Potential Coaching Replacements

No they need a guy who will stress defence but not micro manage the players as much. IMO, Rockets only need to resign Jake and Hayes and find an athletic 4. An upgrade over Head in the rotation would be good to.

This team is ready now we just needed more out of the bench, Yao 100% and a guy like Spanoulis to play and we would of been fine this season.

 

Rick Adelman, who twice coached the Portland Trail Blazers to berths in the NBA Finals and later coached the Golden State Warriors, returned to the NBA after a season's absence on Sept. 17, 1998, when the Sacramento Kings hired him as the franchise's 19th head coach. In his fifth season at the helm of the Kings, he has molded the team into one of the NBA's most exciting teams, leading the league in scoring and making the playoffs every year since his hiring.

Adelman brings a record of 544-361 into the 2002-03 season, a winning percentage of .601 and in the playoffs his teams have posted a 53-50 record.

He reached the 300-win mark in 468 games, the seventh-fastest in NBA history. Only Pat Riley (416), Phil Jackson (419), Billy Cunningham (430), K.C. Jones (434), Larry Costello (445) and John Kundla (452) reached that plateau in fewer games.

Adelman, who first came to the league as a 6-2 guard in 1968, spent 14 years in the Trail Blazers organization, including three as a player (1970-73), five as an assistant coach (1983-89) and six as the team's head coach (1989-94). He compiled a 291-154 record as a head coach and took the Blazers to the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992. He coached Golden State for two seasons, 1995-96 and 1996-97.

Adelman, who attended Loyola Marymount, was selected by the then-San Diego Rockets in the seventh round of the 1968 NBA Draft, the 79th overall player picked. He spent two seasons as a reserve in San Diego, where his teammates included Elvin Hayes and Pat Riley. Adelman was taken by Portland in the 1970 NBA Expansion Draft and was made the first team captain in Blazers history.

He averaged 10.1 points, 4.6 assists and 27.7 minutes in three seasons with Portland before being traded to the Chicago Bulls. He served stints with the Bulls, the New Orleans Jazz and the Kansas City-Omaha Kings before retiring in 1975 with career averages of 7.7 points, 3.5 assists and 22.6 minutes per game in seven NBA seasons.

Adelman began his coaching career at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore. From 1977 to 1983, Chemeketa went 141-39 and won or shared in three Oregon community college championships and one regional title. He rejoined the Trail Blazers in 1983 as an assistant to Jack Ramsay and served as an assistant coach until Feb. 19, 1989, when he replaced Mike Schuler as head coach.

In 1989-90, his first full season at the helm, Adelman guided the Blazers to a 59-23 record and a trip to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Detroit Pistons in five games. The following year, Portland went 63-19 and won the Pacific Division title before bowing to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, and Adelman finished second in balloting for NBA Coach of the Year award.

In 1991-92, Portland went 57-25, won its second straight Pacific Division title and advanced to the NBA Finals for the second time in three years, this time losing in six games to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

On Nov. 22, 1992, Adelman recorded his 200th victory in the 288th game of his career. At the time, no coach in league history had reached the 200-win plateau in fewer games. Adelman left Portland after the 1993-94 season, departing as the second-winningest coach in franchise history behind Ramsay.

The Warriors posted a 36-46 record under Adelman in 1995-96, but did reduce their points allowed from 111.1 ppg to 103.1 ppg, the fewest for the franchise in 20 years. In addition, the 1995-96 Warriors outrebounded their opponents 3,458 to 3,406, only the second time in 14 seasons Golden State had enjoyed a season-long edge off the boards. After another losing season (30-52) in 1996-97, however, Adelman was replaced by P.J. Carlesimo.

At Sacramento, Adelman utilized the talents of veteran forward Chris Webber and rookie point guard Jason Williams and turned the Kings into the highest-scoring team in the league, going from 93.1 points per game in 1997-98 to 100.2 ppg in 1998-99, even though the league average dipped from 95.6 ppg to 91.6 ppg. The Kings posted a 27-23 record in the lockout-shortened season, their first winning mark since 1982-83, when the franchise was still in Kansas City. They stretched Utah to five games before bowing in the first round of the playoffs.

The Kings increased their scoring to a league-leading 104.9 ppg in 1999-2000, compiling a 44-38 record. It marked the first time in two decades that the team had posted consecutive winning seasons, since going 48-34 in 1978-79 and 47-35 in 1979-80. Once again Sacramento was ousted in the first round of the playoffs in five games, by the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers and in the 2001-02 season in the Western Conference Finals .

 

Adelman, Larry Brown, or Mario Elie/the suns guy.




If its not Aldeman of Brown, I would rather have someone young who needs to prove himself...Del Harris' past has not impressed me.

 

The main thing, though, is that he was drafted by the San Diego Rockets. Is that karma, or what?

The main reason I mention Adelman is simply for change. What some veteran players have commented on regarding teams that have been together for a couple of years is that they respond effectively to a change in coaching styles ("after a while, players tune out coaches if they are too extreme, and they respond better to a different philosophy and attitude). Adelman has the record and credentials, he's a former player, he's been praised (like JVG) by multiple former players, including Drexler, Porter, Webber, etc., he's handled problem children effectively (Jason Williams, Bonzi Wells), and he's generally very positive in nature. I just think that the Rockets might benefit from the change. You couldn't go wrong with him.

