1. Team has what is considered the best 2 guard in the league (Kobe / Harden). 2. The team acquires a point guard most thinks pushes the team over, or at least to the top (Nash / Lawson). 3. The teams franchise Center is in his last year or opt out year of his contract (D12). 4. The team starts out under performing terribly with a sub .500 record and losing to teams that should have been a sleep walk victory. Whats next? Do the Rockets fire their coach? It's kind of hard not to pin this on coaching since there is no denying the talent on the team. 1. Ty Lawson has been one of the top point guards in the league for years. At 28 years old he is squarely in his prime. 2. James Harden was runner up to NBA MVP last season and is only 26 and squarely in his prime. 3. Trevor Ariza is one of the top defensive players in the league and has been a good offensive player as well who just turned 30 this past summer. 4. Dwight Howard is only 29 and having a great start to his season and is still arguably the best center in the game. I could go on but the team is stacked with terrific players both young and experienced. The team has multiple players that have NBA championship rings and players that have been major pieces or even the piece in winning conference championships. The team has exceptional offensive and exceptional defensive players. The team has one major injury to Donatos Motiejunas. DMo is a terrific player on both ends of the court but his injury should not prevent the Rockets from having a damn good start to the season. Instead the Rockets are one game under .500. The the Lakers in 2012 its only a matter of time before Les gives the order to fire the coach if Daryl Morey doesn't do it first. When a team has as much talent as the Rockets do and they under perform as badly as the Rockets are doing it's kind of hard not to pin it squarely on the coaching staff. I know there are those that will say that Les has never fired a coach during a season. I would counter with this, we have never had a team under perform this bad with such high expectations without dealing with some major injuries to one or more of its superstars. Or at the very least something you can directly put your finger on that is causing some kind of disruption to the team. Unlike the Lakers of 2012 the Rockets have a lot of youth on the team. It's primary superstar is still in the prime of his career and still under a very favorable contract for the next several years. The team will still be positioned with exceptional talent, both developed and developing, next summer. More importantly though is not the talent on the team but the effect of having such a bad season will have on the team moving forward if they don't right the ship. There has been a lot of talk about the Rockets pursuing Kevin Durant next summer and pairing him with Dwight & James to form a Big 3. Jalen Rose called it out earlier to expect KD to join the Rockets in Houston, in large part to his relationship with James and the fact that Houston has such a young up and coming team. But if the Rockets grossly under perform the rest of the season does anyone think KD seriously considers Houston? An even bigger concern than not being considered by KD next summer would be the fact that Dwight could and might very likely opt out to go to a better situation where he has one last chance to win. Instead of KD coming to Houston perhaps he stays in OKC and recruits Dwight to sign there. Regardless, Dwight could very well see Houston as a rudderless ship next summer much the same way he say the Lakers as a rudderless ship in the summer of 2013 when he signed with Houston. The Rockets could very well be back down to one superstar. And if the Rockets do decide that they are forced into a coaching change then what? Do you hire from within and promote Bernie Bickerstaff to coach and continue running the same system that is currently failing the team. The same system that has been unable to mesh a ball handling point guard with James Harden twice now? This system failed with Jeremy Lin and is now severely failing with Ty Lawson as Hardens running mate. Heck right now Jeremy Link's time hear looks far superior than anything we have seen from Lawson so far. If we do bring in a coach from the outside does anyone think he can successfully instill a new system in the middle of a season? There are rummers that the Rockets would consider Scott Brooks but does he inspire confidence in leading a team as a coach? Or is he just someone to try and lure Kevin Durant from OKC? If the Rockets do go for a coaching change I would just like to point out the the 4 best coaches in the NBA in my opinion are as follows: - Steve Kerr - Gregg Popovich - Mike Budenholzer - Rick Carlisle I don't really think there is any arguing that those are easily the best 4 coaches in the league. Three of those coaches come out of the San Antonio system. Pops is the guru of the San Antonio system. Kerr and Budenholzer are both exceptional coaches that learned their system under Pops as a coach or player. I don't give a damn about retread NBA coaches, get me someone that learned under Popovich in the San Antonio system. I don't even know the names of any San Antonio assistants but I can tell you this, my coaching search would start and stop in San Antonio.
