I am just curious with all the fire Mchale threads, if Poppovich, Phil Jackson, Rudy T, Rick Adelman, or any of the other coaches were running this team with the same roster what would they do differently against the Clippers. Although I am not the largest Mchale hater or supporter, I still feel like he's playing with the cards he's been dealt. What would Rick Adelman be doing differently with this roster? What would JVG do at this moment. What about Poppovich? I would assume the locker room would be hell right now with Poppovich as coach. I don't think Dwight would have fouled out the last game because he would have had him on the bench the entire time. What would Pop make Josh Smith do? Would he be more effective if Pop or any of these other coaches were running the show. I really wonder how given the two injuries to Dmo and Beverly, what would these other coaches do differently. What kind of offence do the Rockets run? Would yhe triangle work right about now?
Remember when the Rockets picknrolled the Mav's to death in game 2? Yeah, any coach that wouldn't allow the same thing to happen to us in 3 out of 4 games would be great right about now.
Start Harden, Brewer, Ariza, Smith, Jones and Dwight. Run and gun with Ariza and Brewer spotting up. Smith, Jones, Dwight crash boards extra hard. Terry first off bench.
I'd also actually be curious to know an answer to this question from some Clutchfans that know more about these coaches than I do.
If the Clippers dropped 125 on the Rockets, Rick Adelman would have the Rockets drop 126 on them. Rick Rules
They simply wouldn't have allowed the team to go into the playoffs so unprepared, not having trained any semblance of a system on offense or defense. Popovich would have instantly sat any player who gets careless on defense or takes ill-advised shots on offense during the regular season, while Thibs would have drilled the importance of boxing out, icing picks and rolls etc into everyone.
1.) I believe Nick Johnson can do a better job of guarding the other teams point guards. So give Nick Johnson more minutes, and cut back on minutes for Jason Terry and Pablo. 2.) I believe Kostas Papanikolaou will give you more scoring than Trevor Ariza. At a minimum, give Kostas Papanikolaou at least 5 to 10 minutes so that Trevor can get a breather. You have to believe that Trevor is pretty exhausted with all of the minutes he is playing and it probably has an effect on his scoring. Ideally I would like to see Kostas Papanikolaou get between 15 to 25 a game. If Kostas is hitting his shots, it alleviates pressure on James Harden since Dallas and LA have been doubling him aggressively. 3.) Have a talk with T Jones and let him know that the team needs more rebounding and have him strictly focus on getting rebounds. 4.) Have the team run more pick and rolls and get Dwight on board to set more picks. 5.) The Clips have scored a ton of points. Make the team realize that if we are going to win, we have to focus on playing defense. Call a time-out when the Clips try to make a run and substitute in your defensive guys. That means pulling Pablo Prigioni and Jason Terry for Nick Johnson, Josh Smith and or Trevor Ariza. 6.) Find a way to defend the Clips pick and roll.
Pretty much this. The team is what it is now, so it's late to get rid of old habits, but the defense was there in spurts this year. How it got away from us is party the coaches fault. Calling a time-out, coming up with some plays and strategies for guards not to go off on us, being engaged and actually coach on the sidelines. Any of those will do is something a good coach will do. Maybe instead of beer, he should've had a pen and pad and take some notes on how to come up with a strategy. I doubt McHale does much of this.
Great coaches would be able to motivate the players after Game 3. Stop them with timeouts in the middle of game 4 to prevent another meltdown.
