There were nights that Lin turns the ball all over the place, and there were nights Harden do the same, by no means I'm a big Lin fan but tonight was obviously the latter. I '' ll admit that I never coached any teams but I just can't to bring myself to undrestand why coach kept letting Harden taking up the ball. I could neither see what in the world the reasons might be for keeping Harden, Asik and Lin, the best 3 players of your team out during a crucial period when the game is so tight. Does Coach thinks he's playing the Zen master trick？Let the players figure out themselves on the court? I doubt Phil ever let his 2nd unit do that task. Did MacHale realize how important this game is? If we miss the playoff this could be it. I hardly remmember a rox loss can be said that completely fall on the coach's lap but tonight was one of them. Please some MacHale's defenders enlighten me, I 'm all my ears.
I'm just hoping there's a method to this madness. Player development? Hiding your best strategies for the playoffs? But I'm pretty sure it's incompetence.
The coaches don't like to have a real ball handler on the court for too long. Maybe it's against their offensive philosophy ? Every time we have got a few wins, the coaches can't wait to experiment their system.
mchale is doing decent job i believe. youngest roster of nba, and they've just assembled. yet they are over .500 . about in game decisions; mchale could be better, but i'll take it. he is not the best but you cant bring george carl or popovic to houston right now can you?
I just don't understand why the Rockets coaching staff, and this starts and ends with McHale, are so hell-bent on using a reserve point guard during important stretches in the second half. It makes no sense - I can't wrap my head around it. Like brick said, they trust Lin and have some success, but regress back to their natural urge to go to Douglas or Beverley. Maybe they're limiting Lin's minutes for his knee and it's something they don't want to disclose. Or maybe they're trying to get Douglas going to increase his value as a trade chip. I really don't know. It's almost like they play Lin just because they have to, but deep down they wish he would suck so they can bench him. It smells like McHale didn't want Lin coming to Houston in the first place. I don't know, their decision-making defies explanation. Even when Lin's not scoring, when he's on the floor and running the ball, the Rockets offense is just a lot smoother. Just go back and look at film during the end of the 3rd and early 4th, how the Rockets offense was playing. It was a mess.
Guy, you gotta cut it out. Please. If in the end, you do not care about the Rockets, you have no business here.
As I have said, McHale is clearly defining the ceiling for this team. I could understand it if it was just Lin (maybe he doesn't believe in his ability or maybe it's something else) but no it's not just him either. His time management as a whole is questionable. Can we get a better coach? An average one is enough. I really want to see if our talent is enough this year to get to the conference finals like I have predicted? That prediction was based on us getting at least a 6th seed or higher (Seems like even 8th is questionable with this staff)
No consistency from the coaches and going small ball while actually saying he wanted to experiment with a big lineup is ridiculous! This young team needs a direction and something they can stick to, not constantly changing things.
McHale is an invertebrate. He doesn't have the backbone to take responsibility for anything. When have we seen him do anything to that effect?
To his defense, he really doesn't piss me off as much as Adelman did. He is trying his best you can tell. Adelman would've played hes favorite not the best line-up. And jvg, his love for veterans is terrible.
I don't think any superstar who wants a championship ring will come if they know how bad McHale is as the head coach.
In that 9 minutes when Lin was in the bench, we free fell from 9 points up to two points down on the Nuggets' 11-0 run.
This game was a huge fail for McHale. I haven't been very critical of McHale since he has been here because of the Rox youth and lack of talent overall on roster. However, the Rox had this game. Asik was dominating, Lin pressured defense with penetration, etc. and McHale let up by taking out both players including Harden to close out 3rd Q and Rox feel apart. Nuggets smelled blood in water at that point and seized momentum and thus seized the game. Against the better teams you have to keep you foot on their throat and not give them any chances. I can't remember being soo angry at McHale as I was after last night's game because this game could really be a game that cost the Rox down the line.
There's a reason I started this thread 10 months back and I am afraid to say that nothing much has changed. McHale seriously needs to go.
