Unless Harden has the self control to adjust and learn by himself, who in the organization could hold him accountable? Not the coach or GM for sure whose job security depends on him more than vice versa.
I disagree with this part. Harden is on a 6 year contract. And he's 23. It's up to the coaches to make him accountable, yet also to persuade him to buy in on what they want to do. Pops didn't start in the NBA with the clout to bench any player at any time. What he DID do is he set the tone, culture and expectations for his players from day 1. The main advantage McHale has here is Harden can't walk on the Rockets. His choice is to make it work, or suffer for the remainder of his 6 years here. No rational player wants to lose. If McHale is good enough to sell the players on what he wants to do and how he wants to do it, then it will get done. The only real question is whether McHale and his staff actually KNOWS what needs to be done.
It's unfortunate, but we are at the beginning of a season long slide with mac at the helm. Mac's lost the team completely. If sampson takes over, the team will remain demoralized because he doesn't believe in a "democratic offense"; translation: harden iso's to infinity. Morey's best bet is to ride out the season and start fresh.
Choosing the right coach is very important part of success for Rockets team. If we want to win 50+ wins in a season and make playoff and possibly carry this team to the NBA Final, we must carefully hire the right coach. Hiring Jeff Van Gundy, Rudy Tomjanovich, and Rick Adelman were examples of the right choices because they understand the players role. I hate to say but Morey hired the wrong guy in McHale. McHale was like the worst coach in the NBA. I don't see why Morey thinks McHale will help this team become a contender team. McHales has nothing to prove that he's a great coach. You can see his offense being unorganized and the players looked confused out there. I hope Rockets organization learned this lesson and keep this mind in the future when they pick a new coach. My favorite coach so far is Rick Adelman. He has one of the best offense system in the NBA. His offense is so beautiful and fun to watch.
kevin mchale is not good. he forgot to rest harden in the 4th quarter against the nuggets. the rocket's are shooting a whopping 28 3PA per game, my goodness. what type of coach let's a young team shoot so many 3's?? some body wanna defend kevin mchale for that? if james harden keeps playin' so much he's gonna get injured, geez!!!
Wages of Wins: Evaluating coaching Here is an interesting opinion on evaluating coaching: http://wagesofwins.com/2012/09/26/evaluating-the-coaching-the-coach-is-wrong-redux/ Only a few coaches actually make their players individual production rise in a statistically significant fashion. . [chart] . We, as NBA fans, may hear a lot of noise about what a difference a great coach can make. I can even list some of the more commonly repeated refrains : He’s a leader. He’s a motivator. He inspires his team. He makes his team better. But as Dave notes, this is not – for the most part – generally true. The simple truth is that NBA coaches are in general evaluated improperly. For the most part, Players are who they are and coaches don’t generally affect that (with the aforementioned exceptions). . . . Coaches matter because they decide who plays The graph that follows contains every player season for every team since 1978 for the National Basketball Association with greater that 100 Minutes Played. Each point represents a player playing for one team for one season and shows their minutes played per game and their Wins Produced per 48 minutes played. It looks like so: . [chart] . In essence this is a graph of a player’s perceived value in the eyes of their coach (as represented by the minutes played per game) and their actual value (as represented by their actual productivity in WP48 using the new wins produced model). The thing that jumps out very quickly is that while there is correlation between perceived and real value (see the R2 = 27%) that only accounts for 27% of the variation we see. This reinforces a point that we’ve been emphasizing recently. Playing the right guys is a non trivial skill. The data shows that there are real differences on a year to year, team to team basis in what actually gets players on the court. Teams and coaches simply do not play their best players; instead they play the players who they think are their best players. That makes all the difference in the world. Coaches do matter, but not in the ways that the media tries to sell us. It’s about who they put on the court. The surprising thing is that proper allocation of those minutes is actually a rare skill. The piece is part of a series. If I understand their point, the argument is that even if the coach gets to play Jordan and Pippen, for most coaches, coach's greatest impact is in allocating minutes, especially with the non-star players of the team. Seems to me the analysis is too incomplete but touches on the key thing being that coaches play players to fill roles and duties. To get at the why of minute allocation, maybe we look at a coach's system/philosophy as the lens through which they perceive the talent on the roster? I thought this might be interesting given many comments on McHale's rotation.
We have had the right coach twice allready. I would love to have either one back. JVG and a hall of fame coach for this raggedy ass dude. I dont understand why they hired him after the Minnesota failures.
First off, Mchale isn't that bad. Second, of course he doesn't compare to Adelman so why fire him? Management/ FO wanted a really big say on on court operations. Adelman wasn't cool with that, so talks broke down. He was also upset they waited so long to ask him for an extension. I love my rockets but we have been assholes to our coaches. Don't think this one deserves being fired for stuff out of his control.
