1. Played Scola at the 5 again when the Spurs went with a 3 point shooter at PF. Fans were confused when they did this against Orlando, even though if you watched closer Howard didn't score a single point on Scola, it was their 3 point shooters. By playing one of our quicker G/Fs at 4 it allows us to stick to their shooters better. In order to keep one of our best players in the game, Scola has to play the 5 in those instances. There really is no alternative, and it worked very well against San Antonio. This is why McHale and co. are coaching an NBA team, and fans calling his decisions dumb are sitting on their couches at home. 2. Played a D-leaguer in Adrien against Orlando. Played a second round pick in Parsons today against San Antonio. The decision to go with Adrien back fired a bit in the first game, as he piled on some fouls and missed a few blockouts. The decision to go with Parsons at the 4 I thought was instrumental in shutting down the Spurs small lineup. Parsons really impressed me with his closeouts and perimeter defense. McHale will not be perfect with his decisions, no one is. However, by going with a D-leaguer and second round pick for extended minutes in his first two games, he's shown confidence in his players, and his own coaching ability. It also shows that he plays no favorites, and is not afraid to play anyone who he feels can help the team win. 3. It is early and there are plenty of kinks to work out. But so far, the defense, it look ok.
Totally different this time around than when playing Orlando. He did have practice against them with 2 preseason games though. I'm not convinced yet.
http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...ns-his-first-as-rockets-coach-in-home-opener/ McHale, however, might have been most pleased to see his defense scrambling to swarm the lane and still rush to contest shots. After getting blitzed by 3-point shooting in Orlando and moving on to a Spurs team that had mistreated the Grizzlies and Clippers the same way, the Rockets shut down the Spurs offense so thoroughly that Tim Duncan was benched by halftime. “I tell you, a lot of carry over from the last two days in practice,” McHale said. “You can see guys were really attentive. Our ability to sag in and rotate to challenge shots, they can do it. They showed it tonight. They can get out and challenge shots and be a good defensive team.”
Gave all our youngest players the garbage time. It might sound like common sense at first glance, but honestly, how much playing time would Adelman or JVG have given TWill, Parsons, Flynn, Morris or Thabeet under such circumstances? Getting those guys on the court is the first step in the long process of getting them to the point where they might one day make meaningful contributions for us in close games. It's gonna be a lot harder to do it otherwise. I am glad to finally have a coach that prioritizes growing our young talent, as well as I am glad to have one that supposedly takes advice from the front office. With as much time and money as we spend on watching film and collecting our own data, you would hope that it would be put to use.
LOL - different teams, different results. We shall see if he can coach over the course of the year, he might be great, he might not....time will tell. DD
I, too, was very impressed with McHale. His adjustments were right on. It's uncanny how deep this team is, especially on the bench where guys can hurt you in spurts. I don't what happened over the last two days, but this was a whole new team. Looked confident making its rotations and played with a swagger offensively. Great to see.
While I like McHale, I have to say this has been a ridiculously small sample size to adequately judge his coaching. Add that to the fact that D12 had a pretty mediocre game (16-24-3 tonight!) and the Spurs were playing their 3rd game in 4 nights.
Honestly, I thought they looked fine in Orlando too. Obviously there was a lot of work to be done, just like now. But Orlando is a bad match up for us, and quite frankly the much better team playing at home. Both games against them last year we went down by 20+ points before losing by around 15, and that was with Adelman's always impeccable decision making and pristine rotations.
It seems more a "3 games in 3 nights" move to play the entire roster. When Patrick Patterson gets back, we'll see how many minutes is left for the other front court players. Don't forget Kelvin Sampson on staff. He hasnt made videos on defense for nothing.
too soon.. i dont have too much confidence in scola playing the 5 for the simple reason that he is not big enough to guard the elite centers, or even average centers in the league. Regardless I still think its too early to say so hopefully he proves me wrong
Yep. Made me sound stupid for one game. Mc Hale did have a bad game last time out. He called it perfectly this time out.
I was really impressed with Parson's help defense and closeouts. There was one play where he helped off Bonner and I was sure we were going to give up a corner three, but Parsons got back there with his long arms and forced Bonner to drive and miss a mid range jumper.
Absolutely. Whenever people refer to Morey it should really be "Morey and co.", just like when we talk about the head coach it is really the entire coaching staff. It is never a one man show.
