^This. That incident which also involves Jamal Crawford has nothing to do with Nates coaching ability, the team wasn't doing well and Nate was already on his way out. Those knuckleheads were just used as scapegoats and I'll take a real coach like Nate over Mchale anyday.
I haven't looked at many BKN games so I can't speak much to Kidd's coaching ability I do agree with everything you said other than that. Mchale admittedly "fly's by the seat of his pants" and has quotes from his players not just from Minnesota but also from last years Rockets team that say he does not draw up plays and when he does it looks like "Etch-e-Sketch" and while his assistants do most of the real coaching Mchale just calls for more "Pop" his own words. Yet for some reason his defenders seem to ignore these facts.
Since your so fond of coaching records, would you care to show us Mchale's record and also his GM record, why is Mchale no longer a GM since he is sooo awesome. Bet Minnesota just loves the guy, lol. Seriously though you can defend Mchale all you want but he is not a real coach, that's just a truth, he is pretty much like a figurehead and it's obvious. ISO BALL will not win championships. So either he changes the system or he should be moved to the FO or let go. There's no time for messing around playing "Etch a Sketch" and asking for more "Pop".
This. Its hilarious how many of the same posters who b**** and moan constantly about McHale love to talk about how great Adelman is who in FACT- A. DOESN'T RUN TRADITIONAL HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL BASKETBALL PLAYS (Look up Read and React offense) B. Currently lost the locker room up in Minnesota (See Kevin Love's post game interview last night) C. Has a very talented team who is currently on the outside of the playoffs looking in with a very ugly looking losing streak... and that's with good health from his superstar & best supporting players this year. And this is coming from someone who thinks Adelman deserves some HOF votes.
Didn't Morey once say that the difference between a mediocre and great coach is around 5-7 extra victories a season? Does anyone have a link to that interview, or am I completely miss-remembering?
Exactly. Fans have a difficult time understanding the R&R offense. I guess they just do not want to put in the necessary time to read a few articles detailing how and why it works. Even old school defense first coaches like Thib have thrown there hands up at traditional play calling and moved to the R&R. Except for coming out of time outs play calling is just about dead in the NBA. Defenses have gotten to good.
Don't forget he also took Milwaukee to within one game of the NBA Finals in 2001. People can harp on his lack of success in Denver in the playoffs all they want, but the Sonics, Nuggets, and Bucks easily had their best(and in some cases only) success under Karl in recent decades. Give him a roster like ours and I have no doubt the Rockets would go deep in the playoffs.
Yep. Even at the College level you see a lot of forward thinking coaches do this. Go watch what Coach K is running with this current undersized Duke team. Gameplan= put Parker in the middle with pick and rolls to get him a shot as the roller where he can pick and pop, and spread the floor around him. Pretty much a ISO basketball play for Parker ran again and again. In Europe you rarely see an offense that isn't R&R or some permutation. Go watch Real Madrid highlights... what do they run... high pick and roll, spread you out, move the ball side to side, attack & kick, attack & kick. Traditional plays are for YMCA to High School level. You are basically banking on confusing the defense or banking on the defense not being able to properly rotate, provide help defense, or help the helper. NBA defenses are too good to worry about that. At the NBA, college, and Euro level its all about space. You look at a teams coached style of play, and show me what kind of shots those teams are getting. If they are open or high percentage shots.... the coach is coaching the right way. So is Howard getting good looks at the bucket....??? IMO yes.. most games. Are the perimeter players getting space to get good high percentage shots right now.... that's debatable. Is Harden being put in a good position to get good shots off??... sort of, but he's making them at an efficient clip. That's what fans NEED to be looking at when evaluating the coaching.... not necessarily how he runs "The High/Low Double Post" or the "5 Screen" etc. plays. Even though ... YES... the Rockets DO RUN those sets sometimes. Its all about the space the sets are creating to get open shots.... not necessarily the complexity of the plays being run. That being said... I do think the space being created for outside shooters especially (see how many truly open shots Garcia & Casspi have gotten lately), should be looked at right now. I think alot of it has to do with how teams are guarding the perimeter now, and the book is out there now to basically let Howard get his but to run the shooters off the perimeter. I do think McHale needs to adjust his game-play a little bit IMO to try and open things back up from the perimeter a bit. If they can't get open 3's anymore they are banking pretty heavily on Howard having a break-out offensive second half of the season which is what will have to happen to force defenses to ease off the perimeter.
