McHale not calling a time out in the fourth quarter when the Spurs went on a 11-0 run to cut the Rockets big lead was a critical mistake. 1) Jeremy Lin was waiting on the sidelines to be subbed in. He could have been subbed in by using a time out. 2) Asik was gassed. Time out could have helped him catch his breath. 3) Phil jackson, on a number of occasions, has let the players figure things out on the court, while the opponents made their run. Two things.....McHale is not Phil Jackson....andhis is not a veteran team like the Bulls and the Lakers. This is the youngest team in the league. They could have used a time out.
We don't have a clear weakness, assuming the PF position sorts itself out they go through all of them, nor clear strength except SG. So all positions other than SG are upgradable depending on who's available. So in that sense we're sort of flexible. Absurd scenarios would be upgrading at center with Howard, or PG with CP3. But based on what's realistic, I'm thinking one of our gazillion PF grow into a true stud. Or trade for BPA, regardless of position, and surround him and Harden at other positions. Or perhaps trade to upgrade at 2 positions slightly instead.
The youngest team crap is so overstated in the NBA now. It made way more sense back in the day but the times have changed. Just look at OKC three years ago. They won 50 games and Durant and Westbrook were 21 and Harden and Ibaka were 20 years old. I'd say they were a lot younger than us now. We have Harden but 3 years older. We have a ton of talent on our team and our guys play incredibly hard. To feel fortunate for being .500 just because we're young is absurd. Harden may only be 23 but he's been in the league for several years and he's our leader. We're not led by a rookie.
Three years ago OKC hovered at or below .500 until they broke out in late December and into January. Young teams peak much later in the season.
So we don't run sets on offense and our defense sucks. We rebound well, but that's because we have Asik and Parsons who are excellent rebounders per minute for their positions. What does McHale do exactly? I was hoping that the primary advantage of having him is good defense and big man coaching. I don't see the good defense, and it doesn't SEEM like he's doing big man coaching, other than telling the big men to work harder.
That's fine. My point is that we shouldn't be content with hitting .500. I believe we have the talent and players to make the playoffs. I think the coaching has been terrible though.
Just one time, I would like to see one of our hot shooters for the night take the final shot off a screen. Just once. Parsons was hot in the 4th and Douglas was hot from 3 all night. Why go iso with Lin or even PnR w/ Lin (high probability Asik will fumble if passed to)? Set plays with guys curling off screens please!!
i was so mad at the coaching staff when i saw that no pick was set for the last like 3 possessions before the 4th quarter buzzer rang. I was beyond pissed. I'm pretty sure popovich was like thinking "smh, they could've had that one."
McHale called for a PnR screen by Asik for Lin on the very last play in regulation. Lin was in the zone, so he waved it off, which proved to be a bad mistake. Both McHale and Lin mentioned that they wish they could redo the last play in their interviews. Lin seemed especially dejected, and McHale noted that the last regulation play might've affected Lin's play in OT.
With the pick, Lin probably would've been doubled hard, so he would've dropped it off to Asik, who would have to make the play by going 4 on 3. Given Asik's declining offensive production and hands during the game due to either tightness and/or fatigue, Lin decided not to take this chance. What he should have done then was to take the 22 or 23 footer, not the ideal shot, but the best one at the time, instead of trying to work a few extra dribbles to get a better shot. That was Lin's mistake. Of course McHale could have prevented this by calling a timeout and substituting an offensive player (ahem, Greg Smith, who I have been calling for PT since the preseason) who could catch and roll better than Asik (or another offensive weapon). The Rockets have made NO defense/offense possession substitutions at the end of any game this year that I can remember. And I don't count sitting Lin for the entire 4Q to play Douglas, I mean possession by possession, when they are the most critical down the stretch. McHale quickly pointed the finger at Lin on the final play at his press conference and made it very clear that it was Lin who waive him off. That was not cool. Coaches need to protect their players better than that. Regardless, it was the truth so I don't mind, but his focusing 90% of his talk about Lin on that one play points to his state of mind. At least he remembered to credit Lin at the end for a great game. Another mistake was letting Delfino and some others handle the ball on a few fastbreak possessions instead of getting it to Lin, who was scoring and passing well. Some of those critical possessions became turnovers. Unless Lin was too tired to handle the ball, those weren't good decisions, and the coaching staff needs to remind the players of that. One plus though in this game, less PT for Patterson.
This. Asik coming up to set a screen would have been a disaster. They would have trapped Lin and got the ball on a 24 second violation. Basically, McHale sets up Lin to fail. And when Lin does, he benches him for it, never thinking that he should look to himself first.
we are a young team. coach should call a TO to ensure everyone is on the same page. not sure if we were out of TOs or not. This is the 2nd time coach did not call TO in the last possession that leads to overtime and eventually loss the game. The first one being the Portland game?
McHale didn't trust his offensive set play to beat Popovich's defensive set. Pretty sad. The more I think about McHale's comments, the more I think: if Lin had drilled a 22-footer to win the game in regulation, would McHale's first comments to the press be "Lin waived off my pick for Asik."
