No really. Carlisle was a winner whenever he was, but Rivers was bad when he was in the Magics. Carlisle is a very good coach even before winning a championship.
Carlisle coached his team up to win against a loaded Heat team. That team was Dirk and a bunch of role players. He's actually a great coach. Doc Rivers, meh. His Celtics were awful before acquiring KG and Ray Allen, and he never accomplished anything in Orlando. His Clippers teams never overachieve, either. He's not a bad coach, but he isn't a good one. I'd put him on a similar level to McHale, average.
All of their core players improved significantly and clicked at the same time which was more of a factor over the perception Kerr is this some great head coach that put them over the top.
Doc Rivers is an overrated coach. Furthermore, did McHale do anything special in that 4th quarter comeback game 6, other than benching Harden? Josh Smith just uncharacteristically caught fire. It's not like McHale made any adjustments, the Rockets were on their way to getting blown out of the series. Carlisle though? Rockets were just more talented than the Mavs were, I'd say Carlisle did good just to win a game that series. McHale beating Carlisle doesn't prove anything.
Just listened to Lowe and Arnowitz podcast on Grantland, Lowe reiterates that he wants to pick the Rockets as NBA champion and refers to McHale as an "underrated coach"
Well, benching Harden was a big adjustments for any coach. Even if it was an accident decision, the credit was still belong to McHale.
I agree. Doc Rivers is overrated. Why is he overrated? Because he won one championship when he had a stacked Celtics team. I also think Carlisle is a very good coach. But I wonder what his reputation would be if he didn't have the 2011 championship? Impossible to say I guess, but I feel like people would say he is good but not get enough to get a team over the hump and that he choked away a 2-0 lead in the 2006 Finals. If McHale wins a championship, I think the perceptions of him would change drastically. That said, I also agree that the Rockets were just flat out better and more talented than the Mavericks last year, so us beating them doesn't prove anything for McHale as a coach. And the Clippers series was so back and forth and we seemed to have a couple of lucky breaks so I don't really think that proves anything for McHale either.
the good thing about this thread is no matter what the rockets do you can always say things could have been better. even if they win it all you could have said they should have won it all last year. even with beverley and dmo out. jones injured. howard injured. so bravo to this thread. someone can keep bumping it all the way until mchale is no longer here.
You haters are ridiculous. McHale and the Rockets did a lot more than win one quarter in the Clippers series. McHale and the Rockets won four games against Rivers and the Clippers. Even after the great 4th quarter comeback in game six. The Clippers still had a chance to win the series, but they didn't. Here's an idea for all you haters. Instead of rooting so hard for McHale to fail. How about rooting for the entire team to win.
How have we still not learned to cover 3pt shooters? We could boost our point differential just by doing that.
