Maybe Morey doesnt see any Popovich type potential in Lawrence and Frank. So until they do they are looking for an "interim" coach. Someone who can weather the storm during all the chopping and changing. Our future coach wont really know what he will have to work with and for half the season and so on, which might not sit well with other coaches. All coaches want to coach a club with clear goals and directions looking to go somewhere. Thats why I think someone like McHale maybe preferred for us over the more serious and more suited coaches in Casey and Frank who will want to coach a set team looking to get into playoffs and improve from there. Like GS or Indiana, they are almost ready for playoff birth and maybe someone like Brown, Casey or Frank can make the difference. What can they expect do with the Rockets? Are we contending for playoffs? Are going bust? Are we going to trade this guy or are we not? Theres just too many unknowns. McHale is known for his people skills and that will be very valuable when dealing with all the different personell coming and going,
I think the Rockets are looking for a Manager rather than a Coach, and I like it. Why assume we can only have EITHER a defensive or offensive specialist? I can see the Rockets adopting a modern structure where they have specialist coaches for everything: offense, defense, individual training, player development. In this example, McHale would set the team philosophy, and all the coaches would be reporting to him. McHale also receives statistical feedback from Morey - my hunch is that McHale impressed Morey by presenting a plan which strongly linked statistical feedback to coaching. I think it's clear that's what Morey is looking for. What does this allow? It allows us to have a "Coach" who is a great people person, very well respected around the league, and has great knowledge of the game but maybe not a specialist in too many areas. As one of the articles said, you can brings in specialists for tactical weakness, but it is imperative that the coach has the right attributes such as leadership, charisma, respect of GM's/players/referees/etc. I like it. I think probably the other attractive thing is that this can work out even if Finch is seen as having high potential. Basically, McHale stays as long as he impresses. If that takes a long time, then so be it, let Finch walk, we got ourselves a top-notch coach. But if McHale is not up to par, then Finch is slowly groomed towards filling that position. Looks good to me. I think McHale has the personality to coach a champion, but Frank/Casey maybe not as much. I think the other thing Morey is thinking is that Frank/Casey are probably not much better than Finch will be in a couple of years under his guidance. My specualtion of course is heavily based on the speculation that Finch is seen as someone with the right potential to become a head coach, and McHale is the front runner. I would be very happy with that outcome. In fact I prefer for the head coach to have a specialist in every area, and pick which advice he wants to accept/reject. Adelman, while an incredible tactical coach and people person, seemed on the outside to be very stubborn with accepting advice from others on how to coach - which probably led to the clash with Morey.
Short answer: NO. And we shouldn't be, either. Why was Adelman let go in the first place? BECAUSE HE WAS TOO GOOD! So now McHale comes along and he fits the fill perfectly. He has the contacts around the league to lure in anyone he wants, or at least he has the biggest likeliness to. McHale has been around the league for a very long and is well respected. He is a players coach. He has been a player himself. This is going to turn out like Isaiah Thomas in New York, where the team sucks on the court more and more as each day goes by under McHale. But do you know what that means for us? GREAT DRAFT PICKS! McHale can handle any player in the league. He is popular amongst almost everyone involved in the league and he can handle the team and any kind of personality very well. Geeks won't be able to lure in a Chris Bosh. If they could Morey would already have an all-star team. You need the personalities. Its hard for a lame geek like Morey to do anything beyond calculating the intricacies of the salary cap in this league. You need to have the history and the relationships to do business and lure in great people. McHale will have a loose leash to do whatever he wants to on the team, as long as it means he plays the young guys. He's gonna suck, and we'll be out of playoff contention by the trade deadline, but again, isn't that why we got rid of Adelman in the first place? The Lawrence Franks', the Dwane Caseys', are everywhere in this league. You can almost hire any assistant coach on this league and they'll produce a great record. But to produce a bad (read: good) record, while having a big name and influence, who can you find beyond Isaiah Thomas and Kevin McHale?
