The Rockets hire the best assistant coaches that money will buy. Les has never skimped on spending money for staff. NBA defense is never a straight man to man system. The offenses are to good for that. Instead they play a system where offensive players are tagged, and the responsibility for tagging an opposing player can shift several times in a single possession. The defensive players all have to be on the same page, and simply going over or under a screen can, if done incorrectly, lead to a wide open shot or drive to the basket. Simply put, young players need time to become good NBA defenders. No coach can come in and implement immediately a good NBA defense with young players, he has to grow it.
I'm not too happy with his minutes distribution but for getting a winning record as a Rockets coach, I'm pretty happy with him.
Good OP. There's a lot more to coaching in the NBA than play calling. I think McHale's identity as an ex-player, HOF, is his strongest suit, not simply because the players trust him, but because he shares their mentality toward games and the season. JVG, for example, was the exact opposite. On that Duncan inbound last night when McHale seemed to be interfering, McHale was actually like another Rocket on the court. He may not have the big playbook, but he and his team are a unit ready to war. They're going to drive hard in the playoffs. By the way, for all the Harden haters: how many coaches do you think could deal with Harden at this stage of his career? And Howard? Feel free to name names of available coaches.
What people don't get is McHale is only implementing the offense and defense he has been given. That is the only thing that makes him acceptable is he is doing that but don't give him credit for the offense McHale has never run the style of offense the Rockets are running. He did not create it and only begrudgingly implemented it. McHale was an old school player and is an old school coach. He doesn’t accept change easily and is not a fan of basketball analytics… just look at Clutch’s interview of him... <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0IKWn-dCupk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> McHale pushes back on Moreyball every chance he gets. He argues with the idea that midrange jumpshots are the worst shots on the court when Morey stats show they are. Of course there are always exceptions and Moreyball like any other system has it flaws but it's moreyball that has us where we are and not coaching. We have the most talented team in the league not named the heat and run the most efficient system on offense and have the best center and best backup center to anchor the defense. We have the best sg and center in the league a top 10 pf and sf and 3 pg's that start on a lot of teams. Replace McHale with almost anyone of his assistants , almost any other NBA coaches , and even quite a few college coaches and we win more games than we have done so far under McHale provided they are open to Morey’s system. I am not a McHale hater and I do not even propose he be fired. People can change and McHale wants to stay the coach on this team; he realizes they have a chance to do something special and he won’t get that opportunity anywhere else so he wants to stay. Plus I do think the players mostly like him and he is a motivator to some degree and like anyone who keeps doing the same thing over and over again he can and will improve. But he is not a top ten coach IMO. I also think coaching is overrated in the NBA. Talent rules and we can win with or without McHale but he is slow to adjust and has already cost us wins this year. We played Mavs before, and DMO effectively defended Nowitzki. Also how many times to we have to see Mavs zone D before finding some way to attack it. I could go on but I think I made my point.
he's an average coach. i dont mind him staying for this season, but he has some critical flaws - his best plays are average. lots of standing around and iso's - random lineups, often forcing starters to play heavy minutes - in game, often doesnt discipline players when he needs to its cool to that everyone's having fun and getting along, but his in-game coaching is bad. you cant get far in this league when 4 players stand around half the time. kobe and shaq didn't get along that well but still won 3 rings together.
The only way I see to test how the Rockets do versus expectations is to use the Vegas over/under line for season wins. Vegas historically has been by far and away the best forecaster of NBA season wins. 2011-2012 Vegas over/under Rockets - 34.5 wins Actual Rockets wins - 34 2012-2013 Vegas over/under Rockets - 31.5 wins (after Harden trade) Actual Rockets wins - 45 2013-2014 Vegas over/under Rockets - 54.5 wins Projected Rockets wins - 59.2 (based on current win %) Therefore I have to reject your opinion that McHale is not a top 10 coach. However I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment that most fans over rate the effect of the he head coach on team wins. As far as I am concerned, if a NBA team is happy and focused, 95% of the head coaches job has been well done.
I would like to point out how well McHale is at implementing strategy decisions. One of the basic tenants of advanced analytics is the notion that mid ranged shots are bad. Horrible. Terrible. Unconscionable. McHale has done a far better job than any other coach in the league getting his players not to take mid-ranged shots. Here are the team mid-ranged shot percentages from last season.
I love JVG and think he'd be a great coach for us. But let's be realistic. When was the last time JVG ever came close to touching a top-5 offense? I love the guy but his mantra has always been... "We're failing? Gotta try harder on D!" "We need players? Who can we get who's a hard nosed defender?" JVG gets his guys to play hard on defense. But these same guys always fall asleep and rest on offense, staring at T-Mac and Yao for 20 seconds and hope they do something.
McHale is a below average coach and is just Morey's puppet. This team is Morey's and the way it is run esp run and gun and efficient shots (3 pointers, FT's and inside the paint) are all Morey's ideas. McHale is there because he does not interfere with Morey unlike Adelman who had his own system. Any coach in the NBA would have us at 13-5 and even better besides the obvious lousy ones like Casey and Kidd. McHale emphasizes defense but no improvement even with 3 time DPOY and a top 5 defensive center as back up. McHale is ok for this team but the way it is built with championship aspirations requires a higher caliber coach.
The first part is exaclty why Morey wanted him. Morey wants a guy that'll implement his philosophy based on analytics and at the same time can be a player's coach. My issue with McHale is he has no existing defensive game plan, no good half-court plays, and doesn't make any in-game adjustments. It's either because the Rockets players do not respect him, or that he just that does not have the knowledge or savvy to do it. The alternative is getting a coach that'll disregard Morey's analytics because he is "establised", as in Hollins. I think SVG is the only coach that believes in what Morey's doing, but due to Dwight, we can't really have him.
Thanks for your opinion, but I disagree. I think he has a defensive game plan. The players may not be very good at executing it, or they may not have had enough time to gel as a unit. I think the more they play together, the defense will improve. With the tempo that the Rockets play, a lot of points are going to be scored by both teams. The Rockets have good half-court plays. The plays they run are the same plays just about all NBA teams run. Clutchfans always complain about the iso plays, but all NBA teams run iso plays. McHale makes in-game adjustments, so I'm not sure what you are talking about. He substitutes players depending how they are playing. Time outs are called and adjustments are being made all through the game.
McHale may not be the best X and O's coach but he's definitely one of the best coaches for a winning culture. He's a no nonsense players coach. The players like him and respect his knowledge and experience. How many coaches can tell you what it takes to win 3 championships, get to 5 finals while dominating the best decade of NBA basketball. He's similar to Larry Bird as a coach. Larry never called any plays, Carlisle called all the plays for the Pacers, but everyone knew who the boss was.
The real test of a head coach is the first and third quarters, not timeouts. In timeouts the players are distracted and fatigued, the arenas are noisy, and the coach only has 40 seconds or so. Have the Rockets been successful recently in the first and third quarters? Yes, they have been motivated and well prepped. Heck, they even have been finishing games with aplomb. 8 wins in the last 9 games. As they say, it is hard to argue with success.
Great post. The thing with McHale though is that he needs assistants to take care of the X's and O's/schemes.
