Actually, a few games when they first had him starting he was indeed getting a few plays run his way. But eventually, partially because he is not elite (just more polished then anyone else on the Rockets) and his defensive issues they seemed to stop calling for him in the post and focused on him shooting... yeah. Jones had minutes early in the season coming off the bench but he was horrible. So they sent him to the D-League and around the time they made the trade Jones got injured. He recovered, they sent him to the D-League and then brought him back when Robinson wasn't producing enough which is this current run. All that being said, since just before they began starting him at PF, Smith has made massive improvements to his defensive game and is legitimately the best all around big we have on the roster. Jones has his moments and can block but Smith easily has shown he can score when fed in transition or with an opening and has had better showings defensively then Jones when going against starting big men. So I disagree with your position.
His tenure with the Trail Blazers was marred more by injury and politics if I remember correctly and he got his team into the playoffs even if they didn't make much noise. That fact would worry me, but his Blazers had at least developed a lot of good talent, half of which the current team either used to build their roster or shipped off for pieces they are using now.
McHale reminds me of that little kid that got a shiny new toy ( James Harden ) but proceeds to misuse and break it.
McSuccess just made Mike D'Antoni a possible Coach of the Year candidate. From 8 games under .500 to 7th seed. WoW great job.
McHale should have called a timeout earlier, when lakers were making a run to cut it to 3 or 5, thats when the lakers crowd got into the game, you gotta call a timeout to stop lakers and their crowds momentum...guess the coach thought the young rockets could play through it and finally calls a timeout when lakers got an 1 point lead...smh
Funny, that's the impression I got when I was sitting a couple of rows behind the Rockets' bench during the first Dubs-Rockets game at Oracle this season. He's so obviously in over his head. The best coach on the staff is probably Finch. Bickerstaff and the ethically challenged guy don't really impress me much, TBH. Why was the guy (McHale) even considered for the job? Who else were the other candidates?
I doubt he'd be considered. His coaching philosophy is almost the opposite of Morey-Ball. He prefers a glacially slow pace, that doesn't really fit the personnel this team has. Honestly, Morey might as well clean out the staff and let Finch have the head job. It's risky, but he fit the organizational philosophy in terms of style of play. The question is whether he'd be able to manage (1) a game (who to play; when, how, etc.) better than McHale (not hard to do) and (2) the ego of a superstar (Harden).
I'm not worried anymore. The facts against McHale are too clear. Unless we somehow make it to the 2nd round, there is no doubt in my mind McHale will get the boot. He's lost the team (including most importantly Harden).
I'm not sure if anybody has posted this yet. Nice to see that even mainstream media recognizes the issues with the lack of playcalling. http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/56895/hero-ball-devoured-the-rockets Below is also an interesting read about all the different NBA coaches. After watching some oh his interviews, the description of Mchale seems to have some merit. http://hoopshype.com/columns/rosen/the-coaching-rankings
That is just sad. So during the timeout, all Mchale came out with was a Lin pick on Howard (???) for Smith to get the ball back to Harden to initiate his iso play? Wow.
Y'all can b**** about Mchale all you want, it won't change the fact that he is going to be back as the Rockets head coach next year.
If he quits small ball, no-d ball and ISO ball I'll be fine with him. Jerry Sloan and Phil would be an upgrade for sure.
