I guess what I want to say boils down to this: Adelman has had plenty of success incorporating both talented offensive players AND talented defensive players. From Portland to Sacramento to Houston, we see both types blossom under his regime. Whereas JVG seem to foster defensive mentality only with new players under any of his teams. And the reason for this was stated in one of my earlier posts. I'll just re-post it here. The difference between Adelman and JVG is that Van Gundy will sacrifice everything for the sake of defense. This includes, but not limited to, running conservative offensive sets to limit transition basket. Or opting for defensive players in order to keep the defensive effort high at all times. Or running the clock down in order to limit possessions and keep the pace slow. Adelman has always been a more well-rounded coach. One who understands that there's always a trade-off. That if you give up 2 transition baskets in order make 4 easy layups yourself each game, that's a trade off that you should take. And that having a player that really helps your offense, but hinders your defense a bit is better than having an all-defense/no-offense player. That picking up the pace may get you more wins if your roster is not suited for the grind-it-out style because your center is 6-6. We can agree on the fact that coaches are almost entirely reliant on quality of players in order to win. I guess our differences is whether 1. Coaches have a hand in how good these players turn out 2. Coaches have a hand in player transactions, and therefore how a roster shapes up I tend to believe that coaches do more than just get handed a bunch of players and get them to play ball. Btw, what is your "next point"? Did you just forget to write it? Or is it the next quote? I just really don't want to spread the argument to far in one threads. Too much to think about. But basically, I feel Adelman is great at offense because he understands how to get his players the best shots, the most efficient plays, etc. And he does so WITHOUT SACRIFICING HIS DEFENSE. Out of all the teams that people like to clump together as "all offense no defense" good teams - Dallas/GSW under Nelson, Phoenix under D'Antoni, Sacramento under Adelman, Denver under Karl - Adelman was the only coach who also managed to keep his team consistently in the top 5-10 defenses at the same time. Unfortunately, I was too young to follow more than the Rockets back in Adelman's Portland days. But from stats, it seems to infer the same thing. That Adelman managed to balance a great offense with great defense. To me, that is a sign of a great offensive coach.
