I was one of the fans bashing McHale for forcing Lin playing out of position. From what I see now, Lin has developed into a nice 2 guard who's pretty consistent. Now we are lethal whether Harden or Lin handles the ball. Asik has come a long way. He's more aware what our back court is going to do and is able to catch passes in traffic. Earlier in the season Asik liked to bounce the ball after a pass before going for a layup. Now he goes to the rim without putting the ball on the floor. He still needs to break the habit of bringing the ball lower before jump. I'm sure McHale noticed that and will continue helping our big man breaking the bad habits. McHale talked about ball movement after every game. Last couple of games we saw Harden pass out the ball quicker if the opportunity wasn't there. He also have figured out staggering Harden and Lin's min maximizes the team's efficiency. I didn't know why he went away staggering their min after Dec tho. I think if Les and Morey are willing to keep the core together, the development will pay off next year. Hopefully McHale won't disappoint me in the playoff. Now I have to go cheer for Pitino and Louisville.
Not saying McHale doesn't deserve some credit. But he has the best staff in the league. Sampson has been working with Lin and Greg Smith a lot.
Morey deserves credit. Before the trade Greg Smith, Montijunis, T.Jones were tied to the bench. And look how Mchale mistreats J.Lin..he does one thing wrong and he gets yanked. I'm fed up with Mchale. Trying to turn Lin into a shooting guard, just dumb.
Morey assembled an awesome roster that is completely underrated. Like Billy Beane in Oakland. This is what happens when you put someone with a brain in charge of drafting/trades/FA signings instead of a dumb ex-jock.
McHale only gets credit when the team lose. When the team wins, he has no part in anything whatsoever.
Unlike most of the board I like McHale. Lets be real, he is not the best couch out there but he has accomplished a lot this season. That being said I have been most impressed with Kelvin Sampson. I don't see him coming back next year. Another team will scoop him up & make him a head coach.
I don't know if I can ever like Sampson. He's shown he lacked integrity during his college days. I don't care how good he is.
Agree..Harden, Lin, Parson, Asik are making Mchale look like a better coach then he really is. Terrible coaching is holding this team back more then anything. Hopefully Rockets can get Stan Van Gundy. Now that's a championship coach!
I think McHale is a good coach for development and for high turnover and despite the hate he gets he has been decent this year. However, I'm not convinced he's a good enough coach to get a ring. At some point the Rockets should consider a replacement, but that point is not this season.
I don't agree with all of the OP, but McHale deserves credit for how quickly team has gelled. Lin is developing off ball skills. Smith is looking like a good, but limited PF. Asik looks much better offensively, in better shape, and seems to be focused in staying in games longer than going for blocks. Morris was actuality a decent backup "4" before being traded. PPat mastered the rachet. Credit for assembling team goes to Morey, but Rockets are probably a year further in development than they should be.
Eh, we just don't know enough of what goes on in practice to give anyone sole credit. From what I hear, alot of the players are paired off with the different coaches to work on aspects of their game. The players seem to like him alot though so I guess he does a good job from the motivational standpoint. I did like what he did in the most recent game in benching the starting lineup, and forcing them to think about their crappy effort. I'll give him major props for that, and wish he had done something like that early on in the season, specifically during that long losing streak.
Sampson worked with Lin? Really. I knew he worked with Greg but I didn't know he worked with Jeremy as well.
I guess the fact that Lin, Harden, Asik, Smith,Parsons, and (before he was traded) Morris are all improved has nothing at all to do with McHale and the coaching staff? Not to mention the least experienced team in the league thats going to finish more than likely 6th or 7 th in a loaded conference has nothing to do with McHale? He's not a Hall of Fame coach but to suggest that they are winning in spite of McHale is ludicrous. This season was and is supposed to be about player development. The playoffs are a bonus and it will be great for them to go through a heated series against SA or OKC.
McHale does deserve a lot of credit for several things. He made a lot of tough decisions that I don't think a lot of coaches would typically make. He also made some really smart defensive decisions that I am still to this day pretty impressed by. That Utah game where we blew them out was one that still stands out to me. He has also done some questionable things. McHale is a young coach & i think he will get better.
A lot of the hate comes from "X" only fans, not singling out only one player because I have seen it from different fan players. The HC is in charge of overall coordination of all player development which includes whether they are working with other coaches as well. The assistants are usually more focused on specific development. He sure does deserve credit for that.
The only player that has shown legit positive development has been Greg Smith in the last few games. Before that, every other development that I saw from a young player came with a negative, Parsons offense improves but his defense suffers, same with Patterson. Greg Smith is the first McHale era project who has grown in both sides of the ball into respectable without having the talents shown before.