please tell me you're kidding. if morey's goal is to turn us into the knicks, then my prediction that we will never sniff a championship while he's part of this organization just turned into a sure thing.
you misread my post. He is not trying to turn us into the Knicks. I only used Thomas as an example because he is similar to McHale in the aspect that he is a HOF-quality player who is quite frankly not very good at coaching. The Knicks under Thomas, in his 2 seasons there, got the 10th pick in the 2007 draft which turned to Joakim Noah and the 6th pick in the 2008 draft which turned into Danilo Gallinari. He did this while playing the likes of young Knicks (back then) David Lee, Nate Robinson, Wilson Chandler, Zach Randolph. If McHale can get us Joakim Noah and Danilo Gallinari while developing Patrick Patterson, Terrence Williams, Kyle Lowry, then I'd say mission accomplished for Morey.
Kevin McHale.... I didn't think he would want to be a head coach but obviously that is a current aspiration for him. I believe he is great, GREAT with working with players. A real players coach. think the guys can relate to him and enjoy being under hum. He seems like a coach players want to play for. I don't know how technical he is but he can motivate. With McHale I worry about his X's and O's and I wonder if he can inspire a team for the long haul. Sometimes with a personality like his, people gravitate towards him right away but they start to lose the respect level they should have for a coach and then the coach slowly winds up losing the players. I really only question his ability of a tactician. I think he will be fine everywhere else. The players loved McHale. That may have been because they had a decade of time with him as GM before he was our coach/GM. He got a lot out of his guys, but we won't miss him in MN. Supposedly a great big man coach. With McHale its not about winning but about chemistry and player-coach cohesion and having a big reputation at the same time too. If you want the X's and O's that will lead to championships, you go get Larry Brown or Rick Adelman. Obviously McHale is not a long-term choice, but he will be fine while we are rebuilding.
And I couldn't disagree more, both with your take on the "advantages" of hiring McHale and your oinion about Adelman. So being 8th on the all time winning list, the winningest coach in Rockets history, and a future Hall of Famer, he "seemed to be very stubborn with accepting advice from others on how to coach?" One, I don't buy the premise, and two, with his record, if that were true (which as I said, I don't buy), why should he? And this is a "plan?" It reads like a nightmare. Hell, you make McHale (and Morey) look worse than they are. I don't buy this, either.
What do you have against great draft picks? Ok, Morey hires a top-class coach just as good as Rick Adelman, and you are going to get 14th pick again? And yes, sucking, is, a plan. Otherwise Oklahoma City would have gotten Durant? Westbrook? Harden?
Absolutely nothing, but hiring a coach with the deliberate plan of producing a record awful enough to get your "great draft picks" is a nightmare scenario. It's a lottery. You have no idea what pick(s) we'd get, regardless of the sucky record you're jonesin' for. Also, saying that we can get a "top-class coach just as good as Rick Adelman" is nonsensical, with all due respect. They don't grow on trees. "The Lawrence Franks', the Dwane Caseys', are everywhere in this league. You can almost hire any assistant coach on this league and they'll produce a great record." Did you really say the above? I guess you did, since I just copied and pasted it. Again, with all due respect, have you lost your mind? You honestly believe that? Try a good night's sleep, or maybe a gallon of coffee. You're making no sense at all. And you want an Isiah Thomas? Really?
its pretty simple. les doesn't want to pay top dollar for a coach when the team isn't even good enough to make the playoffs, let alone compete for a championship. the team is rebuilding and what they need is a cheap option and someone who is good at player development. hence, kevin mchale. he'll lead the team to a high lotto pick and stick around long enough to draft the next franchise player... maybe even (if hes a big man) develop him for a couple of years. after that we turn the team over to a guy who can win basketball games. on the plus side, maybe he develops himself into a good coach along the way? ill admit that i'm not high on mchale as a coach, but i do see the potential (motivation, player development) if he can prove he knows some X's and O's.
