[CNNSI] Rockets need creative Adelman

Spacemoth · Oct 16, 2009

Again, it's always nice when we get natl press, but there are also some interesting thoughts here about Adelman's opinion of Ariza.

LINK

Excerpt:

Rockets need creative Adelman

Britt Robson

After hanging with the Lakers longer than any other opponent in the 2009 playoffs, the Rockets were strip-mined of their key personnel during what could end up being the most damaging offseason in franchise history.

First it was determined that the hairline fracture in Yao Ming's left foot will sideline him for the 2009-10 season. Then free agent Ron Artest, on the short list of the league's top shutdown defenders, took his turbulence (pro and con) to Los Angeles for a better shot at winning a championship. Meanwhile, the enigmatic, often-injured Tracy McGrady remains enigmatic and on the shelf, with no set timetable for his return from microfracture knee surgery and no confident prognosis about how it will affect team chemistry if and when he's ready to play.

Add in an unbalanced roster that, in Yao's absence, contains as many as eight forwards but not a single natural center, and the question is not if, but how tragicomically far the Rockets will fall from their 53-29 record of a year ago.

Houston's ace in the hole is the NBA's most underrated coach, Rick Adelman. Some might laugh at the notion of Adelman in the Hall of Fame, but he's building a persuasive case: He ranks 12th all time in regular-season wins (860), ninth in playoff victories (79) and eighth in regular-season winning percentage (.616) among those who have coached at least 500 games. Despite never having an iconic superstar on his roster (no Bird, Magic, Kobe, Kareem, Russell or Jordan; Clyde Drexler in Portland was probably the best player he's coached), he's made the playoffs in 16 of his 18 seasons, and won 50 games or more 11 times. Every one of the four teams that hired him improved its record during his first year, and every one of the three that fired him won fewer games the following year.
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Ariza, 24, on the other hand, looks to be in for some tough love, as it's not hard to see that Adelman believes, at least in the short run, that Houston got the raw end of the deal in the Artest-Ariza exchange.

"Shane and Ron have been great defenders throughout their careers. Trevor doesn't have that yet, but he's still young," Adelman said. "Right now, he's all over the place. He's not thinking about who he's guarding as much as he's just reacting, whereas Ron and Shane have been there, taking the top guy. For the Lakers, Kobe would usually take that guy when the game was on the line. So Trevor has to step up as the season goes on. But we've also got to remember that as good as Shane and Ron were last year, we also had Yao back there [to deter penetration]. This year, we don't."
Click to expand...

mrfirefly7 · Oct 16, 2009

You are a day late. It is already posted.

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=175665

Deckard · Oct 16, 2009

Nice read! Great to see Adelman get some well deserved burn in the media. Thanks!

edit: whoops! Missed the other thread.

Spacemoth · Oct 16, 2009

My bad, lock plz.

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[CNNSI] Rockets need creative Adelman

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[CNNSI] Rockets need creative Adelman

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