Great defense and absolutely zero offense. We had that with JVG and how did that work? No thanks. Give me someone from San Antonio, you pick em, I don't care who but make it from San Antonio.
By the way, Chad Forcier has been an assistant under Popovich since 2007. Chip Engelland has been an assistant under Popovich since 2005. I will gladly take either of them. Hell I will even take Ime Udoka for the next coach. Just for the love of all that is great and pure about basketball don't hire Tom Thibodeau. If you have even the slightest issue with Kevin McHales offense you will absolutely hate a Tom Thibodeau offense.
Kerr and Carlisle never coached in SA. Are you including Kerr as the third because he played some there. But he played for PJax, too. anyhoot, maybe we should hire Becky Hammon away from Pops
Kerr never coached in the NBA prior to being a head coach but there is no denying that he is a Popovich disciple. http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/steve-kerr-says-gregg-popovich-is-one-of-my-mentors-061015 He won championships playing under Popovich. And now he is winning championships as a head coach. For the record, I would gladly take Beckey Hammon if she makes the team a title contender. Are you saying you wouldn't?
Jim Boylan was a Spurs assistant. He was also an assistant under Rudy T with the Rockets when they won their titles. He is currently the "associate head coach" with Fred Hoiberg and the Bulls.
Dwight doesn't get no ****ing respect. He's constantly in foul trouble early in most games as a Rocket.
Jim Boylen in action... teaching coaches how to "build a defensive system". "Defense and rebounding wins championships. It's been proven, and I'm passionate about it". Those are the two things that the Rockets are most struggling with right now. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C0lsxZKGfEQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
But also a Lute Olsen and Phil Jackson disciple. Your quote is from a post-game interview when asked about Pops, and he immediately includes Lute and Phil in his answer. If the question was directed about Phil Jackson, he probably gives a similar answer. There is more than one way to become a good coach, and there is more than one mentor out there for coaches. I will say one thing about being an actual Asst Coach for Pops; it obviously gives you NBA "street cred" with the players. Players buy into your idea to get coaches from the Spurs. bottomline: It's worth looking at Spurs assistants for sure. One would think Budenholzer might have been the main dude and possibly only worthy candidate, though. (i.e., you could be too late on your idea, for now.) Also, we could draw an analogy to Belichick. Some of his assistants have failed on their own as Head Coaches
If by February the team has a losing record then BY then it is time to panic and start with concerns. But for now it's too early to start the b****ing and whining.
I'd like to agree, except for two things: The games right now matter for separation in the Western conference. February is too late to change a coach for the playoffs.
Yeah. The Rockets are in a tough spot. When is it too soon or too late to make a coaching change? I'd rather it be sooner than later.
One thing about the 2012 Lakers is that I think they went 0-8 in the preseason. Everyone was saying "it's just the preseason... relax". But then the bad play continued through the regular season. Very similar to these Rockets.
Honestly, what current coach past or present (with the exception of Dr. Naismith) doesn't have multiple influences? Kerr experienced success with Pops and credits him. No-one knew if Budenholzer was going to be any good before he got hired as head coach. No-one knew if Kerr was going to be a good head coach until he was hired. No-one knows about the remaining assistants for San Antonio but what we do know is that they come from a proven system that values both offense and defense. We know that Popovich has coached the most efficient defensive and offensive basketball and now both Kerr and Budenholzer both coach outstanding, disciplined and efficient offense and defense. There is a trend there. There is a proven track record. Nothing is guaranteed but I certainly like the fact that there are assistants that have coached under Popovich for a decade. Like Kerr and Budenholzer we will not know for sure what kind of head coach they will be until they get their chance. We already know what the re-tread coaches give us.
Is good to have these loses right now than losing in February and March. You want to know why is good to have these losses right now early in the season? Because they can learn from these mistakes for later when the games get tougher, they will learn from their mistakes and be a better team by April. If the team keeps making mistakes and have a losing record by February, then it is time to panic and start a riot at Toyota Center.
So you are going to change the defensive and offensive system starting at the all-star break and you think you have any legit chance for the team to pick it up?
At this point, mauri can look into CFnet and find a better coach. Preferably from the Unsorted Forum.
