surprise, surprise, Kevin McHale. Let me just list some of his accomplishments: Going into the season no one really expected the Rockets to win 50 games. Lin gone. Asik gone. Parsons gone. We all know how that turned out. The Rockets lost due to injury an incredible 127 games from their top seven rotation players. They lost a mind boggling 180 games due to injury to their roster. At one point this season for weeks the Rockets were missing three starters, Howard, Bev and Jones. Not to mention Canaan. Yet somehow the Rockets never lost three games in a row, despite starting a front line of Dorsey and D-Mo for 30+ games this season. Morey just played Twister with the Rockets roster this off season and during the season. Three rotation players gone before training camp, a new one brought in. Mid-season acquisitions of Brewer, Smith and Pablo. It takes time for coaching staffs and players to gel, and Morey gave McHale and the team little time to adjust. The West is brutal, and any extended losing streak can drop a team from the second seed to the seventh seed in five games. It generally takes rotations 20 games to gel. That is about 17 more games than the Rockets had at any point in the season. Jones out for months. Then Howard out for months. Then Bev out for almost a month. The mid-season additions of Smith, Brewer and Pablo. And no time to adjust. It is after all the Western Conference. McHale making adjustments. It may be less obvious in the regular season than in the playoffs, but McHale always seemed to make the correct move. Convincing Smith to come off the bench. How brilliant was that? And then moving Smith back into the starting lineup after game four against the Clippers. Inspired? Of course. How does any coach other than McHale convince Howard to give up his post game for the good of the team? I honestly did not think it was possible. But somehow in the playoffs the Rockets have the most effective and dominant player taller than LBJ. The lobs, the rebounds, the pick and roll and the defense Howard. The dominant Howard. That is nothing short of miraculous. Revamping the defense off-season. Convincing Harden to actually care about the defensive end of the floor. Absolutely pivotal. This aspect cannot be downplayed at all. The Rockets were 15th in the league last season in defense. This season, despite losing Howard for 41 games, they were sixth overall in defensive rating. How does a coach convince a top five NBA player to change the focus of his game? I have no idea. But somehow McHale managed it. McHale was sixth in COY voting. That is a travesty. The Rockets are probably not in the WCF without McHale. He has made every right move. Kudos to him. Actually Pop could not adjust to the Clippers in time to win the series. McHale did. McHale was probably the best coach in the NBA this season.
It is brewer and josh smith. They don't get hot and we lose game 6. Fire Morey. Fire Mchale. Trade Harden. Dwight's not serious enough....
Why is this DISH? Good stuff nonetheless... I really hate the McFail comments and memes. Is he the best coach in the NBA? Not necessarily, but it doesn't mean he's the worst either. He's done a lot to weather the storm and instill an attitude in these guys to keep going. I really feel like in Game 5 they finally bought into it, they sort of got it all year long, but it was that game that the team said "we are all in" and damn it worked.
Banned for life from the GARM. I will obviously not be allowed back. Partially my fault I will admit. It is what it is.
Full credit to our coach, especially in the face of all the criticism around here on CF. I'd have to give the MVR award to Harden though. At the end of the day he carried this team through all the turmoil this season to 2nd seed in the west and conference finals. Sure other guys stepped up in key playoff games, but Harden put us in a position to win.
A reasonable take, for sure. But honestly I might have to choose Howard for second place taking the playoffs into consideration.
Psh. Morey obviously. He make trade for Harden. He lore Howard. He sign McHale. He get Role Player. He give away pick to trade Lin. Morey #1.
I was talking about this season. And McHale deserves more credit for the Howard signing than Morey. No player ever signed with a team because of the GM.
To his credit, I'll give him some. Your #5 and #6 are ones I completely disagree with. It just seems that way because of our current situation. In the regular season, and even in the playoffs, McHale has been terrible with managing mismatches, time outs and offensive schemes. To be fair, this is one of his consistent weaknesses. McHale's greatest strength is his positive approach. Eventually, that doesn't work in crunchtime. The way Doc speaks to his players with tangible goals, along with positive, constructive criticism is something Kevin would benefit from. Yes, Doc lost in this series, but he is a far and away a superior coach than McHale in terms of knowing the game and anticipating what the other team is going to do. Period. I'm proud of our Rockets' group. Josh Smith, CB, Dwight, Trev and Jet are the reason we had a game 7. I don't believe McHale's footprint was on that game 6. That was PURE player will. And yes, I've seen it at all levels where players take over and the coach can only hope because he has run out of options. Luckily, McHale going against Kerr is a draw. That's great for us. But then again, Kerr has a great assistant coaching staff. We're a little lacking there.
A reasonable opinion certainly. But I do disagree. McHale in the playoffs went with the hot hand in the final stages of game 6 when a person of weaker conviction (like me) would have inserted into the lineup the Rockets best player, Harden. Pulling Jones from the starting lineup after game four and inserting Smith was a certain winner, and completely unobvious to me. Perhaps I am stupid. I cannot see how you can argue against McHale's exceptional work convincing Howard to give up his post up ambitions. #6. Many coaches have tried. Howard always insisted that he had to have his post opportunities. And now? Howard is working the pick and roll, where he is perhaps the best roll player in the league.
I was being sarcastic bro, sorry. And yes I agree. I actually didn't like the McHale extension this season, but I am pleasantly surprised with how he's performed as a coach this playoffs. Glad he's proven me wrong
But he could also have screwed up big time if Chris Bosh signed. For that I vote Pat Riley as the Most Valuable Non-Rocket of the year. Thanks to him we dodged a bullet.
I thought I was completely rage-filled and vicious at times, but nothin bad ever came of it in the GARM. Mysterious.
You obviously do not know the right buttons to push. And you are much better off for it. Rage can be accepted and forgiven. Shear belittlement of ignorance and stupidity will be punished severely.