Everybody knows I think Rick Adelman is a great coach and one of the more underappreciated basketball minds we have. I think in many respects he'll do wonders for the program but I am a little leary of the way the roster is built right now. You have essentially a low-post presence in Yao Ming (something Rick's never had--Chris Webber is close, but...), and a half-court one-on-one type in T-Mac (something he had in Clyde Drexler). Glide was better than T-Mac in the open court and was more fit and less injury prone. Now its not that I think this is a bad hire but I question the motives and circumstances behind it.
It's no secret that the owner of the Rockets (forget his name) was jealous of Phoenix' run-n-gun style and all the league-wide fanfare and excitement that has gone with it. He never liked the defensive, plodding style of Jeff Van Gundy and blamed him for sagging profits and empty seats. He was the driving force behind his firing--which I feel was fairly undeserved. He thought Van Gundy had a choice, well, guess what genius--when you hve a 7'5 giant and a big two guard you don't have much choice but to play a half-court game methodically picking apart the other team and eventually making them succumb to size and strength. Defensively you have to slow the tempo down so they don't run past your team--which means transition defense and rebounding. If you're going to have Yao play 35 minutes, you can't be Run-n-Gun.
I think that this owner thinks Rick Adelman has some magical wand that he'll wave and Poof!, instantly make the Rockets players play the offensively fluid and beautiful game Sacramento had during their heyday. Yao making backdoor, baseline passes to a cutting Tracy McGrady; Rafer Alston running a motion offense; Chuck Hayes flying down court making spectacular dunks and behind the back passes. I think the owner will at the very least expect Rick to turn the Rockets into Suns Lite and micromanage Rick's priorities to that end. Rick molds the gameplan around the roster--not the other way around. His Portland Trailblazers played a very, very different game from his Sacramento Kings and both were wildly successful. If I'm right about the Rockets owner and his motives for hiring Adelman, this will end badly for the both of them. The best thing he can do for Rick is let him coach the way he sees fit without any preconceived notions of what kind of style he'll bring to the Rockets.