He sure is quiet. I mean, he was regarded as a defensive specialist as a player, making 2nd Team All NBA 3 times, and was one of the Adelman asst coach posse that Adelman would bring along to each new job. After Adelman retired at Minny and they released his posse, Morey rehired Dunn for McHale's bench due to Simpson taking the UofH job, but JBB ultimately got the lead asst job vacated by Simpson. I always considered him part of the Guard coachs v Bigs coaches, but for whatever reason guys like him and Sikma always seem to be quiet and out of the spotlight, for coaches with so much Adelman pedigree.
Not surprised MDA doesn’t want another coach. He’s never valued defense his entire career and will go back to relying on his “stars” to bail him out every game.
Let CP be playing assitant coach, he probably knows more about the game&defense than most of them anyway
This sucks. I think vs the Warriors the Rockets had the best defense in the league. It far surpassed their scoring capabilities.
Sad when roster is on the cusp of a Finals run. We're right there! Coach the team for practices at Toyota center only please!
Thanks for the info @Nook. Count me as a skeptic that "Roy will run the defense with help from MDA" is something that will work. It will work because of CP/Tucker....but, when it comes time to make the in game adjustments.....I don't know. I don't have faith that Roy Rogers is up to the task here. I hope I am wrong. I would feel better if the Rockets made an aggressive move for a defensive coach. There was a REASON they wanted to add Bzdelik to MDA's staff in the first place. That same reason applies. The clock is ticking. Do we want to waste a season to find out Rogers isn't up to the task? Perhaps MDA is loathe to add "an outsider" coach to the staff for fear it will disrupt things with his way of coaching or perhaps he doesn't want to have to look over his shoulder. I don't know. I feel uneasy about this. Again, hope I am wrong.
I think that is a VERY fair perspective. I could see that as something that would be taken into consideration.
I was wondering that, or perhaps health of a close family member. It may not be related to anything on the team. But the work and travel for an NBA season is really tough on anybody, never mind when you're 65 and have made the $ you need to make. Or... maybe he has been lurking in the Harden-as-fat threads.
What is with Defensive Assistant Coach leaving, the next year the Defense and Team Suffers. Kevin Sampson leaves mid season, the team suffers. Jeff Bzdelik leaving really is going to hurt more than Ariza, Moute.
not sure why there's posts about Bzdelik leaving hurting more than the losses of players to other teams. It doesn't really matter at this point. They're all gone which doesn't bode well for a team that had a elite defense a short time ago.
In a few years there will be some real appreciation for the 17/18 rockets and their approaches in competing with this seemingly unbeatable GSW team. Dantoni already gets some credit for revolutionizing how the game is played offensively but then to add in a switching defense and create a blueprint that I think we will see emulated for years to come, that forced the most explosive offense in NBA history to change how it plays was awesome, Bzdelik will get a ton of credit. Now here is why I don't think we need to be too worried. Offense: The James Harden/ Clint Capela pick and roll is legit. Those guys are still here, we still have shooters around them. Good luck playing that straight up, good luck switching and not having 1 guy on the court who James or Chris won't cook. Defense: The good news is the theorizing is done, It works. There shouldn't be a question of how we should play defense from day 1, switch the picks, drill 1 on 1 fundementals, and be ready to guard anyone on the opposing team or take a seat. The warriors are the bench mark and they will 100% attack the best matchup so I believe there may be some diminishing returns on great defensive players in our system, when just as good or better than Harden might be all we need. We have shown we can outscore teams with Harden and Gordon being attacked on the block or Harden and Capela being attacked off the dribble. I'm not sure how much it matters on a given possesion if its Gerald Green or Luc Mbah A Moute hugging a guy at the 3 point line out of the play as long as they're not the weakest link.