If we operate on your informational premise that "neither do probably half of the nitwits that write these articles"....then woudn't we then conclude that there is information being circulated by the other half...the "non-nitwit" media? Put another way...none of these alleged nitwits "heard" Carmello say he wanted to go to the Knicks. But it didn't take an Einstein-level media person (or interested fan) to read between the lines. So let's "read between the lines"... The Rockets low-balled Jeff Van Gundy to get him to Houston. They offered him $4M/year. That's in a league where Phil Jackson was already making $10M and Larry Brown was asking for the same amount that summer. Now...why would McHale come here for $2M? Easy enough to conclude at this point salary has not been a discussion topic. When it is...IMHO you're looking at Lawrence Frank. He has the most to gain as he's been a HC and is now relegated to an assitants' role. And Casey and McHale probably make more where they are. Now, some of what I typed is "reading between the lines". But if Frank is the new hire...it would be very easy to properly arrange the pieces of the puzzle in retrospect.
OKC has Maurice Cheeks Dallas has Dwane Casey LA Lakers has Brian Shaw Boston has Frank and there are a lot more than aren't even in any sort of coaching position like Jeff van Gundy, Larry Brown, Don Nelson, Mike Dunleavy, Mike Brown, etc that are certain HOF'ers but are definite quality coaches. They don't grow on trees? They don't have to. There are certainly enough for you to choose from whenever you want one. And we're not talking about Phil Jacksons and Rick Adelmans here. And regarding draft picks. Whats with your point that we wont get good draft picks with a sucky record? Go 20-62 and I can guarantee you you will get a top 5 pick. No? And ok, we get a coach ALMOST as good as Adelman. Lawrence Frank? He will be a brilliant tactician and we'll get the 12th pick. (Which is Utah's [own] pick or Golden State's pick this year). Does that sound more appealing or does the 5th pick sound more appealing? Can a Lawrence Frank elevate this team into the playoffs?
LMAO. The coat-tailing Mike Brown is headed to the HOF? This statement alone proves ALL of Deckard's points.
i think he meant "aren't certain HOF'ers" as the sentence continued with "but are definite quality coaches." doesn't make sense to say "they are HOF'ers, but still quality coaches!"
It is kind of hilarious that McHale placed Casey's successor Whitman onto Casey's staff and fired Casey first chance he got (3 game losing streak, 2 without KG LOL) and now the exact same thing can potentially happen to him.
I didn't really mean it as a bad thing. In fact, I agree with the assessment that there's not much anyone can teach Adelman more than what he already knows. I'm just saying that it's probably a quality that Morey didn't like, and hence Les didn't like. It's also a quality that I'm speculating McHale doesn't have. In fact, I have a feeling Morey is obsessed with finding someone who will just do as he's told. But again, I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. I think it has its advantages, and being able to work with a super vet like Kevin McHale is just bonus.
Last year was terrible. Somebody fell asleep in the off-season. We started 0-9, then we would win 1 game lose 2 next. Till Morey decided to pull the plug on AB and Battier in mid-season, you now what happened after but was too late. When your GM has to step in coaching wise your coach is trippin. It should've been us eliminating the Spurs,Denver....
I think what is really going on here is Morey is finding a temporary coach for the 3 - 4 years until Shane Battier retires. THEN, he will get his man! I can easily see Shane as a future coach. Coach Battier, kinda has a ring to it.
Carroll Dawson was the GM when Van Gundy came to Houston. So if its continued lowballing, this would be more a Les Alexander move? Morey is having a big influence on matter here. But the guy cutting the checks in both instances might want things to lean a certain way.
This is why "folksy" is a desirable attribute for politicians. No one was ever intimidated by someone that was folksy. Unfortunately, Morey is a smart guy and has been labeled as such. That means he is a scheming b*stard that is trying to undo the Rockets, and conspiracy theories will rule. Just like politics, I want the smart guys running the show. I'm not sure how Les Alexander got to be the second coming of Ronald Sterling.
