Justice: DM & Alexander didn't want to keep Adelman, coaching search down to two

Let's hope that's not the same computer that predicted the Heat would win 48 games this season.

 

Thanks Jeff Van Gundy for your comments. Still got your head up Ryan Bowen's A$$ or are you just sitting around puffing Shane Battier's man missile like you usually do?

 

They wanted him back, but they wanted him to punk out and walked out like a man with morals and loyalty. He wanted to come back, but he wanted finals say on any trades. It was a classic case of power struggle and respect. When Petrie traded for Bibby, Adelman was asked what he thought of the trade prior to details. Even if it was considered an upgrade, a hall of fame caliber coach like adelman at leasts want to be told vs just sticking a guy on the roster. The way morey operates,he needs a young yes man vs a coach with an opinion. If Morey had the track record of jerry west,kevin occonnor, or even the recently downfallen Dumars, that would be one thing, but he doesnt.

I personally dont have a problem with Morey trying to discover the next jermaine o'neal, but do it in the offseason. When you listen to morey, you could swear no trades happen in the off season, but then chandler magically appears in Dallas. He overloaded the roster with same position players banking on an injury and all that happened was an uneven minute distribution. The team got better mostly because of a smaller rotation and great coaching.

 

Hey tool!! If I am such an idiot, name one statement I said that was not true! Try to dispute any of these facts so everyone will know that you sir are a MORON!!

Did the Rockets not turn into one of the oldest UN-athletic teams in the league under your boyfriend?

Was that team not filled with former has been Knicks and never will Be's like Ryan Bowen all at Van Gundy's demand?

Is Tom Thibadeaux not acknowledged to be one of the best defensive coaches in the NBA?

Were the Rockets one of the best defensive teams in the NBA under TT?

Did he not just win a title on the Celtics with the best defense in the league?

Did, in his first year, he just turn the Bulls into one of the best defenses in the NBA?

Go ahead and say no to any of these and show everyone who the idiot is!!

The only debatable thing I said was that the reason our defense was good was because of Thibadeaux and not because of your boyfriend. If you want to try and debate we can. Here. I'll start!!

One of these two men is the coach of the year this year on the number one seed in the East with a top 3 defense in the NBA.

The other is a bad color analyst on ESPN (who you are probably sitting under his table right now)

Which one is the better defensive coach? We all know what you are going to say. Remember: I am the Idiot!!

 

I just wished that Richard Justice would just say what 2 people are the Rockets down to as far as the next coach. This is like the Melo trade rumors all over again. You just want it to be over already.

 

I see. Can you elaborate on the "punk out and walked out" part? Not sure what that means.

In any case, if he wanted final say on trades, well I certainly see where the organization is coming from then. I mean, that is laughable. We would still have Rafer Alston as our starting PG. If it was a power struggle then I'm sure it wasn't much of a struggle at all. I mean this is between a coach and his employer/owner of the franchise. Not sure where Adelman thought he would be going with that.

I know your opinion on this Lee, as you think Adelman is the one who made our roster look better than it is. You also think Adelman should have more say since he is more "proven" compared to Morey. I don't agree but that is fine. You should certainly see how things could not have worked out between them though. The Rockets see themselves as trailblazers of sorts when it comes to managing the team through advanced statistics, moneyball and such. This approach is one of the things that interests me the most about the team, but how it will work out in the end is yet to be seen. However, to have any chance of working out at all, there is no way they can keep a coach who has no interest in their philosophy AND wanted final say in all transactions. Surely people can see the problem there, whether you want to side with Adelman or the organization.

 

Kaman might be available. The Clippers need a 3, are cheap, but want to resign RFA DeAndre Jordan.

We could probably package Brad Miller (to replace Kaman as backup C), Jordan Hill and either TWill or Bud for Kaman. I wouldn't miss any of the 3 of them, and would do that trade. if Kaman stinks, he's a one year rental for $12M. If he stays healthy and plays well, we could extend him. He just turned 29, so still has a few good years left. BTW - Dalembert turns 30 next week, so is actually is older than Kaman.

I think we could find a wing replacement in the draft more easily than a center.

 

Kaman's an expiring contract, like you said -- so LAC will have to be getting value back, not trade him just for the sake of trading him. I don't think a Hill/Miller/Budinger package would really entice them -- Hill is bench fodder (barring a lot of improvement), Miller is extra $ they'll have to spend buying him out the following year, and Budinger is ideally suited for a bench role. But who knows -- they seem headed toward committing to DeAndre and Kaman comes with some injury concerns, so maybe they will go for that. It would be a good trade for the Rockets talent wise, the only question is finding someone above 6'4" to log big minutes at the SF spot afterwards.

 

please rockets, don't sign a center. play thabeet. i don't care if we suck next season, it's time to rebuild. chuck starts, thabeet backs up. if we sign dalembert we would end up the same team as we are now.

 

Those two teams were powerhouses and Sacramento were powerhouses. The only other times Adelman had lackluster talent was when he was signed in GS (and got fired), Sactown post Webber (and he got fired), and here in Houston (and he wasn't renewed). Its not like Adelman was making chicken salads out of chicken **** everywhere he went, the times he achieved anything of value was when he had a great team to coach.

DM doesn't have near the credentials of Adleman but he has indeed made chicken salad out of chicken **** several times during his tenure, such as the Scola trade (for Tmac in Greece) and the NY/KM trade (for Tmac's corpse). He also did it this season when he traded Brooks for Dragic.

So honestly I think both of them haven't really proved whether they can win a ring or not. Personally, I just like the way DM's approach on the game is, and I prefer his way over Adelman. If you're someone like Leeb who prefers RA then that's ok too, feel free to root for him when he gets another team.

