When last time Rocket fired coach in-season? It's never happen on under Les. Hopefully FO and Coach has a mutually agreed retirement at the end of the season.
The Laker's is worst. Nash dribbles the air out of the ball while Kobe, Dwight, Pau stand around is their offensive game plan.
Could we get Jerry West to the Rockets in some capacity? Look at the Lakers for so many years. Look at Memphis. They're a top 4 team now and they beat the Spurs 2 years ago. Look at the Warriors now. Maybe Morey was right. A coach doesn't have too much upside as far as improving the team, but they can destroy a team like Mchale is doing now.
Mchale isn't great and I was never high on the guy but he can't be completely blamed for out shortcomings. We are just built with too many holes. It would be irrational to fire Mchale right now especially given this team's rather abrasive treatment with past coaches. Adelman should have never been let go.
I want to like McHale. He seems like a good guy, a father figure, but he really sucks as a coach. Don't forget Rockets is also the worst defensive team in the league. For the sake of Rockets, both Mchale and Sampson need to go ASAP, maybe then Rockets has a chance to get into the playoff this season.
Agreed. I feel Adelman would have made Rockets a contender this year if he stayed here. I was never high on McHale. He's not a good coach. He relies on his assistant coaches a lot. I don't know how he got the first head coaching. He is not that good. I understand he became a head coach when he was with T-Wolves. Flip Saunders was even better than him in Minnesota. He should know that he can't coach. We never see his playbook sheets in Houston, none. He just talk to players when it pop in his mind.
I agree. For better or worse, morey and apparently les, don't feel any sense of urgency right now given the losing streak. Morey is right to look at the big picture (the team is playing .500 ball, as was expected). But there's reason to believe that mac has lost his players, and that they are now even fighting amongst themselves. Frustration is expected given a losing streak, but there doesn't seem to be a clear plan in place to integrate the abilities of the current roster.
Coaching a team is like training a troop. There is a fundamental reason why the role of each member must be clearly defined. This is the problem with the current team. The coaches have been experimenting this fancy system which requires every player to play multiple roles. Every player except the C must play a share of the PG, and the real PG becomes a 3pt shooter. Every player except the C must shoot 3's and can't take in-between shots even if he is nature at it. PFs must give up their natural games just like PGs do. No wonder after half a season the players and the coaches are all lost and no one knows how to fix the mess. It is going take a new coaching system to reshape players' identity and fundamentals.
Can we now change McHale's contract and make him a consultant for the Rockets? Making use of his network of players and coaches and making him sort of an ambassador of the Rockets to attract talent to Houston? After all, he is a a well-liked person and respected ex-player in the league. That way, we could save both his face (from being fired) and our season and most importantly our next season. Or just let Lin go to work and shoot some commercials for some rich asian companies to make enough money for the Rockets to just pay McHale's full contract and ask him retire already. As for Sampson, fire him tomorrow. He has never contributed anything anyway. Our Sh***y defense, worst in the league, is the proof.
I am afraid the area McHale would do the most demage is actually his handling of Harden and the bad habits Harden might pick up because McHale would never get on him. I mean it could be excused now to jack up bad shots and play no D in a rebuilding year. But when it's the time you did get serious teammates and want to contend, jacking up bad shots and no D simply wouldn't get it done but habits were probably picked up already and couldn't go away so easily. I really don't believe it's so easy to simply "turn on the switch" into playing D and sharing the ball when your coach so long signaled you it's okay not to do so. I could see it developing as a similar deal with Nash and Amare when they're coached by D'Antoni in Phoenix. Nash and Amare were so spectacular offensively back then D'Antoni never got on them playing D. So when things go serious in playoffs, they couldn't really suddenly transform themselves into good defenders. And they would become bad defenders their whole career and likely never are going to win a championship.
I am assuming McHale has addressed this issue with Harden. If he hasn't then it would cause resentment among the other players and would cause numerous issues in the lockeroom. Maybe, Harden just needs a little more time to adjust and learn?
I totally agree. Adelman would have made this group of players flying on offense and enjoying themselves.
Coaching is part of the problem, but it's also up to the players to communicate and figure things out by themselves as well.
I'm not sure that's very reasonable considering the youth and inexperience of the players. Let's put this in a company context. A bunch of college grads and people with less than 2 years of experience are asked to run a division in a company and compete against efficient and well established companies with experienced staff. Would it really be reasonable to expect them to "figure it out" and get good results? Teams with lots of Veterans have the benefit of experience to help them sort out the details. Teams with experienced Coaches (IE, senior managers) are supposed to have the benefit of being able to tap into that wellspring of experience and knowledge. Right now, our only team Veteran is Delfino, but he can't do it alone. Asking the "team" to figure it out seems both unrealistic and ridiculous to me. This is where the Coach is *supposed* to exert maximum control in terms of defining the parameters and expectations, and then enforce them UNIVERSALLY. Whether that's being in the right spots, or getting back on Defense, or rotating to contest shots, or putting their hands up, or making sure the ball is not being held an inordinately long period of time. Personally, if I was coaching a young team, I'd rather have them playing Offense and Defense CONSISTENTLY versus worrying so much about the win and loss column. In other words, if we were winning by playing Team ball, I'm okay with losing as long as they lose the RIGHT way, IE, the same way you Won those games which is Team ball. And if you do that, the Wins sort themselves out. That's one thing about the Spurs... Win or Lose, they don't change their system and principles. And they WILL sit anyone including Manu, Duncan or Parker if they're not playing the right way or not playing well. I have yet to see McHale sit Harden...
man adelman is damn good coach. was living in Sac in 2002 when the kings were boss. this team would have florished with him.
