When a coach lost the players AFTER making the WCF, it's very telling about the players. McHale is a players' coach and they couldn't get along with him. We know Dwight can't handle someone tough (SVG) and I can't imagine Harden being under a dictator like Thibs.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rockets management (Alexander, Morey, Brown) didn't want to make move, believed Kevin McHale lost the locker room. Things would not change.</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/667001324777644032">November 18, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">That is hardly all on McHale. A few months ago, Rockets' brass was touting McHale as the Coach of the Year. And they extended his contract.</p>— Jerome Solomon (@JeromeSolomon) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeromeSolomon/status/666999186663981056">November 18, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rockets management had a conference call last night. Focused on window with Harden, Howard. Did not want to fall further behind.</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/667001932754591744">November 18, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Bullsh-t. The entire reason for firing McHale now is to salvage the season. And it can be salvaged. There is far too much talent on this roster for them to suck this bad. Remember when George Karl took over the Nuggets in 2005? They finished 32-8 under the guy that year and during one stretch went 24-2. BTW, guess who put an end to that run? The Rockets who blew them out at Toyota Center late in the season. Point being, another coach(Bickerstaff ain't gonna be given the job, no f'ing way) could get these guys on the same page, institute a coherent offense, and make them play solid defense like they were doing a year ago. If that happens, they can capitalize on this cupcake schedule through X-Mas and then hopefully be in a groove by the time the slate of opponents gets much tougher.
JB Bickerstaff is the real problem and it is only to get worse with him as the head coach. How can you have team chemistry when your coach's name is BICKERstaff?
More likely than not our next head coach will be Scotty. We will silently punt the season and lure Durant the next.
There is no way that Les and Morey didn't have a talk with Harden and Howard before today to get their opinion. I don't really think this will have any bearing on Dwight returning next year so long as we can hire a big name coach with some pedigree(yes, Thibs). As for McHale being fired, I am shocked, saddened but more importantly relieved. As much of a great person he seemed to be, he is just not the right coach to push this team all the way. Here's hoping we can salvage the season and at the very least get home court in the first round.
I have a lot of feelings inside me right now. I wanted this so badly 14 months ago. After seeing how last season went I had resigned myself to it never happening and started to delude myself that McHale was a average to slightly above average coach. This season, it was clear that he had lost the team but at the same time I couldn't imagine that kind of malaise could just be patched by swapping guys in a suit. There was something deeply wrong with the core players that went beyond just switching around point guards and having some injuries, and also went beyond a coaching change. In short, I don't have any pretense that I know how to fix the Rockets. But I guess I'm happy that I don't have to sit around waiting for things to magically fix themselves. At the same time, I have a lot of fear that this confirms 2016 as a lost season.
