Exactly. Bringing Lin back in for the last two or three minutes could have won us the game. McHale is poor in seeing how things or players are trending in games.
I said I dont know. Im looking at potential reasoning from a coaches perspective. Again, I like to add some perspective to the GARM instead of just endlessly b****ing about everything without reason. Look, I was just as upset as anyone else last night watching the game. I've played sports my entire life, and have coached. I know how sometimes its tempting for a coach to go with the guy that is bringing that edge of aggression to the game. Not saying Lin doesn't have it, but just pointing to the fact that this does happen in coaching situations, and this might be something to take into consideration putting yourself in the coaches POV. From a basketball standpoint, It could be Beverley's aggression on putting pressure on the ball handler for the opposing team they like in late game situations. Toney Douglas was very good at this too. It helps slow down the opposing team to get them in a half court set. On the ball defense is something the Rockets are just terrible at in the full court. -Again, I dont know for sure if this is the reason why sometimes Beverley and Douglas get minutes over Lin in late game situations.... Im not in the huddle so I dont know. Just something that could be reasoned. Lin is good at creating steals, and I do think he's a pretty solid defender(other than his P&R coverage which could get better). He's also hardly the problem on defense. Its much bigger than just Lin or Harden. -Look, Im not saying that you specifically are one of the "Real Housewife Watching Dramatic LOF'ers"... but there is a bitter childish nature permeating on the board that keeps spewing out conspiracy theories about Lin and McHale's relationship. When I noted that, I was speaking in generalities about the overall conspiracy floating around.... not your particular post. Not putting you in that category. -However, going back to the initial Jeremy Lin cut over a year ago.. It serves no logic to think that this situation had anything to do with a coaches decision if you look back. Lin was clearly out playing Flynn in the preason, and the minutes he got in the final preseason game showed that the coaches clearly were intrigued with his game to give him extended run. Point being- The decision to cut Lin or not had nothing to do with Lin from a coaching standpoint, it was more about how bad Flynn was and was only on the team for contractual purposes, and potential trades to be made at a later date. There's no reason to think that he wasn't the 3rd best PG on the roster. Since the Rockets were clearly looking to make major trades that season, there is no way the front office would just waive a 3.5 mil expiring contract at the beginning of the season. Its just plain logical that this was 100% a front office decision IMO.
Based on Basketball-reference.com's Pythagorean projection, we should be 38-24 now instead of 33-29. In other words, we have underachieved by at least five games. And McHale is the reason why we missed those five games.
Im not defending McHALE... He's far from a perfect coach, and its totally fine to disagree with his coaching decisions. I just want to see some half A$# analysis here instead of mindless whining, and dumb conspiracy theories.
These are the stats, Lin is one of the best in the team in the last 5 mins. Everything else that you guys are saying about how much Beverly "hussles" are just "half a$$ gut analysis".
The GARM has gone nuts. McHale has been pretty excellent this season. He rises the hot hand. Isn't this why we all b****ed at Adelman, for NOT doing that? Beverly and Robinson played really well. The Harden iso WORKED down the stretch several times. The irrational hate he gets from the denizens of mindless Lin fans is absurd.
Looks starters are starters for a reason, over the course of the season, they would just deliver more consistently than the bench especially in crunch situations.Unless the backup is playing phenomenally like Beverly did against the Magic there should be no reason to bench the starter for the entire 4th quarter. This past game, Beverly was not that great and to bench Lin for this? Ridiculous coaching. Why doesn't McHale just make Beverly the starter and save us all this headache.
I think he is just to proud to admit his own bad judgments. Did you ever hear he say anything like "this loss is on me"? Being a HOF definitely gives him a hell lot of pride.
