I don't want to "Gitt Riddy Ricky" , I want him to open his eyes and smell the Rafer, and change the starting lineup, and the rotation. Admittedly, he has done a bit of experimenting, but Battier, Rafer, and Hayes starting is just crazy. They are bench players at best. They represent almost no offensive threat. Opposing teams have it too easy; double TMac or Yao, and win. It is not about the new system, the new coach, the new players (same ole lineup), it is about talent. The Celtics have all things new and are just rolling over everyone. Why? Talent. It's TIME to try some new options.
My theory is that this is due to the change in coaching philosophy and attitude. JVG was intense, relentless and brutally honest. He was very stern and stayed on their butts everyday about defense - you weren't committed to playing defense, then you did not play. Adelman comes in and he's more of a "player's coach". He operates on the premise that the players are all professionals and that they know what's expected of them and will perform accordingly. No surprise here that without the coach's foot on the collective throttle, the collective defensive effort has been rather spotty so far.
So are you saying our team of soft players will suddenly kick in the intensity later on without a "relentless" coach?
Outside of Tmac & Yao, they're ALL bench players so he's basically stuck trying to work out a rotation with what he has on the roster. Rafer ain't great but he's the only solid PG they have. We've seen the SF3 act fall apart here before and Brooks is a rookie who lacks size and experience. Guard play has been a major problem here for years now so I don't understand why everyone is so upset about it now. Again, this is what has been happening ever since the Tmac trade so it should come as no surprise to anyone. They are paying the price for all of those years in the lotto when they didn't draft someone to play PG. They have tried to make do by trading on the cheap or by picking up "bargains" like Bonzi & SF3 and this has yet to work in their favor. And for going on 5 years now they have yet to come up with a way to make teams pay for doubling Tmac & Yao so this is nothing new as well. On Saturday, I saw a team play virtually no perimeter defense which allowed Sac's guards to streak into the paint and ultimately foul out Yao. Over and over the Sac announcers (on Directv) kept talking about how the plan was to push the ball up the court quickly to exploit Houston's lack of speed. This is what other teams do - exploit the weaknesses they perceive on their opponents and they were positively giddy with the results. This entire team appears to be stuck somewhere between JVG basketball & RA basketball right now. You'll have to give Adelman some more time to figure things out.
No, I'm saying that this is what I think has happened. It's only natural for them to let up (so to speak) now that the "taskmaster" is gone. If they are the true professionals they profess to be, then they will come to realize that defensive effort and intensity is not something that they can switch on and off but rather something that requires a consistent commitment. And if they can't do that, then they have no business being here. But you also have to take in consideration that they have a bunch of players (Wells, Alston, Francis, James) who aren't exactly all-NBA defensive players.
I understand what you're saying, and I completely agree that it's way too early to panic, but I disagree on a couple points here: 1.) The expectation of beating Utah and getting out of the first round (maybe even 2nd, but definitely 1st) last year was by no means unrealistic. That was a very, very disappointing loss, and one we should have been able to prevent. But I watched that series and fully understood what our weaknesses were, and I think once this team pulls it together, a lot of them won't exist. 2.) I hope you're not implying that those expectations aren't realistic this year, either... We all have very good reason to have higher hopes for this team than we've had in ages. If we don't do some damage in the playoffs this year, it will suck. A lot. And if we don't even get out of the first round again? (For ANY reason whatsoever) ... I... I don't even know. I can't imagine how I'd feel. But I'm thinking I'd need one of these: ... But I am 99.9% sure it won't come to that. Also, about the schedule, I want to point out that I don't think people really realize exactly how hard this schedule has been. I mean it's not just the fact that we've played a bunch of tough teams, but our schedule has really been the toughest in the NBA by several metrics. Up through this Saturday, Dec 1st: - We were tied for the most games played in the entire NBA. That means we had as much or less rest than any team in the league. - We were tied for the most games played on the ROAD in the entire NBA (11 road to 7 home). - And of course, we played the toughest teams. We had the highest strength of schedule (overall opponent winning %) in the NBA. Summary: CALM THE F*** DOWN, PEOPLE!!!