I give the coaches credit for today's win against Hornets. Several changes I see and hope the coaches can keep in the future games even if we lose some: 1. Less ball handling for Harden. Let him sharpen his edge as a SG, save the energy from ball handling and put more effort in defense. 2. Let Lin be the true PG so that he can further develop his PG skills. Team chemistry will be improved. 3. Let our PF be the real PF. Don't force them to take 3's only. 4. While encouraging more 3's and layups, don't take away mid-range shots ! Let our players read the defense and make their own selection.
Mac allowed Lin to play the point? Hard to believe. The over-emphasis on ISO's and 3's is just really ridiculous. People complain about the PF's not rebounding well; perhaps they could grab a couple of offensive boards if they weren't standing 25 feet from the basket.
Calvin Murphy should hired as an assistant coach. He knows guard play unlike McHale. The interview on 1560 today was on spot. Maybe the Houston coaching staff heard it.:grin:
Why can't Morey and Les talk with Mac about this? Why did it take Mac half a season to figure out his PG should play PG? It would be unusual for the owner to have this type of a talk, but certainly Morey could discuss the issue when it's so glaring.
I think many experts forget to include in the equation the rule change in the NBA that removed the illegal defense rule (which formerly mandated a man-to-man defense) and changed it to a three-second rule (for defenders inside the paint without guarding anyone). In the era of mandated man-to-man defense (during which Mchale played) one may argue that defensive schemes and offensive schemes were relatively simple and straightforward. Since it is a man-to-man system , the schemes are fairly predictable. Allen Iverson had a field day before the rule change so did Jordan. Everyone knew Jordan was getting the ball during the late seconds but because of mandated man-to-man system you will be whistled for the foul if you sag from your man and guard space. Under the new rules the offensive and defensive schemes are more complex because players are allowed to sag and guard space subject to 3 second rule. Thus, isolation plays just won't cut it anymore.
Honestly, when Morey picked McHale out of three, I thought he picked the worst one and that was consistent with my speculation that the Rockets finally wanted to tank a few seasons to rebuild. But you all know, McHale actually did a solid job in his first year, almost pushed the Rockets to play-offs. But his lack of control/adjustment over the team is astoundingly bad when the team keep down-sliding after some great stretches. That had cost him the chance to a play-offs before and now a 7 game losing streak. I'd say the lack of ball movement during this losing streak could be these two folds of reasons. One, he intended to having Harden, his best player, holding on the ball too much. Two, Harden held the ball too much, but McHale was not quick enough to intervene. Either way, that's mostly McHale's problem. So, yeah, McHale is not a good coach. Morey should start his step 2 in his road map to championship and get a better coach once the presumed second star is on the team.
Van Gundy, Rudy, and Adelman were constantly being second guessed the same way McHale is now. The Rockets are performing much better than most people predicted this year, and the coaches are still being bashed for every move they make. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Right? Clutchfans really don't like coaches, it doesn't matter who they are. Fire Rudy http://bbs.clutchfans.net/archive/index.php/t-50212.html http://bbs.clutchfans.net/archive/index.php/t-56811.html http://bbs.clutchfans.net/archive/index.php/t-50508.html http://bbs.clutchfans.net/archive/index.php/t-50588.html http://bbs.clutchfans.net/archive/index.php/t-55903.html http://bbs.clutchfans.net/archive/index.php/t-3254.html http://bbs.clutchfans.net/archive/index.php/t-2910.html Fire Van Gundy http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=114563&highlight=fire+gundy http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=138282&highlight=fire+gundy http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=105388&highlight=fire+gundy http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=87744&highlight=fire+gundy http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=87787&highlight=fire+gundy Fire Adelman http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=162244&highlight=fire+adelman http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=157101&highlight=fire+adelman http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=139888&highlight=fire+adelman http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=138175&highlight=fire+adelman
In the last two wins the coaches finally came to stagger the minutes of Lin and Harden as much as possible, particularly in the second quarter, which worked wonders and created a fluid team offense/defense. Ideally Lin and Harden should each play 35mins so that there are about 10 minutes for each player to orchestrate the team only by himself.
Yeah but those of us that are objective see that McHale has done nothing as an NBA coach and is never in the discussion as one of the best coaches in the NBA. Rudy, JVG, and Adelman had accomplishments and have been regarded as amongst the best coaches in the NBA. McHale has neither.
Objective based on what? You are a Rocket's fan. Fans have very little objectivity, rather they are fanatical.
Maybe McHale is doing a good job with Harden. He is young, he doesn't know fully yet what a full season grind as a starter is, and he'll be a cornerstone or the cornerstone of the Rockets for years. McHale might have looked at Harden swallowing too much responsibility on the court and said (former GM hat on), "We got him for 5 years. This next stretch of schedule is killer anyway. Let him learn now on his own what he can actually do, and what happens when the ball is getting sticky." You tell him that, and if it doesn't stick, let him learn the most effective way possible, by experience. In the long run, the lesson is worth it. Rotations are another matter, but he might be handling the growth of the individual players just right. Or not. No way to tell from the outside if he has a plan or is merely the Inspector Clouseau of coaches.