It's late, it's not a matter of adjustments, that's very secundary, it's a matter of habits, discipline, preparation.
well this got lengthy...lol LONG time lurker. First time poster. Student of the game forever. Go Rox. Based on my countless hours of watching rockets, and watching other teams, as well as many many years of trying to understand the nuances of the game since a child.. Offense. 1- Have harden off ball to START possessions. If you have ever played basketball at a level higher then HS you know that it is MUCH easier to "key-in" on a player sitting top of the key dribbling away. He is easier to see by defenders, he doesn't have the "triple threat" advantage he would have if he was passed the ball, and he is automatically starting furthest possible distance from the hoop, giving help defenders THAT much more time to react to a drive (or even a rebound from a longer shot). Have Harden start weak-side and get pin down screens and come to the ball and receive it in the general "dirk area" as I call it, but more towards the wings. Here he has the MOST options, with the LEAST chance of a successful double. elbow extended A la kobe n work triple threat because with ONE dribble he WILL be already at the rim, or if the double comes harden has GREAT vision an passing and can swing the ball to the top, then swing to the corner and THAT is rox bball. high % 3s happen from: catch and shoot off of scrambling, rotating defenders. its a simple FACT that if defenders are stationary they r MUCH better at defending, the rox players on opposite side of harden HAVE to be screening, back- cutting, floating to open areas, Dwight flashing periodically etc. This is important because it means the other 4 defenders are actively paying attention to their players as WELL as harden, who now is with the ball now with a LIVE dribble, great jab step n first step. 4 Help defenders focused 25% on their player, 75% on harden vs 4 Help defenders focused 10% on their player, 90% on harden is a huge difference ESP when they will be on the move instead of sitting in great defensive position, waiting. Look, this is becoming the tmac syndrome, he is having to create for himself AND everybody else non-stop, while a defensive monster is wating for him at the rim...which comes to suggestion 2. 2. get DJ out of the paint waiting as much as possible what happened to PnR with dwight? get DJ on the move, get him away from the rim as MUCH as possible. im sorry, but from 10,000s of hours of watching basketball intently, mchale is an idiot, your JOB is to make put ur players in best possible position to succeed and make the opposition job as difficult as possible. DJ is simply WAITING at the rim for harden, playing to HIS strengths so get him involved in the PnR, if he sags off harden can pull up, if he starts to respect that and comes up, harden will have a MUCH higher likelihood of getting fouls when he drives. WHY? Big men foul MUCH more WHEN THEIR FEET HAVE TO MOVE. its not rocket science (see what i did there? lol). if DJ is allowed to stand stationary he will react much quicker because he is much more comfortable and has less to think about. Also, this gets DWIGHT on the move, where his athleticism is BEST utilized, its a win win. 3. Call/design a damn play- WAY too often all i see is harden dribble dribble dribble and drive into 3 ppl n hope for a foul or shoot a step back long J or 3. This is the playoffs, if that is our "offense" then the rockets need to just go to LA fitness because that is the only place it will be successful. We are relying on harden to "get hot" and score 40 and win a game. that may happen one o two times a playoff because that's what great offensive players CAN do but that's NOT how you DESIGN it. Too often it looks like that's what mchale DESIGNED. Just terrible. This ties into point 1, but mchale needs to run actual plays to START possessions THEN you let the free lancing develop ORGANICALLY. GOOD basketball is like a river it goes to the NATURAL path of least resistance and FLOWS. This is a book end to this point, but it can't be understated. SET SCREENS AND MOVE. i saw a stat saying we were last or very close to last in screens set. Before I ever saw that stat i already KNEW that was true, simply from watching our offense. That is unacceptable from a nba coach making millions of dollars to not understand the value of screens ESP when you have a hyper athletic big man and an excellent passing guard smh 3. Give Nick Johnson a LITTLE run- this ones simple, we need a better defender at PG n a little shot of energy/penetration, and also our older PGs don't need to be playing as much getting fatigued. 