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Adelman quietly builds yet another contender
HOUSTON It was going to take the right situation to lure him back to the
NBA for one more coaching stint. When the Houston Rockets called,
Adelman knew it was a good fit, and their first season together has
turned out as well as anyone could've expected.
The Rockets reeled off 22 consecutive wins to reach first place
in the Western Conference, an unthinkable plateau when they were
15-17 in late December. The streak ended in a 20-point loss to
Boston on Tuesday and the Rockets looked exhausted in a 90-69 loss
in New Orleans on Wednesday.
But Houston is still in the thick of the playoff race nearly
four weeks after Yao Ming sustained a season-ending foot injury.
Role players are having career years, rookies are making valuable
contributions and a smothering defense is keeping the Rockets
competitive in every game.
"It's been very satisfying," said Adelman, who signed a
four-year contract with Houston. "Just to see the guys play the
way they've played, with the excitement that they have and the
energy level they've brought night after night no matter who we've
played, as a coach, it's been fun to see."
The streak alone -- the second-longest in NBA history -- may be
enough to earn the 61-year-old Adelman his first coach of the year
award in 17 seasons. He's only missed the postseason twice, and
heading into Friday night's game against Golden State needed two
wins to become the 13th coach to reach 800.
"He's a very astute guy about the game behind that kind of 'Oh,
shucks' demeanor,"' said Jack Ramsay, the Hall of Fame coach who
hired Adelman as an assistant in Portland in 1983. "He's a bright,
thoughtful guy with great experience as a player and a coach. He's
always taken what he has and maximized it. That's the sign of a
really good coach."
Adelman was promoted to head coach in Portland during the
1988-89 season, replacing the fired Mike Schuler. Clyde Drexler,
then a Blazers guard and now an analyst on Rockets' local
television broadcasts, said Adelman instantly connected with the
team.
"He's a good human being and the players sensed that
immediately," Drexler said. "He'll never embarrass a player,
he'll never call one out to make a point. He's always respected his
players and always got a lot of respect from his players because of
that."
Drexler said Adelman also always invited players' input and was
willing to adjust his strategy. The Blazers went 59-23 in Adelman's
first full season and made the NBA finals.
"It worked so well, because he would be open to suggestions,"
Drexler said. "We would ask to change things and he would say,
'OK. Yeah, let's try it. That will work.' It all came together
through communication, and then with the hard work to get to that
stage."
The Blazers won 63 games in the regular season in 1990-91, then
reached the finals again in '91-92. Portland ranked among the NBA's
top five scoring teams in each of Adelman's first three seasons,
but Drexler said Adelman never got his due for how well he coached
defense.
"That's why we won so many, we created offense from our
defense," he said. "Most teams never knew what hit them."
Adelman has led five teams in his career that finished regular
seasons ranked among the top five in scoring defense. Drexler said
Adelman liked building a roster with "interchangeable" players,
giving him more versatility to match up with teams, particularly at
the defensive end.
With the Rockets, he's lucky to have Shane Battier, who gamely
guards each opponents' best individual scorer, and Dikembe Mutombo,
still a shot-blocking presence at age 41. He also has energetic
forwards Luis Scola, Carl Landry and Chuck Hayes grabbing 17
rebounds per game.
At the start of this week, the Rockets ranked fourth in scoring
defense (91.7 points per game), trailing only Boston, Detroit and
San Antonio.
"As a team, they truly believe they all have a stake in this
team winning," Adelman said. "No one's been down. If they haven't
played, they just keep playing. Sticking together as a team is
about as true as you can get with this group."
Adelman built the same team concept in eight years in
Sacramento. He tweaked his motion offense with the help of former
Princeton coach Pete Carril, but gave his players the freedom to
improvise, like he did in Portland.
Houston point guard Bobby Jackson, who played in Sacramento from
2000-05, said the offense gave everyone a chance to score and that
Adelman benched players who didn't take advantage. The Kings led
the NBA in scoring three straight seasons and reached 50 wins in
five straight.
"His plays are not set for one player, they're set for all five
guys on the court," said Jackson, who averaged 15 points per game
in 2002-03. "And if you're not shooting the ball, then you're
coming out of the game."
Jackson came to Houston in a trade with New Orleans last month.
Adelman hadn't changed a bit.
"Sometimes, I don't want to play point guard all the time.
Sometimes, I need to be free, so I can be more aggressive,"
Jackson said. "He gives me that freedom. He's not like, 'No, this
is my way.' He adjusts. If his players say something isn't going
right, he'll listen and make that change. That's why players like
him so much."
The Rockets took a while to grasp Adelman's system. They dropped
six straight games in November and never won more than three in a
row before the end of 2007.
Adelman kept promising his players that the offense, similar to
what he ran in Sacramento, would eventually click.
"It's not too hard for me to remember the way it was," he
said. "We were shooting very poorly, we were playing very
inconsistent, we had a really difficult schedule, so we were just
up and down, all over the place."
Leading scorer Tracy McGrady went out with a knee injury in late
December and the season was leaning toward a disaster. But Adelman
calmly turned to rookies Landry and Aaron Brooks and reserves like
Hayes, Luther Head and Steve Novak, and finally, it all started to
work.
"I said I was going to give it about 25 games, then evaluate
where we were," he said. "The young guys really gave us a lot of
energy. That was the time we started turning it around."
McGrady returned on Jan. 19 and the Rockets have lost only three
games since. When Yao went out, Adelman adjusted again, giving more
minutes to Scola, another rookie, and calling more pick-and-roll
plays. The Rockets went on their winning streak one game after
Scola entered the starting five.
"Rick has been through every situation you can imagine in the
NBA," Battier said. "There is no situation that can surprise him.
He's been great from the standpoint of, even when we struggled
early on, he maintained faith in our team and kept telling us to
keep believing in the plan. It's served us well."
Adelman never got too excited during the streak, just like he
never panicked through the spate of early losses. He never talked
about the streak, but set more tangible goals -- getting the No. 1
spot in the West, finishing off a perfect February, mentally
preparing for the inevitable loss. And the Rockets listened.
"Rick is probably the most calm guy. He's probably a Triple-C --
he's cool, calm and collected," said point guard Rafer Alston, who
put up career-best numbers during the streak. "We were losing six
or seven in a row and Rick didn't flinch. And we won 18 straight
and Rick still didn't flinch, did not jump for joy. That's one
thing that impressed me most about him."
Adelman, with a 61 percent postseason winning percentage, always
says he's looking no further than the next game. But Drexler said
his old coach wouldn't have taken this job if he didn't think the
Rockets had the potential to win a championship soon.
"He's the best coach out there who's never won an NBA
championship," Drexler said. "This team is probably the most
talented team that's never been to the second round of the NBA
playoffs in the last five years. When you get a team that's
talented, with a coach that's capable, qualified and hungry, that's
a great mix.
"He hasn't won a championship and that's what this team needs.
It seems like they're driving each other right now."