Look, I appreciate the statistical analysis. I am a stat geek myself, but that's besides the point. What Im referring to is in a game time coaching situation where they dont have a laptop open to check synergy for efficiency ratings in game time situations. An explanation(not a defensive postion in favor of McHale) is that Beverley's on the ball defense in the FULL COURT to put pressure on the ball handler was something the coaches COULD BE FAVORING in late game situations. Also, I have noticed that Beverley does a great job fighting through screens on the pick and roll. This really helps the big man showing on the screens not have to come out, leading to an easy roll to the rim by the man they are defending. The Rockets were having a very tough time losing the roller. If they defended the roller, then that led to a 2nd and 3rd pass to an open 3 point shot on the perimeter if they didn't get an easy bucket in the paint from the roller. Also, give some credit to Carlisle in preparing for this game. Even in a season that looks lost for that team, they still treated last nights game with playoff seriousness. These are bang, bang coaching decisions that are made on the fly. You dont have to agree with the coaches decision making, but its good to put some perspective into the conversation rather than just typing superlatives in conjunction with Kevin McHale's name. Its not as much a negative on Lin as it is putting some emphasis on what Beverley is doing instead of completely erasing the value he brings the team just simply because he's taking crunch time minutes away from the other guy.
This is what I mean gut analysis, I can point out the same number of things that Lin did really well but its meaningless because its only to make my point but prove nothing. The bang bang decision that coaches make comes more at the end of the day from who they are more comfortable with and confidence in to execute. Everything else are really just excuses they use to justfiy that decision. Same way you did. I personally didn't think it was Lin who was the weakness in the defense at all but look if hustling and getting over screens are what it takes to replace the starter then just make Beverly the starter.
Even if we just look at the point differentials of the Rockets vs other play-off teams, it suggests we should have approx 4-5 wins more. And if we do have 4-5 wins more, it'll also put our 8-17 record on games decided by 8 points or less to about 12-13 or 13-12, which is a more reasonable 50:50 split for that of an average coach.
Wait, didn't you ask for stats and not some half a$$ gut analysis and yet you gave us exactly that on reasons why McHale benched Lin?? Look how do you know how much all of Beverly's hustle and all ACTUALLY helped us, you need to give us stats on that. All I can give you are stats that Lin's play in the last 5 mins is the best on the team. Hence making a case for him to play instead of Beverly regardless of mumbo jumbo gut feel from you and McHale.
I can see Beverly bringing a nice defensive presense. But Lin was doing ok on defense and seriously affecting the Dallas defense when he was on the floor. Even if you are just doing Harden-ball at the end, having Lin standing there makes Harden's job a lot easier. You could see that Dallas was playing against Lin and Beverly differently. Asik not being on the floor just seemed bone-headed.
Well I got bad news for you... every coach in the game of basketball is going to make decisions based on feeling and gut. No coach will have the ability to pull up synergy during timeouts to check the PER before they sub a player in. Still there is usually some kind of basketball reasoning behind it. But that's why the game of basketball is an imperfect sport, and the coaching is far from imperfect... especially with a team that has been constructed overnight. Im not making excuses(as Ive noted many times to you) Im merely giving my take on why the coach did or didn't make X basketball decision. The "Half A#$" gut decisions are going to happen regardless of coach. You can listen to reasoning coming from what the coach might be thinking if you want to, but if you just want to blast him, and de-value everyone on the court not named Jeremy Lin, that's fine too....
We aren't talking about Stats. We are talking about game-time decisions and why in world McHale would make such decisions on the fly. We can talk about preparation if you want to... that would be appropriate to then say yes, maybe McHale could have looked at these percentages over time to better game-plan. However, anyone that has ever coached will tell you that once the game starts, its a moot point, and in the end in crunch time, the coach is ultimately going with what he knows, his experiences, and ... YES... HIS GUT. When asking for analysis, this could be focused on anything and everything basketball related... NOT JUST STATS. What I DO NOT WANT TO FOCUS ON, is off the court drama between Lin, McHale, and some made up LOF fantasy. Is that understandable now?
Additional free agents are really going to want to sign in Houston so they can get paid the big buck to sit the whole 4 qtr. Are we not trying to win and get as high as seed as possible. Something is holding this team back and it's not the talent. It's the coach.
