Rick Adelman Out As Houston Rockets Head Coach

Monty’s turned New Orleans around with his defense.

So him leaving isn’t as upsetting for me as for others.

BUT

to follow it up with Mike Brown?

Oyyyyyy…..

He will be missed. I just hope the front office makes a good hire (basically not Mike Brown), but I am actually confident they will. They have shown that they are great talent evaluators for players, who knows, they might have been tracking coaches and assistants too with some stats. I think if we do hire an assistant like Budenholzer as Tom mentioned above, there might be actual numbers that explain that hire and that makes me comfortable.

Sad that this happened to Rick, but excited for the future. Change needed to happen in my opinion. Someone had to try and turn this franchise around, and I hope Les will make the right decisions to do that. I don’t wanna take shots at anyone about this, I hope does whatever will make him happy. He’s had a long coaching career and deserves to go where he wants. But whatever decisions the Rockets organization are about to make, they better know exactly what they want. I don’t want to be going through this in another 4 or 5 years.

I’m with you on several points. Circumstances changed for Adelman, it’s not his fault, there’s no fault in this issue at all. I doubt the issue was rooted in money. Both sides recognize that we are in basketball purgatory. Never bad enough to get a meaningful draft choice never good enough to squeak into the playoffs. The last two years at least. An assistant coach to head coach hire would do quite a bit to give us a new identity, put his stamp on a club looking to embrace youth, and to have us come together with a more complete basketball philosophy.

I did raise an eyebrow when you mentioned this only adds to the players concerns about being interchangeable parts. I think the coaching has little to do with it at all. Players did come out in support of Adelman but I think the implication with Adelman’s firing is that not all the players will be the same nor should the team really embrace the ball Adelman endorsed. In that interpretation I think you’re right 100% that players can read into it and worry about stability but I think it’s a minimal group of players that need to be worried. The only guys I think that should be worried are Martin and Scola. They’ll probably have to look for new real estate, Brad will have to piss off, and everyone else, I feel, is fine. We’re heading into an embracing of young players but we need to be honest with ourselves, we needed a new identity built around a complete game, not just an offensive schematic.

I’m excited to see where we go from this point forward. You raised a good point I never considered about Brown that Lebron may have handicapped his options but his offensive schemes made me sick.

Rick wanted to be back, the players wanted him back and he was ousted for staging a battle with morey and the F.O.
He was great for us and his schemes made for, at times, very entertaining play. If we hire brown I will loose all faith in les.
Budenholzer is our best shot. He helped revamp s.a style this yr and has shadowed one of the few better coaches than rick for awhile now.
Let’s hope we make the right decision and continue to build upon our foundation (which has just gotten much shakier)
I understand that a change was needed but ill never be sold that our past two seasons without a playoff berth were on ricks shoulders.

Click here.

If you want to yell at me for the shameless self-promotion, feel free to click here.

have a feeling he’ll be coaching a team with at least a few stars next year. Heat, Knicks, or Celtics (if Doc does retire).

I think he deserves to coach a team that is primed to win a title in the near future. We are far away from that so I thin it is a good move for him. I think if Doc Rivers retires Adelman’s offense would do well in Boston. Also, is SVG gets fired he would do well in Orlando if Dwight stays.

This is Houston. Basketball has for the most part and always will be 3rd fiddle in this town. It’s not fair, but it’s the way it is. Even though the other franchises and their FOs suck balls, it’s just the way it is. I’m not saying this is the wrong move, but a lot of people would be satisfied if he came back, at least the people I talk to. Keeping people satisfied keeps butts in the seats. Since 1998, this franchise has had several make overs.
1. Wow, this arena off 59 would probably be a better church, we’re never going to get an All-Star game here unless we build a new state of the art arena downtown.
2. Well, hometown hero Steve Francis isn’t cutting it here, we better draft someone interesting, how about that really tall guy from China.
3. We better trade for a ball-hogging point-forward, I think Kelvin Cato has worn out his welcome here.
Ok, I will get to the point. You know when people say they like to watch the Astros now because they are young and hustle?? And then you watch the game and there are record low crowds and seemingly 37 people there? At what cost would a “rebuilding” or “transforming” 3rd most popular in the city sports team start to hurt the bottom line? I mean it’s not like retiring Magic Johnson’s jersey and then having Kobe go for 50 in the same night. I’m not going to use a cliche “be careful what you wish for,” but… Be careful what you wish for.

There are some guys who are “hot assistant coaches” who MIGHT be better, but for every Tom Thibodeau there’s a Kurt Rambis or Vinny Del Negro or two.

There’s a disturbing element of the Rockets being run like a fantasy basketball team that is beginning to surface, and I’m not sure its going to end well. That was the accusation leveled at Cuban in Dallas, but Dallas has won 50+ games for 10 years now, so its not exactly a total failure.

This was not a firing. You can’t fire someone that doesn’t have a contract to work for you anymore. It’s a parting of ways, and that’s all it is.

Rick isn’t the right coach for the future of this team, not matter how good he is. And he is a very, very good basketball coach. Stubborn and hard headed, but aren’t they all?

I could really use either a young assistant, or one of the -VG’s I’d be happy going either route.

to come in here and not read “the rockets are gonna be in the dump for losing adelman” and “Adelman made the rockets what they are” and “this is the stupidest move made by the franchise”. Im telling you people on Chron.com and Yahoo are not looking at the BIG picture, they are just thinking about the immediate future. I see this as a move to be ready to start contending again in the 12-13 season. Im fine with this move because it seems like Rick was the last piece of the “McGrady/Yao” era. It didnt work out, so its time to move on.

Scola had knee surgery

Scola may be gone, though id hate to see that unless it was for a top-tier guy. But martin is key to our future and a glove-like fit with lowry. Martin is moreys ideals incarnate, highly productive and efficient. A perfect #3 option after a defensve 7ft guru and excellent 2-way SF.
Great article tom, I remember ak saying something about a goal towards journalism. While not quite there, your articles are concise, lucid and well constructed. Keep it up.

it won’t be which should please some of this crowd. It won’t Lionel Hollins since he didn’t play HT either and continued to strive to make the playoffs even after RG went down.

Metallica “Turn the Page”

All we need is this:

He voiced the character Swackhammer, head coach of the Monstars in the 1996 film “Space Jam.” He coached a hell of a game in what was possibly the biggest blowout victory in basketball history.

we better get a great replacement or im denouncing les and the f.o.

get that spurs assistant and i believe he would have a scottie brooks type of effect with OKC.. mario elie and elson turner are very intiguing prospects as well.. just NO mike brown