Rick Adelman's top priority as the new Houston Rockets' coach is to make life easier for Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.

After sitting out a season, the 60-year-old Adelman was introduced at a news conference on Wednesday, ending a strange, two-week courtship that began before Houston fired Jeff Van Gundy.

Adelman met owner Les Alexander for the first time on May 11 and shared his ideas on making Yao and McGrady more dynamic offensive players. 

"I've always felt that if you can put a player in a position to be better, and they know that's happening, that's going to make the team better and they're going to buy into what you're trying to do," Adelman said. "I know that's successful, because I've done it in the past."

"We will be able to be up-tempo," he was quoted as saying by the Houston Chronicle. "Up-tempo can be somewhat exaggerated. I call it more of a flow of the game. You get more of a chance to react to what the defense is doing.

"Watching Yao, it's not how fast you are; it's your intent to get up and down the court. If you get into good quick action, that's what we try to do: get into something quicker, not just walk it down. Call a play. I don't see why you can't do that."

Adelman, however, clearly feels Yao has room for improvement.

"He's a great shooter. I think he can be a very good passer. I think he's ready for that now," the paper quoted him as saying

"If he can shoot 87 percent from the free-throw line, I have a feeling he can make a free-throw-line jumper. You're not going to just see him at the low post. It's my hope you're not going to see him just as a scorer; you're going to see him as a playmaker, too."

Alexander was sold on Adelman almost immediately.

"One of the first things he said to me was, 'I think I can make life easier for your two big stars," Alexander said. "I can put them in positions where they can, instead of going uphill all the time trying to score, they can be more relaxed and have an easier time scoring.' That's one of the keys to this team being a big winner - having our two best players in a position where they can be more efficient."

Adelman's introduction comes five days after Van Gundy was dismissed. The Rockets went 52-30 last season, their best record in 10 years. But Houston never advanced to the second round of the playoffs in his four seasons.

While the dust settles following the coaching shake-up, Yao has been busy improving his game with Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon.

Yao worked out with Olajuwon at the Toyota Center on Tuesday, and he was clearly thrilled by the opportunity to work with a player he has been compared against so many times.

"For a young player, how many people get this chance?" Yao said.

"I'm the honored one of those."

The 44-year-old Olajuwon is the National Basketball Association's career leader in blocked shots (3,830) and led the Rockets to their only two championships in 1994 and '95.

Olajuwon worked with Yao for about 90 minutes, picking apart Yao's post moves and giving him pep talks along the way.

"How do you dominate the game?" Olajuwon asked his attentive protege. "You are hardworking, you have the conditioning, you have the shots. You have everything. Now, you have to dominate."

Olajuwon showed off a few of his old moves, too, dropping in some baseline jumpers and jump hooks as easily as he did 10 years ago.

"The biggest difference between him and me is the mentality," Yao said. "He's got two championship rings. I can hear very strongly from him, 'You are the biggest player on the court. You need to go in and change the game. You need to be dominant.' He repeated that time and time again. I feel a little bit different. I feel his heart."

Adelman has led teams beyond the first round seven times in 14 postseason appearances, including two trips to the NBA finals with Portland in the early 1990s, and an improved Yao could see him improve on that impressive record.

He has a 752-481 record in 16 seasons and is 70-68 in the playoffs. His teams are known for playing a more up-tempo style, a contrast to Van Gundy's more methodical approach that emphasized defense.

(China Daily via Agencies May 25, 2007)