Exactly. It is easy to scape goat & blame one person, player coach etc. But this is a young team. It was bound to be inconsistent. I have my personal hang ups with McHale but to blame only him for this stretch is idiotic. I don't understand why people can't just view this season for what it truly is, a season for development. A season to see precisely what we have in Morris & PPatt. Everybody wants to see D-mo play but this is grass is greener syndrome all over again. Every single player that has seen significant playing time can afford to get better even Harden. Fans should be pleased that we have such a promising team. McHale has done his best considering the youth, inexperience, lack of training camp with Harden & a incomplete roster. Just give it time.
this is so telling...how embarrassing for a coach to hear this about his coaching...it is really the assistant coaches that have kept this team afloat...heck they really respect sampson more...
Well said. I feel sad for McHale a Hall of Famer. A coach who was a top player usually is not interested in studying and exploiting the talents of his team, because he was well above them. What's got them interested in coaching I bet is the system.
The problem is it wasn't much different last year with Mchale. This is the same stuff we are and have been seeing. It usually feels like the team will just get hot and win despite of the coach. He'll always go small and go for more threes. Look at very first post in this thread and look at what people are still complaining about now. That was a post started last season and not much has changed. He can't run plays and has no practice time but that is no excuse that through half the season to only run ISO plays for most of the team. To not adjust as some tall lanky dleague player feast on small players.
Inconsistency is okay with a young team. However, that doesn't excuse mismanagement of the players. It's running the players into the ground that's a major issue. You can't run the fastest pace in the NBA and play Lin, Harden and Asik 35+ minutes a game in a month where you have 5 back to backs and 2 x 4 in 5's. He plays the starters too much in blow out losses, in blow out wins, and in back to back situations. And being inconsistent from game to game in terms of how he decides his substitutions is bad for young players. Either you set a substitution pattern for player consistency, or you tell them you're staying with the hot hands. You change that from game to game and player to player and you just get one big mess. Especially if you tell them you're sitting players who defend or shoot poorly but keep Harden in when he shoots poorly AND plays bad defense on multiple nights.
What you just witnessed tonight is a coach losing his team. The players no longer believe in the system. They know the offense they're running is a gimmick and their body language reflects it. Delfino has even commented that he thinks rockets offense is too predictable. And he's right!! Rockets offense is so easy to stop. Stop the fast break and pack the paint. Make the Rockets brick 3's. Rockets need to get rid of Mchale before it's too late. I fear the long term damage that his terrible offense is having on our players.Mchale is hurting our players development with this gimmick offense. He's teaching them how to play the game the wrong way.
Agreed, I'd rather see the team lose trying to play fundamentally sound basketball with a dedication to smart defense and efficient NBA offensive sets, than using a gimmick offense to win just enough games to eek into the playoffs, which only works when your soft POS PFs are making their 3s at an unsustainable clip.
I do agree my biggest problem with McHale has always been is in game substitutions. I do think he needs to set a substitution pattern & stick with it despite player performance seeing as how we are a young team consistency is key. Guys need to learn how to play through mistakes they might as well figure it out now as we are in rebuilding mode. I never understood his idea of mixing & matching player rotations desperately searching for the illusive spark.
What's sad is that any normal PF skills that they may have had are likely eroding everyday, since they likely spend all their time practicing the 3 ball.
Yup, McHale's system is forcing players to play within it rather than making a system that fits the strength of each player. See: D'Antoni and the Lakers.
Have been saying this for some time now. With any other decent coach, this team would have been 4th or 5th by now. Hell, even D'antoni might have been better than this clueless guy.
Just think about the fact that we had JVG and Rick A and we chose this clown. How could you look at his time in Minn. and think he is the guy?
Amen brother. I can't watch a Rockets game anymore without having to shout and rage at my TV. It's ridiculous.
Rockets have been testing a statistically more efficient new system for two seasons removing the real PGs and less efficient mid range shots. And the results are pretty consistent. It is time to pay some respect to the fundamentals. I have learned that the system is quite similar to those used in high schools absent the efficiency twist.
Here here. Spot on. McFail is coaching to save his job. Play Harden for 40 plus minutes and pray that he will bail him out. Sit TD even though he has been solid all season and ride the hot rookie. Never develop the rookie PF's so that when Morris and PPat fail there is nothing to do but go small and jack threes.
This Moneyball system also ruins the progress of a lot of young players as well. How else would you explain Patterson who was never a 3 point shooter in his whole life starts to jack up 3 this season for 50% of his offense? And I heard they are asking Jones to practice 3 too? Hello, aren't they PFs who are supposed to live in the post? And asking Lin to completely abandon his more reliable mid range jumper and shoot his failed 3 pointer? Does the Moneyball account that a missed shot is a failed possession than a made shot? Attempting to turn everyone, even no 3 point shooter into a 3 point shooter because 33% of 3s = 50% of 2s right? Next target must be Asik lol.
