JOEL BLANK
Bzdelik's retirement is the biggest blow yet to Rockets defense
Sep 17, 2018, 7:41 am
Jeff Bzdelik's retirement comes at a bad time for the Rockets. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Jeff Bzdelik is retiring as the top Rockets assistant coach under Mike D'Antoni. With a little less than 10 days before the start of training camp, the timing of this move seems strange. My first thought is to hope this was purely a personal decision made with fumes in the tank and no desire to grind out another year of extensive travel and tape study. You hope there is nothing wrong health-wise with him or his family and pray that he can walk away from a lifetime of basketball completely at peace with his accomplishments.
He has had just about every job within basketball operations and administration. He has scouted in small gyms and broken down tape until the wee hours of the morning. He has been the low man on the totem poll and the top dog as a head coach, on both the professional and collegiate levels. He has always been known as a hard worker that is willing to put in long hours in a thankless profession in which you are only as good as your last game and rarely outlive your last contract. He carved out a niche as a defensive guru and used that reputation along with his long standing relationships within the game to make himself a "lifer" in a sport he has always loved.
Pat Riley said that there is no one in the NBA that has more knowledge, wisdom or experience in defending today's NBA than Jeff Bzdelik. If you have any doubts as to how valuable and how good Jeff Bzdelik is as a defensive coach, look no further than his last coaching job as the "Defensive Cordinator" of the Houston Rockets. Before Mike D'Antoni brought him to H-town as his top assistant, the Rockets were 20th in Defensive efficiency and 21st in defensive rating, as well as being last in the entire league in defensive rebounding rate.
Houston gave up a little under 106 points per game and had little understanding of team defensive concepts, rotations, rebounds or helping the helper when the ball was in thier opponents hands. In his first year at the helm as the Rockets Secretary of Defense, he got them to climb to 16th in the NBA in defensive rating and this past year they had soared all the way to 6th.
Taking it a step further, over the last two months of the schedule they were the third best team defensively in the entire NBA and thier defensive rebounding had sky rocketed into the top 5, sitting firmly at number 3. The team was a top 2 offense and a top 6 defense and that was enough to set the franchise record for regular season wins with 65 victories. If Chris Paul doesn't pull a hamstring, we all know the Rockets very well could've been sitting on fire trucks, cruising towards city hall, while hoising the Larry O'Brien trophy. As good as Mike D'Antoni has been in leading this team, they would be nowhere near the unit they were without the defensive mind of Bzdelik.
Looking forward, the question now becomes, who will the Rockets get to replace him? After all, this was a guy that has a great rapport with all his players including new addition Carmelo Anthony, as Bzdelik was his first NBA head coach while the two of them were in Denver. He got the team to buy in to what he was selling and sell out to achieve the results they needed to get stops on a consistent basis. On top of needing to be a good communicator and someone that can be trusted, whoever succeeds him has to put the time in necessary to get the roster to respect them and listen to them on a daily basis. All of that takes time and time is not on the Rockets side.
We all know this team can score points with the best of them and D'Antoni has total control of the offense. Coaching defense in the NBA is a lost art and there are very few coaches that have the resume or are as highly respected as Jeff Bzdelik and what he did with Houston. Considering the fact that most of the good coaches that fit the bill and have similar skill sets already have jobs this close to the start of training camps opening in the NBA, Houston could be hard pressed to find a suitable replacement.
After losing 2 of their 5 best defenders this off season and not replacing either Trevor Ariza or Luc Mbah a Moute with anyone close to their ability to get stops, you thought it couldn't get any worse for a team that desperately needs to prevent their opponents from attacking the rim and getting wide open shots. Who knew the biggest blow to their defense was yet to come? Let's hope D'Antoni and Daryl Morey have a good list of unemployed coaches that can step in late in the game and provide the defensive master mind the team desperately needs, because you wanted Bzdelik on that ball, you needed him on it, and now he is gone.
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With the Astros now officially ten games under .500 for the season, manager Joe Espada is taking a lot of heat from the fanbase for the team's struggles.
While we don't agree with the sentiment, we even hear fans clamoring for the return of Dusty Baker and Martin Maldonado, thinking the Astros wouldn't be in this mess if they were still here.
Which is ridiculous. First of all, Maldonado has been awful for the White Sox, hitting .048 (even worse than Jose Abreu's .065). And for those of you that think his work with the pitching staff justifies his pathetic offense. Let me say this: Where was Maldy's game calling genius for Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez last year? All of them regressed significantly.
And as far as Baker is concerned, we have no idea how much a difference he would make, we can only speculate. Baker would also be dealing with a pitching staff ravaged with injuries. And let's not forget, Baker was the guy that refused to move Jose Abreu down in the batting order, even though he would finish the regular season with the ninth-worst OPS in baseball.
The reality of the situation is managers can only do so much in baseball. Which leads us to something else that needs to be considered. Is Espada being handcuffed by the front office? Espada and GM Dana Brown both said recently that Jon Singleton was going to get more at-bats while they give Abreu time off to try to figure things out. Yet, there Abreu was in the lineup again in the opening game of the Cubs series.
It makes us wonder how much power does Espada truly have? The Astros have some other options at first base. Yainer Diaz may only have eight games played at the position, but how much worse could he be than Abreu defensively? Abreu already has four errors, and Diaz is obviously a way better hitter. Victor Caratini isn't considered a plus offensive player, but his .276 batting average makes him look like Babe Ruth compared to Abreu. Let him catch more often and play Diaz at first. Starting Diaz at first more often could also lengthen his career long-term.
Maybe that's too wild of a move. Okay, fine. How about playing Mauricio Dubon at first base? I understand he doesn't have much experience at that position, but what's the downside of trying him there? If he can play shortstop, he can play first base. He's driving in runs at a higher rate (11 RBIs) than everyone on the team outside of Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez. And he's producing like that as part-time player right now.
The other criticism we see of Espada is his use of Jon Singleton to pinch hit late in games. Let's be real, though, who else does Espada have on the roster to go to? Batting Abreu late in games in which you're trailing should be considered malpractice. Espada can only use who he has to work with. This all really stems from the Astros poor farm system.
They don't have anyone else to turn to. The draft picks the club lost from the sign-stealing scandal are really hurting them right now. First and second rounders from 2020 and 2021 should be helping you in 2024 at the big league level.
Maybe they go to Astros prospect Joey Loperfido soon, but after a hot start he has only two hits in his last six games.
Finally, we have to talk about what seems like a committee making baseball decisions. Lost in a committee is accountability. Who gets the blame for making poor decisions?
As time continues to pass it looks like moving on from former GM James Click was a massive mistake. He's the guy that didn't sign Abreu, but did trade Myles Straw (recently DFA'd) for Yainer Diaz and Phil Maton. He also built an elite bullpen without breaking the bank, and helped the club win a World Series in 2022.
The reality of the situation is Dusty Baker and James Click are not walking back through that door. And all good runs come to an end at some point. Is this what we're witnessing?
Don't miss the video above as we hit on all the points discussed and much more!
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