Absolutely correct. All of the pre-season chatter around here started with "if Yao is healthy". Guess what? Yao ain't healthy. And when he was healthy, his 24 minutes resembled Mark Eaton more than a "healthy" Yao Ming. What part of the Rockets being a Lottery team last season is so baffling to everyone? A Lottery team generally can't beat playoff-quality teams and is hit or miss against other Lottery teams. That's exactly what we are seeing. And it has nothing to do with Adelman.
it depends..if we want to stay within the system but up the defense, we should promote Elston Turner...if a massive revamp and tank the season, look for another coach...either way, Rick should be fired if he don't continue to adjust to different situations handed to the Rox.
Well for one thing the team last season looked better than the team this season. That shouldn't be the case, as we upgraded at several different positions this year (notably at the C and PF). The expectations are different on paper this should be competitive with anyone with or without Yao. Instead we're watching games where dumb coaching decisions lose us the match. There's no way a team can win a ring if the coach always loses the strategical battle against the opponent. You'd have to roll around with an overbearing collection of talent Celtics-style to even have a chance.
Elston Turner is just as bad at roster management as RA. I think this is the problem with this coaching staff, smart coaches like Doc Rivers choose assistants who can cover up their weaknesses, an example would be Tom Thibs who micromanaged the Celts Defense the year they won the title. Elston Turner seems to be a clone of RA, good at good at installing systems but bad at micromanagement and x's and O's.
Now Doc Rivers is a smarter coach than Adelman? It's funny what getting handed three hall of fame players at the tail end of their prime can do for a coach's reputation.
Take a big step backwards and think about it. Did last year's team really look that much better? Or do they just look good in the rearview mirror? Last years' team went essentially from the playoffs to the first 10 games of their season with only CBud and a swap of Ariza and Artest as the changes. They went a whopping 6-4. Their next 10 they went 5-5. That's not earth shaking. Especially when 8 of the 20 teams they played were Lottery bound. This years' team is saddled with a 24 mpg Yao, a host of new rotational players, Scola at the Worlds', and the team to China. And they've only played 3 bonifide Lottery contenders. Mostly with Ish Smith as the backup PG. Adelman definitely has his flaws. We saw that in his first games as a Rockets' coach when he clung to Van Gundy's starting lineup far too long. But he's not the major problem. Far from it.
Yeah, but his rotations are not helping, he plays guys he is comfortable with over younger players that might have a bigger impact. And he overuses his starters on the first game of a back to back. Costing the team a legitimate shot at game 2. DD
The problem stems from the greek chorus of nuthuggers and standpatters in the offseason hailing last year's mild overachievement as a major accomplishment. Lottery seasons are lottery seasons are lottery seasons.
I'm with this. Many here have seriously inflated the value of the players on this roster. They are a nice collection of role players. That kind of group does not contend for championships, typically. This team is a 7 or 8 seed at best, I think. Holy crap, Houston sports teams are killing me.
it's downright horrid, you'd have to go back to the early 80's to find a comparable time period of all-around suckiness.
I don't know, perhaps if 3 of our top 5 offensive players were not out, we might be a little better, don't ya think? Not to mention the 7'6" guy is one of only 2 shot altering players we have, and the coach won't play the other one. DD
Right, so you don't think the injuries really matter, gotcha ! I am sure the Lakers would be Stellar without Kobe and Gasol.... DD
In the past, we've not agreed on much. But couldn't agreed more on the "Lottery is..." comment. For all that is good with it, this roster is still in need of a talent infusion. Hard to imagine that you'd get a Lottery pick and stash it in the D-League for a whole season. Especially when Morey has such a high rep on this board for finding hidden values. DaDa - I generally agree. But I'm not convinced that perfect rotations would have produced any more wins. With an unhealthy Yao (or unproductive), they are a Lottery team. They are doing what Lottery teams do. Lose to playoff teams and go .500 against other Lottery teams. Firing Adelman won't fix anything until Rockets management figures out who they are as a team. Yao's team, Scola's team, Martin's team? The talent they acquire needs to be more than assets. It has to have a purpose.
of course they matter. they just don't matter enough for me to get too worried about them...aside from Yao, which is the story of the season, anyway. cue my favorite line about a certain fallacious precious metal.
Did you just compare Brooks and 2010 Yao to Kobe and Gasol?? DD, this teams problems go WAAAAAAAAY deeper than injuries and rotations. Why can't you understand that? Oh, I forgot.....because we took the lakers to 7 games 2 years ago.
I'm not worried about them because I was resigned to them before the season started. Expecting Yao to be here and healthy and productive was fool's gold. Logic and experience tells you otherwise. But...as you said...we were stuck with him. We were stuck with the situation. So here we are. I'm still watching. I'm still rooting. God, I'm rooting. I'm getting killed by friends from Dallas. I was shocked to find there was no email in my inbox or no random Facebook musing about yet another loss this morning.