Can we replace the Easter bunny with Freddy Krueger for the dumb rookies on this board who keep overrating and always disrespecting the legendary Rockets? Have Freddy turn into Karl Malone and constantly foul these rookies and have Hornacek head butt them into submission.
We must remember we are paying the price for several errors committed over several seasons. We became involved in a mentality called "Win Now" Yet we continue not to heed the way of the world ie the NBA basketball world, teams are getting faster, taller, more athletic and more talented. The top team's second squad is generally better than the starting five of the lower echelon. During this period we have obtained by trade and a draft two great players but since this time we have mostly wasted our draft picks because of the win now scenario. The result is that we have not been able to developed any younger players, to become starting material.[no Hory, no Cassell, no Mobley]. Instead we have gone after the older player in the belief that age brings experience, a winning mind set and the ability to adapt to any scheme both offensively and defensively. The only problem we seem to try and steer clear of talent, we always find something wrong with each talented player who could be a vailable to us. Next the Battier trade comes to mind, in that case we were talked out of the possibilty that our pick could be just what we were looking for but that Battier would bring all the intangibles and glue that goes into a win now team.[ He played on an NBA team which never won anything]. Let's face the truth, it was ok under JVG but not now where we are trying to play our game the way most teams are playing in the current era. Besides all of this, Les and the management have become overly forgetful of the saying you get what you pay for resulting in the rockets now not knowing where they are going or even how that might get there, even if they knew the direction of the team. I don't see Coach 'A' ever succeeding with Yoa & Tracy playing the Sacramento Style . One thing which I thought would be evident is that the team would by now be built with Yao as its center piece. Mostly this season Yao has been playing more like a role player than a dominent center ! Hope was high in most of us fans but is mostly in a subdued state since we realised that Morey made several mistakes when he put the present team together. The most glaring one being that the team has no floor general [playmaker]and secondly there are only two players out of twelve who can shoot with the confidence of making a score. Rethinking is called for............
Do I have a sick mind or did anyone else think of something different when he used P1st, S2nd as his name??? Like, pee1st, s_2nd? Lol.
Where out of all that did you get that I think/thought it unrealistic for us to make it out of the first round of the playoffs? I think that IS realistic and I believed it was last year as well. What I DON'T consider realistic is the idea that we'd went 60+ games in a fully-stocked Western Conference or that we'd challenge for a #1 seed or that we'd make it to the Western Conference Championship or even the finals. To me, 50-55 wins capped by a win in the first round is realistic.
GATER and hermbob: This is my point about our problem. We can't continue to suck at perimeter defense because we are getting pounded in the backcourt and on the wings (no stat's just back that up...just a perception). We were fine when he played half-court and were more inside-out oriented under JVG, who preached crushing, team defense. But Adelman's "motion" offense with this ensemble of players hurts us on defense. MJ, SF3, and Reefer are often exposed on the perimeter, and T-Mac has never been even a good defender, even though he's done well over the years at getting steals. But, as it may, the "you reach, I teach" philosophy may result in a bunch of steals, but it doesn't mean that T-Mac has ever shown a consistent ability to stay in front of his man on defense. I am NOT GOING TO CRY OVER MILK THAT WASN'T EVER SPILLED. IMHO, Stromile and Rudy Gay are not and will never be tremendous professional basketball players. If you are a "three stars" thinker, then face the friggin' music and admit that the unrealized potential of those two players COMBINED does not and likely never will be equal to the third star that other teams have. Whatever your issue is with that trade, stop talking about it, because we can't do anything about it now, and it's not like we traded Babe Ruth to fund a Broadway musical or something. BUT we need to change something. I've said again and again and enough about my fear that Adelman is JVG with a different view of the world, but with the same astrological sign: they differ in views of basketball philosophy, but everywhere they go they implement their system. C'mon, you raise your kids largely the way you were raised; you are probably