Mchale makes Moray and Les look like an idiot to pay Lin and Asik 50M/3yr. The Rockets should sign all the min. guys. to run under Mchale rotation.
He sit those three starters for defensive reasons and situational match-ups on the defensive side of the court. I agree with the criticisms of the offensive play calling late though. Iso plays are not as efficient as the Rockets regular offense, and I think it is dumb of teams to resort to that late in quarters and in games. A good diagramed shot with time left on the clock is better than a bad iso shot with no time left on the clock.
For those of you who have selective memory, or were watching the game on some shady website cause you dont have CSN, the Rockets defense was complete crap all night long, and they weren't closing out on 3 point shooters after the 2nd pass. The T-Rob/Beverley lineup in the 4th put the Rockets in a position to win with some great stops in the 4th. Beverley's pressure on the ball handler is a huge difference maker in changing the tempo defensively. If you dont understand the value he brings in late game situations defensively, YOU DONT KNOW BASKETBALL. When you have a lineup like that going deep in the 4th, you are skating on this ice by messing with that lineup much. McHale doesn't "prefer" Beverley over Lin despite what his dumb a#$ lunatic fans want to peddle on this site. He stuck with a lineup that got the team back in the game defensively and they didn't have enough to finish the game against a team that was defending the hell out of one of the best scoring teams in the NBA, and were hitting lights out all night long. -As for the late game "play calling" with Harden going iso- Look, the Rockets do not have half court sets so to speak. That is their most effective late game set to run... the pick and roll for those of you that dont know. Harden is one of the best pick and roll players in the NBA.... not sure what else you LOF idiots think they should be running... what??... you want to post up Asik and put him on the line to win the game at the free throw line???
I remember reading we are no longer the youngest after the moves we just made. We aren't experienced as other teams but we are led by a guy that's been in the league for four years. I disagree with you that our "youth/inexperience" is the cause of us losing close games. McHale consistently makes questionable substitutions in the fourth quarter and he never seems to draw up anything remotely effective after calling timeouts in the fourth. Have you ever said to yourself "great play McHale called after that TO?" We're the worst at closing out games because our coach doesn't have the right guys on the floor and can't coach when you need coaching most.
Well he got a good block on Harden in this game so I guess he is their shotblocker/rim protector when he's out there with Dirk.
you probably dont know how to read either...i said that TRob is also a liability at the line...Defense or Not Asik sealed off his man for every loose ball and that led to 15 rebounds...TRob, while had 2 huge blocks...cant set picks like Asik can...Harden needed space to get shots off, and couldnt...
What was Asik's line tonight from the free throw line??.... That's the pot calling the kettle jet black. I love Asik, but if I was McHale the free throw shooting liability would keep him out of late game situations all the time. Im surprised hack a Asik hasn't been utilized more often.
Name me another team that does what McFail does on a regular basis. Every other playoff bound team coach believes in their starters to finish consistently. It's about building TRUST in your starters come playoff time. And oh btw when McHale does this they LOSE way more than they WIN. Benching the starters has worked two times--earlier in the year against the lakers and recently against the Orlando magic. It's a FAIL STRATEGY. IT'S A MCFAIL STRATEGY. It will also hurt the rockets come playoff time. Morey get us a real coach please.
That bold sentence was exactly McHale's problem, bro. I believe that coach had assigned Harden to play iso too early. Marion was a great great defender in the league and that coach played himself into Carlisle's hand. The Rockets offense has been hard to defend with ball movements. But Harden's iso ball is very much predictable to a good defender like Shawn Marion.
its not stupid and its justified. The bench did their job and brought the rox back in the game but then they leveled out. A great coach would have seen that and put the starters back in. Look at what happened the last 2-3 minutes. the offense started struggling because it was crunch time and you had bench players and harden in there. Mchale is utterly horrible with substitutions. He takes forever to put Lin or harden back in (not just this game), and my biggest pet peeve; going without Lin or Harden. He also takes forever to call a timeout when momentum is being lost. I dont but this whole coaching and going with your gut thing. Id rather you go with your head.
Sadly I agree. I hate when the team wins by playing small ball - usually it's just some luck breaking HOU's way, but it just encourages McHale to leave Asik out at the end of games. It's just insanity - watching the same **** happen again and again (that's at least 4-5 games this season lost just like this).
Lolz. Are they are both averaging slightly over 30 minutes a game.... Asik needs better conditioning and Lin needs more experience (has barely started over a season in the NBA).
I'm not disagreeing with your post in the whole as I didn't see the game (DTV subscriber here) but this phrase should be stricken from BBS vocabulary.
I didn't mind mchale too much as the head coach until the game tonight. wow..makes you wonder what morey sees in him.
Asik played like 20 minutes tonight and it's not like they played last night. I don't think he was winded at all tonight. Lin was benched for the entirety of the fourth quarter for a guy that's played in like his 20th NBA game.
While I disagree with those criticizing McHale's going with the bench players for the end of this game, I agree with both of the points you two make above. Munco, I completely agree that the actual offensive plays the team used in the last several possessions (Harden iso) were awful. This is not what we normally do throughout the game, and there is a reason for that -- it does not work as well as a pick and roll. sugrlndkid's point is actually related. I understand not having Asik in on defense since there was no real interior people for him to guard, but he should have been out there on offense to set a pick, cut to the rim and grab offensive boards. In fact, the reason I think we went iso late in the game is because Robinson and Harden could not get on the same page for a pick and roll, plus Robinson just is not as good as Asik at those. So, I'm with you on this criticism. It was just the reactionary knee jerk "McHale sucks because he did not play the starters" bs that I was trying to lambast. Actual critiques of McHale I am all for.
In other words, I hate LOFs, I don't even like MacFail that much but I gonna defend the helll out of him just to piss off LOFs.
