (sorry if I used the wrong terminology but i'm sure y'all get what I mean)
Wow, that was a dumb comment. No matter who the coach is, you can't play the same way with or without Yao. Why? With Yao.... YOU have to give him the ball. Without Yao, how is it possible to throw the ball to Yao? Simmons had a great point, and tried to fit in as many coaches as he can. Obliviously, it makes him look stupid when he overdoes it.
yeah i agree i think he got WAY carried away in trying to include as many coaches as possible. this is a pretty dumb mistake
on the surface, simmons may be right but think a little bit deeper, you should ask whether you want to dictate the game or to be dictated by the oppornent.
we lost because they were simply a better team talent-wise not because of RA's coaching RA's coaching adjustments actually extended the series to seven games
his point is that some coaches just didn't adapt completely because they were too stuck to their ways....the rockets didn't keep playing the exact same way...but they didn't change as much as they could have. They could have played wafer more and made themselves more of a running team. He had a 4 and 6 min game and that's not enough for him. He should have been playing at least 15 mins a game. Lowry actually played less after Yao went down and he could have been used more in the backcourt with Aaron. If you're gonna be really small against a tall team, you might as well be small but fast, and i don't think Adelman went to that enough to know if it would work or not.
I think it is very simple... These so called "experts" who share their opinions for major media outlets dont always have the slightest of clue! Im going to put in my two cents here on the issue. I dont really think that a National writer is worth two cents when it comes to expressing opinions or critiquing on a broad basis. There is simply no way they can follow an entire league and be accurate. The only way to be so, is to follow a team closely on a regular basis. With this said, Bill Simmons is completely wrong on this statemement. The Rockets were completely and entirley different after Yao went down with the break in his foot. We went from having a Post Up game to having none... I dont think you can get much different than that. I mean AB became our #1 option in some games, that had never been the case. We definately ran more which is not an easy thing to do with a 7'6" 320 lb Center, hes a great athlete and great at his game... but those types arent geared for running. Anyway... yeah I take national writers with a grain of salt.
He is wrong, both Adelman and McMillan made lots of adjustments during the playoffs. Sometimes people just do not understand a risk to change your game plans in game by game, it may work, but may not.
one would think that the teams whose coach were to blame for losing are the ones who got swept or only won 1 game..
That was a really stupid comment by Bill Simmons. I wonder if he prefers the Avery Johnson approach to coaching where you change your season-long starting lineup in the playoffs only to be swept anyway by an vastly inferior team.
Both are pretty much very similar. The main goal is to get in the paint, if nothing is there, kick it back out.
Precisely, Adelman did made a lots of adjustments during the playoffs. What he didn't do though was, changing the lineups like Phil Jackson did to take out Bynum against Rockets with Yao and put him back in the starting lineups against Rockets without Yao. Maybe that's what Bill Simmons meant, personnel changes, but then again the rockets were shorthanded, most importantly without Deke, you can't expect much from Adelman!
"Pre-Yao" and "post-Yao" would amount to "before Yao arrived" and "after Yao left," respectively. How about just stating with- and without-Yao? BS is still BS.
