This board is full of people like me who 1) think we know more about basketball than coaches do but 2) in fact, don't. So take our basketball advice with a few truckloads of salt. But here's something we know more about than you do: us. You have a problem with us. We're looking for signs that you know what the hell you're doing. We're not seeing them. In fact, we're starting to see stuff like these comments from our hardest-working player -- implying, as far as we can tell, that you're not doing your job. You might have heard of this guy. He has a billion or so fans. The jerseys were designed around him, as were those marketing deals for other guys on the roster. If he were to go to your owner with an ultimatum, he'd be the one still here next year. Yao Ming is a cautious, non-blaming, self-effacing but serious guy. If I had to guess the words that would come out of his mouth if he wanted his coach to be fired, I'm guessing it would sound a lot like what he just said. Maybe in some backstage universe we're not seeing, you have your act together. Maybe, back there, you have the confidence of your players. If so, it seems to be the world's best-kept secret. Nothing we see on the court, and nothing we hear from you after games or read from you in the paper, shows us you're meeting even the minimum standards of NBA coaching. Show us something. Or you might soon long for the days when those chants were about Steve Francis.
Adelman did say he is not too worried about how we play in Nov (and Dec?) before the season started. So maybe he knows what he is doing? But if he does pull a contender out of this current group with what he is doing, he deserves to be the coach of the year.
Here's a question. Should we have expected more than a first round knock out at the start of the season? Maybe. If we don't see signs a week after the ASB, this team should have just tanked.
Bad is if we are the Knicks, Heat, etc. Rockets are definitely not performing to my expectations at beginning of year and that's what is so disappointing. I expected a good team, but they just ok.
Adelman has his tricks, which has been proven. I still believe right now he is riding on Tmac and Yao too much, and want a smooth transition. We are not going to be Sac of his old team with this group, especially Yao. I say he is still feeling out our players and see what we can do. He doesnt have a real master plan like JVG. His master plan is let us play to our best as he sees fits. But it is not going to work IMO. I would like to see us to play like a TEAM, and Adelman bench people, including Yao and Tmac, when they are not playing it.
Heh heh, wait till Mr. Prickly starts showing up when the local press finally begins asking tough questions. I wanna see the reaction here when Adelman's persona isn't so likable.
Hey Rick Adelman, Call Morey and tell him that if he gets Chris Webber as a 15 minute a game backup center, that you make sure that Rafer's groin injuries endures!
I started a thread a week or so ago proposing that Adelman's "player's coach" personality may not be the right fit for a team with so many guys who are not "self starters." Yao, Chuck and Battier are guys who play for pride. I'm not sure about anyone else in the rotation and I'm starting to really believe that Yao is really missing JVG's strong personality as well as his refusal to let guy's give less than 100% effort. In the end, being forced to be a vocal leader may be the best thing to ever happen to Yao but it doesn't sound like this group is listening.
I don't think it's likely that Rockets fire Adelman to bring in a disciplinarian-- I think Morey would want to see more evidence before pulling the plug and Les Alexander doesn't want to, in essence, admit this early that he was wrong about firing JVG. So... the logical thing to do might be to find Adelman some players who have the work ethics and discipline to thrive under him.
Point is we have definately taken a step backwards. No one can deny that. Les Alexander was mad at JVG and fired him, I was told Morey and JVG had a good relationship. However this one works out the coaching change has impacted the team and it will be on Les in my opinioon.
He is certainly off to a very unimpressive start: 1. Keeping the starting lineup from last year has never made sense to me, too many glaring deficiencies. Training camp should have resulted in some adjustments, at least by now. Maybe a case could be made for Rafer as a floor general, but three offensive liabilities on the floor at one time just doesn't make common sense. 2. His rotations and substitution patterns have at times been inexplicable. 3. His lack of intensity is not exactly the boost our struggling group of underachievers needs. 4. He seems to have the same myopic stubbornness displayed by JVG. 5. When your star player questions your preparation/work ethic, not good. 6. His handling of the Francis situation at the beginning of the season was a PR nightmare, "I haven't had time to talk to him about not being in the rotation....he was out of shape....blah, blah. Horrible, this should have been handled behind the scenes with a "phony" injury or something. 7. Most of the time he looks like he is ready for a nap. His son's legal problems are certainly a distraction. Is he really qualified to be an asst. coach or is this like JVG and Ewing? Worst of all, he has not won the confidence of the fans, if fact, he now may never be able to, especially if the mediocre performances continue. Morey, where are you? You need to intervene soon, the barbarians are at the gate and they aren't holding tickets.
Beg JVG. If I was les and things don get better soon, I would. Judging from the pics from that earlier game, Yao and JVG are still very close. Francis played some of his best all around basketball under JVG. I would hope winning and pleasing the billion people supporting this team is more important then a little pride. I miss JVG so much...
has there ever been a case of rehiring a coach that pretty much got fired just after half a season or one full season? I don't recall this ever happening before in the NBA or in sports in general. I never understood the Adleman hiring after we fired Gundy. This guy was in charge of a run and gun offense led team in Sac that were never serious title contenders, and as we know Defense win championships. I always thought after firing gundy we would go after a coach with recent NBA championship experience such as a Larry Brown, or even Phil jackson but never thought they would hire this guy. RA seems totally disinterested in the club and personel. I do not see his coaching staff any better. As far as I am concerned he has no Championship credentials much akin to Gundy but we know defense wins in the post season. All this talk about coaching issues, fired, rehire etc will take another bloody year or more. Damn another wasted year again and we can not build nothing on this year. Many of our core guys will never sniff playoff success in their prime with all these drama every year.
Has anyone also noticed that Rick has no substitution consistency? Most teams have their 6th and 7th players off the bench set in stone; at least the contenders. That only changes with injuries for fouls. But it seems that you never know who Rick is going to come off the bench with next in line, other than the ones he likes. My point is that the players probably don't know what to expect, when they will play, or when to be ready. Mental preparation is a good part of being effective off the bench, although everyone is supposed to always be ready is the ideal. Rick seems to play to other teams matchups, just like JVG did; instead of making teams match up to us! He hasn't learned how to make teams pay if they go small on us, or how to make them pay if we feel like going small. He doesn't seem to be winning any matchups wars out there!
