Adelman Hired & Suns Plight
> The Houston Rockets became the first team to finalize their coaching search today (5/23) by hiring Rick Adelman to replace the fired Jeff Van Gundy. JVG was 182-146 during his four seasons in Houston, but he was only 7-12 in the playoffs and never got the Rockets to the second round. While there’s no doubt Jeff is a good coach, he is what is he is at this point. You know he’ll give you a great defensive team that struggles offensively. That may have worked in the late 90’s, but with the direction the league is going these days Van Gundy’s style makes him a dinosaur more or less.
The appointment of Adelman as head man is pretty much the typical overreaction by an NBA front office. JVG was an intense all D and no O leader, so of course what the franchise needs now is a laid back all O no D coach instead. I also have to question how Houston GM Daryl Morey handled this whole situation. In his first “official” move in charge, Morey interviewed Rick before Jeff was even fired. You may call it semantics, but that’s not a great first impression to the rest of the league.
Even though Adelman (752-481 career) may seem like your standard coaching carousel retread, he’s really not. Rick has only missed the post season twice in 16 seasons (both with Golden State), and really didn’t deserve to be fired from Sacramento in the first place (judging by how the Kings performed after he left). Adelman *will* develop an offense that works for both Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming alike. Rick is also known as a good communicator who players generally tend to like. I’m not sure if Adelman is best guy for this job, but there are certainly many worse options to be sure.
> I mentioned yesterday how Atlanta ended up with two picks in the lottery, but what I failed to point out is how this affects Phoenix. The Suns whole retooling plan was hinging on them getting the #4 pick. It's going to be very interesting to see what coach/GM Mike D'Antoni can do without it now.
There’s no sugar coating it, D’Antoni’s track record out of the gate as GM has been awful. He drafted Rajon Rondo and Sergio Rodriguez (arguably the two best PG’s in the 2006 draft) and promptly traded both so he could sign Marcus Banks (5 years, $20.8 million). Needless to say, that was a MAJOR gaffe. However Banks is not alone in the bust department, Mike also signed Eric Piatkowski, Sean Marks, Jumaine Jones and Jalen Rose; none of whom contributed at all this season. He is 1 for 2 on contract extensions (Leandro Barbosa good & Boris Diaw bad), but everything else he’s touched has turned to stone.
So what does Phoenix do now with a mandate from owner Robert Sarver not to pay the luxury tax? You can forget about trading Amare Stoudemire and the #4 pick for Kevin Garnett. Also out the window is dumping Shawn Marion’s salary and drafting his replacement at #4. The task gets that much tougher for D’Antoni if assistant GM David Griffin and lead assistant coach Marc Iavaroni both bolt for Seattle. I wonder if Sarver wishes he ponied up for reigning Executive of the Year and former Suns GM Bryan Colangelo now?
The appointment of Adelman as head man is pretty much the typical overreaction by an NBA front office. JVG was an intense all D and no O leader, so of course what the franchise needs now is a laid back all O no D coach instead. I also have to question how Houston GM Daryl Morey handled this whole situation. In his first “official” move in charge, Morey interviewed Rick before Jeff was even fired. You may call it semantics, but that’s not a great first impression to the rest of the league.
Even though Adelman (752-481 career) may seem like your standard coaching carousel retread, he’s really not. Rick has only missed the post season twice in 16 seasons (both with Golden State), and really didn’t deserve to be fired from Sacramento in the first place (judging by how the Kings performed after he left). Adelman *will* develop an offense that works for both Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming alike. Rick is also known as a good communicator who players generally tend to like. I’m not sure if Adelman is best guy for this job, but there are certainly many worse options to be sure.
> I mentioned yesterday how Atlanta ended up with two picks in the lottery, but what I failed to point out is how this affects Phoenix. The Suns whole retooling plan was hinging on them getting the #4 pick. It's going to be very interesting to see what coach/GM Mike D'Antoni can do without it now.
There’s no sugar coating it, D’Antoni’s track record out of the gate as GM has been awful. He drafted Rajon Rondo and Sergio Rodriguez (arguably the two best PG’s in the 2006 draft) and promptly traded both so he could sign Marcus Banks (5 years, $20.8 million). Needless to say, that was a MAJOR gaffe. However Banks is not alone in the bust department, Mike also signed Eric Piatkowski, Sean Marks, Jumaine Jones and Jalen Rose; none of whom contributed at all this season. He is 1 for 2 on contract extensions (Leandro Barbosa good & Boris Diaw bad), but everything else he’s touched has turned to stone.
So what does Phoenix do now with a mandate from owner Robert Sarver not to pay the luxury tax? You can forget about trading Amare Stoudemire and the #4 pick for Kevin Garnett. Also out the window is dumping Shawn Marion’s salary and drafting his replacement at #4. The task gets that much tougher for D’Antoni if assistant GM David Griffin and lead assistant coach Marc Iavaroni both bolt for Seattle. I wonder if Sarver wishes he ponied up for reigning Executive of the Year and former Suns GM Bryan Colangelo now?
posted by D$ at 8:48 PM
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