You don't get credit fire digging out of the hole when you are a big part of the reason for the slow start due to bad decisions to begin with.
They could have played Yao zero minutes from the start, but Yao deserved a chance to play. Lowry wasn't in peak condition, because of the preseason injury. He was out of shape. Starting him would have meant losing with an out of shape Lowry anyway.
That may be, but in today's NBA you rarely see a team dig themselves out of a seven-game-under-five-hundred hole. We'll hold off the coach of the year talk but at least we're talking 8th seed now and not the lottery. Good job Rick, good job Rockets. The football team in this city could learn something from you guys about playing with pride.
Sacramento was a losing team with Ron Artest and Kevin Martin under Adelman - and they had talent at other positions. That should tell you something right there. There are plenty of teams that do well with young talent. Look what Jerry Sloan does in Utah. After the Malone Stockton era Utah retooled with young talent and were right back into the playoffs. He took young talent and flipped it into a polished playoff team. How? Not only did they have good players but he made them play with amazing fundamentals. RA can't do jack compared to Sloan....that's why Utah is always up there in the standings. They lack a superstar, but Jerry sloan does so much with the talent he is given. Jerry Sloan is a great Coach. So was JVG. People here realize how little credit he gets but he definitely gets guys to overperform. Rudy T is a great coach. So is Pat Riley, SVG, and others. RA is the opposite of Larry Brown in every way possible. Brown is great with fundamentals and teaching defense, and taking a young team and guiding them to the next level. RA is the opposite. He works well with veterns and puts them in positions to score with his offense, but he's not strong with defense or fundamentals. Larry Brown teaches discipline, which works with young guys and not with old guys. Adelman doesn't cater to his vets and gives his rookies way too much leeway and that's why his teams never grow. That's why he can do well with a vet team but not so well rebuilding. You look at his career and it shows that pattern. This team needs a Larry Brown, not a RA. Or, we just need a great coach. But RA is no longer the right fit. He was when we had a healthy Tmac and Yao, and we still had the team that JVG had shaped, but now that those guys are gone, you can see how we've lost intensity, focus, and fundamental play. VSPAN refused to work on his fundamentals and JVG refused to play him. Brooks goes out of control and RA stays with him. You saw that last night. Brooks almost blew the game with his play. JVG would have turned Brooks into a fundamentally sound point guard or had his butt shipped out.
Right and I believe he won 67 games with that team but got out-coached by Phil Jackson in the WCF. As for getting them to .500, big whoop. To their credit, they took advantage of the sub .500 teams on the December schedule. Starting tomorrow night, the schedule turns nasty and them we'll see how good RA really can (or can't) be as a coach.
Larry Brown is a despicable human being and I do not want him as the coach of the Rockets. I used to work at Ksat 12, did my sports internship there, and covered the Spurs....Brown was the coach. He is VASTLY overated..... DD
He has a track record of taking crappy teams and turning them into contenders. How many teams has he joined and turned around? Pistons: Championship Pacers: Finals Sixers: Finals Bobcats: Playoffs Spurs: Playoffs Nets: Playoffs He got the freakin Clippers into the playoffs! He's an a-hole and a jerk. But he's very effective in working with players and teaching them the game.
He had Artest for a very very short time. Artest didn't join the Kings until the last 2.5 months of Rick's whole time with the Kings. Rick had a 0.537 winning record in his last season with the Kings and went to the playoffs. He never missed the playoffs. The Jazz were awful after they lost Stockton and Malone. Stockton left in 2003. Their worst season was 26-56 season for the 4th worst record in 2005-06. They were so bad and had so many ping pong balls that they moved up to the 3rd spot in the lottery. They were able to get Deron Williams. Even with Deron Williams, they missed the playoffs yet again. After losing Stockton, Sloan missed the playoffs 3 straight seasons in a row.
PS. That 0.537 season with Kevin Martin was Rick's worst season with the Kings. The Kings never missed the playoffs or got as bad as the 26-56(0.317 record) like Sloan. Though, the Rockets would have been better off with 26-56 record a la Sloan, last season. They could have gotten a potential all-star.
