Adelman Speculation Raises Questions For Rockets
by Tom Martin on Aug 30, 2011 3:01 PM CDT
in Random Commentary
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PrintRick Adelman is discussing contract terms with the Minnesota Timberwolves. You read that correctly.
Rick Adelman is returning to Minneapolis on Tuesday to meet with Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor about the team's coaching vacancy, according to a league source.
Two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Aug. 24 that Adelman had met with Taylor during his first interview in Minneapolis, but the league source said Monday that Taylor's health issues kept the two from talking face to face.
...
Adelman told reporters a month ago that he was planning to sit out the season, but his return to Minneapolis only fortifies the impression that his feelings have changed.
Just a few days earlier, CBS Sports dropped this bit:
Evidently, the Wolves had a pretty good pitch.
According to KSTP-TV in Minneapolis, Adelman is very interested in the job. So much so that he's even lining up would-be assistants.
Yet another reason to combine Houston, Sacramento and Minnesota. They evidently enjoy doing business with each other's current or former commodities. Just put 'em all together and save everyone the time. They'll play in Wichita, Kansas and take over the world.
So Rick Adelman is OK with putting up with young talent? He's okay with coaching a mediocre squad? Hmm.
Jonathan Feigen told me in an interview a while back that Rick Adelman's "competitiveness" has always flown under the radar. He's not a fiery personality like Kevin McHale, but he's a winner. He gets his players to win. Perhaps it's that competitiveness that has him considering the challenge of winning in The Icebox.
I took the tech route on this topic and whipped out the recorder. Here's five minutes of thoughts and analysis on Adelman, the Timberwolves and what the speculation says about Houston's front office:
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Haven't had the chance to listen to the vocals yet.
But do we have another semi “challenge trade” on our hands?
I’m pretty happy with how Lee vs Ariza worked out, particularly going forward.
Adelman for McHale? That doesn’t strike me as an upgrade, with all due respect to McHale. So Rick wants to play young guns? (To be fair he integrated a ton of young talent into the roster anyway – look at the players and you’ll see.) Rick wants to rebuild? Rick thinks the TWolves are close? And who knows? They might be, given the coaching “effort” they had last year. Rick’s system is certainly a better fit for the talent on hand than the triangle.
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Your last few sentences are what I'm all about.
Not necessarily wanting to see wins, but development. In order to see development, you have to give the young guys meaningful minutes. Obviously, Adelman did not do that by keeping Thabeet and T-Will locked up.
At this point, I couldn’t care less about Adelman wanting to go to a young Minnesota team. Maybe he likes their offensive talent (probably one of the few things they have going for them) and their size in the middle. All I care about is that he’s gone. If he doesn’t want to help rebuild this team (don’t necessarily blame him for that, but at the same time, it kind of hurts us in the future), then fuck him. I’m glad he’s gone.
Honestly, Minnesota has a lot more talent than we do, they’ve just lacked a decent coach. Now, they’ll get a Hall of Fame one. He would be a key piece to their puzzle. I imagine that would be one of the main reasons why Adelman is interested in them.
Adelman is absolutely the better coach between him and McHale, but McHale fits a rebuilding team better. He’s a good developmental coach, which is exactly what we need.
Frankly, I don’t understand why we should care about what Adelman does. So what if Morey and Les ran him out of town. Does it matter that much? I don’t think so.
Bottom line is this: we are rebuilding. Adelman showed he did not fit our current team by doing what he did last year. Let’s move on with McHale, and forget Adelman. All in the past.
"Hakeem couldn't kick your ass cuz you were too
close kissin his!"- Sir Charles to Kenny Smith.
This is where I disagree.
Frankly, I don’t understand why we should care about what Adelman does. So what if Morey and Les ran him out of town. Does it matter that much? I don’t think so.
I think it matters when you fire a hall of famer after he does quite well with his roster.
Bottom line is this: we are rebuilding. Adelman showed he did not fit our current team by doing what he did last year. Let’s move on with McHale, and forget Adelman. All in the past.
Clearly, Adelman wanting to go to MINNESOTA proves he’s not willing to rebuild. Or, the exact opposite. This is why I’m intrigued. Based on the roster, he’s okay with temporary losing, evidently.
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"I think girls are probably just better shooters." - Steve Novak
Too many people let nostalgia and personal allegiances get in the way of their judgment.
