Welcome to the world of coaching a superstar. Even one as unselfish on the court as Harden typically is, you are ALWAYS going to run into situations like this. Anyone who is old enough to remember Hakeem in his younger days especially, he would often break plays even with Rudy T as his coach during the title years. Yao might be the one exception here. Thats why having a coach that stars respect mostly off the court is very important. I think McHale can be that kind of coach personally if he handles certain situations the right way. McHale hasn't really been in this situation too much in his career in the fact that he hasn't really coached star players before. However, he has been around star players all his life, and was one himself. I think they will both move on, and get on the same page over time when they do the simple things like build trust and respect on and off the court..
Big dollar players are really easy to critique while underpaid players steal the show. There is some consistency Anyway, don't know if Hardin the Bait is having any effects on the game but Parsons the Player sure is. And as far as Hardin goes, he has always looked a little disinterested but I just saw it as a personality trait. But if these stories continue, which they have, it's gong to be very telling in the future.
I'm fine with that, but what coach is available right now(and don't say Phillip, cuz he ain't coming here) who Harden and the rest of the team will respect and obey?
Good point. There are few coaches out there that pull that kind of weight. Even coaches that do (see Pop & SJax) often still have issues with players not buying into what they are selling. You aren't going to find too many other coaches out there right now that have the kind of pull from a respect standpoint than Kevin McHale. Despite what many newbies on clutchfans think, McHale is one of the most popular personalities inside NBA circles, and you hear nothing but gushing complements from people around game like former players, players, and analysts. If the Rockets were to pull the plug on McHale right now after one simple disagreement on a play that the coach drew up at the end of a game, it screams amature move from an NBA franchise. That would be incredibly stupid. What the Rockets need is McHale, Harden, and whoever else they bring in (star #2 assumingly) to build respect and trust on and off the court. Its going to come in their personal relationship where they learn to trust their judgement. That's going to take some time, and some patience from McHale in dealing with his young star player/s.
this dispute between mchale/team and harden is a great thing! it's great that it finally has surfaced and it's been aired out for everyone to clearly see. it's great because this is a young team with a young star, young supporting players, and an inexperienced coaching staff. it's great because through this we can really see what harden is about and what he's capable of. it's great because we will see... can harden make the adjustment? can the team and coaching staff make the adjustment? maybe they won't but if they figure things out this team is going to be "great" you can't just put a bunch of great players together and win a championship. if that was the secret then the lakers wouldn't have been the traffic accident that we all "rubbernecked" this season. we've outed the lin only fans, we've now outed the harden only fans. let's all just be rocket fans and enjoy this ride. all the great stories have to have the crises. without the crises there is no redemption. there is nothing better than glory earned!
I think there could be a problem here. McHale is always talking about wanting more ball movement, I don't remember him saying he wants more iso ball. However, when Harden holds the ball, it appears that other Rocket players spread the floor and just wait to see what happens. It looks like the players on the floor seem to be on the same page. If Harden is not following orders and isn't running the offense McHale wants, I don't necessarily think a coaching change is the answer. Part of the problem might be that we traded for Harden right before the season started, so Harden didn't take part in training camp or the pre-season with the Rockets. I think once Harden, McHale, and the entire team get a chance to work together during training camp, then maybe everyone will understand what works best. I don't like it when a star player makes all the decisions for a franchise. The star player doesn't always know best. If the Rockets replace McHale with another coach, there is no guarantee that Harden will follow orders any more than he currently does with McHale. Does Harden want a coach that will just allow Harden to run iso plays the entire game? I don't think we really know at this point if there is a major rift between Harden and McHale. I would suggest that we just be patient and see how things develop after the team has gone through a training camp together. I don't want to the Rockets to start hiring and firing coaches just to keep one player happy.
Eh, time will tell, we didn't know much about the beef between McHale and Lowry until the offseason either. If some other player reveals such, we will know it all wasn't just Lowry and Martin acting out in the previous season.
I think Mchale is to blame here, who like their coach yabliing to the press redirecting that it's actually that player's fault for holdiing the ball too long? Mchale just have a big mouth as a coach..... he can't control his players and he complains to the press, good job, no wonder all the vets here calls him Mcfail for a reason.
What I learned in this thread is that Harden only fans are worse than Lin only fans, T-mac only fans and Yao only fans combined. Harden only fans here are entering into the Kobe stans territory.
This. At this point it doesn't matter who is generating the ISO's, whether it's McHale's game plan or Harden's refusal to execute that game plan. No organization can succeed at the highest level without a chain of command being honored. If McHale can't control his players, or McHale can't adapt his game plans to fit his players, then either Harden or McHale needs to go. And given that Harden is on 5 years/$80M and coaches are a dime a dozen that means McHale needs to go if they can't sort this out. Fair or not, the coach is the odd man out when it comes to Star vs Coach unless your name happens to be Phil Jackson, Doc Rivers or Gregg Popovich.
ok, let's not go that far yet. definitely they need to work out their difference. there is no way we can win w/o everyone on the same page. regarding iso play, i am totally against. harden needs to change. i don't want to see tmac version 2. i hope harden won't become tmac, iso and no defense. it's really frustrated to see his iso play at the end of a tight game. i saw more failure than success.
How interesting. I had always thought ISO's to end tight games were McHale's idea. Truth is, if those ISO shots by Harden had gone in, things would have been OK. But in the past few months, I think Harden hasn't been *as clutch* as we expect him to be. He's creating good space, cross overs to lead into a step back jumper......but that is NOT a high percentage shot for him. Harden, Lin, Parsons are all going to get better. None have hit their roof in terms of potential, and I think McHale has done a great job with coaching this year. But regardless of how he coaches, I'm not sure he can change the attitude of Harden. Harden will be more open to sharing the ball in clutch moments if he sees improvements from Lin, Parsons and other shooters in the final minutes.
Agreed. Elite players don't play under average coach. I hope this will motivate Morey to get a new coach for the Rockets. A coach that actually develop his players and have a system that play to player strength.
That's stupid, I'm sorry! That sounds like what people are saying about teachers.. It's the teachers fault the kids are doing bad in school and it is up to the teachers to find a way to connect to each individual ... Its kids these days that need to be taught respect through harsher discipine techniques and the same ahould happen with harden...I'm sorry i dont care if he is the star..if he is not doing what is in his teams best interests you sit him down!! Those one on one Isos when he is dribbling out on top of the 3 pt line like 20 seconds of the 24 are just flat out stupid and makes the rockets a lot easier to defend....stop blaming the teacher when it's the student!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Three. Time is running out. Two. Need a bucket. One. What would/should James Harden do? <a href="http://t.co/nDccQX0G4P" title="http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets/article/Harden-gets-another-shot-to-make-good-for-Rockets-4477801.php?t=092688fd8ff992f472">houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets…</a></p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/329603858261225473">May 1, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Nothing would make me happier than to have Van Gundy as our coach. Experienced, well respected coach, with still a lot to prove. Will defend our players to the bitter end. Everyone in the NBA loves him.
Given Mchale's conflict with Lowry(who I can't remember having any bad relationship with players or coaches before and after), I'm kind of concerned about Mchale's personality. Also from numerous interviews this season, Mchale seems to be openly expressing his displeasure a lot(not showing up at the signing of Lin, dismiss statistical analysis, not happy about the Ppat trade...). There's one insider posting in another thread about management's unhappy about how he handles Harden's minutes...
