Sorry, Rick

There was a moment late in the game against the Clippers last week that really crystallized this thought: Kings’ coach Rick Adelman, much-maligned this year in the press, on talk shows, and even in this blog, deserves some recognition as Coach of the Year.

The Kings were up by four and came out of a timeout in a rare zone defense. It threw the Clippers off, they turned the ball over, and the Kings scored quickly on the other end. Now all teams have a zone defense they use, some more than others, so it’s no sensation the Kings have one too. The fact is, all the other teams had pre-season to work on their zone defense while Adelman has had to piece his together on the fly. Because of injuries and mid-season trades, this current team has had no practice time, no ability to drill over and over the defensive shifts of a zone.

If you look back in the history of sports, mid-season blockbuster trades rarely help either team right away. There may be a burst of quick wins as there were in Indiana this year, but ultimately the team’s chemistry is so thrown off with unfamiliar faces, that they eventually look like strangers on the court and the losses pile up. This hasn’t been the case in Sacramento this year. Who would have thought taking a gamble on the mercurial Ron Artest could be managed so well, especially at mid-season?

Artest has been given a lot of the credit for the resurgence of the Kings, and deservedly so. Each player has stepped up their defensive play to such a level that even Mike Bibby is bragging about his defense. The Kings have always been a leaderless team and either Artest is leading by words and example or the players are afraid of what Artest might do to them should they miss a defensive assignment.

Giving Artest his share of the due is appropriate, but you don’t hear much credit going to Adelman. Despite the fact his team has had the mid-season makeover, battled through countless injuries, and said good-bye to very popular teammates, the Kings are 23-10 since they were at a season-low eight games under .500. Over the same 33-game span, only the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks have a better record in the West.

We can certainly say Artest was the catalyst for the turnaround, but it is also true that Adelman has been able to gradually get his players to coalesce into a system that fits this particular team. The Kings are no longer the pretty team with behind-the-back passing and quick-shooting three-point specialists. They defend tough, they rebound with enthusiasm despite undersized starters at center and power forward, and they’re economical with their shots. Or as Bibby best describes the new Kings, “we’re four power forwards and a point guard.”

Somebody had to stage manage this progression and someone had to work hard to develop ways to exploit the match-ups that most coaches would view as a headache. And this person had to do it without the luxury of practice time and without a contract for next season. He sits on the end of the Kings bench and never demands the respect he has earned over the past 16 years in which he has won 753 games – or an average of 47 wins each year. To Rick Adelman, my apologies for suggesting your firing and I hope the League, your team, and especially your owners realize what an impossible coaching job you have done this year.

Now, if you somehow slip up and don’t make the playoff, or the Kings are an early exit in the playoffs, please be ready to hear more talk show callers asking for you to be fired and replaced by …. That’s always been the rub, hasn’t it Rick, whose better than you not named Pop, Sloan, Larry, or Zenmaster?