Houston Rockets: Is It Time for Rick Adelman to Call It Quits?
Over the last few weeks, as the Rockets have traded two key rotation players and made moves for the future to help solidify the team's track moving forward, there has been one issue that has gone unresolved—the case of Rick Adelman and his future with the team.
The most successful coach in franchise history in terms of winning percentage, Adelman has managed to lead the Rockets to four stellar seasons despite losing the stars he planned on having when he took the job.
As Adelman said after the trades this February: "I came to coach Yao and Tracy, and ended up with Luis and Chuck."
With Adelman celebrating his 65th birthday in June and lacking a contract for next year, many have begun to speculate on Adelman's future with the Rockets, surmising that this is his last year with the team.
When asked about it recently, he lamented the lack of an extension offer, saying: "I don't have anything laid out in front of me, unlike some coaches."
He expressed uncertainty about his decision for next year, commenting: "I'm going to have to sit down and think about [coaching next year]."
While Adelman has proven to be one of the best offensive coaches in Rockets' history and an extremely successful man who has had just two losing seasons in a 19-year career, he is not the right man to take the Rockets into the future.
He has been successful with teams with talent (and those without), but the one part of coaching that he has struggled with has been consistently getting young players playing time and being patient with them.
His method of coaching with young players—forcing them to earn playing time with strong play—has been successful with playoff teams on which the young players don't play as much of a role, but with the Rockets, a rebuilding team, that method is not the best.
As the Rockets move forward, they need to give young players who may not be the best fits at their respective positions more time so that they can develop. Then the Rockets can see if players like Hasheem Thabeet, Patrick Patterson, Jordan Hill and Terrence Williams can be high-quality players.
Brad Miller is the Rockets' second-best center right now—to argue otherwise would be preposterous—but Hasheem Thabeet could become a much better player than Miller with time.
Rick Adelman has been a tremendous coach and a great leader for the Rockets over the last four years. He has earned the shot and one more chance at the playoffs and the Rockets owe him that much. But after this year, it is time for change in Houston.
