A dispassionate Assessment of Kevin Mchale's Resume' at the time he was hired

So who are the GMs that don't fire coaches and don't make mistakes in personnel moves? Who did you want the Rockets to hire instead of McHale?

Character and success as a GM or coach are two different things. Low character people can have great success and conversely a high character guy can also fail.

 

Calling someone McFail while posting an article from bleacherreport... priceless.

 

And again, had he drafted Howard, would he have been in position to draft Granger? You still never addressed my question as to how you know the Wolves could have assembled that original team because things would most likely have changed had they done something different.

That Garnett, Marbury team was pretty good and getting better until Marbury lost his mind.

 

I laughed at the idea of using draft pick hindsight and using an article that cites Brandon Roy, it's a ball of irony all rolled up in one.

 

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!!!

 

Thanks, very good. At the end, it will not be pretty between Rockets and McFail. Of course, it will Rockets to make the mistake again to let him go like Timberwolves.:grin:

 

And to respond to the actual topic... is someone actually trying to argue that the Rockets are a poorly coached team this year???

The Rockets have a chance to be the least experienced team to make the playoffs in NBA history. That takes good coaching. The Rockets have a chance to make the playoffs with a completely new rotation from last year. That takes good coaching. The Rockets have a chance to make the playoffs after making multiple, sudden, significant changes to the starting lineup because of trades after training camp. Again, that takes good coaching. The Rockets have one of the best offenses in the NBA, you can't just roll the ball out and be that good, that takes good coaching.

This is a well-coached basketball team. I have no idea how much credit McHale deserves relative to his assistants, but it doesn't really matter. As a group, the Rockets coaching staff is doing an exceptional job and they all deserve to stick around this team as it grows. They, like all coaches, make some mistakes, but their record, considering the circumstances, clearly shows they're more to help this team than they are harming it.

 

Daryl Morey worked at Mcdonalds at the age of 16 and was awful at flipping burgers.

Who cares?

My point is that as a GM Mchale wasn't great but he is a head coach now and is doing an admirable job. Lets keep a few things in perspective we have the youngest team in the league and we are on the verge of making the playoffs in the western conference.

 

Aaaaand this reveals itself as one of the 2 most common types of threads in the GARM these days.

 

McHale practically drafted Royce White........

 

With comparable rosters under Flip Saunders .490. Under Kevin McHale .613.
Keep trying.

 

Nobody said McHale is the sole reason for the rockets success. He's part of it. Just like he plays a role when they lose, he plays a role when they win as well.

But like always, people like to single out one person for the Rockets trouble. Happens every year.

 

0 playoff appearances before and after with Mchale as GM of the T-Wolves.
Let's not give Mchale credit for those years, because it wouldn't fit your (dispassionate) argument.

 

My God, I can't believe these threads. Morey, McHale, Lin. You would think we were fighting for the #1 overall draft pick. This team has far exceeded my expectations for the season. Youngest and least experienced team, but we're fighting for a playoff spot. That's pretty incredible, if you ask me. Gotta give Morey and McHale props. How can you not?

 

Bleacher Report?

...in before the lock

 

Learn to have context, please (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.

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.


I don't know how to break it to you CanadianBlue ... but ...

YOU NEED TO LOOK AT CONTEXT!!!

 

Hopefully another godawful late season collapse isn't in the works.

 

Just look at his transactions. Widely known as one of the worst GMs in history, only to be celebrated even as a GM on the Rockets.

Even McHale said in his coaching introductory conference ... paraphrasing ... "thank God I'm not a GM anymore, cause I pretty much sucked"

 

Man, you REALLY don't like McHale, do you? You're going around the forum posting the same exact post (give or take a few words) every chance you get (twice in this thread alone!)

I'll surely get labeled as a LOH, LOF, MOF, YOF, or some other crap for this, but I'm just not a very big fan of people using constant repetition to try to convince people that they're right.

 

Thanks for the context!!!
So Mchale turned around a contract disputing, listless group of players, and got them to play with more "energy". Interesting.