I don't see them making much noise in the playoffs with their current style of play. They need to surround him with coaches who are great with x's and o's or he has to go depending on their performance in the playoffs. Right now they are winning on mostly talent and even most of are wins look ugly. It's going to be brutal when a team gets to game plan against us.
I don't think he is a great coach, but he isn't bad. He doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves though as people are entirely too fixated on hi negatively. What he has done for Howard's post game is nothing short of amazing.
Here's the thing, McHale has improved as a coach. McHale lovers don't want to hear that because most of them believe he's always been great, but just like any other skill, if you're sincerely trying to improve, the longer you do it the better you get at it. McHale has improved his coaching skills. His rotations as of late are better than ever. He is utilizing his bench more than ever and sees which players work best at which positions better. He seems to be getting through to players better and has them running the offense better. Yeah some of that is just they needed more practice together. Especially with the addition of Howard. But you can see he is more comfortable on the court and he is more willing to sub players in and out trying different combinations just to see what works best. He has definitely improved in that area and that has contributed to this 5 game winning streak. I have not always been in favor of McHale but I am happy with him now and I'm not interested in any replacement for him. In spite of what some may think on both sides, a coach can improve. A good GM, which is debatable in McHale's case, doesn't automatically translate into a good coach. McHale coming in did not have much more experince than Jason Kidd. It's ridiculous to think he would come in and be immediately awesome. He wasn't but he has most definitely improved and kudos to McHale fo doing so. Some never do. So hats off to McHale for doing so. He looks like he's enjoying himself out there a little more and he is most definitely pulling the reigns in the right direction for the most part.
I wasn't real happy when Morey hired McHale. But, while there have definitely been times he's frustrated me, he's done a lot more good than bad, and pretty much won me over. Is he a hall of fame coach? No. Will he be? Probably not, but we don't know that at this point. But, let's see... The Rockets have the 6th best record in the NBA. They have the 8th best point differential in the NBA. They own the longest current winning streak in the NBA. The have won 12 straight when scoring 100 points or more, the longest such streak in the NBA currently. Coming into the Bucks game the Rockets had played the 5th toughest schedule in the NBA and only the Spurs (who Houston's 3-0 against) had a better record of teams with a tougher schedule. The only time a Rockets team had a better record through 50 games they'd went to the Finals I believe (maybe 96-97 was equal and they didn't go). They are 5th in offensive rating and 8th in defensive rating - only the Clippers, Spurs and Thunder are in the top 10 for both. This, while incorporating a post presence for what is for many on the team the first time in their careers. The Rockets have done this while facing a ton more missed games due to injury than last year. Trying to develop a system, a routine, an identity, with a huge change (Dwight), injuries, and an extremely young team, is difficult to say the least. Could he be more like Carlisle or Pop coming out of timeouts? Sure. But, in today's game, where every little disappointment a player experiences is "leaked", where every time a player isn't used right it causes drama, where today's player is completely different than yesterday's player (i.e. McHale himself), managing egos, personalities and getting the team to BUY IN is the majority of what a head coach is responsible for. For there to be very little, if any, issues, leaks, problems, in-fighting, etc., speaks to McHale's leadership qualities. To say the Rockets are where they are (34-17) in SPITE of McHale is foolish, short sighted, immature and couldn't be further from the truth. Is he the guy to lead us to our third championship? I don't know. But, he's without question done a much better job than I thought he would. The numbers don't lie. There are too many examples of talented teams coming nowhere close to the way the Rockets look and play. Be careful what you wish for (McHale haters).
See this is where you and many like you are misinformed. Clutch caught McHale in one of his most authentic moments, when McHale said all that stuff does is tell you things he already knew. In another interview he said out of respect for Morey he doesn't throw all of those analytic reports Morey puts on his desk in the trash. But he doesn't read them either. I doubt that has changed much. What I do think happens some is the other coaches go through them and McHale listens to them some. Because he certainly is going with some of Morey's ideas. What I like most about McHale is he gets along with the players mostly and at the same time they respect him. That's a tough combination to make work and he does it. Just watch how DMo respect him, his eyes are wide open when McHale speaks. He doesn't want to go back to the doghouse anytime soon. And McHale rewards him for that by trusting him on the floor more. DMo still makes boneheaded plays but he plays defense better than TJones mostly. So as long as someone gets Morey's info to McHale and it makes it's way on to court I don't care if McHale reads Morey's reports or not. He is getting the job done and I for one am happy with him.
