Talking Rockets on 1560am - Thursday mornings at 8:35am

Clutch, I didn't hear you this morning because I had a doctor's appointment. Next week, please go after Adelman. The gloves need to come off about this guy. Blunt talk on the radio is long overdue and I can't help but think his job is on the line. The failure is so spectacular that I will no longer assume he is the coach next year.

 

I do like Dave's way though, he is very political in his answers.....but he says a ton....

DD

 

What about Mike Miller? Don't know if Memphis would want Battier back now with their focus more on offense now. But Miller would be a good complement to Tracy and Yao. Can drive and shoot the three.

Maybe Hakim Warrick, but I don't really like him that much. There's also Josh Childress (groin injury) and Pietrus out there.

But Maggette does seem the most obtainable out of all of the SFs that I can think of.

 

Agreed but who knows when that could be? From where I'm sitting right now, I would not be surprised in the least if he's out for a significant stretch of time.

On what are you basing this assumption? For these teams to go through the exercise of aquiring Tmac, they have to be rather certain that he's the missing piece to getting them over the hump. The size of his contract virtually dictates this. You simply don't "roll the dice" on a guy with his large contract and all of his negatives unless you are totally stupid. And of the teams you listed only the Knicks would fall under that category. Just which of their players (who suck even worse than ours) would you be willing to accept in return AND why should we want them in the first place?

Again, if he's gone then I don't see where it's germane to us what is good or not. As for the Tmac & Yao experiment, sorry to be blunt here but it's too late for entertaining that line of thought. When they made that trade, they made a commitment to the belief in that you needed TWO superstar players to achieve championship stature. AT THE TIME OF THAT TRADE, the widespread belief around here was that it was a given that we had the organization in place that was competent enough to build around them. Well I expressed legitimate doubts about this at the time especially given the poor draft history and bad personnel decisions that had come out of this organization for years. They've known for YEARS that they needed a really good to great PG in order to compete and have basically been unable to get one. Same thing with the PF position. I was skeptical then and I was skeptical over the past off season because I couldn't see how the aquisition of Brooks, Landry, Wells, James & Francis elevated them to contender status in the West.

What you are seeing on the court is not the fault of JVG or Rick Adelman although here, it's always the head coach who gets all the blame. What you are witnessing here is simply a continuation of what was started when they traded for McGrady: a pronounced inability to build around their big two. And that's what separates and continues to separate them from teams like San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix , Utah and the rest who actually know WTF they are doing. This is something that has been years in the making and there are no easy answers, no magic bullet. You simply aren't going to be able to go out and pick up someone off another team's bench and magically transform this team into a consistent winner. About the only thing you will be able to do would be to completely dismantle it and rebuild around Yao and that is not going to be acceptible to anyone here because it entails YEARS of effort with no guarantee of success not to mention what it would do to Yao's psyche and career. As I've said before, you are pretty much stuck with what you have this year. You've got to let it run it's course. All of these players have to man up and start playing better and with a commitment to winning especially Mr. "It's On Me".

 

How in the world can his job be on the line after only 25 games? How does that even make any sense unless you subscribe to the notion that the head coach is largely responsible for what's going on out there. Tmac doesn't play because he's hurt or in a funk - that's Adelman's fault? Yao draws the double team, kicks the ball out to a man with an open shot who misses - that's Adelman's fault as well? Everyone on this team is sucking wind offensively - can't hit shots or free throws or layups and that's Adelman's fault as well? I love this line of reasoning. It's as if the players were little children who bear no responsibility in what they are doing and not grown men who are paid very well to play a game and who are supposed to be professionals. But by all means, speak as bluntly as you like. It won't change one thing until the players themselves decide it's time for things to change.

 

Upon 2nd thought, agreed. From his standpoint of being the owner of Clutchfans, Dave can't be too harsh over the airwaves. So it's up to us anonymous nobodies to rake Adelman over the coals.

 

Hillboy, the most common and oft repeated commentary on the Rockets (ESPN, FOX, TBS, etc) is "the Rockets have been unable to surround Yao and TMac with the right supporting cast." And you just said it again. Right on target, has been on target, continues to be on target. I will admit, they have tried, but still haven't done it. It is obvious, the current brain trust can't figure this one out.

 

some truth to it
but
I think this season we have at least one more peice
SCOLA
but . . . .he ain't an instant playa . . just add water
he will have to take his lumps.

I think everyone else is servicable
but
I think a lot of mental massaging needs to happen with them
and it is pissing me off.

Rocket River

 

The whole team is in a collective tailspin since the 6-1 start. Something has happened. The offense is terrible, the defensive effort usually isn't there and the players' confidence in what they are doing is way down. There is no chemistry on the court. Everything on offense seems forced and unnatural. Is that the fault of the players or the coach?

I didn't say his job is on the line after 25 games. I said, "The failure is so spectacular that I will no longer assume he is the coach next year" and stand by that. If we finish with 30-35 wins Adelman may not be back. If he can't get this team playing hard, smart and focused he doesn't deserve to return. When I begin to see some purpose to the offense, some certainty from the players they understand what is expected from them, I'll back off of that. But the trend isn't promising. My position is there is a communication chasm between Adelman and the team. If this isn't resolved soon, I say fire the coach after the season because he is the biggest problem we have.

When group of players can't do things they have always done, you have to look at why. IMO, the bad shooting, bad passing, off & on effort on defense reflects a bigger problem than just the players not performing.

 

T-Mac must be dealt and no the Rockets will not be able to get great value but hey they had their chances. I will take anyone who will just play and help the team.

