I'm sure Tom T is an excellent bench coach. But IMHO, Jeff Van Gundy is the real defensive genius that left the Rockets. Unfortunately, Van Gundy's over-emphasis of one end of the basketball court left the Rockets with numerous players seriously lacking in offensive skills. Van Gundy's complex defensive rotations made it possible for mediocre 1on1 defenders like Hayes, Battier and Alston to excel as a unit. Take away the quantum physics level rotations and your left with the defense that we see. That's "where" the D went. Not to Boston or ESPN.
I'm forced to with A_3PO on this one DD. You were relentless in your criticism of JVG for the failure of the past 4 years as if he alone was responsible for the bad drafts, personnel decisions, injuries and failure of players like Mr. "It's On Me" to live up to their billing. Well now JVG is long gone but we are still seeing the same poor performances on the court. So now you are moving the blame to Adelman & his staff for what's happened in the past 7 games as if the players themselves are innocent bystanders. But I'm not ready to fire the current coaching staff just yet because I can see the confusion on the part of these players as to how to run the new system. Yao is clearly lost out there right now and I am still seeing the same jumpshot McGrady I saw last year. But, at the same time, I also never believed in players like Bonzi Wells, Mike James & Steve Francis being the difference makers everyone else expected them to be this season. I really would be in favor of playing Brooks even as a rookie PG were it not for his physical limitations and the inherent defensive liabilities thereof. I disagree. These are supposed to be PROFESSIONAL basketball players who are being paid very well to perform and that plus the desire to win a championship should be motivation enough. If after that, they still require a coach to motivate them, then they need to go out and find themselves a new career. The "effort" put forth last night was disgraceful - here you had a Heat team that came into the game 2-9 having lost all 7 of it's home games this season and yet it was the Rockets who looked and played like the 2-9 mutt of a team. It's like they have been reading all of the nonsense about their being serious championship contenders and it's gone straight to their collective heads. Well they ain't there quite yet and it will require much more effort and hard work on their part before they should even be allowed to mention the word "championship".
It's been proven time and time again that being a multimillionaire athlete doesn't mean someone automatically gives their best effort. The respect (and fear) players have for a coach directly impacts their performance. Only a very few players leave it all on the floor no matter what. It's on the coaching staff to get max effort and concentration from the others. Right now I question both the rotation AND the effort given by players in the rotation. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is called insanity, which describes our coaching staff the last 7 games (I include the ugly win at Charlotte). I didn't consider Adelman a soft touch before he came here, but he sure is acting like one. If he doesn't quit hitting the snooze button and wake up & make some changes, he will lose the respect of the players (if he hasn't already).
Defense has gone south for vacation. Well, we better find it quick because Nuggets can run us out of gym with high flying offense.
