Well, to be fair: winning % regular season <<<<< winning % postseason Here's what I mean. Bill Fitch lost over 1100 NBA regular season games in his illustrious head coaching career--yes, I said illustrious. The facts reveal that Bill Fitch ranks above both Rudy T and Rick Adelman in career postseason victories (55). He holds a playoff winning % of .505 (which is ahead of Rick Adelman), along with an NBA championship in 1980-81 with the Boston Celtics (.706 winning % for that postseason run). He also earned a 2nd NBA Finals appearance in 1985-86 as head coach of our beloved Rockets. He won .650 (13-7) of those postseason games, far better than any postseason Adelman ever coached. Bill Fitch also 2-time NBA Coach of the Year (1975-76 and 1985-86) and was voted as Top 10 Coach in NBA History in 1996 (joining the prestigious ranks of coaching legends Red Auerbach, Red Holzman, Jack Ramsay, Pat Riley, Lenny Wilkens, and Phil Jackson among others). Meanwhile, Houston Rockets icon Rudy Tomjanovich holds the highest franchise postseason winning % of all time at .567 (51-39). No other Rockets head coach comes close to matching his .682 playoff winning % in 1994-95. Further, his NINE consecutive road playoff victories in one postseason are still an NBA all-time record. And yes, he also holds the record for most consecutive playoff road wins over two seasons (1994-95 and 1995-96) at twelve. Rudy T is a 2-time (back-to-back) NBA Championship head coach. He is also the gold medal winning head coach of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team. Not sure how many remember, but IMO his greatest International coaching achievement came at the 1998 World Games, when he assembled and willed a non-NBA roster of journeymen to the bronze, shocking Greece and the FIBA community in the process (the NBA labor dispute prevented another 'dream team' from participating that year). I'm sorry, but say that Rick Adelman is a better coach than either Bill Fitch or Rudy T is blatantly ignoring the facts. Adelman's career playoff success (.503 postseason winning %) pales in comparison. Don't get me wrong, he was a very good coach (winning the WC twice, but neither with Houston), just not nearly as effective when it counted most: in the postseason.
I fully expected that Adelman wouldn't return at the end of this year. There was buzz around the league that Adelman was seriously considering retirement due to the health of his wife. His wife has been ill for 3 years now, and as a result Adelman has been forced to miss games. While he loves coaching, it was obvious to many observers that Adelman was unable and unwilling to focus the same level of attention to the game as he had in previous years. This was printed in March. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...etirement-due-health-woes-200049669--nba.html The sad part is people think that Adelman is going because of his coaching. Take away Minnesota's horrible luck with injuries (Love's hand injury and Rubio's ACL injury) and his own serious personal issues and his team would have most likely done substantially better. Adelman is a class act, but in a very, very unfortunate situation.
Disappointing. I really thought Love and Rubio, with guys like Budinger, the annoying little Puerto Rican, the mega all-star Brewer , Pekovic, and Martin were the perfect players for his system. I honestly though the addition of Martin was going to get them into the playoffs this year. Injuries can change everything. I think he's like 67 or 68, not sure we'll see him again, but I hope so.
Thats exactly what I meant by classless. The same classless idiots in this thread feel the need to bash Adelman because they think it props up Morey. A sad bunch really.
I was so worried that the Lakers would hire him after he left Houston. Unfortunate for Adelman. Lucky for us Rockets fans.
Yep. Somehow some people feel the need to trach Adelman in order to justify the McHale hiring. I have said this in the tinman thread. That's some twisted mentality there. Adelman has never done any bad things to the Rockets to deserve this kind of hate.
Adelman is a good coach. The top job of a coach is to hold a locker room together and Adelman has done that, often in the face of important players missing games and when dealing with difficult characters (Artest, Bonzi, etc.). That said, at least in recent years, Adelman has made some irrational roster/lineup decisions. It seems that there are some "Adelman guys" that he would stick with even in the face of mounting evidence that they are not working. Adelman stuck with Jordan Hill and an injured/ineffective Aaron Brooks way too much one year even though the team would lose leafs every time they played (seriously, their on/off +/- were like -10 per 100 possessions). He is doing the same with Barea this year. And once given influence on personnel moves, he imported personal favorites Budinger and Martin at a significant cost. Criticize McHale all you want, but he does change lineups based on evidence-- guys who play effectively would play more as the season goes on, guys would sit when they are ineffective. He is flexible with lineups, trying everything from a conventional lineup, to small ball, to 4 guards, to SG-SG-SF-SF-PF.
Most of the trashing is actually against a poster who named Adelman the greatest Rockets coach of all time, over 2-time champ Rudy and Bill Fitch, voted as one of the 10 greatest coaches in NBA history. Adelman has the 4th best playoff winning percentage among Rockets' coaches, and that's exactly why he deserves to be 4th.
I've made too many Adelman/McHale/JVG posts during my time here. And I don't think this is the time to make more of them. I'll just say this. During his time here, I enjoyed Adelman as our coach. I thought he did his best, and always defended him from the people who lamented that he wasn't JVG. And I can understand why he left when some snot-nosed MIT business dude who's never played pro ball is trying to butt into his coaching business like inserting an assistant. I don't blame him for that, although in retrospect he'd probably should've listened to the MIT fat guy. Here's to good fortunes in Adelman's future and the health of his wife.
And Phil Jackson had the best shooting guard. And Pat Riley had the best pg. And Pop the best PF. And Auerbach the best center. And the list goes on and on.
Rudy was the perfect guy at the right time, and deserves that credit. To say he wasn't a god is not an insult, and it is just homerism and easy to act otherwise. Adelman is a better coach, but has his own faults in my opinion. While he is a brilliant coach, the unfortunate truths is that players are too young and move around too much in the league to run an offense that takes 3 years to learn. It is also frustrating for a team that can't have anything less than 5 offensive players on the floor at all times.
i guess the timberwolves finally got tired of being a consistent lottery team. i'm so glad we got rid of him.
Can't argue with percentages, although that's not the only factor. You have to consider winning% with the injuries, lack of talent & the ridiculous roster turnover. When you consider the cards dealt with the winning its obvious who the better coach is. From what I remember, Adelman never had a Dream to throw the ball too or to anchor the defense. He had a 6'6 center and Von Wafer
