Rockets name Kelvin Sampson as lead assistant, hire J.B. Bickerstaff as assistant.

Why not? All accounts are that he has been a fine assistant coach in the NBA. The only thing he did wrong is send some text messages. That really makes him a scumbag? He was just trying to get a competitive advantage with the hypocritical and inconsistently enforced regulations of the NCAA. Why should you care about NCAA violations in his past when your team is in the NBA?

Now if he shot someone, I'd understand, but why should an NBA fan actually care about NCAA violations? Would you pass up Derrick Rose just because he had someone take his SAT's for him and got Memphis's season invalidated? Chris Webber because he got paid at Michigan?

 

Don't compare 18yr HS students who succumb to the cheating offers of elders/coaches.

Ummm....and Sampson didn't just cheat...he lied to investigators...the cover-up/lying part is his major offenses according to the NCAA case. And this wasn't just at OU, this was at IU. He did the very same thing twice. Showing complete lack of respect for anything in his world of business and work ethics.

 

Business and work ethics in the same sentence with the NBA is a funny joke. Sampson should fit right in.

Ask Riley about business ethics and how he "recruited" Lebron and Bosh.

Ask Stern about business ethics and how the Knicks ended up with the #1 pick to draft Ewing.

Ask Adelman about business ethics and how his Kings team fared against the Lakers in the playoffs.

The only problem I see with Sampson and McHale is they did a poor job of covering their tracks. Other than that, the only thing I care about is Sampson's coaching abilities, which by all accounts seem to be pretty good.

 

I can see it now in 2012: "Dwight Howard Ready fir Takeoff as a Houston Rocket"

Followed the next day by: "McHale, Sampson Break New FA Rules: Howard Signig Rescinded"

Kidding

 

LOL! :grin::grin:

 

What team you callin' average?

 

I like the Sampson hiring. Dont know much about Bickerstaff though.

 

He won't be in the front office so his past recruiting controversy won't be as much an issue.

Turning a blind eye on this is more worrying.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3777010

" Then-coach Kelvin Sampson tried to stop the drug use, Gordon said, but Sampson "was just so focused on basketball and winning and everything." "

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tpprOGsLWUo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

I agree to a point and argued this when adelman was first hired. Really though, bethe motion offense has nothing to do with being a poor defense. When a team has 1 above average defender starting, 3 piss poor defender, and 1 average defender, the team will be a poor defensive team. Until the rockets trade out the poor defenders and get balanced and better defenders, it doesn't matter who the d coordinators is. They could bring thibbs back, but he can't stop martin,scola,and chase from getting posted up or blown by. He can't stop hayes from being 6'5 or lowry from reaching or going after offensiv reounds vs balancing the court.

Sampson nor lil bearnie does a lot for me, but maybe they will help in the end. The end is better,balanced players, not oc and dc with speecehes and tactics.

 

Whats up with Morey getting all these people from sucky small-market towns and recruiting them all to be on the Rockets? Before you know it, we'd be hiring from Mexico.

 

Mexicans are the only people who do any work in the country any more. We need more Mexicans.

 

I now know what Morey's fetishes are

Coaches from bottom tier teams
2009 Lottery picks
Players from the Kings and Grizzlies
Power Forwards



Now i am able to precisely calculate the source of the next new coach, player, or draft year.

 

I'm sorry but redao and hillboy have owned this thread with very simple posts. LOL.

Maybe we can trade a few of our power forwards for more non-playoff teams' assistant coaches. That would help explain the stockpile.

 

You know when Sampson is lying? His lips are moving. What a complete jerk.

 

True; my fellow black people, unlike myself, don't work and get everything from the government....

 

Simple facts?

Those facts matter just as much as the fact that Kyle Lowry was a backup PG on one of the worst teams in the league when we acquired him.

Simple, and useless facts.

 

Disgraced basketball coaches are undervalued. Classic moneyball move.

Also, having lost Yao Ming and his appeal to 1.3 billion Chinese people, hiring Sampson will help the team become popular among 1.2 billion Indians.

 

cool....

 

Just an FYI, Bickerstaff is highly regarded in Minnesota and there was a rumor that he will be groomed for 2 or so years before taking the head coaching job from his father, who is in the running for the Wolves job right now.

 

The hire of Sampson fits the Morey pattern of hiring very bright people. It seems virtually anything can be forgiven if the person being hired is bright and a little bit of a maverick.