Does Leslie Alexander deserve an apology in terms of the D'Antoni hire?

I would say its too early to say, however we are doing very well so far and if we can keep this level of play for an entire season + the playoffs then its a definite "Yes Les!!"

 

Not only is it too early, but what exactly has he done to even make this a question? We're 0.650? You know McHale went a whole season 0.683, and went to the Western Conference Finals, right? I'm supposed to be impressed we're slightly above average? MDA hasn't been an utter disaster, congratulations. He hasn't been anything special either.

 

To early to tell

 

Well D'Antoni is certainly an improvement over Mchale/Bickerstaff. But JVG is a great coach. Who knows what he could have done with this team? I'd still like to have him.

 

I was, admittedly, pretty upset when we hired MDA. But I have also been pleasantly surprised with the results so far.

The defense has been pretty bad. We expected it to bad.
We have been lucky not to suffer any injuries so far. We kind of expected to deal with injuries after signing Gordon, Anderson and Nene.

But the offense, especially when the 3 point shots have been falling, has been pretty beautiful to watch. Yes, probably a lot of that credit goes to Harden and his insane creativity, playmaking and scoring ability. But MDA undoubtedly deserves credit as well for putting him in the right situation and getting this offense to run as well as it has been.

We still have a long way (probably a couple of years) before we will know if MDA was the right hire or not. But, for now at least, it has been better than I was expecting it to be.

 

I don't think any judgments can be made at all at this point. I do think he is a good coach but I have concerns that his system just can't win big because of the defensive issues it creates.

We'll see though. Having a roster that makes the shots is very helpful for a change.

 

It is too early to tell what to think of the tenure of MDA, but there is no question that the players have bought in.

Les Alexander has hired ALL of the Rockets head coaches. He deserves the credit or criticism for all of them.

 

Way too early to tell. We knew what we were getting with MDA -- offense. Our defense and rebounding has improved dramatically since the first few weeks, but that's what's going to matter come the playoffs. Last season was more than a coaching issue so any new coach would likely have shown improvements with this team. He's certainly got them clicking much faster than I expected -- I'll him (and the players) credit for that.

MDA hasn't shown that he can go deep in the playoffs though. That's what's going to matter. Didn't he only make the WCF once with Phx? Wasn't that the series Nash got his face broken by the Spurs?

 

No one deserves anything until the day the rockets hold up that gold trophy

 

Much too early as it remains to be seen if this will fly in the playoffs. It makes sense that they would maximize James with MDA, but we still have to get stops...and be able to play half court ball/ control pace in the postseason.Again, I'm seeing around 50 wins and a quick postseason. I hope I'm wrong.I'll admit it's fun to watch...and great to see that chemistry developing out there. The contrast to last season is an amazingly sweet thing.. That said,GENERALLY, I don't think you can win a title playing this brand of ball.

 

This post!

 

It should also be noted that Morey deserves as much credit as MDA for our performance. We've been playing the same type of ball (3s and layups) for several years now. But finally we have the PERSONNEL to actually make us good at those things. Ryno and Gordon were terrific signings for Morey's brand of basketball.

 

Just curious...where was PHX usually ranked defensively during their hey day when he was coaching them?

 

Since D'Antoni's full season as head coach, their DRtg each year
17th (lost in WCF to SAS)
16th (lost in WCF to DAL)
13th (lost in 2nd round to SAS)
16th (lost in 1st round to SAS)

Those Phoenix teams were never really bad on defense. They were always mediocre and never could get over the hump.

 

I'd say Les should apologize to us every time he fires a head coach.

Before someone jumps in to say, "Les didn't fire his head coaches, except McHale," let me just say that not renewing their contracts is firing in the NBA culture.

 

He got to two consecutive WCFs in 2005 and 2006(Nash's B2B MVP seasons). And he got to the Semifinals in 2007. In defense of D'Antoni, there was some bad luck in those last 2 playoff runs. 2006 was the year Amar'e was out after his microfracture surgery and 2007 was the year of the infamous Horry hipcheck on Nash. If not for the suspensions that followed, the Suns likely win that series as well as the title since the only teams left in their path were the young Jazz(who knocked us out in Game 7 at home) and the equally young Cavs(who were swept by the Spurs).

 

Couldn't agree more!

The only real reason I'm impressed is because I was expecting it to be much worse!

 

Need to see how we do in the postseason before making a decision. Getting the pieces to make an MDA-style offense work also means limiting our flexibility in getting two-way players. Gordon/Anderson are great for our offense but are far from two way guys.

 

No, JVG should have been the hire. If this team was 7th in ORtg (what it was last year under JBB, who I refuse to believe is better at any aspect of coaching that JVG), but top 10 or better in DRtg (which pretty much every JVG team is), the Rockets would have a much better shot at contending.