I love Mchale, I want to have a beer with Mchale and also maybe get some ice cream at Ritters with Mchale.
^^^This^^^ McHale was a decent coach his first season with the Rockets. Decent as in about average. He met my expectations. I do believe McHale has gotten better coaching the Rockets, but I do not know if it is the added experience or the familiarity with the players. Perhaps both? Can McHale coach the Rockets to a championship this season? I see no reason why not.
- Funny that OMR says this about McHale but seemingly cannot see the same with DMo. OMR (and others, too) insists that DMo has always been good and the coaches simply were blind to DMo's goodness and uses DMo's recent string of competence as proof that the coaches screwed up by not playing him more earlier. The truth is most likely that DMo was not very ready to be a useful NBA players early so he didn't take advantage of the earlier opportunities when they arose. He got better (in terms of skills, physical condition and mental approach) with training, practice, etc. and showed his readiness to contribute when called upon. The coaches were not wrong earlier not to play him just because they are right to play him now. Players, especially younger ones, do get better and more ready to contribute with the hours of training, practice, scrimmage, and game time that they put in. Coaches can only work with the information that's in front of them. - Meanwhile, to the extent that the Rockets are running more successful rotations and tactics, I am not sure it's because McHale and the rest of the staff are materially different coaches. It seems to be more of a matter of the coaching staff now having had time to try out what their players are good or bad at doing and incorporating the data into team tactics. Some people seem to think that coaches are supposed to just know how everything works with their group going into a season and will just immediately start implementing an ideal playing rotation and offensive/defensive systems. The truth is that basketball is more of an empirical trial and error enterprise than a matter of a priori truth. You have an idea what could work with your team, work on it in practice/preseason, give it some time for the players to get good at it and collect data on how it works, and make future decisions based on the new data (stick with it, abandon it, or work on some modified version of it). McHale mentioned recently that they are running different defensive tactics now than they were to start the season because they saw what work and didn't work decided to go with the former more frequently than the latter (One specific aspect that I noticed is in pick and roll coverage-- the team is switching and blitzing more frequently than it did when the season began). Is it a matter that McHale, Sampson, Finch and Bickerstaff became more skilled tacticians? Perhaps, but it's more likely they are just guys who watched enough game film and read enough analytics spread sheets to see how their prior theories worked or did not work. Same thing with player rotations-- tried Asik starting, gave it enough time to see it probably won't work, make new decision, and so on. It happens with other coaches, too-- Adelman, for example, wanted to run the corner offense when he first got to Houston, worked on it with the team a lot, then saw that he didn't really have the personnel to work it so the team did much of the same things it did the year before. Did Adelman become a substantially different coach at that point or did he stay the same guy who just made a different decision based on new data?
He's doing better. He's not putting casspi, parsons, Garcia or any other small forward at the 4. He's also not playing PF at center like last season. So he's kinda riding away from morey's b.s philosophy which is really good. I'm seeing some backbone in mchale.
I think McHale would be a good assistant coach but during cruch time in the game you don't want McHale making the decisions or drawing up plays (not that he has any).
I Like McHale. I think he has a very young team that with 2 stars playing together for the first time. Last seasons team over achieved and he got a lot out of Asik, more than I thought was there. I think there is like a 5% chance hes fired in the off-season as some hope. Very very unlikely.
I am more concern about our DEFENSIVE system than offensive system. Are you claiming that there are no defensive systems as well?
I'm not so much a mchale lover as I am someone who defends coaches. It's human nature for people to blame whoever is in charge when things go wrong even though it's not always his fault. I habitually defend mchale from the headless chickens running around on this board
I am constantly confused by the term "system". What does that mean? Defensively the Rockets play a loose tag, 2.9, shoot the screen and funnel baseline or to Howard "system". If I am interpreting your meaning of system correctly.
