The problem isn't that Rick Adelman is a bad coach. But one man's meat is another man's poison, and right now, he just isn't a good coach for the team. I don't care that the team is taking time to gel into the system or the new coach or whatever. Bottomline is, our team has a lot of me-first, say the right stuff in the media but goes out and do the same things every single time personalities that JVG reined in with his vision of what the team should be; yes, even Tmac and Yao. Adelman has not shown that he is willing or able to rein them in. A player's coach that adapts is good when u have driven professionals. It's suicide if you have a bunch who needs to be held on a leash. The team right now just does not have an identity. They look like a bunch of strangers playing pick-up games at the park right now. Are they running the motion offense? Are they running JVG's isolation, pick and roll sets? Are they an up-tempo team? A mid-tempo team? A feed-the-post team? Someone said in another thread that the constant right now is the shell of what JVG's stellar defense used to be, and I fully agree with that sentence.
I've been preaching patience, but this is ridiculous. I thought early on that Adelman had the retirement mentality, and he has done nothing to convince me differently. He has got to show us fans something to let us know that he can still coach, or the stay in Houston will not be long or enjoyable. The best coach left on the team is Rafer Effin' Alston. It's a crying shame that we have to play with a mediocre point guard because he's the only one in the organization that can manage a game.
This team needs spoon-feeding... and that's not Adleman's forte. I still can't beleive that a team with less than half the talent of this one won 52 freaking games last year.
Under RA, Yao's mentailty went from scoring first to pass first. Now whenever Yao gets the ball, he waits, instead of going to work. A very bad idea.
Adelman needs to choose ONE player between Francis/James/Head. Players need consistent minutes to produce consistently. Shorten the rotation to 8 guys and you have addition by subtraction. Also, stop playing overly small lineups. This only works if you're "small" players are quick and athletic, which ours aren't. I don't want to see lineups consisting of Battier or Wells playing the PF or James playing the SG. Hopefully Adelman is just a slow learner.
This thread sounds more and more prophetic, Will. Especially after tonight's game and quotes from Yao.
I am a Branch Manager for a $300 million Bank Branch in California. I can tell you that there is a lot of similarities in managing a bank and managing a basketball team. All industries rely on customer service to keep the clients coming back. And customer service is all about PERCEPTION. Case in point: I can have a line of customers out the door waiting to be served by the next teller on PayDay Friday. They usually wait for no longer than 2 minutes but in their minds- it's 10 to 15 minutes. 2 minutes is a long time waiting in line when you just got off work and you want to go home and relax. But usually I don't get complaints because they see my staff work their tails off. Customers only complains when they see a lack in sense of urgency amongst my staff. And if a customer does complain, I trust my supervisors and Assistant Manager to handle it at their subordinate level. If it gets to my level, then things could get a little "heated". That sense of urgency is what is lacking with the Rockets at this point in time. Customers (fans) would be more patient if the players showed some urgency (heart). And just like my business, it all starts at the top. It's always the coaches (management) responsibility for the group's performance. Management has to lead, not the employees. The employees job is to execute what management wants it to perform. If that individual doesn't perform, then write him/her up until that individual corrects the behavior or termination is the answer. Now my responsibility of running a $300 million branch is a little bit more complex than running a teller line (that is why I let my supervisors run it), but the similarities are eerily similar. People on this board talk about leadership like their the expert but probably has no real idea what it is in the real world. They think leadership is calling out teammates, not being "soft", or being vocal, blah, blah, blah. If leadership is that easy to quantify, then EVERYONE would be managing their own multi-million dollar branch (business).
You've got to be kidding me. Yao has the power to get any coach in this league fired simply by being pissed off. Will Yao use his power to do it? I don't know, but it sure sounds like he's not very content. You add into that mix a possibly pissed-off TMac and no coach is safe when 2 of the league's 10 best players are pissed off at him. This is an interesting dilemma for Morey/Alexander if their 2 megastars are indeed ticked at the coaching/playcalling...
I just wanna say sth about YAO.He is the most intelligent and powerful and famous basketball player in China.He has been working hard for many many years.He intends to be the biggest C,and improve Chinese basketgame and the relationship between US and China.Maybe he has the biggest group of funs all over the world.In additon,what I got say is he certainly has much pressure and responsibility,and a large part of what he has earned have to hand into his nation.So obviously he is purely working in his way---becoming the biggest C and leading ROCKETS champion! but now he is in trouble,and a little depressed.A new strange coach with his completely different strategies must be a challenge to YAO,a Chinese guy,don't forget he's character is different to Americans.He needs time and we need patience. Let's see what will happen next.That's all.
One more thought for the night: Many past Adelman players have said that his system takes at least a year to learn. Now it's one thing for fans to be impatient. Following a sports team is not the end all of our lives (well, most of us anyways). But it's another when the players themselves have lost patience. I'm not saying anyone has directly given up or is disobeying Adelman's plans. But I think the learning curve has made teammates frustrated w/ themselves, each other, Adelman, or all of the above.
While you actually make some highly valid points in that verbose comparison, that was undoubtedly the most pretentious, vainglorious post I have read since I joined this blog site. I hope I never become like you.
1) Get easy basket. T-Mac will shoot easy jump shoot more and more. After one or two years, Yao will reach the level of Miller and Divac. 2) Hope Rox will score more than 100 points for most of the games played in the season and average more than 100 points a game for the season. That's why T-Mac shoot the ball while there were still 20 seconds on the clock. It is important to shoot the ball fast in order to score more points a game. 3) Come on, Rox wasn't able to get out of the first round in the playoffs, how can it be a championship contender? But of cause if you trade Mike James for Deron Williams, Hayes for KG, and some other pieces that may be needed, we will become a championship contender.
Hey, Will. Me again. Perhaps I was a bit hasty the other day. Maybe the sky IS falling. Sincerely, TopFive
I'm bringing up my own post again. And I'll annoyingly to you guys mention it in other posts... I basically named the same players from the Sixers game that played within the SYSTEM that was coached to them. They didnt play it perfect, but at least they ACTIVELY TRIED to make it work like they're SUPPOSED TO. Its the stars and the starters that have a problem with Adelman. Its like when Larry Brown the stern coach left the Pistons and Flip Saunders the more player coach came in. Then Ben Wallace got in disagreements with Saunders cuz he wasnt "Big Ben" in his system... Similar thing happened way back on my high school football team. The old school disciplinarian coach running the wishbone offense left, then came in a laid back pass happy coach from up north. We were so used to the systemized approach beaten into us that we felt the new coach wasnt preparing us the right way. Like he was "Free flowing" it with no direction. Of course we didnt buy into his system and sucked.....He's still there though. Once our sorry butts left the team's been a perennial power in their district. Adelman's a good coach, just probably not for these current players. It'll take getting "his" guys in over time, if he gets that time, to make it work. Or the current players to stop thinking about "how" they prefer to get theirs and get it how the coach tells them.
