See, that's just it. I don't think it's overreacting. Why did the Rockets lose that series? Because of poor defense, resorting to ISO offense(especially in the 4th quarter), careless turnovers, and a bad series by Harden(and to a lesser extent Parsons). Now the latter is mostly on the players. Coaching plays a small role in getting your guys good looks at the basket, but ultimately if Harden is gonna settle for jumpers and Parsons is gonna brick layups, that's on them more than McHale. As for the other reasons however, those are issues that plagued the Rockets all season long. The crappy defense, particularly on the perimeter, was not a new development. It didn't suddenly become an issue after Sampson left. It was there from opening night. And it was never addressed by McHale. He allowed the team(especially Harden and Parsons) to get away with minimal effort on that end of the floor all year and it came back to bite them in the worst way imaginable. The ISO offense was also an issue all season long. We've been screaming for them to use more PNR plays, but they never did. We pointed out how stagnant the offense would get at times which is why the Rockets had trouble holding onto big leads(coupled with their shoddy defense). But none of these was dealt with and it came back and cost them dearly in the Portland series. Careless turnovers? You guessed it. A problem all season long as well. It could be excused early on in the year as they were learning to integrate Dwight into the lineup and he is turnover-prone. But what was the excuse for it still happening in the last month of the season? Again, this came back and cost them dearly in Game 4(and nearly in Game 3). I don't view retaining Kevin McHale as Morey and Les not overreacting. I look at it as those two not REACTING. They're either too stubborn to refuse they made a mistake hiring him(I don't think this is the case) or they've fully bought into the idea that the Rockets just need another year together(this is more likely the case). All I ask of those who agree with that notion is this. Why will any of those aforementioned problems by fixed simply be giving McHale another season? He had 82 games this year to deal with it and failed to.
You ever seen JVG said anything negative about any current coach? That's the code among coaches, you never dish your peers publicly, even if you know they suck.
http://www.nba.com/rockets/fanmail/fanmail_001224.html Even though they will not care, I am writing an email voicing my displeasure about the decision to keep McHale. It is a good way to get some anger out if anyone would like to join.
You say we had a crappy perimeter defense and McHale should be blamed. My view is we had crappy perimeter defenders so it's not surprising our perimeter defense is crappy. Coaches can't just make guys good at stuff they are crappy at. Same goes with our turnovers. Our 2 stars turned it over like most stars do and the rest of the team is filled with young mistake prone guys. Something tells me an older seasoned group of guys would have turned it over less. You talk about a lack of PNR being on McHale, but from all I have gathered this was a Dwight thing. He didn't want to come to a team looking to make him a PNR big man. He wants to post up and we promised him that if he signed here that's what he would get. I will agree that the offense wasn't very creative, yet it was still damn effective. I dunno I could be wrong, but I just view a good deal of our problems as personnel issues, not coaching.
I don't think you are implying that Beverley is a crappy perimeter defender. Harden is crappy. Was he ever held accountable? It does not seem like it but I'm not sure. Parsons? Not sure if he was held accountable either. I think we would have gotten FAR better defensive results with those guys (and Lin) if we had someone like JVG or Thibs. I certainly think we could have gotten Dwight his posts and some more PNR.
My theory? He was hired by Les. At the time, Morey's contract was up for review in a year. He already made blunder in hiring a coach who disagreed with his every move. Morey realized it didn't matter who he hired after Adelman fiasco, the team would never sniff championship. We all know Les likes to involve with some of the team's decisions. Morey came up with a brilliant idea of letting Les decide on the coach. If the coach failed, it was on Les. He would have a better chance surviving to his next contract. I had high hope coming into the season. I actually predicted Rockets would have 60-win season if Dwight played like his Orlando days. After a month and half, I noticed Dwight was coasting in many of the games, which was okay if he showed up for the post season. McHale's biggest blunder was to give up on TT experiment after only 9 games. This season was pretty done when Morey was too cheap to give up a first pick+Asik for Millsap. With Jones as a starting PF, this team had little chance. 2 good defenders can never cover up the flaws of 3 bad defenders. This kind of problem gets magnified in the playoffs. Parsons and Harden are not good fit. When those two are starting core, their combine defense will never win any championship. Parsons is playing for his first big contract. His attention is fully on the offensive end. He just isn't as good as he thinks. What he improved in offense, he gave much of it back in defense. Every year, as Parsons becomes more vocal, his ego grows exponentially. Harden is a fool's gold IF he does not work on his stamina and defense in off seasons. We all saw how Blazers exploited weakness of the team. They kept attacking Harden's D and really got into his head. That was done by an average coach. Imagine what Pop or Carlisle will do? When Harden can't score efficiently, he becomes a liability. This team had lost most of the games when opposition locked him down. On the future of this team, fans really need to lower their expectation. Do NOT invest too much of you emotions next year or you WILL be disappointed. Morey could've and should've done a few moves to improve our chances this year BUT he didn't. He is the Cheap Charlie of NBA GM's and wasted a year of Dwight's career. Even if Morey makes a couple of moves this offseason, I just don't see this is a championship team with so many MAJOR flaws. So many that I don't even know where to begin. I can only say this. The only championship piece in this organization is Dwight. Everyone else is replaceable, INCLUDING Morey!
Lmao@you fools acting like coaching doesn't matter. As if our season didn't end on a terrible executed defensive play that the coach drew up. As if it didn't take Mchale 2 games to make one adjustment in guarding LMA. As if this wasn't the same coach who mysteriously took a scorching hot Parsons out and sat him until the game was almost over. Had we had a competent coach we'd be playing in the 2nd round right now. The bigger problem is the arrogant GM who wants to be a celebrity and refuses to hire a intelligent coach because that means he won't have as much control over coaching decisions.
Morey knows if he gets a real coach he can't force him to play analytic ball. As long as Morey is here we will probably have a puppet coach. As long as Morey can give McHale an earpiece next year to tell him the mistakes hes making in lineups and endgame im okay with this as I think Morey is brilliant.
Please create a thread instructing everyone to do this if they want change..if we all come together. We can get this done
My body is not ready to handle another year of torture especially with Lillard's last shot will replay all year long inside my head due to the incompetence of McHale. CrashCity.
So what happens when we make the playoffs again and we run into the same situation? Not putting our players in the best position and making things easier for them my running plays. I feel like our guys work much harder for the points they get compared to the rest of the league due to our pathetic coaching. Everything slows down in the playoffs you would think Morey would have learned this by know. We easit win that series if we ran plays getting guys open and make it easier for them.
Lakers kept saying that D'Antoni is staying as a coach, kept praising him after the season ended, then after a few days, D'Antoni announced his resignation... hoping for this same thing to happen for Rockets...
