Been saying it all year. And people are talking about him not getting recognition for coach of the year. Rick "let em play" Adelman. Dirk is on fire? Let em play. We cant get the ball to Yao? Let em play. The opposition is on a 13-0 run? Let em play. We havent gotten a fg in the last five minutes? Let em play. We just lost a 15 point lead and the opposition came all the way back? Oh **** I better take a timeout now!!!! He will be the death of the Rockets in the playoffs. Along with Aaron Brooks and Ron Artest.
Based on this game and what i know about coach Rick Adelman from even dating back to Kings era ( i am a former Kings fan), i can tell you Rick Adelman are not going to take this team all the way even if we're healthy. WHY? Because he's the type that don't have strategy or early strategy to counter what the other team does. He does not have that discipline and his substitution pattern failed!! He does not enforce strategy and tend to let players play even if they're mismatch. He does not do the little things that help the team win like JVG does by calling time out or telling team to keep going to Yao or do little things like box out. These are just some examples of what RIck Adelman is...so basically what i am saying is..even if the players play their hardest and try to win.....they still may lose edge due to pathetic coaching and no strategy. This is why they call him "the players' coach." He basically let players play and so that is why when Scola is struggling against Dirk...he lets him play through it even if it means killing us and allow the Mavs to come back....this is really pathetic coaching. There is no ifs and or buts about it....as a coach, you DON'T DO THAT!! You should realize that your player is struggling and make an early subs to counter Dirk.
Maybe Pryzbilla or Aldridge can but I know Oden can't. He tried to the last time we played and he couldn't do it. Oden is incapable of fronting Yao.
gotcha. well i agree. with yao fronted bringing him out for a PnR doesn't work, so go elsewhere. if yao is on the block and you have one guy in the corner and another on the wing, then you basically overload the strong side (ball side) and when the ball is swung to the weak side there should be plenty of spacing for a 2 man game. that's what the rockets try to do. the problem is yao's the defender will be in front of him when the ball is on the strong side, but when the ball passes to the weak side yao's defenders usually swings with the ball. the defender is always between yao and the ball. yao isn't quick enough to do anything about it. so on the weak side you have two men playing pick and roll (for example) but they are facing 3 defenders, basically. if they manage to get open yao's defender is in great position to help. yao's lack of mobility isn't just a defensive liability. it's an offensive one too. if the defense plays his back and double teams, then the rockets offense is in full gear. but if you deny him the ball all hell breaks loose. the only way to keep the offense going in this situation is to have a real superstar perimeter player who can score no matter what. or a pg who can get in the paint and dish and really break down the defense. the rockets have no players on the team who can break down the defense to help themselves and their teammates.
I'm no JVG fan nor an RA fan,but I do agree that he didn't do much to try to stop Dirk. I was hoping to see more of Chuck on him tonight.
Length was bothering Terry in the first half and then you stick short Lowry on him. And he started lighting us up. Ron is to blame as well though. He puts Yao (and himself) in some bad situations when he reaches like crazy. His man blows by him and Yao tries to help and gets called for a foul. Or he gets called for the reach.
Shouldn't this be in the game thread? Its about the game put it in that thread rather than bogging down the site.
This "crap" coach you described unofficially beat the Lakers and won the championship (the Nets had no chance against the kings). If it wasn't for obviously bias refs in game 6 and the PLAYER's missed freethrows in game 7, then RA would've become an even more respectable coach, considering the talent that he has to come so far. There are problems that the coach has to deal, but there are also problems players have to deal with. Your boy Yao was unable to exploit the fact that teams were doubling him and fronting him. Even before Yao had the ball. When Yao does get the ball, he immediately chucks a brick shot. That isn't RA's fault. Also, I'm surprised no one mentioned Artest. When Yao was fronted, and we were unable to get the ball to him, he immediately jacks up a shot. We could've easily got Yao the ball if Artest took his time and either swung the ball to the other side and wait for a potential pass. Jason Terry was on fire as well, the offense wasn't the main problem, it was the the fact that we couldn't shut down Jason Terry. You sure know how to make someone a scapegoat don't you? You think RA didn't tell the players to get the ball to Yao like JVG? Is that what you really think?
