Adelman & McGrady

I like Rick Adelman and think he is one of the more underrated coaches in the NBA, especially in terms of his offensive coaching and strategy. His true downfall is relying too heavily on his best player and not managing the season properly, a skill at which Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson excel.

Tracy McGrady apparently tried to pass the blame to his coach.

First, McGrady critiqued Landry. "I hit the ball off the glass, and Carl just mistimed it," McGrady said. If he had to say something, it might be about how he didn't block out Okur, or how he should have grabbed the rebound. Instead, he pointed to Adelman. "That was the point where Dikembe (Mutombo) and those guys should have been in the game, because we would have called a timeout had we gotten the rebound."

The most tellin part of the statement is the final line of this article:

Ironically, Adelman had used much of his news conference to defend McGrady.

That is another reason I like Adelman. He never blames players or calls them out in the press like other coaches. I see this attitude even down to the junior high level where coaches yell at players to make sure the crowd understans that the mistake was the player's fault, not the coaches. College and NBA coaches get to use the media, since nobody can hear them in the arena.

McGrady misses the block out and gives up a rebound and he blames the coach for not putting in another player to take his spot. Way to lead, Tmac! Way to look for an out. This attitude may explain why Tmac has yet to win a play-off series.