 

i know what you mean, but changing just to change isnt a valid reason, imo.

 

Where is big chief triangle on that list??

You never know, he might be tired of MeKobe and want to come down here! If that is the case, Les should definately try to get him here.

 

I'm sticking to my belief that Phil will leave LA for a chance to grab a quick ring with Houston. But if not Phil, then Rick Adelman is the obvious choice. His offense is gonna make it easier on everybody.

 

but how do you make an offense easier when you only have 2 legit scoring threats?

hayes is non-existent. rafer and battier are half scorers, at best, and their best attributes are spot up shooting.

 

Hayes is excellent at moving without the ball and finding himself in open lanes for quick easy layups, and he has worked on catching and finishing. T-Mac and Yao are 3x better than CWebb and Peja at both ends of the court. Shane is at least as good a defender as Christie was, and is a much better shooter. Rafer is.......well sorry Rafer, can't back you up this time, but at least he plays D.

 

but defenses can sag off of hayes. there is no reason to get up in his space b/c he wont shoot. All you have to do is sit back and when he starts to make his move, cut him off. just like utah did. hayes is not a weapon on offense.

you underrate cwebb and overrate yao, at least from his playoff performance that he just put up.

shane may be a better shooter, but he has to have his shots created for him. christie was much better at creating his own shot and driving the lane.

 

how dare you leave off Cynthia Cooper.

i'm sure we can snag her from PV.

i don't think there's a better defensive-minded coach out there than JVG, and frankly i wouldn't mind having him for another year. he was Van Grumpy in his early Rocket years, but lightened up after the criticism he faced - so it's possible he could adapt a little in terms of the rotation.

i don't think that JVG should be responsible for Mac's stubborn line-drive heat-checks, Yao missing point-blank shots during the entire series that he normally sinks, and Luther & Juwan (especially Luther) missing open shots that they normally hit. Battier redeemed himself later, and i think we all knew what we were getting with Rafer.

HOWEVER, JVG IS responsible for who gets minutes and who doesn't. i still think that V-Span is our best defensive-minded PG, and i think he shoulda gotten some minutes once we all realized Rafer wasn't gonna hit for ****.

Snyder - who i felt woulda been the missing piece in terms of athleticism. the common knock on kirk was his IQ/decision-making, but it seemed like anytime he was in the game he made a difference. (maybe durvasa or someone else can find Snyder's +/- numbers.)

Novak - defense was the obvious knock - but when you can hit shots like that, i think at some point the coach has to let you in and try to depend on the team/help defense to help out the weak links. JVG never tried zone, and i'm sure that woulda helped Novak get some minutes.

Bonzi - coulda been the x-factor, but who really knows what happened. i don't feel comfortable commenting on it, b/c i'd be basing it on hearsay and not some cold, hard facts, but i do know that other coaches would at least let an overweight player play himself into shape, which JVG didn't do.

all that being said, i still think JVG is an educated, learned man, and he's probably better in fundamentals than anyone else out there. i'm just scared that maybe he can't motivate this team anymore.

if not, go for Del Harris. has already coached Yao/Chinese team, and has been around the coaching block.

-mario elie would make a good assistant, but i'm not sure he's ready for the bigtime.
-rudy is a pu$$y. he was a great motivator, and a great balancer of egos, but i think he's too burned out to pick it back up again.
-larry brown will break the bank, then burn us after a year.
-if you hated JVG-ball, then i don't think you want any piece of mike fratello. or his toupee.
-SVG isn't half the coach that JVG is.
-muck sam fitchell. he couldn't coach before, then he gets a new GM that pieces together a good team over the summer, and now he can coach?
-as much as i'd love to see our offense flourish, and love to see Yao start dropping dimes to cutters, you need to coach defense to advance in the playoffs - and there's no 'd' in rick aelman.
-thibodeaux - he's the bald guy that worked with Yao, right? i didn't know he could coach the whole team. his is a surprise name.
-iavaroni - this guy intrigues me. i don't know enough about him, but i think he might be going to Memphis.
-carlisle - this guy could be good, but it's hard to have high expectations from someone after watching them preside over an under-achieving team for 2-3 straight years. granted, the injuries and incidents weren't his fault, but he still had decent enough talent to compete in the East.

 

No more retreads (Adelman, Harris, Fratello).

The problem with Van Gundy and Rudy were they were established head coaches set in their ways, even if their ways were antiquated (give the ball to your star, everybody else stands and watches behind the 3-point line).

They’re products of the 90’s. I want a coach who is a product of the current era of basketball.

I say go with Iavaroni.

 

He is not under contract with LA. Where did you get that from? I was actually wondering when his contract with them was up; if you know something, please post it.

 

How about one of the Utah assistants? Someone who knows how to exploit the pick and roll.

 

Well texaskan, it certainly looks like you've done a good job of rounding up the usual coaching suspects...

 

what does that mean? I did not start this thread all I did was start the "would you be happy with del harris thread"