He's fine in this role to develop our players, make them accountable for the foundations, etc. But once we make that step into playoff contention, someone else should come in and lead us further. As a development coach, he's great. He's like a stepping stone.
C'mon, Adelman managed the players, and managed to make them soft. Defense really slipped. As long as you play the motion offence and can put the ball in the hoop, you get playing time. Players weren't that accountable for defense, it was mostly lip service. Don't you guys remember wincing at the Martin/Bud swing combination? Yes, McHale's offense isn't a thing of beauty (and much worse than the motion offense), but he didn't have Hayes (or anyone) to run the high post. On the flip side, guys like Martin and Bud actually played better defense under him and was held accountable. And they lost playing time. That's probably why they butted heads, because they got used to Adelman's soft style and playing on one end of the court mostly.
I really don't understand where this belief that a lot of posters seem to have now is coming from. Did Adelman never clash with his players? What about T-Mac, Von Wafer, Aaron Brooks... I'm sure there were more that I can't remember right now. He might have been better than McHale at dealing with players, but people are making him sound like he was buddies with every player he ever coached...
McHale wants tough nose players like him. Not soft no defense underachieving white men can jump shooting players, or I'll sit out of a huddle to b**** and complain about the coach under whom I by far had my best season, relatively overweight and bad shooting point guards. Which is fine by me. Ship out those guys who led us to #14, #14, #14 and give me players who can respect a coach, respect an organization and respect a desire to win. McHale may not be the best, but one thing is 10000% clear - the dude wants to win, and if it means ruffling some feathers, so be it. I'll take 5 McHales in their prime and put them up against 5 of anybody else - may not always come out on top but damn will it be good basketball to watch.
Don't fire McHale. Give him a Rockets uniform and satisfy Morey's fetish for PF's. McHale was one of the best PF's who ever played the game and a PF Morey fantasy which is maybe why he was hired over Adelman. I loved McHale's game when he was playing with the Celtics but I have had some doubts about his abilities as a GM and coach. However, I think it is fair to give him a full season to work with the team, or whatever you call this amalgamation of PF's and perpetual tradeable assets, and then judge him on the results. He should be judged though on the basis of what kind of team he is dealt with. After all, a coach can only do so much with a bunch of players that was handed to him by the GM, yes, the GM is primarily responsible for getting players to play for the organization.
I think he gets more time. Hasn't even been through a full training camp. I don't know what his contract is, but I think he should get at least three seasons to show progress. Let's see what he can do with a team consisting mostly of undersized forwards. He does have great interviews and press conferences. JVG and Adelman were some of the worst interviews, especially post game. JVG gave some of the most depressing post game interviews in basketball history.
