Not in my book. W/L record has a lot more to do with talent level of the roster than coaching strategy. For example, Vinny Del Negro didn't all of a sudden become a better coach this season than last.
Yes and how they use the talent provided. I personally like McHale because he is an encourager. Rick didn't seem to have the connection with all the players like Kevin. He's always giving high-fives and slapping them on the butt encouraging. In the NBA, this type of attitude is huge for a team without a lot of talent. A team that needs more effort on the court to win games. That's why he is such a good fit for us. He also helps our big men with post defense and offense. Plus, the players listen to him because he's one of the best to play the game.
I guess people would argue maximizing W/L with current potential. For example, if the Clippers are 13-2 instead of 9-5. It's hard not to say Vinny Del Negro is at least doing a pretty good job coaching the team. He wouldn't be a great coach still, but the Clippers would be winning the amount of games they should be winning with that level of talent. McHale in my opinion has done a great job maximizing wins with our player's potential. Scola regressed, Martin regressed, Hill regressed, Budinger regressed, Patterson regressed. Now, some would argue that it's the "system" that is damaging these players. Might be a fair point. However, McHale is still getting more wins than RA at this point in the season. The only problem I have with McHale is the amount of minutes he is giving to Lowry, otherwise he is doing a pretty good job.
So now you're backtracking on your statement that AB produced similar team results as Lowry by making nonsensical excuses lol? The final value of a guy is how many points your outscore your opponent by, and AB has never been better than Lowry at this.
I don't know how much McHale has to do with this, perhaps it is the new personnel. For a long time this team seamed soft and now we have a bit of an edge. It may just be me. I am enjoying it more and hope this is just the start of a trend.
Having to explain myself to people who can't quite grasp the overall discussion is annoying. No backtracking at all - I said Brooks was producing at about the same level as Lowry during his MIP season. And folks forget that when he was injured he had 19 points in the first half.....19 !! He did not handle Lowry taking his job well, but that does not make him a scrub or a bad player, he was quite good actually - just in a different way than Lowry. DD
- Holding players accountable for defense - Offensive creativity - Development of young talent - Game time substitutions and adjustments - Inspiring effort - Player management (handling egos, dealing with headcases) I think McHale is doing well in all these areas right now except offensive creativity. Overall good hire so far.
To me, "inspiring effort" is perhaps the most important one to look to. It is critical to keep the team spirit up and to keep the players battle-fighting if you want the team to acutally "develop." A coach can't make a team win without sufficient talent, but it's critical that he doesn't lose the team and have it degenerate into a mess where nobody cares any more. Now, of course a big part of "inspiring effort" is actual strategic and tactical competence on the part of the coach and the coaching staff. Hard to inspire anyone when you don't know what you are drawing on the white board. In the end, however, I think pretty much all of the NBA coaches and assistants know their Xs and Os (some better than others, of course) but there's something more to head coaching than being a tactician. You have to be, as Darly Morey calls it, "a leader of men." I think McHale has done an excellent job at being a "leader of men." I've really like his public demeanor from the interviews and post-game press conferences. He gives the impression that he knows what's going on both basketball-wise, and also knows the right approach to take with each guy (whether it's encouragement, a kick-in-the-ass, or some light-hearted moments sliding in the team shower together). I like the fact that he's gotten guys who loved Adelman to buy in. I also like the touch he has with Sam Dalembert, who has had a reputation of being a bonehead earlier in his career. Hell, even Jonny Flynn, who gets to warm the bench, seems happier working with McHale.
McFail bleeds Green not Red... We would have to win the NBA finals for me to be happy with him as Coach. Asking me to be happy about him being coach is almost like asking me to be happy if Karl Malone, John Stockton or Danny Ainge were coach. He played dirty and beat us in the 1986 finals. I booed the hell out of him and have a childhood hatred for the guy. Plus his record as a head coach is abysmal failure sofar (48W-62L)...
So far, I haven't been impressed with his decision making especially on defensive assignments late in games. I'll chalk that up to not knowing his players early on. I have to admit that our record is slightly better than I thought it would be in the early going. I have to give him big points for how well the players have responded to him. We have a weird roster in the the sense that ever our "veterans", like Lowry, still have a lot of untapped potential.
Pull Bud and putting Parsons in his place says it all. Adelman would not have done that. We needed someone that was not afraid to make a move like that.
They will have to start playing harder teams but I think the team will get better as the season goes on.
This. Anyway Mchale really needs his own "Morey" pic. We can bring it up every time some poster whines about Rick Adelman and his HOF coaching.
I think people also undervalue McHale's ability to develop big man players, look at what he did for KG, Al Jefferson, and Kevin Love.
I remember the days when we hired McHale and Minnesota hired Adelman. And so many so-called Rockets fans talked about how the Rockets would be horrible and the Wolves would contend for a playoff spot. Thought it was ridiculous back then. So far it seems ridiculous right now.
