McHale lets his players do whatever they want (stupidly)

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=218754

 

The Clips have Deandre Jordan. They were packing the paint. All 8 shots were wide open. I'm pretty darn sure McHale didn't tell them to shoot only 3s. More than likely he said take the best available look, and that is essentially what they did. Shots didn't fall. It's very rare that a team is going to miss 36 3 pointers in a game, especially when 85% of them were uncontested.

 

The team shoots too many 3's, PERIOD. This will be our downfall. Last year it didn't work, this year will be even more disappointing. The heartbreaking part is all they have to do is start running halfcourt sets. But apparently Morey's stubborn and refuses to abandon this strategy. Our whole games revolves around hitting 3pt shots. That's it. If we hit them, we win. If we miss them, we lose. SMH

 

Murry is the coach.

 

10 points seems like 40 when you only have 9 points.

 

Wait so we win if we make shots, and lose if we miss them? I'm just trying to grasp this concept you speak of. Look we still had 44 points in the paint (w/o Dwight just in case you forgot), and were within reach after missing tons of open looks. The problem isn't how many open 3s we took, but how many we missed. If we make them even below league average at 33%, that is 15 made 3s for the game. We made 9. That is 6 more 3s which equals 18 pts. All of the sudden this is a completely different conversation. And that is at a below league average rate. Trust me, Harden and Ariza will not combine for 1-16 from the 3 very often, and when they do, we will probably lose.

 

The Rockets entire inside game consists of Harden drives, and DMo/Smith post-ups.

I'm not the biggest fans of Smith post-ups, though, especially last night, because he settled too much.

DMo wasn't in the game because, well, he wasn't very good last night. He played the first 5.5 minutes of the 4th, going 1-4 and resulting in the team going -8.

Harden couldn't do much last night, for whatever reason. Even his drives to the lane were uncharacteristic for him.

I said for whatever reason, though the reason was fairly obvious. They were packing the paint on him and giving him both soft and hard doubles most of the night. He did his usual job of awesome passing, but nobody was hitting anything.

This is why the Rockets BADLY need another wing player that can also create when his and others shots aren't falling. Passing to a wide open Ariza or PBev is useless when those guys can't hit that shot AND can't really drive to the rim and consistently make plays.

The PBev floater and horrible dribble under the rim Steve Nash attempt make me want to poke my eyes out. I'm still not sure why Ariza, given his measurables and apparently skill level, is so bleh at doing what Parsons did last year in driving and cutting to the rim, but he is. He has trouble finishing and is just a step too slow in everything on his drives.

This was not McHale's fault.

 

I was annoyed at all the 3s instead of 2s, but they were mostly open. Can't blame Milkhair for everyone missing shots. We need more scoring threats. We need a Jamal Crawford or a scoring point guard. We will be stuck until that happens, or until Dwight comes back healthy..

 

Rockets this year (and Harden in particular) play HORRIBLE on road back-to-backs.

Last 3 road back-to-backs: Orlando, Chicago (oh wait, that was home), Clippers.

I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Unless Harden is letting us know that he doesn't have quite the endurance that he would seem to have (might be a problem later in the season).

 

I know this is a fan site where people can vent whatever they want regarding the team, and by no means do I think the Rockets coaches, management, players etc. are flawless.

Still, it amazes me how much weight some people give to their opinion about the sport, compared to those who devoted their entire lives to it.

/rant.

 

I hate it that McHale allows the players to miss shot after shot when they should know that the team needs them to MAKE those shots.

This is infuriating.

 

Sometimes you just miss. Many of those balls were toilet bowling out.

 

I'm no McHale fan, but wasn't last night the 5th game in seven days? Physical and mental fatigue.

 

We stayed with the Clips till the end of the 3rd. Then we were blown out by Jamal Crawford even with Ariza on him.

The team was running on fumes on a late night game after a tough back to back game. It's easier to shoot the 3 than driving in with Jordan defending the lane. Hack-a-Jordan was an attempt to get him out of the game. It didn't work.

At least we weren't apologetic or half-assed about it. It was a legit strategy and IIRC the first time we ever tried it. Jordan was only making 1 out of 2 and everytime we got an open look at a 3. Good practice for any time we might need it again in the future.

 

Why hasn't McHale turned Bev or Brewer into super duper star like Klay Thompkins or Steven Curry. McHale needs to draw up plays and make players execute them like Doctor Rivers does.

 

Weird how Josh Smith got so much better under McHale. . . .

 

McHale > SVG

 

Not a McHale fan, but Dmo in the post got neutralized by Jordan, James not getting foul calls and the wide open threes not falling. Those three things are a bad combination and I would love to know how the coach could overcome that. The solution is probably another playmaker which I am sure Morey has realized.