(End of Season Poll) Where do you stand on McHale?

McHale is not a championship caliber coach.

The sooner the Rox get rid of him the better chance we can have of making a serious championship run.

 

He certainly isn't the garbage coach that people make him out to be. The most important aspect of a coaches job in the NBA is personality management and I think he has done a good job with this squad.

But i just can't ignore the fact that we play glorified streetball on offense. So often when the game slows to half court, which is about execution, we struggle mightily. If we aren't running, Harden has to do basically everything.

If we do show well in the playoffs he has to stay, but I'm not sure if he's good enough to win a title.

 

Ultimately, I think he is a great guy, but a less than average coach, and when you need to strategize in the playoffs, I think he will be holding this team back.

A championship contending team should have a championship coach on the bench.

So for me, like him personally, think he is doing ok, but would prefer he be replaced.

DD

 

Should have had the following as an option:


I don't know , ask me after the playoffs.

 

The Rockets can do a lot better. Could this team win a title with McHale as their head coach? Maybe. But I don't think you risk wasting the prime of Harden and Howard's careers like that.

I suppose if the team wins at least one playoff series, McHale will return next season. But I can't help but wonder how much better the Rockets would be with a more experienced head coach who emphasizes defense(i.e. Karl or either Van Gundy).

 

Coaching ain't gonna affect the play of our stars. Look to the development of our guys off the bench.

When you see a scrub come in off the waiver wire and all of a sudden play like he is part of the hive mind over there in San Antonio, that's your barometer for what good coaching should be able to do for a player's development.

Our bench players are acquired, contribute decently for us in the beginning, and then begin this slow spiral down into the depths of uselessness. I think it's an indictment of the coaching that our longest tenured bench players are among our least confident and least helpful. Where is the coaching? Where is the system that we should be trying to get everyone to buy into? I understand running no plays, but guys like Casspi, Hamilton, and even DMo are out there running like chickens with their heads cut off. WTF McHale. WTF.

 

Where is the option that he is a decent coach, little above average?

 

Need a 5th option:

He is a bad coach, but we can overcome him.

With the right players and assistants, especially players, any coach can look great.

The most important thing for McHale to do is keep everyone happy. So far, he seems to be doing that. Once Dwight or James hints at his incompetence, he should be shown the door immediately.

 

"I tell em, they need to play harder, push it push it -- we're tryin to win out there you know. Actually, I don't know what to do.

 

McHale has a very dry, subversive sense of humor. He has said a lot of things that, taken out of context, make him look like a real buffoon.

 

what you're saying i would have to agree with.

but what spacemoth wrote also has a lot of truth in it. our offense looks completely disorganized far too often, with rocket players constantly scraping and grasping for an opportunistic chance at a good look. basically playing hot potato with the ball around perimeter until the final seconds in the shotclock, hoping the defense might make a mistake to capitalize on. it's no wonder we commit turnovers at an alarming rate.

on the defensive end this team is woefully undisciplined, allowing backdoor cuts, wide open layups & 3's, and a dunkfest in transition far too often.

our substitutions and in-game management are acceptable at times, and facepalm-inducing at others. imo, a handful of games were lost this season directly due to mchale's blunders.

so whether mchale opens his mouth to sound funny or not, he quite often looks like a real buffoon on the bench nonetheless.

 

"Good" or "bad" is a little too simplistic of a breakdown for my liking. Also, "should we replace him" is a meaningless question without specifying with who. We lure Gregg Popovich over? Hell yeah. Isiah Thomas? No thanks.

I prefer a simpler question (though one with a longer explanation). If the pool of available coaches is all current assistants plus all coaches who left a job in 2012 or later, and it's guaranteed that if we want them they'll come. That gives us options like:
Stan Van Gundy/Lionel Hollins/George Karl/Byron Scott/Avery Johnson/Lawrence Frank/Scott Skiles/Nate McMillan/Alvin Gentry/Bernie Bickerstaff

Operating under the assumption that any of those guys would accept our offer, then my answer would be yes, there are several of those guys that I would much prefer. That doesn't mean McHale is "bad" - he's average, but I think we could marginally move our championship needle by swapping from KM to SVG/Hollins/Karl.

 

Yep. I'm reserving judgment until the offseason. The playoffs are a true test of a coach's mettle. Emotions are high and the intensity goes to the next level. A coach's worth is based not only be responsive to what's happening on the court but also to what's going on in his players' heads.

Outside of Harden and Howard, our team has barely any playoff experience. If he can help these young guys settle down and produce like they can, then I think he will have earned the right to be called a good coach. However, if guys like Lin, Jones, and Parsons fail to show up, then I think that's on McHale.

 

missing the option, he is an improved coach, but still want an upgrade. i wouldn't consider him good, but more like improved and adequate.

 

I think this will be a better question to ask after the play-offs.

 

player happiness is important - esp on the team, and the coach, but the coach is more than just motivating their team, but has to guide them as well

 

Like many have already posted. He hinders the team's championship potential with not knowing how to coach the x's and o's.

He's a great motivator, great person to be around but not a great or even good coach.

 

He is an ok coach, but we need a better one. An overall upgrade at the 4(Hope TJ and D-Mo can improve), and replacements for Garcia, Hamilton and Casspi are needed too.

 

ISO.....wish he got along with Kyle Lowry!!!...
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