Adelman and Aristotle

I believe it was the great Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who once said, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Wise beyond his years, Aristotle was. Even though he was simply telling a nearby eunuch to quit fiddling with the DVD player, Aristotle’s words still enlighten the human soul to this day.

Unfortunately, Aristotle’s wisdom hasn’t quite resonated with the Houston Rockets coaching staff. Too bad Rick Adelman wasn’t in Aristotle’s marble chambers that chilly night in 346 B.C.E. to hear the philosopher’s profound proclamation. If Rick had been there, not only would he have been bewildered by Aristotle’s owning of a DVD player despite humanity’s non-knowledge of electricity, but he would have also learned a very valuable lesson.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! If Yao Ming is bigger and better than everyone else, keep feeding him the rock! Why on earth would you stray away from the immaculate game plan of Yao crushing the competition when it’s obviously been working wonders?

Going in to last night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Houston Rockets were 6-1, with their only loss being a fledgling defeat to Dallas in a game where Yao Ming saw fewer balls tossed his way than Rosie O’Donnell at a male strip joint. So lesson learned, right? Apparently not. Last night the Rockets were handed their second defeat of the season at the paws of the Memphis Grizzlies. Once again, Yao was a non-factor.

Yao was virtually man-handled on defense the entire game by Darko Milicic’s quick turnaround hook shot. Instead of feeding Yao in the post on offense and letting him save face by tooling Darko around on the other end of the floor, the Rockets’ point guards decided to try and take the game in to their own hands.

Rafer Alston and Mike James need to learn that neither one of them are Tony Parker—that little running teardrop isn’t going to cut it. Neither is a combined 6-19 shooting. If you have Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming on your team, use them. TMac did his job by dropping 41 points and making it look easier than a drunken sorority girl. But where were the rest of the Rockets? I can’t recall one play from last night’s game where Yao worked the post like he’s been doing all season (minus the game versus Dallas).

So here’s what I don’t get. If making Yao the crux of your offense works so wondrously every game, why stray away from that winning formula?

Hey Rick, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!