(Woj) MDA has ended contract talks with the Rockets

It's harder to get stars to agree to a Sign and Trade when they dun know your long term plan, Morey and Tilman have never been that transparent.

 

The most telling news of the day is that the only offer from the Rockets was a 1-year, performance-based extension. IMO, that points to pretty heavy involvement from Daryl.

If this was just a Tilman thing and purely about money, why wouldn't you at least try a non-performance-based extension at a lower cost? Not like D'Antoni has a lot of outside leverage at his age, and it's not like you're going to eliminate the HC expense if D'Antoni isn't there. They'd just be giving the money to someone else. And we have plenty of examples in the Fertitta era at UH (Herman, Sampson, Holgerson) of him putting a big priority on HCs and being willing to invest, often above the program's weight class.

If this was just about finances, there's no reason to not try a longer-term offer to an older coach and see if he accepts it. He might, given his lack of outside leverage. The fact they clearly did not make a good faith offer to keep him beyond 2020... you don't have to agree with it, but it seems to indicate pretty strongly that it's because someone is skeptical of MDA for basketball reasons.

 

Tilman is in charge now. I think that's the difference.

Wanting to get rid of MDA isn't surprising. But the timing is so crappy. Why did they fire all those assistants BEFORE getting MDA to negotiate an extension? If they were going to force MDA out or let him stay for a lame duck year, then why fire the assistants? If you really don't like the HC's performance, then fire him right after the season and get a clean slate. You've got to secure the HC position first then deal with assembling an assisting staff.

 

Who would be his assistance
Hubie Brown and Mark Jackson?

Rocket River

 

It doesn’t really make sense from Morey to act this way.

And for anyone advocating to trade Harden, dream on.

 

No ****ing kidding he rejected it.

 

At one point there is no reason to compare everything to the 80s and 90s....I know it has been the best era but things are different in the modern era.

People weren't really going to accept salary cuts, and earnings have spiked.

Twitter made things more public.

 

this could be how they lure ty lue in. he wants a head coaching job but we want him as head assistant and MDA out after next year. so... i guess this shows ty the job could be his if all goes well next year.

 

Mike DAntoni is in Manager Brad Mills, Bo Porter Territory when the Astros are going to be really bad, Fire him in season.

Mike is going to be replaced by a Assistant. I hope it's another Rudy Tomjanovich type.

Daryl needs to hire a former NBA player that has experience playing the Game, like Rudy T., Rick Carlisle with Larry Bird Celtics with Championship experience as a player.

Can Matt Bullard Coach, he is very smart, knows Rudy T system. Can he be a Rick Carlisle type, Terry Stotts type.

 

MDA is getting fired soon, right?

 

Well, one theory is they tried to get him to quit secretly and it has not worked so far. At least not immediately.

I dun like MDA but I hope he follows through because I dun like how Morey and this time Fertitta have been dealing with employees.

 

nothing good is happening once Harden is gone unless we get really lucky

We had prime Hakeem, and then how long did it take until we got another MVP caliber player? Teams can easily go a decade plus before getting a true, bonafide top 5 player.

Rockets were wandering the desert thirsting for a legit franchise player for years before Presti saved us

 

I'm not sure what you're saying. I used comparisons from the 80's, 90's, 00's.
The Rockets ARE the 2010's version.

I could go back to the 70's I guess.. the Bullets?? It did take Wes Unseld until year 10 of his playoff runs to actually win a ring. By that point (and long before) he wasn't the team's best player anymore. And they made 2 Finals that they lost before they won.

 

New owner syndrome.

Ignorant dude comes in. Thinks he's hot **** and has all the answers. Blows **** up. It sucks. Years later, he realizes he didn't know wtf he was doing.

Best case scenario is the guy realizes his limitations after only a year or two like Ballmer, but Tilman seems much more delusional.

 

Keep this same energy for Daryl Morey & James Harden.

Speaking from one side of mouth: "Well in fairness to them, Rockets lost to one of, if not, the greatest team ever 4 of the last 5 postseasons. There is no shame in that. They are not chokers!"

Speaking from the other side: "Mike, you gotta go earn that extension bruh! 2nd round exits ain't gonna cut it! Championship or bust!"

 

I am all for coaching change. But like many other have pointed out the timing is unfortunate. We could have done this either a littler earlier or later. In addition, they offered a BS extension to MDA which basically was to insult him. Now he says he intends to complete the final year. What's the next move? Unnecessary drama.

 

None of this makes any sense. This is not a re-building team, and this is not a "let's see what you've got" coach that you give an incentive contract to. They've had him for 3 years and have plenty of info to evaluate him and should know what they think of him. They are committed to going for broke to win a title so they aren't going to waste a year on a coach they don't believe in.

If they think he's the right coach, just extend him. Performance deals make no sense here.
If they think he's the wrong coach, just fire him and move on.

 

Where were your posts when he got hired then

 

Smith: Rockets fail to back D'Antoni during critical summe

This will be spun, talked around and played down.

You will be reassured many times that everything is just fine.

It's obviously not. Because, if it was, Mike D'Antoni would have a contract extension by now.

I've been telling you it was much more complicated than it appeared. I've spent too much free time since the Warriors beat the Rockets again writing about the Rockets' lingering issues, which are just now rising to the surface.

Last week, it was James Harden versus Chris Paul drama.

Wednesday, we learned that everyone — and I mean everyone — on the Rockets' roster is up for grabs, including Harden.

Thursday, we learned that D'Antoni will enter the 2019-20 season as an official lame duck. And that's real news, not the fake modern stuff.

D'Antoni publicly declared his commitment to the Rockets, saying he wanted to coach several more years.

The Rockets' unofficial response? Naw, we're good. Do better — AKA win a championship — or else.

D'Antoni holds a .703 winning percentage for Houston's NBA team. He was a Chris Paul hamstring and old-fashioned luck away from the NBA Finals two seasons ago. He helped saved the Rockets' season last season and everyone who receives a huge front-office paycheck from Tilman Fertitta will gladly tell you just how much they love their coach.

But ... something is wrong. Something is off.

Something was also off last summer, when the Rockets made D'Antoni wait far too long, then finally picked up his contract option at the last minute.

If the Rockets truly believed in their current coach, he would have an extension right now. End of story.

They will tell you that's not true. But they also let D'Antoni dangle again, just got rid of key members of his staff, and didn't dispute a national report Wednesday that everyone from Clint Capela and Paul to P.J. Tucker and Eric Gordon are on the trading block.

Little is cemented down inside Toyota Center right now. D'Antoni definitely is not, despite being named NBA Coach of the Year in 2016-17 and winning a franchise record 65 games a year later.

The Rockets missed bad on Carmelo Anthony. They clanked iron all last summer. Their bench is a blank slate right now.

But Harden has a huge lifetime contract, Paul has a surreal deal and Morey was locked down for five more years last March.

Guess who's floating a little higher in the ever-changing NBA air right now?

That's right: The coach who has the nightly Ws and Ls attached to his professional name.

This doesn't mean the Rockets are about to collapse. The Association is going to be a circus this summer, so really, the Rockets are just leaving all their internal options available with so much at stake again.

But they proudly backed Kevin McHale, then coldly fired McHale. They swore D'Antoni was the perfect guy, made him wait for a simple decision, made him wait longer for this decision and then poof, nothing.

The Warriors won again. Everyone on the Rockets is on the block. The coach has one more year left ... maybe.

If someone in red ever says Run It Back again, you have every right to puke.

The Rockets swear all they care about is a championship. In late May with the NBA Finals about to begin, they're only making it harder on themselves.