Yao was covered with a front and a guy cheating behind him. There were several occasions, when he was open for a flash, but the PG did not fire a pass in. His second offensive foul, Yao was mad at Lowry cause he didn't fire the pass in when he was open. The fronting is not a problem, its how the other players react to it. Portland fronted Yao almost the whole game with Aldridge, but they got smoked and Yao still got his.
You're wrong about Yao being fronted. He wasn't fronted when they were up by a huge margin. They simply stop going to him and many times basically Yao is just running up and down doing nothing. He was being fronted only when the scores become tight in the 4th. As long as we have Rick Adelman, i seriously do not think this team can go far in the Playoffs. This is not about talents or how much talents you have on the team, but more like what's the point of having talents when you have a dumb coach that don't know how to utilize them at the right time in the right situation during the game??
CAN WE PLEASE CALL A TIMEOUT WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH ADLEMAN NOT CALLING TIMEOUTS TILL WE LET THE OTHER TEAM ROLL OFF 16 POINTS IN A ROW
I agree 100%. I was screaming at the TV for most of the third. You could clearly see the lead slipping and there was Adelman just enjoying the game. Scola lets Dirk walk by him for another basket. Coach Adelman calmly sits back and relaxes. Then i heard about that timeout where he was offering moral support... are you kidding! They needed a dam play. They couldnt score. Yao hadnt touched the ball in the last 12 minutes. No one could do anything right except Lowry. Of course coach rewards Lowry by putting Brooks in alongside him in the fourth. That turned out to be a great decision. Some people think Adelman has been doing an amazing job with the Rockets but I think he could be doing 100% better. He doesnt work to his players strengths. He is starting a pg who is not a pg who cant pass. He cant/wont control Artest. Turns Yao into a useless player putting him out at free throw line. If Yao is not their to score on offense then he shouldnt play a lot of minutes. His pick n roll D hurts us a lot at times. He trusts Brooks way to much. Should control Wafers minutes because when he is not having a great offense game he hurts us a lot. His D is horrible at times like today when Howard was just abusing him. Scola was getting anally raped out there and coach did nothing about it. Scola was not getting any open shots and was not doing anything special to deserve to stay out there. Landry was playing better D. Like the others said kept Lowry on Terry even though he was getting murdered. Should have put Battier on him. I think Battier was guarding Kidd. I know i am talking about one game but he makes the same kinds of mistakes every game. One of the reasons we rarely blow anyone out. Also for an offensive genius our offense sucks.
I agree Adelman bears some of the blame for the loss but only so far as the fact that he's the coach and if they win, he should get credit, if they lose, he should get some of the blame, I don't think he did one thing that's really stupid. I think, as a team, the TEAM has failed at figuring out the fronting defense with Yao. I'm really big on, get him the ball, or get him off the court, because a guy that big who can't score is going to hurt you in the long run. So, if you don't want to get him off the court (which they won't do), what do you do? You figure out a way to get him the ball. Easier said than done, I know, but this is the same problem they've had all season long, and especially towards the middle-end of the season, and they STILL don't even have a decent answer for it. THAT is what I put on the coaching, not Scola being in too long, not ticky-tack things like that. Scola has to be in, he's a starter and a great player and you don't start taking people out of games when they don't have a great quarter. You need Scola in the rest of the playoffs and the last thing you need to do is let him get cold because he's not playing. That said, you have to find a way to get Yao the ball, or get him off the court. He's a liability when he's not a scorer. Sidenote: Just saw Rick say in a press conference about the fronting defense: "We did a poor job of moving the ball", He also eluded to the wonderful refereeing Yao gets by saying "I don't want to say anything, he [Yao] plays a lot of minutes, and only gets 1 call" The story of the season...
