He might have been a good coach, but you might want to research that "He had a winning record comment" because I think you will find it is incorrect. DD
I haven't been able to watch this team in a couple of weeks thanks to my work schedule, but I was able to catch the second half last night. There was one instance that really caught my attention, though. Portland had finally battled all the way back and tied it up in the 4th quarter. Their "switching everything" defense seemed to be really be killing the offense to the point where they couldn't even inbound the ball. Chase called a timeout while trying to inbound (game tied at 82 at that point), and McHale drew up a play. Courtney Lee got the ball, Patterson set a screen, and Lee attacked LaMarcus Aldridge all the way for a layup. Rockets up 84-82. From that point on, the Blazers never got within 2 points again. That right there was a good piece of coaching by McHale.
I'm impressed and this is coming from a guy who wanted McHale from day one. As a Timberwolves fan growing up, I was able to watch him coach in two rather short stints and still thought he was the best coach Minnesota had all decade.
Yeah I guess I forgot his last stint as a coach. Cut him some slack though on the last Minny team because that roster was garbage.
He has a winning record here, it is the first time he has had a winning record. Let's hope he keeps it up. DD
Scola is a throwback, and you can tell McHale admires that. As a result, I think he looks past Scola's shortcomings a bit more than he would others on the roster. But a lot of coaches have their pet, who they coddle to a fault. For Adelman it was Martin (and Brooks).
http://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/mchalke01c.html technically his first year as Minnesota's coach resulted in a winning record. BUT he took over to close out a season after they fired Wittman...in a move that at the time seemed to be "this is your mess, you clean it up" year 2 in the stint was pretty ghastly...
As pointed out already McHale had a winning record when took over the first time but the second time he took over that team was worse than ours.
Compared to the job Kaaaaahn is doing Mchale was like Jerry West. Love, their best player, was drafted by Mchale, and before he left he gave Minny a beautiful package for KG which Khan also squandered. As far coaching is concerned I think Mchale has to earn his stripes first before he becomes as highly regarded as Adelman.
That's hardly a feat. He drafted 3 PGs in that draft, Rubio at 5, Flynn at 6 and Ty Lawson at 18. They gave Ty Lawson away for a future first, and Flynn isn't going anywhere. He also drafted Wesley Johnson with the fourth pick the very next year, then acquired Michael Beasley AND drafted Derrick Williams this year. His moves are making no sense, why would you have that many lottery pick players stacked in one position and not trade any of them away? Oh, he also gave us D-Mo.
Not really, when your in the lotto every year some of your moves will have to pan out. McHale traded for Love. Rubio was good but he had 3 picks in the draft. He's like a shotgun.
McHale's approach is paying off until the next time the Rockets lose a game. Then, McHale is an idiot and we are idiots for hiring him.
He has had 4 lottery picks in 3 years, 2nd pick, 4th pick, 5th and 6th respectively. Two of them are looking like busts (Wesley Johnson and Flynn). One of them is getting there (Derrick Williams), only Rubio has panned out. Assuming Derrick Williams pans out, he would still be have hit 50/50 with that quality of draft picks. That's not impressive at all.
As you know Flaming it is not just about the draft, getting Ridnour, Beasley, and Williams has been huge for them as well. Most draft picks do not pan out, but he has a potential superstar in Rubio, and a possible hall of famer in Love....they are going in the right direction. DD