The team was under 0.500 (LOSING RECORD) before Morey made his trades that actually made the team worse talent wise. They only achieved that winning record because Morey saved Adelman from himself and traded his pet Brooks.

 

First, I'm pretty sure I've been a rockets fan longer than you have been. I've spent thousands of dollars on the rockets and have followed the team since 78 or so. I will always be a houston rockets fan, not some johnnie come lately player follower like most on this board. I will pick Adelman over morey any day plus twice on sundays. Know why? Look at adelmans track record.

He took over a terrible Kings team with a just traded, underacheiving player in webber and a recently drafted flashy pg in williams. They went .500 the first season and then proceeded to win 50 games and develop the young talent. Peja,Hedo,Bibby,and even a talented guy like Christie and webber had their best years of their career under Adelman. They lost to the Lakers, a more talented team, but still, they were a high end team. Need another example? Portland

Portland was made up of small college,athletic guys. Porter,Duckworthy,and Kersey were all from small schools. The only guys from big programs were williams and drexler. There was a transition period from Kiki being the best player to Clyde being the best and porter and duck becoming all stars. They had a talented sub like Cliff Robinson who also played most of his best ball under adelman. You say they were powerhouses, but its strange these guys developed and played their best ball of their career under Adelman. Is that an accident?

So lets look at the slew of guys who made all star games under adelman. Clyde,Porter,Duckworth,Peja,webber,Kersey. How many all star games did those guys make before and after adelman? He didnt walk in on talented teams like Phil, he had to help those guys become great by having a user freindly system and coaching style. He has his faults and I will be the first to say that, but he is a better coach than morey is a gm and I dont think thats even worth debating. That being said, its all on morey and les now. Les thought JVG slow paced style didnt bring fans in and morey wanted adelman to sell out and put some guy on his staff that he didnt even know. Well, Houston is a prove it to me city. If you're winning big and show potential, people show up. If you're average, then people find other things to do with their money and time. Hopefully morey can pull off the plan he envisioned with the coach he wants to hire. If he does so and the rockets become relevant again, fans will show up again,but if not, there will be empty seats in the lower bowl and he will be fired. Its just that simple.

 

What's baffling, at least to me, is this defense of Alexander and Morey. Adelman leaves with the highest winning percentage a head coach has managed in the history of the franchise, and this is why you toss him aside? Incredible. I simply do not get it. It's pretty obvious that Alexander just didn't like Adelman, and Morey has been jumping through hoops trying to give him cover for making one of the most stupid moves an owner of the Rockets has managed to uncork regarding a head coach in their history, in my opinion. With all due respect, your spin rivals my turntable!

So what did Adelman do? Underperform? Did he pout? Did anyone see him pout? I must have missed it.

Kudos, Leeb. That's a great post.

 

there is a giant flaw in your logic. Morey didn't save adelman from anything. If he did save us, what is it that we have to boast about given our current situation?

He was looking at the bigger picture, the rockets weren't going to do **** this year, much thanks to daryl and his big mouth and boasting about landing a big time star with all the assets he accumulated.

The guy freaking came out and said that he banked on Yao being healthy this season, he literally put the fate of this season into Yao's hands! He's failed to deliver a suitable backup for over 3 seasons and he thinks he's a lot smarter than he is.

And I'm really quite surprised about the brooks comments, really, we lost this year because of him, and that was a "Great" trade? On what basis can you make that argument without using the he was hurting the team this season excuse. He was obviously injured and management, as they have already proven contributed to a big chunk of his mental problems. Now that this season is already over and it has been a failure how can you tell whether or not Brooks will be back to his previous self? He played much better on the suns than the rockets alone, but going into next season I don't understand how you can judge this trade at such a preliminary level.

Maybe he did good , maybe he didn't. And don't kid yourself into thinking that a couple more games we might have won was the goal we sought all along, he was traded for financial reasons.

 

dead on, especially that last statement.

 

Nice post.

I've generally been a big supporter of Adelman, and I wish we could have retained him. That said, one of the criticisms against him that you among others have pointed out in the past is lack of in-game adjustments. I know you call him a championship coach now, but I recall in the past you making the point that he wasn't a championship coach because at that level the coach needs to be able to make in-game adjustments and draw up plays in crucial moments. You were skeptical that Adelman was the man for that job. Could it be that the Rockets front office and/or ownership had the same opinion? Maybe they feel like they can handle the in-between-games planning and roster building, but they need a coach who's more hands on during games.

Anyway, I thought Adelman did a great job this season, and maybe that performance has changed your mind on him.

 

First of all, it is not a defense of Les/Morey's actions. It is a defense of their reasoning. They may well turn out to be dead wrong for letting Adelman go, and have it be one of the "studiest moves" in their history like you said. But that isn't proven yet. Until then, I can understand their reasoning behind letting Adelman go. What exactly would you have them do when the coach doesn't buy into their philosophy for THEIR team, yet supposedly demands to have a final say on trades. Not Adelman's, Alexander's team. When Adelman saves up that $500M, he can get his own team and do whatever he likes to it.

As for what did Adelman do, the question proposed to me was essentially, "If you don't extend the coach, why should he think long term for the team?" I am not saying he underperformed or pouted. I am saying that if he put the team's future aside because he didn't get his extension, then that is akin to a player putting the team's needs aside when he didn't get his extension, like Brooks this year. I do not believe there should be a double standard, that's all.

 

It's beginning to look like it'll be down to the one who isn't quick enough to say say thanks but no thanks

 

Frank or Casey would be fine with me.

Frank has more years as a head coach than Casey so he may have the upper hand.

Ultimately it's going to come down to the roster moves that will determine how good this team will be.