The McHale haters are really starting to get on my nerves. He's only a HOFer, hired by the guy many of us consider to be the smartest GM in the league, and led an injury plagued team to a division championship and the WCF. We will probably have a top 5 offense and top 10 defense this year. Even the complaints that he calls "Harden ISO" too much are ridiculous. THAT'S A REALLY GOOD PLAY.
In response to available players, performances, and performance during practices. Smith, for all his talent, was incredibly up and down last year and had moments where he was flat out unfocused. For the great moments us fans remember him for, many of you are also forgetting his many, extremely poor moments as well. Given that we have T-Jones AND D-Mo on our team, the share of minutes simply is not enough to go around for his satisfaction, especially compared to Clippers where the lack of bench depth was renowned. The point is simple and anyone who uses their brain even a little bit can easily see; in LA he is guaranteed to be the first option off the bench behind Griffin and possibly Jordan simply because they are not as deep as our team.
I didn't see a lot of great playcalling by the Warriors in the Finals. Kerr's biggest move in that series was in between games when he benched Bogut and went with a small lineup. And the only reason he got away with that was because the Cavs were decimated by injuries. Also, it's the freaking preseason. You don't call plays down the stretch. You let the end of the bench guys show you what they've got so you can decide whether or not to put them in your rotation or cut them outright.
McHale really impressed me with how he navigated the ship last season, but it still does not change the fact that a lot of the times it simply takes too long for him to make adjustments. That said, the way he handled things last season really impressed me personally.
not everyone in the NBA wants to sacrifice PT for the sake of the team. There's alot of players that want to play regardless of the situation. It easy for you to sit there and criticize about how theres plenty of minutes here for him but in reality there isn't.
McHale has been fine. Don't get dragged into an argument with the imbecile in my Sig, just put him on ignore like everyone else.
McHale has his faults, but the dude led the team to 56 wins despite a ton of injuries to key players, the best record in arguably the toughest division in NBA history, a comeback from a 3-1 deficit, and an appearance in the WCF where they lost to the eventual champs. I'd say the guy's earned the benefit of the doubt for this season.
BTW I was just talking about the style and entertainment value to me of his post game interviews, not whether he is a good coach. I do think McHale is very underrated at least among the heard on this forum. I look forward to some mea culpas when we go to the Finals or win the Championship this year. I remember when folks thought Jeff Van Gundy was God because he was not a player's coach and came off so tough defensively. Hey I really like Jeff as an analyst as he says interesting things, but could not stand his morose post game interviews. His range went from pained after a win because someone missed a defensive assignment to looking like his mother, wife, children and dog died earlier in the day when they lost.
McHale can certainly be funny. Popovich is funny, too. The worst part of most post-game interviews are the questions that are asked. And that's when Popovich, especially, is funny. Reporters would do best by just letting one person among them ask the simple question: "Coach, is there anything in particular that stood out in tonight's game?" But, no. Because most want to ask a detailed question with proper buzz phrases, to, at least, appear to be savants of the game, they ask away with questions that many times border on non-questions or self-answering questions. Those are the worst and make me cringe. I'd be interested to see if any here can point out media questions that are really informative, beyond the coach's initial reaction. Even when it is obvious that one play, where a game, seemingly, gets decided, is asked about in the post-game interview, if you listen to how the questions about it are phrased, they so often seem like dumb questions. Fans hear over and over again about the speed of the NBA game. Most mistakes happen in split seconds. Those mistakes are usually on the player(s). They are not intentional. What player likes to lose? I'm sure most coaches and players get tired of "having" to meet with the media after games.