mchale has howard incorporated into the offense, getting his touches, getting good looks, but goes 5-14FG 10-24FT BLAME MCHALE howard and jones struggle protecting the rim and giving up offensive rebounds BLAME MCHALE the team is getting good looks from the perimeter off ball movement but we still shoot 7-30 from3 BLAME MCHALE 2nd half, howard comes out defending better and getting more rebounds "sure mchale got on him" he makes adjustments after the half once he sees the half court “howard offense” is not working vs MIKE D fast pace offense & tells guys to run & gun push the ball like last year, which leads to more fast breaks, more ball movement, harden playing like an allstar and a 20 point lead in the 2nd half BLAME MCHALE ??? let’s wait until we get BEV & ASIK back healthy, before we put blame on mchale, we still will lack shooters off the bench and we don’t have a PF that can hit the 3 or midrange shots like we last year that we can run mchales pick & pop play with. Thats a roster concern not a coaching issue.
Space for outside shooters is critical. McHale is attempting to force teams to double Howard on the post. That automatically creates space and forces the defense to scramble. Unfortunately the entry pass to Howard is still a work in progress. I believe it will improve as the season wears on. Hopefully. The Rockets also create space using the threat of Lin, Parsons and Harden driving to the basket. However so far many teams are not defensively flexing enough to the threat of the drive to create space at the three point line. This shows up in the Rockets wings FG% at the rim, where they are converting at a fantastic rate. Sooner or later teams are going to have to adjust their defense to position help defenders near the driving lanes. But until then the Rockets are going to score bunches on drives to the basket. Unfortunately the player that teams cheat off of at the three point line is Jones. He has seen his 3FG% plummet. Coaches tell their players that if an offensive player is not shooting 31% from beyond the arc they do not have to aggressively close out on the three point shot. The Rockets have adjusted by having Jones cut freely to the basket for easy shots, rebounds and put backs.
Was a player like Felton ever an excuse for a team to fire a championship level coach in the past? Phil Jackson? Pat Riley? Rick Carlisle? Anyone? I don't know or enough about Scott as a coach because he's been so non-descript. But I know enough about Skiles. And I dare you to post a "Who do you think is a better coach Skiles or McHale" on every single team board Skiles has been fired from. And I am willing to bet every poll you put up would have more votes for McHale.
The guys decisions costed them 5 first round picks. If he is their greatest ever, Minnesota has a horrible history of GM's. http://espn.go.com/columns/ratto_ray/841035.html I don't hate Mchale personally but again he himself described his coaching style as "Flying by the seat of my pants" and it wasn't a joke, we don't have to speculate, their are players quotes describing Mchale in the same way. That type of coach can only coach development teams that are so talented that they don't need a coach.
I would take any of those coaches over Mchale and Mcmillan. And I would take Mcmillan over Mchale. Plain and simple attacking Mcmillan over Felton is complete nonsense.
LMBO, I would answer but I can't stop laughing at your sig. Love your optimism, I sincerely hope it comes true.
Yes, McHale has a sorely-depleted roster. This obviously makes winning difficult. But you misrepresent what drives us crazy about McHale. We probably lost a good five games, maybe more, thanks to bad coaching, before the injuries really piled up. And only when injuries piled up was he forced to play certain players, 'cause he loooooooooves the small-forward-at-the-4 formula. Insistence on Twin Towers. Dumb rotations. Poor in-game adjustments. No X's and O's in timeouts, just a bunch of trained-seal clapping: "Come on, guys! Come on, guys!" Harden saves our a$$es these last few games and all of a sudden it's Jesus McHale. Reeeeeeally great person. But we do need a better coach if we want to take a big step forward.
