Well, at least in my case, I don't personally hate Kevin McHale (the only people who've got a right to really hate him are Wolves fans). You'll do well to differentiate between McHale, the man, the husband and bereaved father and his professional, coaching alter-ego McSuccess. The target of most critics (apart from those LOFs that indulge into tin foil hat theorizing) is McSuccess and his general sucking at the art of coaching. There seem to be a major disconnect operating. When critics like me evaluate McSuccess, we are actually evaluating him against the back-drop of his Wolves legacy unlike the case for Lin and all the other young players who are tabula rasa. Hence the following questions: (1) Is he still the same terrible coach and talent evaluator (as GM) that he was with the Wolves? (2) And if he indeed has changed, where are the improvements? McSuccess sucking at in-game coaching, X & O and accountability is not a new phenomenon, it was the same thing happening during his stints at coaching with the Wolves. Look, if, say at tomorrow's Suns game, McHale digs the team out of a hole with a terrific bit of in-game adjustment or great play-calling coming out of a TO, I will be the first to eat crow and acknowledge his good coaching just as I gave him his props for properly analysing and neutralizing the Jazz offense in the blow-out game. Until then, he is McSuccess. What Kevin McHale is like in his personal life is none of my business. I've never met the man, shoot, I've never even set foot in Houston. All I get to see is McSuccess pulling out bone-headed iso plays after time-outs, making stupid substitution and rolling out stupid line-ups on a lagging, expensive League pass stream. Based on that evidence, my opinion is that McSuccess sucks.
And in Minnesota, players said McHale didn't do the coaching, the assistants did. And practice was just scrimmaging with very little direction. But here, we prefer to believe everything Lin has actually done in front of cameras last year, on an actual NBA schedule, is actually false. And that he hasn't played as well as expected was because last year is a fluke, not because he's playing next to a ball-dominant SG and he's not playing to his natural strength. It's like asking Harden to be the defensive stopper, Parsons to create offense for himself and his teammates, the ball to be dumped inside to Asik on the low-post to draw double-teams, for 2Pat to be a low-post threat, for DMo to be our paint protector, for Thomas Robinson to play in the high post aka Chuck Hayes, or Delfino to run the fast break. But somehow for McHale, he is improving the team, running the offense, not liable for the poor defense, came up with an offensive scheme that is extremely efficient (and one that wasn't run in Minnesota, but looks very much like the one Daryl Morey would design), took a group of 'purely young' players to playoff fringe (despite not being able to take two groups of young players in Minnesota to any success) ... ... and that a 9-18 record on games decided by 8 pts or less, a horrible away record and even worse back-to-back record, a terrible stretch losing to teams below .500 when in the playoff hunt, eerily similar to last year's collapse with a 'veteran' team, playing small-ball, blaming the players for not rebounding (while playing small ball), and having poor rotations, minute management, situation adjustments etc ... is all the fault of the young players on this team. The reality here, continuing from the post that says MOHs are worse than LOHs, is that for you to be a fan of McHale, you'd have to reach into the stratosphere of believing in something that has never happened before (in Minnesota as GM/coach, coaching young players or veterans on the Rockets last year), that you can't actually see (practice, offensive system development where evidence from Minnesota points to him not having success there on either), whereas for you to be a fan of Lin, at least you had a stretch of superstar numbers in his first starts, and all-star numbers after Carmelo and Stoudemire returned (on per 36min basis) when playing a role that is suited for him. You only have to see that Lin isn't performing as well because he doesn't have the ball in his hands as much, and that he's not playing the role that he succeeded in. But for McHale, you really have to take a leap of faith to believe he is more than a passable coach.
Interesting...check this out:http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ba...n-McHale-not-an-X-s-and-O-s-ty?urn=nba,128193 Wolves coach Kevin McHale, not an X's and O's type of guy By J.E. Skeets Our quote of the day comes from Nuggets vet Anthony Carter, a former Timberwolves guard, who tells Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News that recycled Minnesota coach Kevin McHale should "be a lot better" this time around. "It was a learning experience," said Carter, who will see McHale and the Timberwolves on Wednesday at the Pepsi Center. "He didn't really know all the X's and O's, but he had a good assistant coaching staff that was helping him out with a lot of plays. He kind of let us run whatever we wanted. "He was trying to draw plays, and it was like a little Etch and Sketch. Like a kid just messing around. ... He just gave the clipboard to the assistant coaches sometimes."
A good summary of Kevin Mchale: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/201096-mchales-making-a-mistake-comment-oozes-with-irony Firing Flip Saunders McHale didn’t seem to ever have a problem making his head coach out to be the scapegoat. Saunders happened to be the first victim of this repeat offender. Following a season where the Wolves appeared in the Western Conference finals for the first time in team history, they struggled to be competitive.With their record at 25-26, McHale fired Flip Saunders and named himself as head coach. Never mind that the team was having issues with Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell. Never mind that your big men consisted of Michael Olowokandi and Ervin Johnson. Never mind that you aren’t able to bring in much youth to keep a good thing going because you screwed up by having Joe Smith sign an illegal deal. No, clearly this is the coach’s fault. Flip Saunders became coach of the Detroit Pistons and took them to three straight Eastern Conference Finals series, and also coached the Eastern Conference in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game. The Timberwolves have not been to the playoffs since Flip was fired.
People should read the whole weblink. Then they'll start using the term McSuccess ... out of sarcasm or sympathy
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Agreed. Flip Saunders had great rivalries with Rick Carlisle. Pistons-Pacers. Just didn't luck out to advance to the Finals. Rick practically schooled Spoelstra in his rookie coaching season.
With all the mchale hate lately how about giving respect when it's due. I think he has lit a fire under our teams ass and motivated us yeah it's the suns but we are blowing them out its not like we are struggling to win this is the kind of game that boost confidence so much props and respect to coach mchale for the last few motivating interviews lately
Yup, and he rightly did so. Being young and with little vet leadership its easy to lose sight. Its not like we have a locker full of guys like battier, scola, hayes, deke, or even Yao. Just being around people like that will drive you further , which they don't have the luxury of having.
this isn't just mchale, its the entire F.O with their r****ded ass philosophy. You don't play this style of ball with these threes if you don't have a great center. For some reason Morey keeps trying to build that.
analytics in basketball will NEVER work McHale is just a yes man for Morey Adelman is a coach who actually knows the ins and outs of the game
