I never understood the negative criticism that Mchale got last year. In his first attempt to coach this team, he was given 10 days to prepare them for the regular season. There were times where teams were playing 4/5 nights so teams did not get a chance to practice and adjust. Even with that, we just landed a tad short of the playoffs.
because he basically had the same team as adelman and didn't do any better - in fact I think he did worse. Most of his players were less happy and the team was very mediocre if even. Perhaps he did just need time - it was his first full season as a head coach.
Personally, I actually thought more highly of him last year, but it turned out that Adelman had simply left the roster so well established, McHale had neither enough time nor enough rope to hang himself with. I suppose I ought to have seen the locker room problems as warning signs. Ironically, had McHale been given more time last year, I thought he would have done worse, not better (but he would have learned more from making more mistakes). This year McHale's had more opportunities to make mistakes, and he had been making very efficient use of those opportunities to make 'em by the baker's dozens (not necessarily a bad thing if he can adapt quickly). It is going to come down to how quickly he corrects his mistakes whether he has a future as a good coach. If there is one thing that surprises me about him though, it's that he is more adaptable than I've thought. He is not as stubborn as he sounds.
Wow. That's way too kind of you. You really shouldn't have. Needless to say, I appreciate this very much and I certainly won't forget it. Thanks a lot. -- I likely won't have time to upload up a lot, if any more clips until next Sunday or Monday, so I also won't create a playbook thread until then. So for now, just a few clips of another set the Rockets quite frequently run. It's a staggered screen option, where the Rockets start of with a double stack at the elbow area for one of the wings in the corner and our bigs then proceed to set staggered screens for the opposite wing. They run this set about two or three times a game and have pretty consistently gotten good shots out of it. At times they won't go to the second staggered screen and just from watching it seems like on average not doing so hasn't quite worked as well for them. In all three clips below the Rockets are using both staggered screens. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AgaIFi5I1mY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/58Cz9pMQR0M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VAaSdkFHWQc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I'd rather not have Asik burn out during January, tbh. Or any of the starters. I'd actually rather see several games where the starters are in low 30's for minutes for the month of January than anyone hitting upper 30's or in the 40's. Asik in particular has already hit the wall and I don't want him to get injured.
How many of these clips have you posted so far? Whenever you have time to create that playbook thread, you can C&P the posts from this thread into there. The first post could serve as an index for different play types, linking to subsequent posts in the thread. It would be an incredible resource for those of us with untrained eyes for picking out what sort of action is being run.
I would think a thread like that would well deserve a place beside Bima's posts in the "Rockets News and Features" section.
This is good stuff. I hope all clutchfans will watch these videos so they have a better understanding of what McHale and the Rockets are trying to do. I'm really impressed that the Rockets are executing plays as well as they are considering their youth and inexperience.
Mchale has yet to show what he is capable of IMO. I think this full year is the best way to evaluate what he is capable of and man is it looking brighter than I would have thought. Glad to see him getting the guys to run. Honestly I don't know a lot of other teams that can run like this so Mchale, whatever he does to motivate them, it's working and you have to respect that. I am really glad to see it working out so far and really have to say Harden's impact can't be ignored. Still, Mchale is using his team rather well thus far. Is Mchale one of the best PF's ever? Yes. Is he one of the best coaches... not at all. But can he be a really good coach? I think he's proving it right now.
The staggered screen option 3 was beautiful to watch. The first option was a backdoor cut by Harden (you can see Parsons looking for it) but got defended nicely and we went with option B that resulted an open look for Lin.
McHale is flexible, willing to work with the talent on the team, and not narrow and hide bound like JVG, D'aN etc. McHale, coming in last season, was known to be a team man, willing to work with players, and a person who is respected throughout the NBA. He works with players, giving them the freedom needed, but he is not above disciplining them with some bench time if needed. For a young developing team I cannot think of a better coach. And, for that matter, he would have been a good choice for Laker's head coach. I don't doubt that their record would be much better with McHale at the helm. I cannot see players, including Diva Kobe, be unwilling to listen to one of the all time greats. I may have to put together a "Wall of Shame" of threads belittling McHale. It just goes to show how little the casual fan understands. And this thread, by OP FTW Rockets, would certainly be the headliner.
Great post man, thanks for that. The first set looked fantastic except for the fact that it was run for Lin of all people lol. I'd like to see that first screen run for Douglas or Delfino, it looks like a very good option. Jerryd Bayless lost Lin like hell there though but if in that set it was Lin running point and handing it off to Harden on the elbow, Harden trying to face up his man with Douglas/ Delfino running through that staggered screen I could see them being wide open a few times. Would be nice to get our shooters some good shots to get them in a groove in our half-court sets. Heck, that's a perfect set to run for a Harden possession and if our shooters aren't open Asik is in position to set a pick for Harden.