4. Smith and T Jones don't need to be shooting long Js/3s. They are open for a reason, coaches are goading them into thinking they should shoot that. Have josh smith initiate the offense more will HAMMERING into him to limit the TOS/don't drive recklessly. What happened to the 4/5 man PnR? Also, have the 4s screen and dive, with Dwight on the opposite block ready for a lob when his man flashes to the key to help on the rolling 4. Obviously D Mo being out hurts a lot, but still, a coaches JOB is to find ways to make it easier for his players, not just keep doing the same thing n "hoping for the best" or for his stars to all of a sudden just take over. Defense This is the most frustrating because honestly defense is mostly about scheme designed around your personnel and HEART/DISCIPLINE. 1. DEMAND MORE FROM HARDEN I have a theory. Shoot it down if you like but I think that there has to be one DOG i mean a damn DOG from 1 of these 3 at minimum: Your coach, your best O player and your best D player. I DON'T think, out of those 3, you can have all similar personalities/demeanor. If all 3 are DOGs they will always clash and have problems, if they are all more introverted, passive, laid back, etc. they will not be push to their max. An example of this to me is Phil KObe and Shaq. Shaq was goofy, kobe a DOG (and i hate kobe BTW) and Phil the laid back balance. I think dwight is like shaq, harden is like phil, but mchale is NOT like kobe. Rox need a coach that will DEMAND the RESPECT and EFFORT and DISCIPLINE on defense or else. Half of Pops success is from scheme but the other half is because he DEMANDS from his players. Period. Mchale is not the right personalty for this team. 2. STOP SWITCHING EVERY SCREEN This is self explanatory and follows point one. DEMAND your bigs to take that extra step and hedge and recover. DEMAND your guards fight that extra second longer to get over the screen. DEMAND your weak side defenders to give that hustle to dive into the paint and help and hustle back to the shooters. HOW many times has griffin set a screen, we don't even attempt to fight through the screen, we switch, he goes RIGHT into the block and shoots right over the smaller player? That is LITERALLY the easiest offense to run, with minimal resistance, its insane to think an NBA coach is allowing his players to simply "give up" every time they are screened and allow for a mis-match without even ATTEMPTING to counter it. No sporadic doubles off the screen. No hedging. I'ts ridiculous, simply switch and allow a mis match to happen and hope for a miss. (not switching also helps TREMENDOUSLY) 3. Again, play nick Johnson a little more, tell him go 110% on defense your only playing in 3-4 min spurts and we give us the shot of energy and athleticism (a la smaller brewer) while giving our aging PGs a much needed breather. MISC- - If you are GOING to Hack-a-Dwight (which isn't a great idea BTW, ESP not to START a game smh) Good coaches PUT IN THEIR 12TH MAN TO COLLECT THE FOULS. What a foolish decision to have ROLE players who MAY be needed for CRUCIAL minutes collect fouls so quickly unnecessarily? Totally unacceptable - Plays out of TOs, a quick tell tale sign of a coach's basketball mind is the quality of shot his/her team gets out of a TO. brad Stevens, Carlisle, even Randy Whitman have pretty good play designs out of TOs that get their teams wide open 3s or cuts to the basket that result in high %s layups or FTs. WAY too often we just go right back to ISO ball or even worse, scramble and get a TO, its pathetic. - Knowing when your "ideal" plan A isn't working, and when to tweak or even some times, trash it mid game and go a different route. Mchale went from NEVER hacking DJ during a huge run and then did a 180 the next game and started fouling DJ in the beginning of the game for no reason. That's insane, BOTH decisions were unbelievable and even more unbelievable he did NOT deviate from the course. A coach HAS to be a game manager smh Wow, can't believe how long that turned out. I'll save the rest for later, maybe after game 5 where mchale strolls around the sideline awkwardly with a bewildered look on his face wondering why the clippers are scoring so easily.
Run more set plays when the free flowing offense gets bogged down. That's my biggest gripe with McHale. The offense is Harden at the top of the key and our two plays are 1) He uses the pick 2) He waves the pick off. I agree that's a good play but it can be stopped in the playoffs. I want backdoor cuts, secondary and tertiary actions. Post Harden up. Post him up and run a pick and roll. Put him in the high post and run cutters. Set real, actual useful picks that create separation or force a switch. Motion offense baby. If we can revamp our defense in one offseason, we can revamp our offense. MOAR Assistant Coaches !
