McHale has always been known as a mediocre GM then Coach. At Minny he was labeled Mcfail. Before Jeremy joined the Rockets, most of the fans here were also calling him McFail. Many sided with Lowry in his beef with Coach and wanted McHale fired. His record to date as a head coach is 128 wins and 129 losses in the regular season and 2 wins and 4 losses in the playoffs. Last year was the 1st time he coached a team to the playoff and the Rockets was the 8th seed and lost in the 1st round. I would argue they made the playoffs last year jumping from the 9th seed to the 8th seed because of the stellar play of Asik when the Rockets had no center for the previous 3 years when they missed the playoffs as the 9th seed. But the truth is the Rockets sneaked into the playoffs because of the decline of the Jazz and Mavs. Dirk's Mavs made the playoffs for years but last year he missed large parts of the season due to injury. The Rockets barely beat out a Sloan-less Jazz team on the decline to sneak into the postseason as the 8th seed jumping one whole seed from their previous 3 seasons with no center and no superstar to lose in the 1st round. McHale's ability to coach D is debatable. His offensive schemes have pretty much been Harden iso and letting him do whatever he wants. His most glaring weakness is his allocation of playing time in my opinion. He plays Harden 39.3 mpg when he has been injured all season long. He puts Lin on a short leash and benches him at a drop of a hat if he misses 2 shots. After playing well every game this whole season and was praised by Morey as arguably the 2nd best offensive player on the Rockets, McHale benches Lin in the Mavs game to just 17 min. Jeremy came into the Mavs game late in the 1st quarter and was benched early in the 2nd quarter. In that short period of time, Lin was decent dishing out asts and had no TOs but he missed 2 shots and was 0-2. After this brief pt, Lin barely saw the floor for the rest of the game and finished with 17 min. This is in contrast to how he allocates PT to someone like Parson who always played heavy minutes even though he started the season in a shooting slump for 6-7 games in a row and played poor D. A solid player like Brooks hardly plays while he works Harden to death playing him 39.3 mpg while he has been hurt all season. With McHale's numerous flaws, history of mediocrity with a losing record as a head coach, and history of being critic by fans in both Houston and Minny.. How did McHale all of a sudden become untouchable? Any mere critic of him as a mediocre coach will get you labeled a LOF. Just because some fans do not like Lin because of his race, think he is a competitor of Harden dominating the ball, or do not like the Linsanity hype, how did this give McHale the immunity to any attack? Some people act like McHale is Coach Popovich or Phil Jackson. When McHale wins something like Rudy T and his b2b titles then maybe he should be immune and hero worshipped but definitely not now. People's dislike of Lin, his fans should not make McHale untouchable. This board debated McHale's flaws before Lin and they should do so now. I hope he proves me wrong and becomes a great coach but so far I'm not impressed. The Rockets have the best GM in the league and a great owner imo. The coach could be upgraded.
No if you say anything bad about McHale you are labeled a hater and a LOF these days even 99ers who have been around since the start of this board. Hatred of J-Lin has given McHale protection from attack from the legions of Lin haters just because they think McHale is their hero for putting Jeremy on a short leash and limiting his PT and ability to shine. You can't really debate McHale's weakness as a coach anymore on this board. Even if you talked badly about him on your private website and are a 99er you get attacked here and your personal opinions crucified.
That hasn't been my experience, but then again I don't really root for individual players or coaches, I just care about the Rockets as a whole. I have noticed plenty of criticism for McHale, just read the threads.
Don't know either. Don't know what he brings to this team that any Joe Schmo coach couldn't do. When they announced he was the coach I didn't like it (LOL Etch-A-Sketch, Joe Smith incident) but figured he would bring some intangibles like hard work, accountability and our big guys would turn into watchable post players. I mean, he proved nothing as a coach in Minny so he must be a great motivator...right? Well maybe i'm blind, but this team does not resemble that whatsoever, so I ask what has he done for this team, that a Randy Wittman couldn't do the same. What is McHale's imprint on this team? If you told me this team was going look to play this way in 2013-2014, I would say why isn't D'Antoni coaching?