I think it matters when you fire a hall of famer after he does quite well with his roster.
The back of the line of the NBA lottery and out of the playoffs isn’t what I’d call quite well. I’d say he did admirably but quite well for me is an 8th place appearance. He squeezed wins out of this team but if we’re going to be sentimental about it we have to forget that Adelman had this team doing as well as it could but it wasn’t going to improve our team regardless of how much we like finishing above .500 it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not developing players and drafting high or getting into the playoffs with prospects of improvement, we were doing neither.
Clearly, Adelman wanting to go to MINNESOTA proves he’s not willing to rebuild. Or, the exact opposite. This is why I’m intrigued. Based on the roster, he’s okay with temporary losing, evidently.
Or it could be that he had a change of heart or his differences with the front office were more than just rebuilding. Or is Adelman entirely blameless in a mutual misunderstanding issue? Certainly we want to give Adelman as much benefit of the doubt as possible because we see a HOF’er who came into Houston with the best roster it’s seen since the 90’s and think “He’s so great, it’s not like he didn’t have a fantastic team at his disposal, even without it’s franchise player or anything!”
Here’s my rub with it, Minnesota is a more appealing situation for the following reasons that no one is paying attention to because of Adelman love:
1.) The Front Office in Minnesota is so horrible they’re not going to ask anything of Adelman other than to coach. In Houston they wanted him to use advanced defensive metrics and add a guy onto his staff who would actually act as though defense is a part of the game.
2.) The Wolves have a franchise player. That Kevin Love guy, I hear he’s pretty good.
3.) The only coaching vacancy worth the interview before was LA and they filled that with Mike Brown. If you’re Adelman and still want to coach and the Wolves are among the last left hiring, guess where you take your services.
I’ll get back to contributing Thursday, no class til 5 and I have a gym membership I use in that 2-3 or 1-2 window.
My beingadick-butnotbeinganannoyingdick skills, they're impressive.
-TCWIR paraphrased
Those are pretty much the reasons why I think Minny is a more attractive situation.
"Hakeem couldn't kick your ass cuz you were too
close kissin his!"- Sir Charles to Kenny Smith.
by bone31crusher on Aug 30, 2011 7:43 PM CDT up reply actions
All you need is Love
One of Adelman’s sons was on same HS team as Love and they became pretty good friends.
What I'm saying is Minnesota could be in better position to win sooner than us with Adelman as their coach.
They have a lot of talented players. Put Rick in to coach them up a bit, insert his system, and they could be a pretty good team.
"Hakeem couldn't kick your ass cuz you were too
close kissin his!"- Sir Charles to Kenny Smith.
by bone31crusher on Aug 30, 2011 7:40 PM CDT up reply actions
This is a complete non sequitur
But, this is awesome.
by Patrick Harrel on Aug 30, 2011 5:57 PM CDT reply actions 2 recs
That is awesome
Left hand was a little bit more lateral back in his Bucks days, but that right elbow has always stayed in the same place.
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
Was too far to huck a beer at a Stro’s player as per bone’s request. Jess (girlfriend) said I was too far, I said challenge accepted, a security guard said guess again.-BD34
Reply fail
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
Was too far to huck a beer at a Stro’s player as per bone’s request. Jess (girlfriend) said I was too far, I said challenge accepted, a security guard said guess again.-BD34
That is awesome
Left hand was a little bit more lateral back in his Bucks days, but that right elbow has always stayed in the same place.
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
Was too far to huck a beer at a Stro’s player as per bone’s request. Jess (girlfriend) said I was too far, I said challenge accepted, a security guard said guess again.-BD34
Reply fail
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
Was too far to huck a beer at a Stro’s player as per bone’s request. Jess (girlfriend) said I was too far, I said challenge accepted, a security guard said guess again.-BD34
Few pts
1. On Rick going to Min.
- not a lot to measure up against there in last few years.
- if you keep getting lottery picks surely one year you will strike franchise.
2. On Rick and Morey
- i feel they weren’t on the same page for a couple of years and his time was up.
- Rick was complaining about all the wings we had 2 years ago and nothing was done.
- every time we acquired a player (other than Miller) he would say something like ‘what am I going to do with this player’ or just not play them.
