McHale Interview: If you are doing a horse**** job...

So true. I believe his attitude and ability to push players has made us better. If you are not working hard on this team don't expect playing time.

 

horses*** job---I think McHale knows he's not doing a good enough job too. Les Alexander must have spoken to him.

If we miss playoffs again this season, I see McHale out of here.

 

Sounds like he's talking about himself.

 

Exactly! Young, athletic and black doesn't always mean hot head.

 

McHale took over that team and led them to a MUCH BETTER RECORD than Flip Saunders that year.
Flip Saunders (25-26), Kevin McHale (19-12)

Both times he took over the Wolves, they had a much better record after McHale took over.

We have McHale THE COACH on our team, small track record as it is. McHale THE GM is NO MORE. We might as well be talking about Daryl Morey's past track record as a coach to evaluate his GM'ing (of course he has NONE. But it is to say that its not that relevant to his current role)

 

Are you guys watching the same games as me? Phoenix was killing our small lineup on the boards. Delfino can block out all he wants, but the taller Phoenix lineup was getting rebounds over the back. You can't coach height. We got beat down the stretch, because of Mchale's small ball and his refusal to play rookies down the stretch. If you are getting killed on the boards maybe you need more than one good rebounder in the game.

 

One of the jobs of a GM is choosing and therefore evaluating coaches. Seems like an inability to do that would be a reflection on one's ability to coach.

 

Mchale had a 20-43 record as timberwolves coach. The irony is Mchale the GM had no problem throwing his coach under the bus , when it was more of his blunders as a GM in player selection that led to the downfall of the timberwolves organization and now Mchale the COACH has no problem throwing his players under the bus. Mchale is the last innocent man on earth, its always the others who are to blame.

 

:grin:

 

I like your posts Shroopy2, I really do. But I can't resist posting this here.

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Well, if you really want to look at it, it would be (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Timberwolves):

Flip Saunders .558
Dwayne Casey .449
Kevin McHale .415
Randy Wittman .266

McHale ONLY did better than Wittman, who after that stint ceased to be an NBA Head Coach.

And if you really want to remove the GM role from McHale, in 2008-9 his coaching record benefited from having Kevin Love in his rookie season and Mike Miller in his prime.

To add to a sorry roster in 2007-8 of Al Jefferson (the only good player), Rashad McCants, Randy Foye, Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, Sabastian Tlefair, Marko Jaric, Antoinne Walker (already bad), Kirk Snyder, Corey Brewer, Gerald Green, Greg Buckner, and Chris Richards, for guys that played 30 games or more.

So it's not a shock to see McHale do better than Casey did in 2007-8 with the addition of Kevin Love and Mike Miller, and it's hardly encouraging that your record was better than Randy Wittman, one of the worst coaches in NBA history.

By January 2008-9, Kevin Love was averaging 12pts and 10reb on 54% shooting, vs ~7pts, 7.5reb and 38% FGs in his first two months.

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So it is always worth your while to know the context. Was McHale better than Randy Wittman? Of course. Wittman was one of the worst coaches in NBA history. Is that something to be proud of? To have the next worst coaching record from the coach you took over till the last time you coached? And the turnaround wasn't so much McHale being a great coach, it was because he got Kevin Love and Mike Miller, and he got a even more horrible coach (one of the worst ever) before his stint.

And for those that say you can't say McHale's GM results have any relevance to his coaching record, then just take McHale's coaching record on his own, and look at the record of those before and after him, and the players they had to work with vs what he had.

And his assistants ran the practices!!!

 

And let me just add ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Timberwolves

"In the 2004–05 season, the Wolves kept the same team from the previous season. The team was plagued with contract disputes and the complaining of key players Latrell Sprewell, Sam Cassell, and Troy Hudson. Coach Flip Saunders was replaced in midseason by GM Kevin McHale, who took over the team for the rest of the season. The Timberwolves finished 44–38, and missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years. They missed the playoffs by one game, to the Memphis Grizzlies."

First, it's not unusual for a head coach to lose its players after 10 seasons, like Flip Saunders did. Second, it was due to contract disputes and complaining of key players, thanks to McHale. Third, players play harder for a GM/Coach during periods right after 'contract disputes' ... because, well ... they want a better contract and it's easier when the coach is a 'GM/coach'. And fourth, McHale had a really small sample size there.

In 2004-5, with the same roster, Timberwolves finished with 44-38 record, and McHale 0.613 (better than Flip Saunders).

In 2003-4, with the same roster, without the contract disputes etc, with Filp Saunders, Timberwolves finished with 58-24 record, 70.7% win record.

 

Yeah, you're right about the small lineups. I don't think anyone expects them to rebound as well without more bigs. I think McHale was just frustrated that he didn't see the same effort on rebounding as we've seen from that lineup before.

 

Mchale confuses effort with energy. We played the third game in four nights and second night of the back to back in Phoenix after a ugly/grand-it-out win in GSW the night before. All the players actually gave significant effort, but they just don't have enough energy left.

Mchale should have learned the lesson from our 7 game skid in January and the late season collapse last year, but he obviously still didn't realize what really happened.

 

I admit that I have not had time to watch the game yet (I sure will on League Pass), but this further makes McHale's comments get under my skin. He complains about 4 players getting 0 defensive rebounds (two of which are point guards) and does not mention that those same four got 7 offensive rebounds. Plus, defensive rebounds are often more a factor of size and height than quickness and effort (offensive boards), and if we were playing small, well whose fault is that?

 

Is that the same McHale, Bird threw under the bus repeatedly in his books for not being committed to the game? The McHale that Bird called out during press interviews after games for not caring enough?

I like McHale and enjoy his wry humor and his old-school intensity; but let's not re-write history completely here. Larry was always all over McHale for not giving a s*** (even though I always felt Bird should have given McHale a bit more credit since Kevin played on a messed-up/broken foot - I mean that's toughness).

 

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Very interesting. I would also add that McHale was never a great rebounder (never broke the 10 rebounds/game mark in any season, despite heavy minutes) for his size and never a good passer. Good and consistent rebounder but not great. Nowhere near Asik. More along the lines of a Larry Nance (who by the way is severely underrated in history). Otis Thorpe in his best years and many others had better rebounding seasons that McHale's best rebounding season.

Passing/playing team ball and rebounding are two of the keys to victory in just about every game. IMO, McHale is better suited to be a big man coach than a head coach.

 

That explains Mchale's attitude. Deep down he's been blamed for everything before, so he's trying to transfer that feeling towards his own players now. Lowry never had any issue with coaching staff before and after, and it makes you wonder...

 

I haven't read one of Bird's books. I'm going by what I saw watching the games, and certainly stand by my post.

 

He sacrificed a lot for the Boston Celtics and is being rewarded in a way. Mchale was a physical force in the paint but he is just not a very cerebral person which good coaches are.