Podcast for today's interview: http://www.sports790.com/media/podc...pallilo/friday-november-15th-2013-2-23981925/
Spoiler We haven't played well yet this year. Parts of every game where we've played well and struggled. We're playing tight games and need to find a way to win them. How did you coach the fouling (that last sequence)? I would rather foul. It's iffy with 14 seconds on the shot clock. We don't want to foul at 14. Under 6-7 seconds, we like to foul. ... We talked about fouling on the dribble, fouling on the catch, we just have to execute it. Any reason for Terrence Jones opposed to Motiejunas? He rebounded the ball better and felt more comfortable with him. They both played well in the preseason. I wanted to give the big lineup a chance. When we made the change, felt more comfortable with Terrence. He's done a good job. He'll get better. He's a young guy with a lot to learn. He handled both games well. He'll get better. You get better by playing in those situations and getting comfortable. Jeremy is a better player this year than last year but that shouldn't be a surprise. Last year was the first year he started. Our guys will continue to get better and improve. That's the track we're on. We're a couple FTs made or long threes from being 8-2 and we haven't played well. We're feeling high but we have to get ourselves going. It takes time. We're a new team with a lot of new pieces. Omer Asik situation. How do you assess that? I asked, we had a meeting, I asked Omer if he was ready to play, he said no. Evidently didn't feel good and that was before the game so I went with Greg. Other than that, nothing I can say about it. Follow up with Greg Smith? Sprained knee. No big structural damage. Strained ligament in his knee. We'll know a lot more in 2 days. If you'll come back quick, the first few days you make huge improvement. If longer, those first few days you don't make huge improvement. Next couple days will decide where he's at. Have you talked to Omer about the decision or this is part of being a professional and going with the flow? Yeah, we talked about it. We talked about what we're gonna do. We talked about at length about him and Dwight playing together and what we needed. I decided to make a change against a team that played small in Philly and when they substituted at the center spot, they went with a small four in LaVoy Allen. When you have two centers like Dwight and Omer, there will be nights where the team plays a small lineup and it's hard to match down to them. Again, when I asked him if he was ready to go, he said no, I'm not ready. Has he talked about his frustration? That's the way it is. Nights when the matchups are favorable and nights when it's not. It's accepting the way it is. Dwight's come in, he's our starter. Omer will have to work with his role as being ?, does he like it? Probably not but part of what you gotta do. Chandler Parsons, his back and Harden's foot - lingering issues? I don't think so. One is a strained muscle in Chandler's back which is bothering him and one is a bruised foot with James which is bothering him. Bruises and strains go away as long as it's not something more than that. Chandler played well with his back. He has upper back tightness. Howard only 5 FG attempts and one make. Could he have been more aggressive establishing position? For Dwight, we try to get him the ball early. He was passing out, they were doubling him. We tried to get him in some PnRs, roll back off of it, they were jamming the paint and not allowing us to hit him on the roll. One of those nights where offensively it didn't feel like there was much flow. The night before he had 20 shots in Philly. We try to get him the ball in the post. Dwight, there is no way we win that game last night. He blocked shots, rebounded, he was a huge part. We don't win last night unless Dwight dominates like he does on the board and defensively. He can win games a lot of different ways for you. ... He's a force out there every night he plays. Is there a go-to move for him or he won't have that signature move? Do you see evolution in his offensive post game? There is a big evolution in his post game. I like his running hook. At times, he gets frustrated and lowers his shoulder and gets an offensive foul. He's gotta attack. Use his quickness, use a pump fake. We're gonna get him the ball down there and he's a very willing passer. He's hitting the guys, making the right plays. After he collapses the defense, it's up to the perimeter guys to make shots. ... We're gonna make them. I like the shots we're getting on the perimeter. We have a read and react offense. It takes time getting used to. When it's rolling, we'll get a lot of good open threes. We're not making them now. That'll come. It'll come around. Jeremy Lin found his true calling, coming off the bench? This summer, last year at the end of the year, we had a long talk about him, his expectations for himself, what he needs to work on, the whirlwind he went through in NY and then the FA and coming to Houston and all those things. You could see by the end of the summer, he was comfortable. I was happy for him. He got comfortable being Jeremy Lin, a very good basketball player. Not Linsanity, not trying to live up to all that stuff, which is impossible but being comfortable with who he is. You can really see that in him. I'm really happy for him. Wonderful kid, great guy. Really like him. He's going out and playing. He doesn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders anymore. There is a joy about him when he plays that is fun to see. Denver tomorrow. Not running quite as much. They changed some pieces on their team. They're trying to find rhythm, like a lot of teams. We have to go out and play well. Boston Tuesday - any special juices flowing? Been a long time since I played there. It's nice when I go to Boston because I have friends there. Unless Danny comes down, there's nobody left there, coaches, management or anything. Trainer Ed Lacerte is a good friend of mine. It's good to see the people I know well. Going to Boston is still always fun for me but them coming here, just another game you gotta go out and win.
So the decision to play Jeremy off the bench was made in the summer. At least that is what I implied from his comments. I am not sure why all this alternating starts talk during the preseason was for? I guess if the team already knew who would start and who would be on the bench, it doesn't really matter that it wasn't spelled out to the public.
So McHale convinced Lin to come off the bench before preseason? Well the only thing Lin can do is to make the most of it(no matter starter or bench player). I'm glad he's doing it right now.
I've seen him use that running hook a lot. I don't recall seeing him ever pump fake it. Shaq was talking about it too about how it's been too predictable. It'd be cool to see him throw some variety in there.
I have actually though that to myself as well I said man you gotta .gif that touchdown. 1 minute later the .gif is up. Boy is a machine!
Not sure how you came up with that interpretation. McHale actually did not directly answer the question about "coming off the bench", instead he gave the same answer he's always given when asked about Jeremy's improvement this year. Jeremy has shown that he can play consistently well starting or coming off the bench, it would be dumb of the organization to pretend coming off the bench is THE reason (as the interviewer seem to want to imply and McHale was not going to fall for that). Sounds to me like McHale is actually praising Jeremy for following through with the pre-summer discussion of what he needed to work on.