3. Good luck to both, they will need it
- McHale more than RA
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Ahhhh,a basketball discussion,in which I ramble on forever
1)Les. Two successful,very good coaches in a row that have not been renewed. In both cases the Coach did not make it absolutely clear he wanted come back right away. Perhaps Les feels if he’s paying multiple million salaries,he wants his Coach to be totally committed. In neither case Les didn’t feel that commitment,so he looked elsewhere.(Rick w/his family staying in Portland and his not knowing if he wanted to come back/retire musings,JVG wanting time to think it over.)
2)Coaching Staff. Morey and Co. were very unhappy w/parts of the staff. My suspicion falls on Turner. The offense was humming along pretty d*** well,but the defense was falling apart. And the team likely has some very good data that applies esp to defensive use. If the GM/Support Staff were getting frustrated by defensive failings and Turner was in charge of D and he gave the advice based on numbers the brush-off…
The Rockets wanted Adelman to make changes on his staff. Bringing in Finch may have been a slap in the face,but Finch is not a defensive coach,he was to be brought in to learn Adelman’s system and in 3-4 yrs perhaps replace Rick when Rick decided to retire.Bringing in Finch did not mean another coach had to be fired.
But the Rockets apparently DID want Adelman to replace someone,and my bet it was Turner. As Turner was Rick’s right-hand man,that was the final straw for Adelman.
And yes,Turner got a curtesy interview,one he realized for what it was,as immediately afterwards he announced he was not a candidate for the job.
Interestingly enough,the team also interviewed Sikma,a development so bizarre even Sikma afterwords sounded bemused somebody took the time to talk to him and how grateful he was the Rockets did. My guess is they did so because they were thinking of offering him a job working w/the bigs if they didn’t go w/McHale and instead went w/Frank.
3)Development. Sounds bizarre that Adelman wasn’t developing young players in that he developed Brooks and Lowry in starting PGs,got Second Rd picks in Landry and Bud to play significant minutes as rookies,oversaw Patterson turn from a fouling machine into a clutch contributor in a few months,had undrafted Ish Smith ready to go toe-to-toe w.the Spurs for over a half and have him lead the team to its first win of the year.
The no-development charge has to be based on Hill and Williams. While Hill has made huge strides from his first few months after the trade,he is still very much a work in progress. I imagine the Rockets Front Office would have preferred seeing Hill learn on the court instead of having a front row seat for the Brad Miller Experience.(Whereas I’m pretty sure Adelman thought Hill hadn’t earned the minutes and he thought he’d have a better chance of squeezing out a couple more victories w/Miller.)
Then there’s Williams. Williams got off on the wrong foot w/Adelman simply because the Rockets had to unload a player Rick liked in Taylor to get him. Then when Williams showed no desire to learn or play w/in Rick’s offense,Williams got buried in the doghouse’s doghouse.
-side note.If Rick and TWill had seen eye-to-eye and could work it out,there are all kinds of what-ifs that could have drastically changed the Rockets. A Williams that’s putting up 15-18ppg,4-5 rebounds,4-5 assists suddenly makes that Orlando offer of Gortat and likely Vince for Martin and likely Jeffries a lot more acceptable. Williams playing well makes Bud-or Lee-more tradeable,perhaps to Chicago for the 2 firsts,or as package for a Nene. If William is playing well,the team can aggressively shop Battier earlier. A playmaking Williams allows the team to consider moving Brooks and not need to get a PG in return.
I,and I’m pretty sure the team,give Rick a pass on Thabeet. Whatever Thabeet’s eventual fate,I seriously doubt in the middle of a Play-Off chase that anyone expected Adelman and Staff to spend time on developing Thabeet instead of trying to get Hill to stay on the court and teach Dragic the system on the run.
4)Center. Adelman believed if he could get a Center,this team would be a Play-Off team. The implication is that he saw neither Hill,Thabeet or Miller as a starting C. And in the post-season interview the “need to develop” players theme probably made it obvious the team didn’t think it could land a top FA Center(ie Gasol or Nene.)
by Tisbee on Aug 30, 2011 7:36 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Hmm
Rick coaching a young developing team? I’m surprised. However, I’m ecstatic for the T-Wolves fan base. I’m over at Canis Hoopus a lot and those guys deserve some good news like this. I look forward to Adelman’s first trip back to the Toyota Center, even if it will be in 2013 or something.