Diatribe continued I do feel the head coach could be upgraded as well as the point guard. Some people act like our point guard is Magic Johnson or Isaiah Thomas.. When our point guard wins something like Magic and his b2b titles then maybe he should be immune and hero worshipped but definitely not now.
I occasionally see examples of what you're trying to say, and I think you've really answered your own question. The only distinction I would make is that rather than "hatred of J-Lin", it's really just a reaction towards the extreme elements of LOF. In some ways, the perspective is this... There are a few people who never will understand that we're all just guests at ClutchFans, and they act like they're at home. Well, let me tell you something partner, we ain't home. But that's where some are gonna get sent, if it harlips the governor.
Seems like you haven't read the threads about him this month. Most people here say he's mediocre, don't see what you described.
What point guard or guards are you talking about. We have one point guard who currently has a PER of 19.10, one with a PER 0f 12.30, and one with a PER 13.90. Which one should go. Our starting point guard has the lowest PER of any point guard in the league. The one who is performing at just below the all-star level, or one of the other two. (all-star level about 20 to 22) Perhaps all should go or a combination should go. A PER of 15 is average. This thread is about McHale and accept my apologies for this digressing, but I felt the post i am commenting on was too vague and perhaps very wrong headed.
He's obviously talking about the OP's mention of Lin at least 8 times in an OP supposedly about McHale.
What bbs have you been visiting the past month? We criticize McHale all the time. He's definitely held in lower regard than our previous two coaches. The two reasons you might see less blame placed at McHale's feet are: 1. There's less blame to go around. We are 10-5 right now, with 60% of those losses coming because James Harden parties too much before playing LA. 2. Of all our recent coaches he has the least autonomy. Morey hired him because he can control him. He sets the coaching staff. He tells McHale which line-ups are doing well statistically, which plays are high efficiency vs low, and McHale says "thank you may I have another". I'm pretty sure this was the main reason we fired Adelman.
It certainly seems that way. Yes, this thread is not intended to be about McHale at all. If it really was, then it could have gone into one of the McHale threads. McHale had a winning season last year and coached a young inexperienced squad to a playoff berth. So far this season, we're 10 - 5, and the prospects look good the rest of the way. McHale is a winner, and has 3 rings to prove it. Time will tell whether he can win a championship as a coach. I, for one, am cheering him on.
OP, where were you last season? There was plenty of criticism of McHale last year, esp. that final regular game we lost vs. LAL which relegated us to 8th place instead of 6th. Someone even posted a hilarious Hitler video complaining about McHale's running of ISO plays. I think the criticism toned down because of (1) his coaching in the OKC series. The coaching staff came out with the brilliant super-small line-up that was able to battle quite evenly with a Westbrook-less OKC. (2) We realized the iso-heavy offense is Harden's doing, not McHale's. You may fault him for not reining in Harden, but at least he's not the one calling for the isos. (3) He was one of the reasons Howard chose the Rockets, so ... We are still integrating Howard, we are willing to give McHale and the team some more time to gell. No need for the blame game yet. I was one of the most vocal critics of McHale last year, but I have to say I have gained some respect for him.
1: McHale never really had the full title of head coach in MIN. He was always "interim head coach, taking over dysfunctional teams when the head coach was fired. 2: McHale currently has a record in Houston of 89-74, 55%, which is pretty much in line with the talent level of his players. For comparison Doc Rivers has about the same win % for his career. 3: McHale is highly respected by NBA players. Howard signed here in part to play for McHale. Lowry was being a little b*tch wanting his starting job back when he clearly was not over his injury, and GD playing his mind out on the court. Morey traded his sorry butt as soon as the season ended and he has since caused much discord in Toronto. 4:Head coaches matter MUCH less than most (uninformed) fans think. A MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference showed that the difference between the best best head coach and the worst is 4-5 wins per season. 5: Most importantly Morey and McHale work well together. Morey sent Adelman (a sure HOF coach) on his way because they could not work together. 6: The Rockets, at 10-5, are on track for a 55 win season. And that is a short summation of why McHale is not going anywhere, no matter how much CF whiners b*tch and moan. Get over it.
Not so much trolling as applying the same standard to our point guard as he advocates for McHale. I did laugh that the response went all into a serious point guard discussion in true knee jerk fashion. Even the mere mention of the point guard position draws fanatic replies.
