Something to remember about Kevin McHale for folks who don't understand the "benching" thing...

Fo real

 

I think you do not understand what today's NBA head coach is expected to do:

"The same sentiment had been expressed time and time again during the duration of the Houston Rockets' coaching search: team owner Leslie Alexander and General Manager Daryl Morey wanted a leader of men; someone with conviction, strong communication skills, a bright mind and big ideas; a man capable of commanding respect, developing players, and diligent delegation; someone willing to dare greatly or die trying." Jason Friedman.

Phil Jackson's coaching strengths?

Here is what Luke Walton said:

• Phil works hard to keep his team balanced and even keel. He never wants his players too high or too low. He wants them to have the mind of the 'Peaceful Warrior.'
• Phil has an incredible ability to connect with every player as an individual. He doesn't treat everyone the same. He works to connect with each player on a much deeper level than most coaches do. That is why guys love playing for him.
• Phil is extremely intelligent, almost to the point of being intimidating. He is well cultured, well read, well informed, and knowledgeable about every subject. He knows facts about everything and everyone. His intelligence demands respect.
• Phil is more of a manager of the game than he is an X's and O's architect. He takes pride in molding a group of individuals into a cohesive unit. He specializes in chemistry, not drawing up plays. That's why he loves the challenge of a Dennis Rodman or Ron Artest... they are a test to his ability to create a team.
• Phil is confident. He knows what he does works. Period.

To me they seem eerily similar. I would say that McHale seems to be cut from the same cloth as Phil. These days NBA head coaches have large highly trained and competent coaching staffs to handle the grunt work of coaching.

 

Thanks for the video. After watching McHale post moves, now I understand where Asik's ballet moves came from. It's a work in progress! :grin:

 

Thanks for your insights.

What do you think about the possibility of continuing the successful strategy in Preseason Game 1 where Lin distributed the ball to Howard and Harden? In the 1st quarter, there were 3 straight possessions when Lin connected with Howard twice for easy buckets and fed a bounce pass to Harden for a running dunk?

It seemed very promising for the team to play Lin more as a PG to distribute the ball and Harden to be off-the-ball more until crunch time where Harden isolation plays would be very useful. Harden would also be able to save his energy until crunch time comes.

But why wouldn't the coaches explore more of this option when Howard and Harden can get easy points off Lin's playmaking? Is it the coaches' limitation for McHale not playing the guard position himself? Or would it be more difficult for Harden to play off-the-ball since both he and Lin need the ball on their hands?

I'm perplexed why coaches won't use this strategy to play Lin as PG more than Harden in the first three quarters and let Harden be the PG/SG in the fourth quarter? It seems to be a win-win.

Kobe often used the same strategy to save energy by facilitating more in the first 2-3 quarters and then score more in the last 1-2 quarters.

 

Players like Howard and Casspi want to play for McHale. Do you think there are ignorant about basketball?

 

The Rockets offense will look different this season. Trust me. With the addition of Howard and the continued improvement from all of the players 26 and younger the Rockets have many more offensive options this season than last. I personally just trust the coaching staff to make the correct decisions. Who among us knows enough about NBA coaching to criticize them? Not me. The Rockets hire the best coaches available, and never skimp in that area. The offense will be shaped this season by great NBA coaching minds, with Morey lurking in the background. Morey should give you the confidence that the best decisions are being made.

 

http://www.ysr1560.com/sean-pendergast/calvin-murphy-lin-needs-the-ball-in-his-hands-8202/
Don't know if this is included in our coaching staff's preseason experiement plan. But since this is just preseason and we didn't have the chance to try it during the last season' s preseason game coz the Harden trade was made just before the regular season start and the new addition of DH this season.
I do hope we could at least have a chance to see they play Lin as "The PG" and let Harden play off the ball as SG in one preseason game as Calvin Murphy suggested and see what will happen.

 

http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/2013/10/15/ZOOM0003MOV-3012712/
Kevin McHale: 10/15/2013


http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/2013/10/15/ZOOM0004MOV-3012726
Jeremy Lin: 10/15/2013

 

Point taken, and I know how good McHale was. I also posted one of his 50 points highlight youtube video on another site before. However, you could have mentioned that Cedric Maxwell wasn't so shabby either. He was a 2-timer NBA champion and Finals MVP in 1981. The Celtics, yes, the Boston Celtics, loaded with rings and HOFers, not the Raptors, retired his jersey.

McHale as a rookie backing up one of the star players, wasn't strong support of how JLin should backup the all-mighty PB.

 

This original post wasn't trying to use the example of McHale to support having Lin off the bench. It was attempting to show McHale's decision to have Lin come off the bench is merely a strategic decision, and nothing to do with slighting him as a player.

 

Could be just me, but based on how Lin came off the bench in PSG2, if he's not starting he's going to be backing up PB/Harden. Of course, I'm also thinking the ABZ makes the final roster so he could relief PB.

And for those who care, McHale said starting wont mean much because Lin/Bev will still be playing a lot of minutes (hence my thinking that he will actually stagger Lin/Harden's minutes and have Lin sub for Harden this season. This could be a very good thing!)

 

McHale was a rookie in 80-81. He continued to come off the bench behind Cornbread until Maxwell's career was essentially over in 85. McHale was clearly the better player than Maxwell from his rookie season on. So, it wasn't just a rookie year thing.

 

I don't know how many times McHale has to say Lin is a great player before Lin fans and Lin doubters can rest assure that McHale does not hate Lin nor is he starting Bev because he thinks Lin sucks. And it's not just fans, it's the media too. Now I know why he's sometimes so short with them

 

Sounds like jet lag is going to impact tomorrow's game. Dwight wants to fall asleep at 8 PM and Jeremy is dragging hard in the afternoon. I wouldn't be surprised to see a not-very-good game from the Rox.

 

Lin in my opinion just meshes well with whatever line up the Rockets put out. But I'm biased (not going to lie), Lin should be the starter. This preseason so far showed that Lin is playing better defense and a massively improved jumper. My opinion is that Asik isn't going to be traded so 16 million on the bench makes no sense for me. Plus last year has shown Lin and Harden can coexist just fine. They were by far the best backcourt last year offensively.

 

I am not really against the idea of making Lin the 6th man. If he can play at the level of Manu or Terry, I will be very happy, and Rockets will benefit greatly. But my concern is that he's not a shooting guard type of player, but rather more of a point guard. Backing up Harden or leading the bench as main scoring option is probably not playing to his strength.

I don't want to hear about the empty talk of sacrificing for the team. Internet posters can sacrifice themselves at job - taking less pay, doing more or happily getting demoted, but you don't demand others to sacrifice.

Obviously, Lin is not good enough to shut all doubts right now; otherwise, we wouldn't have this conversation. But PB is certainly no upgrade to Lin, with his strength in defense, his offense especially playing making is behind Lin. I don't see Rockets all of the sudden have the luxury to take out more offense from the starting line up. With Howard in the line up, it's important to have someone read the court very well and get him involved early; otherwise, he would quickly start to cry about touches. Do we really want to put both scoring and play making heavy duties in Harden's hands from game 1?

Let's wait and see. Whatever experiment McHale is running, only results matter.

 

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this team is gonna be even better this year and lin is a part of that. i do like knowing we have tenacious backup pgs - with this team's style of play they have all season to figure out who is going to be on the court when the game is on the line. let's enjoy watching lebron be our pf next year too.