Why is it that when it comes to coaching, they get none of the credit and all of the blame?

Davis is a superior player to Bargs so he is no loss. Only thing keeping Davis from being an above average starter is getting 35 mins a night.

 

Well, the way GMs and owners view coaches is not always the same as the way the fans, media, and of course ClutchFans posters, view them.

 

You are complaining about our society in general, OP.

 

That is going to depend on how quickly the coaches learn from their mistakes. I was a lot more impressed with Sampson, who did make a few mistakes, but he adjusted quickly from making those mistakes and he didn't have an everybody else's and everything else's fault but his own attitude McHale has.

Judging from last season, I don't think McHale can boast the same ability to learn on the job. He's still the same sarcastic stubborn jackass he was when he started last year and it doesn't look like he's learned a damn thing from his rookie year. He just keeps making the same mistakes over and over while blaming everything else he can possibly blame. I can live with stubborn when the system they are stubborn to actually works well and is flexible enough to incorporate all kinds. McHale's system sucks stagnant dog poo and he is stubborn to it. That's a deadly combination.

It's not so bad with a newbie coach who is just starting making and learning from his mistakes, but a newbie coach who has the ego to think every mistake made is not his is another story altogether. You can expect substantial improvement from one, but not the other. Perhaps more pressure on McHale is going to get him to finally learn from what's not working, as anything is possible, but I wouldn't hold my breath given his track record.

- - -

Also, it's like I was saying when you were implying praise for McHale for possibly performing what is minimally expected of NBA coaches. One of those is to get players to buy into your system. You could have the charisma of Westphal or McHale, but it's a hard sell to get players to buy in when your system is a stagnant pile of dog poo. You will get much easier buy-in with an actual working system even if you are an awkward lad like Thibodeau any day.

I mean, I was skeptical that McHale would be able to get players to buy in on the shat he sells judging from his excuse-laden performance last year. This year when I hear that "democratic ball" comment and "we try to keep it really really simple because young players can't handle complex" excuse from his coaching staff I knew it was going to be a long year. McHale is lucky he has Lin instead of Lowry to deal with this year in interviews.

I'm also still shuddering from the veiled criticism of McHale from Budinger in MIN in one of the preseason talks.

 

I have been one of the biggest critics of the coaching staff and yet I have to call other people out about the ridiculous blame being put on them.

 

Its more than a little Iso heavy, and that is always something to complain about. There is no reason to throw out all offensive concepts except iso because you have an all-star on the team. Other than a pathetic offense, I got nothing. Well, that and the fact that this team shouldn't be as bad as they are defensively.

 

Not like this is new. You people complained about adeleman, one of the best coaches in the league, for years. Especially the defense despite the fact that they played without a ****ing center and that he had coaxhed several teams that were in the top 5 defensively.

To sum it up, clutchfans isn't know for its intelligence. Or reason.

 

It's not a problem in itself with McHale going some iso, but c'mon, what kind of idiot keeps going iso against zone defense then blames the iso player for not attacking the rim? McHale deserves more criticism than even what has already been lobbied against him.

 

It would be good if Clutch can chip in his comments about the team, the coaches and the players. It sure will help us, new fans of Rockets, to understand the team more and that we would become true Rockets fan at the end.

 

Repped

 

I think another factor to consider is that in most post-game interviews McHale never really takes the blame for the losses (despite bad coaching decisions) and puts the entirety of the blame on the players.

I think this may factor into his criticism.

 

Gotta hand it to the coaches on this latest Knicks win. They were out a few players and we seemed to cut off all of their offensive options.

Plus, the push push push game plan on offense worked out beautifully!

Great job coaches!

 

They did good tonight with Lin, Douglas & Harden's playing time together. Also calling time-outs on time and sub patterns were great. Hope this continues

 

The only coach we don't critisize is Rudy T. Find us Rudy 2.0 and we won't blame him for the lost.

 

This entire post pretty much. But the bolded part in particular are my concerns with McHale.

That said something I love about him is that the team loves the guy.

 

Good thread.

I think the coaches have made some mistakes, but overall, we can't complain about a 12-12 record with the youngest team in the league and really only one star player, Harden.

Some things I would like to see:

- Instill more confidence in Lin. Sometimes I think he overthinks and defers too much. When he doesn't, he is really good. Don't sit Lin in the 4th quarter. That's not a way to build confidence.
- Find a way to use Lin's and Harden's strengths, even when playing together. Harden is the better player overall, but off the ball, he is still really good whereas Lin isn't so much. So I would not let Harden bring the ball up much when Lin is in the game.
- Don't sit Asik for such long stretches.
- Play Greg Smith more.
- Take timeouts more quickly when the team is lost and momentum is shifting against it.
- In blowouts, let us have a look at Motiejunas and Jones.

They have developed Parsons really well, he is absolutely a key player for us. I wish we could keep him, but once he enters the last year of his contract, it will be difficult.

 

Most of this conjecture is implying that coaching and managing a team live, and with actual scenarios, egos, and bodies is analogous to sitting at one's computer, watching tape, and making decisions with the luxury of no culpability, pressure, and the benefit of hindsight.

I don't care how much one thinks they know, the probability that they could lead men who most likely tower over them in real time, or know as much basketball as McHale is effectively zero. I can also say with confidence that Morey's intellect, management methods, and ability for sound statistical analysis is far greater than anyone who posts here.

People are making judgments without having all the information that is needed to make that decision. Without having an insider in the organization, and on the coaching staff one isn't going to have access to said information.

Not to say anyone in the organization isn't beyond reproach, but it's difficult to be in an informed and qualified position to do so properly. In the end it's all about b****ing, nit-picking, and thinking you know something that others don't.

 

Generally speaking, I think that a coach and his staff of assistants will always have enough expertise to coach a team according to its strengths. Two critical things a head coach must have which can't be covered somewhere else:

- Open mindedness. A coach should not be stubborn. He should be willing to accept defeat, divorce his own ideas or favorite players, and defer to other people on his staff or in the organization who have expert knowledge in specific areas. This is essentially the ability to recognize your own weaknesses and recognize other people's strengths without letting emotions get in the way.

- Motivate. The ability to motivate a team for many seasonS. Not one or two seasons. For example JVG is a fantastic motivator for a couple of seasons, but if he doesn't win it he loses his players. Same with Larry Brown. Coaches need to know how to motivate each and every single player uniquely and in a sustainable fashion. For example, some players will respond to getting ripped by the coach repeatedly, but this won't work forever. This extremely non-basketball, non-macho facet of coaching is overlooked often. The commander-soldier mentality is naturally more prevalent in competitive sports, and it rarely works.

I think Phil Jackson will all his flaws and his alleged lack of X's and O's talent masters these two things and he showed that you don't have to be the best technical coach, a 24/7 hardass, or a constant ass-kisser to be a great coach. You can outsource a whole bunch of those things to people better than you and focus on things that get your players to go an extra mile further than the extra mile other coaches can them to go.

With everything else, I agree with Morey: a positive effect is rare and you are basically looking for the least negative.