Deception. How often are we going to get 47 bench points with Josh Smith shooting 4-5 from 3-pt land? Fire McHale.
How often are we going to play a hated division rival who'd lost three straight and were obviously motivated to stop that streak.... and two of their players go 22 of 36, mostly on jumpers? Goes both ways...
I was terrified Dallas was simply going to attack the rim with Dwight out. To give up just 38 points in the paint is impressive and speaks to coaching at least somewhat. Sure, they're a jump shooting team. Sure, they were on a back to back. But, without our rim protector, we managed to shut down the lane pretty well - and they have some players definitely capable of driving and slashing. Carlisle is a very good coach. But, I'd have had my guys attacking the rim all night. (even with big blocks by T. Jones and J. Smith)
Mchale deserves a lot of respect in what he has achieved so far this year, The winningest coach in team history too.
He's a damn good coach, most people here are having trust issues with him come playoffs time after Terry Stots schooled him last year though.
...You would think fans of a team that preaches process over outcome would know better than to make ridiculous statements like this. T. Jones might be the worst defender on the team.
When it comes to a coach it's not about winning in all situations. Nobody expects the 6ers coach to be so great that they can beat the Warriors. But should we be mad at a Warriors fan who didn't like Jackson because he felt he wasn't maximizing his roster last year? I think most Rockets fans that don't like McHale don't like him because they feel like he doesn't maximize the talent he has. He most certainly didn't do that in the playoffs last year. Maybe things will change but it's frustrating as a fan when the same things happen over and over again just like its frustrating to hear people complain about a coach over and over again.
With how talented our roster is... having the leagues MVP also.. I think with a better coach we would be favorites to win it all Infact I'd argue McHale is letting this team down-- we are winning off talent not coaching Name me the last time an MVP winners team wasn't 1st in their division... it was 1982 This team has the talent.. the fact we aren't 1st in the division is a coaching problem
I just want to point out that for all the "we suck at plays out of timeouts", I'm pretty sure Carlisle ran a play out of a timeout last night that was designed to get Aminu an open mid range shot. If mchale drew that up, we would've gone nuts. I could be wrong on the player but I'm pretty sure it was Aminu
I never wanted Mchale. I wanted JoJo Bubba Jr a.k.a. Umgwana Kickbooti. With his coaching Harden could average 132 points a game.
Crazy to think that a basketball lifer and NBA Hall of Famer is a better basketball coach than some of our Clutchfans Keyboard Warriors, but that might actually be the case.
Hardcore fans tend to have a difficult time separating what coaches do from what the players do on the court. Casual fans have a difficult time understanding what a coach does whatsoever. Personally, I think fans can only objectively hold coaches accountable for substitution patterns and the intangible idea of "motivating" or "disciplining" the team as needed. It's hard to properly evaluate a coach. He isn't on the floor hitting shots and playing defense.
I've reached the same point. I was a pretty vocal detractor for years. When the extension news hit, I didn't approve but I took that as my cue to stop concerning myself with Kevin McHale as long as the team was winning. Well, the team is still winning. People will assign credit for wins and blame for losses in whatever manner suits their preconceived notions of who's good and who's bad. Like most, I think Harden's a far bigger actor in that result than McHale but one way or another McHale wins games, just like he always has with the Rockets. McHale still aggravates me at times but he's got the Rockets playing at a level that would be at least a runaway 3 seed in a balanced NBA. He still needs to bring playoff success to justify that contract but that's later. Now we're hanging tough in a brutal West so I've let it go.
