Great post. I wish the media picked up on this and start digging into the Rockets problems. Very curious what is going on in that locker room. It's obviously more than just McHale (yes, I'm thinking Harden) and he hasn't been able to address it. Whatever it is, I hope he realize himself that he lost the team and just resign.
the media in houston will never step on any toes of the front office. some of the national media writers might though. maybe some of us should message them to start digging..
Easy. All the teams in the league have made adjustments on how they play the Rockets in terms of how to guard HARDEN and limit his teammates. Strategy has been adjusted by every opposing team in the league due to Houston having some playoff success. The biggest issues are Houston has not made any adjustments for this on their end and they also haven't improved any of their weaknesses from last year (free throws, turnovers and rebounding.) On top of that the defense has got even worse. This falls on Mchale and the players after that. Not to mention the iso and pick and roll predictable offense. Mchale clearly is the guy that has to be held accountable first.
It's hurt to say that too. I like Mchale as a person and he lost his daughter not too long ago the man has been through a lot but I hate seeing this team play as careless and predictable as they have been playing with the talent we have on this roster. This team needs a no bs coach we went through this with Steve Francis led Rockets. Still remember when Steve Francis went to the super bowl lol.
You lose double-digits to an O-fer team, okay, but you do not lose to a team that has beaten you once and beaten you once again by double-digits. Clearly the team does not have its identity. When Lawson does not have it, Terry, or Beverly should be getting more minutes. It is a problem when Will Barton looks like a NBA superstar to us. Losing to the Mavwrecks, it will be ugly.
Guys there's still a silver lining here. At least the next time we play Denver, McHale will have made adjustments to combat how Denver played in the first quarter of game #1.
First off God bless you in your fight. Your right we can do better but thibs jvg I'm not so sure about. I think this team needs a new voice not a retread. We had jvg we had thibs as a coach before not head coach but still a coach. This team needs a coach who accepts analytics and I don't see them being those kind of guys.
Maybe we should wait until Dmo comes back and see what McHale can do with a full healthy roster. He is short handed right now so it's difficult to tell if his coaching really is the problem.
Mchale doesn't coach... the best thing he could do is sub players in and out at the right time if he does that right.
Wasn't Thibs the defensive coach, though? Too bad he's not available, oh wait... Prayers to you Codman. Sucks that your courtside experience was to witness that trainwreck of a game. If McHale really has lost this team... man, idk. I may be coming around to the idea of an in-season coaching sooner rather than later. I'm not quite there yet, but it's getting there. I believe Thibs would do wonders for this team defensively and accountability-wise, but I do have some concerns about his style. Personally (and I've said this before), I like the idea of pulling a GSW by bringing in this guy as coach: Spoiler
Battier is not a coach.. He can join Thib's staff as an assistant at best. Just bring in Thibs. Do it Morey. It's time.
The Rockets should not be losing twice to the Nuggets and once to the Nets(with 2 of the 3 games at home) just because D-Mo is out. D-Mo barely played 2 seasons ago and they won 54 games. He missed all of April and May last year and they finished the season strong and then advanced to the WCF. The problems this team is facing right now are bigger than the absence of one role player. First and foremost, their defense sucks. They look confused out there and are barely trying. Look at how many open looks and easy transition buckets they're allowing. That's on McHale.
Lawson will eventually click on the offensive end no amount of coaching will help that Lawson-Harden pairing on defense.
Why do you assume Lawson will eventually click? We're 9 games in and he still looks lost out there. Harden is dominating the ball, wasting 15 seconds on the shotclock by dribbling on the perimeter(even when they're down late in games and desperate for a bucket), and their defense is so bad that they can't get stops which would lead to transition opportunities for Lawson. And BTW, even when they do get those rare stops, they stand around. I lost count of how many times they'd force a turnover or grab a rebound and refused to push the ball in transition.
I woke up today the exact same way I did after Lillard's 3 hoping that I log on to CF and find news that McHale is fired. I'm not sure what it takes and how low we have to go to get this fool out of the Rockets. Our performances have been unacceptable totally It is pretty obvious that McFail has lost the team and the players have zero respect for him. What Codman said is further proof that McHale has always been a running joke amongst the players who "like" him because he lets them do whatever the **** they want without any repercussions. They are just standing around during a timeout joking and doing other random things while losing to some scrub team for the 2nd time. That is your Rockets coach, guys and yet McHale lovers many of them here believe he is a good coach and least of the problems.
Reasoning at the time we heard from Feigan was that they didn't want it to become a distraction. You read between the lines and you can observe that McHale and his agent were making a stink about it and Morey and Les said here you go now shut up and focus on the season. There is no cap on coaches salaries so I actually sort of admire doing it at the time IF they are still willing to make a coaching change if needed and Les is willing to flip the bill regardless. That being said I would have preferred they went into this last summer with more open options, but if extending him helped win last season it is what it is. At this point we have to take Morey and Les at what history tells us and say that they will do what needs to be done. That history also shows that a mid season firing is highly unlikely, but I've followed the Rockets under Les since I was a little one.... I can guarantee you everything is on the table at this point. Les is way more competitive than folks here give him credit for. He's just as mad if not more than you or I.
How many games before Harden realizes he's one of the reasons the offense is not working when he's holding the ball and we do not need to rely on him to score 30-40 points? Last year he had to carry so much of the load that it might have been more of a curse rather than a blessing. He thinks he's that much more important now. It's up to the coach to set roles and have the offense work, put the right players in the right spots and that is not there right now. After every game McHale says the same thing, so maybe he should look at his 'system' and how it is affected when he allows people to do what they want and not hold them accountable. It's amazing we won so many games last year with our horrible offense. Time for change must be soon, maybe McHale will realize once he gets an ultimatum: have the team rolling by December and at over .500 or get fired.
