Is it too hard to ask for a complete coach?!?! When we had JVG we had good D but bad O. With Adelman, great O, no D. If you think about it RudyT and McHale are very similar, not great tacticians on O or D. However I think RudyT was a GREAT leader/motivator. McHale not so much, he's a little goofy. Also RudyT had Dream, McHale does not. Because finding Olajuwans is not so easy I'd look for a coach who has a great D and good O. A great/good combo. I'm tired of the extremes and history shows it doesn't work.
The Rockets have an offensive philosophy and a style of play that is what makes the Rockets who they are. A good coach would make adjustments (as McHale has done plenty of actually). But at the end of the day they are going to mostly stay true to who they are and the sets that they have mastered in the regular season. You aren't going to see the 90's era Sloan Jazz team all the sudden install Princeton offensive sets in the Finals against the Bulls. ....... So that being said its important to understand who the Rockets are and what the offensive & defensive philosophies are. What the Rockets are offensively is an offense that is built to overachieve in the regular season. The point differentials are key here and the three point shot in relation is key. The Rockets best chance at winning this series and ANY series that they are outmatched in the year is going to be relied on continuing to shoot a high number of 3's and praying that your team gets hot. As the defense tightens up you are just going to have to increase your shots to give yourself a chance. The only other thing they can really do within their offense is to go small and continue to speed up the tempo. Tough to do against the Clippers who have the number 1 offense in the league in transition, and can do so while staying big with Griffin and Jordan. Few teams in league history have been able to do so as effectively. So its simple, and its nothing McHale can really do, or that any other coach can do if he was replaced theoretically mid playoffs. Just simply try and get hot from 3. They made their bed with this style of play when they rolled it out 2 years ago. It helped them win more games in the regular season than they probably should have won which is really good, but it made them a team vulnerable to ugly losses and matchup issues..... like we see blatantly obvious in this series where they are running into both. More important that replacing McHale is to make a few roster upgrades in positions of weakness, continue to add better athletic defensive 2 way players, and they have to make some adjustments to their offense this offseason. Nothing crazy but they need to create more inside out, drive and kick plays. Couple improvements they could make this Summer: -Having a REAL PG who can create and maybe an upgrade at the 3 would help. The downgrade (yes I said it) offensively from Parsons to Ariza killed the drive and kick, and made their offense more predictable catch and shoot. -If Howard and D-Mo can be healthy next year at the same time for the year then I like the ability to go bigger in more post up half court sets, and using HORNS more in pick and roll scenarios. -Big summer for Capela, KJ, and the other young kids. This team obviously just needs more athleticism on D, and just more talent in general. -Coaches need to improve too. Tighten up their offense to create more of a drive and kick, and free flowing passing offense with less turnovers. Their offense now has too many risky passes in the P&R. You can drive and kick without all the flash. Gotta improve where the ball-handlers are placing the ball when they drive, and not just drive and create wherever they feel like it.
McHail had not done a great job coaching this team in games 3 and 4. That is for sure. We are getting destroyed on both ends of the court. I don't think we could win this series with any coach int he world. But certainly we could have done better than back to back 30 point losses.
lots of things. running plays for harden off-ball actual offense instead of everybody watch harden and the pf give him a screen occasionally start prigioni and have terry come off the bench have better rotations actual defensive strategies better spot substitutions just to name a few off the top of my head
there was a time when adelman's team only had aaron brooks, kyle lowry, ron artest, carl landry, scola and hayes matched up against phil jackson's lakers with kobe, pau gasol, andrew bynum, derek fisher and they managed to bring the lakers to seven games in the second round. They ended up being the only team in the post season to bring the lakers to seven games that season.
What coach would do that? Would Pop and Phil or Adelman really start Nick Johnson? Would they really leave their back up bigs to Tjones and Cappella?
Well I've learned one thing for sure from clutchfans and that is that good coaches stand up more than Kevin McHale does.
I don't think offense is the main problem, but since it clearly gets stagnant at times, one thing a coach would do would be install a competent offense. I don't even care if the offense isn't really an offense and still relies on the players making plays, you have to add some creativity to the pick and roll game. The Rockets don't have this. McHale is also generally really bad about drawing up specific individual plays out of timeouts. Then there's the obvious of Hack-A-Jordan during the game 3 third quarter run. That was a no brainer miss. Then there's rotations. One of Howard or Ariza should be in the game at all times. The only way that shouldn't happen is foul trouble. Unfortunately, McHale has made this a voluntary choice at times. Capela should be getting more minutes. He's green, but generally performs well as a backup. And his strength is where the Rockets have been horrible this series. Ariza on Blake has been somewhat effective. Not great, and who guards the guards at that point, but it's worked a bit. Why not run some more of that "small-ball" esque stuff. That's why people have pushed for PG, Harden, Brewer, Ariza, C lineups. And at this point he could have tried any number of other random things. Throw a zone in there - not generally a great idea, especially since the Clippers are shooting well, but throw it in there out of a timeout. Change PnR defensive philosophy. Stuff like that. Which all ignores the behind the scene, not during the game stuff, which is most important. Basically what this guy said. The start Prigioni comment is interesting. He's at least as bad a defender as Terry is, but it puts Terry back in his natural spot off the bench. We've seen many coaches do this, which is to not move the next bench player up, but use that guy after him. Considering they are both playing equally poor, worth a shot.
Everyone seems to bash Mchale, but isnt this the offense Morey wanted?. Isn't this one of the reasons Aldeman is not here? Mchale only got the job cause he was going to be the "yes sir, I agree guy", or at least that was what most people were saying at the time. But right now it doesn't matter. You can't play a certain way all year long and then try to change it up in the playoffs. So whoever idea it is to shoot 3's and only layups need to realize that it doesnt work when you have a bunch of guys that can't shoot nor get to the hole and create for themselves. Our philosophy (analytics) Lets shoot 3's - guys can't shoot Get layups - guys can't get to hole besides Harden and Smith (who seems to make a silly play TO half the time) Free throws - well do I need to explain Now who's fault is this???
Not lose G1 and would be at least tied 2-2. We would not have lost G1 with most coaches. We might not win G3, G4, but we may have enough to just hold home court and advance in 7. All it takes was/is a prepare and disciplined team. Why aren't we prepare and disciplined? That's the head coach job to have the team prepare and be disciplined. He too often allow negatives (effort, mistake, bad defense, never acknowledge any failing of his own and own up to the responsibility for correcting it, etcs) to persists and as we have seen too often, it comes back and bite us. Simply a head coach that hold players and himself accountable would mean we would not have lost G1. There, of course is a whole host of other issues, but that to me is the main one. The other issues are related to how seemingly unaware perhaps due to lack of ability of when momentum shift and addressing it immediately instead of waiting too long, lack of set play to stop a run, those kind of tactical things. He is bad tactically and he hold the team to low standards. He seems to be good at only one thing - a very likable guy to his players.
It's not about just 1 series folks. A great coach would never allow this team to be so arrogant coming off the Mavericks and have prepped them extensively for playoffs. They will instill defensive awareness and punish mental lapses.