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
Was too far to huck a beer at a Stro’s player as per bone’s request. Jess (girlfriend) said I was too far, I said challenge accepted, a security guard said guess again.-BD34
I'm going to boo the shit out of Adelman when he comes back to TC.
/T-Will love/
/Thabeet love/
"Hakeem couldn't kick your ass cuz you were too
close kissin his!"- Sir Charles to Kenny Smith.
by bone31crusher on Aug 30, 2011 7:44 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
No news here...
People only read and believe what they want to. Everyone’s logic and I mean everyone’s has been defied with this interview. Rick wants to only coach a contender. Rick only wants to play veterans. Like I’ve said in a previous fanshot, unless Adelmand had interviewing with Minnesota on his bucket list, a lot of assumptions from several contributors can be thrown out the window.
As much $#!T that’s talked about on here about David Kahn and Glenn Taylor, if I had to buy stock in the T-Wolves or Rockets right now, I’d have to go with the T-Wolves. Forget about Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams running an up tempo style of play, you are quick to forget the Brad Miller factor, after all he was traded there. I just wonder if they will let him “disappear” for 2 weeks to record hunting shows.
You can come up with several different reasons why the Adelman-Morey divorce took place, but in all actuality, maybe only those 2 people know exactly why. This goes back to what I’ve said all along….. The people who are sayin “perhaps he had a change of heart” are the same people who said you can’t teach an old dogs new tricks with conviction. You may read everything, but you only believe what you want to.
Wanted: Cornerback, Closer, and Center
You would rather buy stock in the Wolves?
In the last 25 years, they’ve had one good stretch, and it came when they had arguably one of the best 20 players of all time. They are a small market team that repeatedly refuses to spend money to field a contender.
As for people believing what they want, you can basically say that about anything. Like you said, none of us really know the exact reason Adelman and the Rockets parted ways. But it’s time for everyone to move on.
How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!
Was too far to huck a beer at a Stro’s player as per bone’s request. Jess (girlfriend) said I was too far, I said challenge accepted, a security guard said guess again.-BD34
If I was to right now...
I remember a game I was at 3 yrs ago and the Rockets were killing the T Wolves. I’m not sure if it was Randy Whitman or Kevin McHale, pretty sure it was McHale. All I remember mostly was Brian Cook getting some action and it was a blowout. I thought to myself, gosh these guys suck, their coach sucks, their franchise sucks, the Target Center sucks, etc… You get the picture. Meanwhile the Rockets (Ron Artest year) were playing great ball and gearing up for what turned out to be a decent playoff run. How things change in 3 years.
Still, wasn’t a huge fan of the Johnny Flynn/Rubio draft, they were still the laughing stock. Then they traded for Beasley and hired Kurt Rambis. For 2.5 months after this season, Rambis woke up every day not knowing whether or not he had a job. Kahn got pissed one day and made him do like a research paper in an effort to keep his job which again was another head scratcher. Well now they’ve got Love who’s going to be entering his prime, Derrick Williams who’s going to be an athletic beast, Rubio who’s going to be a media dream even though might be over-rated on the court, and guys like Ellington, Wesley Johnson, Beasley, Milicic, Anthony Randolph. Add to this cap room and the possibility of hiring a coach like Rick Adelman… Right now, their shares would probably be the lowest out there, and I would buy. More so than this “makeover” or whatever you want to call down here.
Wanted: Cornerback, Closer, and Center
Regardless who he coaches
that team will be able to score with ease, the main question is the defense. If our gm makes trades and the coach will not play those players then it will be friction. Like i have said a thousand times when Yao got hurt we needed a center to replace him, not T Will and not Thabeet who is a project. Our owner clearly took Morey’s side and like i have said if this so called rebuilding process does not work out then not only does McHale need to be moved, but probaly Morey as well. With this current roster, unless we have injuries or make bad onsided deals, i do not see us being that bad to get a top five pick. So to me like i said it looks like it is a cop out to say we are rebuilding, i just think with all the trade exceptions we have had,expiring contracts,and draft picks, and still not being able to get us that superstar or be able to move up in the draft to get a top five pick the only option left for the fo to do is to say we have to rebuild. I am just curious if we still can’t get a star throughout this year, and we either make the playoffs as a low seed or barely miss the playoffs then it will show like i have been saying that we are not a team that needs total rebuilding, we just need to make a few moves.
by since86rocketsfan on Aug 31, 2011 4:30 PM CDT reply actions
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