A look at all the players who left the Rockets, and their play post-McHale

Just want to look at McHale's work last year now that there's some benefit of hindsight. After all, a coach's job is to bring out the best in his players. So how does McHale compare to other coaches around the league?

Kevin Martin: Playing better. But it was clear from the beginning that KMart was better suited to be a 2nd/3rd option, which he is now in OKC. As well as a lot of his problems come from injuries, which really plagued him last year.
Courtney Lee: Shooting a lot worse. Otherwise no improvement in his game compared to Houston. Was a 3pt shooter/defender in Houston. Now not good at either.
Dalembert: Same player as he was here. Space Cadet with mediocre production
Dragic: More or less kept pace with his production here as a starter. Slightly worse overall numbers.
Lowry: Injured so hard to judge. But his attitude apparently isn't just an issue with McHale
Camby: Injured so hard to judge. But was downright worthless in his few minutes on the court
Budinger: Injured so hard to judge. But has played somewhat better than under McHale. Then again, he's prone to hot and cold streaks, so 6 games is never a good way to judge Budinger. And hasn't shown that it was wrong to bench him for Parsons.
Scola: Played similar to last year, but getting his playing time slashed and starting role taken away in Phoenix

Overall, I give McHale a B. He got basically got what he could out of his players. Budinger may not have flourished, but he wouldn't be beating out Parsons for playing time last year or this year, so McHale made the right choice. Lowry and Dragic have not improved since leaving the Rockets. Kevin Martin has flourished, but the failed trade and injuries really factored into his crappiness last season. And it's not like he was ever making 47% of his 3s under Adelman either.

Even McHale's biggest criticism, playing Patterson over Dalembert/Camby in the 4th quarter, seems justified in hindsight. Dalembert still sucks, and Camby is old and broken down. Looks like it was just a matter of Patterson being the best of a bunch of crappy options.

 

If you think Dalembert played better than Patterson near the end of the season last year, then I question if you even watched those games. Camby? Yes, he was better. But as I pointed out, he's old. He was old even last year. To expect him to play 30mpg every night is absurd given that hectic schedule.