 

We can talk about McGrady all day...but you're right, and I think this is the biggest problem with the Rockets right now. There is no direction coming from the coaching staff. Maybe they're supposed to figure it out for themselves, but what's the point of having a coach if there's no direction? He sits there when things go well and sits there when things go bad.

Just look at the last play of the game last night...COMING OUT OF A TIMEOUT, they still had no clue what they were doing. And that isn't the first time that's happened in game-on-the-line situations.

As far as I've heard and know, all they do in practice is basically scrimmage against each other. So after the Rockets lost I flipped over and caught the end of the Dallas/Phoenix game...and literally at that moment, JVG was talking about working on GAME SITUATIONS in practice. You need to know what's going on in every situation, from when the team's up 20, down 20, when it's a close game, when you have the ball with a chance to tie at the end of the game, etc. They look absolutely clueless in every situation that requires some sort of direction, and I think they really don't address game situations in practice.

Your play is a direct reflection of how you practice. It's obvious they don't work on the little things to get better...like free throws. It's obvious they don't talk about game situations in practice. It's obvious they have no level of preparedness. And there's no excuse for it.

 

We're not getting anywhere with Tmac this year, hurt or not hurt. Why not rebuild this early.

 

Right but this group of players can and should be playing far better than they have shown. Whether or not they are the right group will be borne out over the course of this season. But they should not be stinking this badly because we have seen them play far better basketball than what they trotted out there last night. This team's core players won 52 games last year despite the fact that their star center was out for 32 games so I know they can play better - MUCH better.

I have my suspicions that it all starts with the big two - that they aren't buying what RA is selling. I especially get that vibe from Mr. "It's On Me". Now Adelman is more than competent as a head coach and you can see him doing his best to put them in a position to win every game. No matter what at some point basketball is basketball and the system becomes irrelevant. These guys have been playing this game for years and there is simply no excuse for what we have been seeing out there at all.

 

What has happened is that you don't see a commitment to coming out every night and playing sound, hard-nosed basketball. You saw that last year under JVG because he kept his foot up their collective asses and preached defensive intensity. Well, folks didn't like his heavy-handed approach so he gets thrown overboard for RA who treats his guys like "men". Well, this is the result: they may want to be treated like men but they sure as hell don't feel that they need to act like men especially out there on the court.

I think he'll be back even if they fall back into the NBA lotto again because this coaching change more all about Uncle Les needing a scapegoat than about basketball and Les would look supremely stupid if he cans Adelman after only one season. And Les doesn't like to look bad.

I disagree with your contention that there's some sort of communications gap between the players & Adelman or that Adelman's systems are too complicated for them to grasp. Basketball is basketball. Adelman, Sikma & Turner are fine coaches and I just can't believe that they suddenly got stupid after that 6-1 start. The things that they have tried to emphasize here - moving the ball around, moving without the ball, getting into the offensive flow faster to create more offensive opportunities - all manage to work for other teams. And we've seen this work here as well for brief episodes this season so I know it can be done. The big question is why isn't it being done on a more consistent basis. You find the answer to that question and you will have solved the problem. I believe that it's more mental than anything else. But here's something else to consider: they play differently when Tmac is out. Watch them tonight in Denver.

It's exactly that. Go back over the game last night or watch them tonight in Denver. See if they come out determined to play hard or slide out on the floor flat as pancakes. Pay close attention to their concentration and their effort particularly on the defensive side and I think you'll find the answers you seek.

 

While I certainly concede this point, and find Hillboys post very well said, I do think management has been trying to get it done, but last year the coach and management were not on the same page.

V-Span (Whom I still think would be GREAT under Adelman).

And this year, they took some low risks on players hoping one of them pan out, and it has not worked.

So, where do you go from here? If you don't think that MJ, Alston, or Francis is going to be that PG for the future, then you need to find one, or play Brooks to find out if he is the future PG for this team.

Because right now they are treading water and the playoff ship is leaving port.

And Hillboy, the team did not bring it every night under JVG, not by a long shot, he was constantly chiding them to get going...Hell both Yao and Tmac quit in the Golden State game late last year, and JVG basically had to call them out.

This is a problem with this team.....I think Yao has the competitive fire, but Tmac doesn't and the rest of the team follows Tmac......off the bridge.



DD

 

Yao has to be 100% in supporting coach A and his system, and say it in public. After that, we need to play guys who believe in the system and would give 100%. At this stage, I really do not care about talent, skill, and expirence ... I think hayes, scola, battier, head, brooks, alston, deke will have no problems to follow

 

Without a doubt. But I am happy with Scola.

 

sweet application clutch, it loaded fast thanks!

 

How right you are and that's really the big different between the two coaches. JVG rode them hard, would call them out publicly and was brutally honest after games in which they played like crap. Well, Uncle Les didn't like his head coach being honest - he wanted him to spin and blow smoke up your collective noses so he canned him for the kinder, gentler offensive genius known as Rick Adelman. So what does the team do? Why they immediately slack off in their intensity and work ethic because Adelman treats them like the professionals they profess to be. Bottom line is that they can all talk a good game from Mr. "It's On Me" down but when the time comes to step up and show their commitment to winning, the silence is deafening.

I believe that you are on to something here...

 

Man oh man, that is some staying power you got there.

He's averaging 10-11 points in the barn league this year, with a couple of dimes. Just can't imagine the continued thinking that he could do anything in the NBA, but it's fun to revisit the scent of those classic V-threads.