What's your take on the subbing Yao out for Chuck Hayes against "small" teams at the end games? I noticed in your writeup of the game that you didn't like the charge call (noting that Shane would have gotten the stop on his own). In that situation, do you prefer a bigger interior presence like Yao at the basket?
hmmm, why am I not surprised you show up here? Let's see, "The way to do this correctly was.. The incorrect way to do it, on the other hand..". "Correct strategies.." So, he speaks authoritatively as if he is such a strategist and is better than those coaches, well, at least Doc Rivers and Bull's coach. And he speaks of Nate McMillan knows Rick would foul almost matter of factly. In fact, Rick doesn't like to foul in those situations. I don't know what would he say if that substitution didn't work out, like so many times before in Rockets games. "the correct...urghhh" Let's face it, Hollinger uses ex-post evidences to make himself look like know it all all the time, just like so many of his stat/odds articles. Ex-ante? He picked the Blazers to win in 6. But you won't find that he mentions it in his "I tell you what the odds are, what the correct strategy is" writings.
Any article that details how overrated doc rivers is gets an A+ in my book. Dude just rode an ainge-mchale reach-around trade to a title and somehow got a load of "what a great coach" BS out of it.
OMG. Are we reading the same article? He analyzes the lineup and substitution strategies for Sunday and gives effusive priase to Adelman for taking full advntage of it. He says other teams missed out on exploiting said strategies. I think you're the only person who interpreted it this way.
Do you actually disagree with anything he said in the article? I think he undervalues Yao's impact as an interior defender when he says Chuck is "by far" the best one remaining on the team. That's one thing that stood out to me. Personally, I don't really care about his tone or him not prefacing his comments with "IMO"; for the most part the basketball arguments made sense to me. And it hardly matters that he isn't a fortune-teller and missed on the series prediction. You can be the greatest basketball mind who ever lived, and you still won't predict the outcome of a 4/5 playoff matchup with a high degree of accuracy.
Yao has been subbed out for defensive purposes since his 2nd year in the leauge... nothing new about that. I did think we needed to foul when we were up 3... given that Blake, Fernandez, and Roy (even Aldridge) have hit every desparation late 3 thus far in this series... but lucky for us, they drew up a low percentage play and shot for none of the above players simply based on the premise that we were going to foul.
the smartest thing Adelman did was leave AB out until the final seconds for free throws Lowry's play allowed us to get back in it.
hmm..I'm pretty confident I won't be the only one. Many people think he's full of himself. Yes, when you call coaching decision you disagree on "Kindergarten class", you are full of yourself. FYI, there were instances RA didn't take out Yao. What would Hollinger say then? "The incorrect strategy..."?
You probably know what my position is. The end of the game sub situation is more complicated than what he seemingly makes it out to be. It depends on clock, matchups, etc, sometimes, the "feel" of the coach. Like Rick said: Chuck makes me look good. Good for Rick.
Adelman has one of the best basketball minds in the league and he doesn't get any credit on this board.
It's really sad to see on the finger pointing on Adleman after every single loss but when the team wins, it's like he doesn't even exist most of the time.
I was pumped when the hire was announced. I've been a huge fan of the Coogs for as long as I can remember, going back to Elvin Hayes through Phi Slamma Jamma in basketball, and tried to follow Drexler when he was with Portland. Adelman was the best coach he had there, easily, IMO. Thought he was a great coach there and with the Kings and couldn't believe we were lucky enough to get him. The BS he's taken here has simply been rediculous. All the talk of him "sleeping on the bench" during games, when he was busy figuring out what he had, how to use them, and preparing for the playoffs. Sleeping on the bench? The guy has been as animated as anyone could ask for on the sidelines during this series, drawing up plays, making key substitutions, working the refs. Constantly working the refs. Coach A ranks up there at the top with just a few other active coaches.
His 10 seconds rule isn't actually hard science as he stated. If the opponent hits both FTs and you miss one, ll of a sudden you are looking at a 2 point game with about 9 seconds to go, which is plenty to fire up a 3 pointer in NBA. Then, do you foul again?
LOL its not like Adelman has been doing the Chuck Hayes-Yao Ming sub all season long. If he had people wouldn't be complaining that he uses Yao Ming without any rest, and that he glued Mutombo to the pine all season. That game was the most active I've ever seen him. A lot of the criticism Adelman received was warranted, because his substitutions were atrocious! How many time did we give up a lead because he pulls the second unit who were playing so well and inserts the starting unit back in? But for some reason Adelman has taken it to another gear in the playoffs and I'm starting to see how he had such a good win/loss record. Adelman has been doing a great job since the playoffs began (minus the game 2 where he had another brain-dead performance), and just about the only complaint I have of him is he still hasn't talked to Ron about limiting his shot attempts each game.
You're right, Rockets fans have seen the Yao-Hayes substitution so often that it's almost expected. It kind of feels like complimenting Popovich for putting in Bruce Bowen in a late-game defensive stand. But to be honest, that last Hayes charge did catch me by surprise.
I have seen him LIVE at games many times. The guy gets on the ref almost every play. I have NO FREAKING IDEA where this dumbass "Idleman" nickname came from.
I can only speculating what Hollinger would say IF the refs called the charge foul on Chuck on that last play, and the Rockets ended up losing. You know it's always 50-50 with that kind of play, but the favor usually goes to the big name players & and the home team. We got lucky with it this time.
As has been pointed out, can you really be arguing against Hollinger's thesis? That it's better to substitute in rebounding specialists for end-of-game rebounding situations, when one knows a timeout will immediately be called, and those rebounders can be subsequently rebenched? That it's better to manage on-court personnel to maximize one's odds of grabbing a rebound/gaining possession in the last minutes of a playoff game? In your view, should it really take years of NBA head-coaching experience (which, btw, Del Negro doesn't exactly have) to notice this scenario, or describe it in print? And do you really think it's a winning strategy to pick a fight with one of the few knowledgeable basketball writers, not just on this basketball board, but on the NBA beat itself? Where is the upside? "Yeah, yeah, I know you're willing to regularly post under your actual name on a team basketball BBS, but f- you for defending a fellow scribe for making an accurate point."