Christian, Muslim or Jewish because your parents are; and you probably vote like your parents. JVG was raised by Pat Riley in New York, and coaches like the '99 Knicks played. I see no material difference between the way Adelman is coaching the Rockets than he did the Trailblazers (1988-1994), the Warriors (1995-1997) or the Kings (1998-2006). If Adelman wants his system to work, we're going to have to make a trade to do it. Simply stated, Adelman is not a think outside of his own box kind of guy who's capable of opening a puzzle and quickly making art out of it. The risk is that we don't win and leave the next coach with a complement of players that he can't use effectively. Trading at this point or come spring time to accommodate Adelman's style of play probably won't hurt us as bad is Adelman doesn't pan out and we have to hire another coach, like when JVG was "fired" and Adelman came abord to replace him. I like Adelman's style of play. His teams have never won it all, but they've been very good at times and very fun to watch from a fan's point of view. We all want another ring, and Adelman could bring it to us. But Morey's law of averages may not mesh with Adelman's particular style of play, so at the very least I think that we should (1) give Adelman until the All-Star break to make what we have work for him (barring injuries and/or several long losing streaks before the break); (2) target who we would want in a trade should it be determined that a trade is needed; and (3) give Adelman's two-cents strong consideration when it comes to pulling the trigger on a trade for a player that Adelman wants, perhaps even if it comes down to putting a gun up to Morey's and Alexander's heads! To sum all of this up, we bought into a coach with a fixed philosophy of basketball and we can't change his mind. We can accommodate him, and the risk associated with doing so is much smaller than we experienced with JVG. Adelman's system is exciting and productive with the right pieces. We've invested in Adelman, he isn't going anywhere unless he really screws up or pisses off the owner, ala Don Cheney. So let's give Adelman what he wants and cross our fingers.
Well you said we get excited every year with unrealistic and lofty expectations, and then get down when things don't work out as planned... That implied to me that you thought we shouldn't have been getting down about losing in the first round because we never should have expected a win in the first place.
Good points. And while I agree with pretty much all you said...I have one fundamental problem with this line of thinking by management. McGrady and Yao are close. They overachieved last year, but in 04-05 I think they were a few mistakes at the wrong time away from competing for the championship. Last year, we saw a team that was very good also, but was maybe one or two pieces away. So my point is, you tinker, you don't need to blow it all up or make massive changes to the team when your stars are in their prime. It's a waste of their talent. I think last year's team with JVG, and adding Mike James and Scola would be tearing through the league right now, but of course others could disagree with that. All this said, what's done is done so I agree that we can't be looking back all the time. My other problem with that is...none of what you said adds up to caring about wins and losses or actually trying your best! IMO, the Rockets haven't lost because they are still adapting...it's because they are undisciplined, unmotivated, lazy, and haven't been playing smart. To me, that's on the coach (minus the unmotivated part). And nobody seems to want to address this fundamental problem.
Just because you have been on a internet forum longer than others does not mean you are a more experienced rockets fan. Neither does it mean you know more about the rockets or you have been watching the rockets longer. Its stupid how some "Contributing Members" feel like they are bigger fans and more experienced than the rookies. Congratulations, you found a internet site on the computer before others. Get over it
Just to clarify Rick Adelman's system in Portland was a lot different than his one in Sacremento..... I think he is more adaptive than you are giving him credit for...at least I hope that is the case. DD
If you look back at the beginning of the seasons with JVG, you'll find the amaze similarity between the posts then and posts now. Mostly, the same group of people always got so hyped up before the seasons started, then quickly jumped on and off the bandwagon with each game played. It's a 82 game season, not 20. So just sit back, watch the team play through the ups and downs now. We can come back to talk about the team's performance after all-star break. The team is playing .500 ball with a tough schedule, so even without making any progress, they should win close to 50 games based on what they have showed so far.