It doesn't. Ron Artest isn't that good and neither is Kevin Martin really. Sometimes teams have bad years. By getting Deron Williams and signing Carlos Boozer. And in Deron's rookie year, they were 41-41. In Adelman's first year of rebuilding, he was 42-40. Wait, what? Have you ever watched them play? They have this little point guard called Deron Williams.. I hear he's pretty good. What young team did JVG win with? You're telling me Adelman is not that good because he can only win with vets... ok, what team did JVG win with that makes you believe he's a great coach and Rick isn't? As I recall, JVG was bringing in 35+ year old ex-Knicks when he was on the team. Larry Brown is incredibly overrated. You saying we need Larry instead of RA makes me sick. We need Larry to what, come in and coach for two years and leave? Larry has failed in his last two coaching spots, quitting both prematurely. How do you even know Brooks would be the same offensive player without Adelman? You're assuming that his offensive growth would've remained the same but his defense wouldn't. Adelman has done a great job developing Aaron -- he's one of the better PG's in the league and we're damn lucky to have him. Brooks almost blew it? He also led us back with 13 4th quarter points. A little nit picky, don't you think? Also, the second thing you quoted wasn't me.. or at least I wasn't sober if I said it. I'm not sure who did, but I don't think I did.
My point being is that Adelman underperformed with Kmart in Sactown even with Artest. Jerry Sloan has taken a team through a rebuilding process successfully using young players. Adelman has not done this. The Rockets have enormous talent - for us to be .500 at this stage is a staggering disappointment.
JVG turned Yao Ming into a dominant center. Rudy T contributed a lot to Yao's growth as did CD. But if was JVG who knew how to exploit his height by making him play low instead of high and pounding defenders instead of settling for jumpers as much. It's unfortunate that CD was not able to give him quality talent to mold. Deron is not a superstar. Larry Brown consistently turns losers into playoff teams. Why is that? If he is so overrated, how does he pull it off? Why does he always take teams to a higher place and then when he leaves they fall back down? As for Brooks, one can never know for sure, but it was clear he was offensively gifted from very early on. I think Brooks decision making is really poor though. And it's great that Adelman stuck with him so he could ignite the comeback, but that comeback wouldn't have been necessary is Brooks didn't take wild shots and throw the ball away in the 3rd quarter. I think other coaches would have taught Brooks to be better decision makers and Brooks would be a better offensive AND defensive player.
So what's your point? You said that Adelman was not a great coach, like JVG, because he can only win with veteran teams. I pointed out that the only teams JVG really won with had tons of veterans on them -- so much so that he made CD sign Oakley, Mark Jackson, Weatherspoon, etc. just to give them MORE veteran leadership. OK, agree to disagree. Deron is a top five PG in the NBA and the only reason the Jazz have had playoff success. Why on earth would you want Larry Brown? The man quits on his teams after two-to-three years on a CONSISTENT basis. You would want to fire Adelman so that Larry Brown could come in, take us to the playoffs for a year or two and then quit? That doesn't make any sense. In New York, the one year he coached them they got a worse record than the year before without him. In Charlotte, he coached them for three years, missing the playoffs in the first year; winning 44 games in the second (Rockets won 42 that year -- think they would have made the playoffs if they played in the East? Me too.); and quitting on the team when they were 9-19 in his third year. You have no way of knowing that. Just like you have no way of knowing if Yao wouldn't be just as good if Adelman developed him instead of JVG. Heck, Thibs got most of the credit for developing Yao. The only thing they had to teach him on defense was to keep his hands straight up and use his height to his advantage. If you want to argue facts, fine -- but leave speculation out of it. How on earth would JVG have made Brooks a better offensive player? JVG is known to NOT be an offensive-minded coach. Aaron Brooks was a 25th pick who is now considered a top 15 PG in the league; Adelman has done a great job with him. Decision making isn't something you can be taught; some guys have that court vision and some don't. If anything, one could argue that Brooks wouldn't have been as good under JVG because JVG would've been reluctant to play Brooks with his defensive struggles.
Didn't Jerry Sloan underperform with the Jazz? OMG 26 wins for the whole season! That's underperforming! Did you expect the Jazz to win half as many games(13 gm) and and they overperformed by winning 26? Artest was in Sacramento for only 2 1/2 months during Adelman's tenure. No off season. nothing. He just incorporated him in. You must be mistaking the consecutive lottery seasons, after Adelman left, for the King's poor records.
