Good point but I don't think McHale deserves the blame for that. Harden came in a the last minute, then McHale had a family tragedy and was off for a month. He had to figure out the Harden / Lin dynamics on the fly. And let's face it. They are both PNR players but Harden is just so much better so Lin gets relegated to spot-up shooter, unfortunately not his strength but McHale developed Lin to be a 40% 3PT shooter in the last 41 games of the season so it kinda worked... props to him.
There was talk about Spoelstra winning it because of the Miami record breaking run. Having the best record in the league also helped his ranking.
He deserves better than many of you take him for. CF may be way to judgemental of his coaching style. If you take a breather and take a look at his situation, he has potential to become a great coach. first off, he took a month off in which many of you judged him for... a few days later he lost his 20 year old daughter... Such as sad story. second, he took the 2nd youngest team to the playoffs with a players whom have no chemistry with each other. Over 10 players on the roster who were new to the team (Lin, Harden, Asik, T rob, Garcia, Delfino, Beverly, brooks) The rest were just rookies or sophomores. Incredible. 3rd, he took players off the bench who became starters to lead this team to the playoffs (Lin, harden, parsons, Asik, patterson). we also have the most rookies and inexperienced players and 1st time full season starters. 4th, we played 2 tough games of losing 2-3 points each in the playoffs against the #1 seeded Thunder. we won 2 tough games against the #1 seeded Thunder. 5th, most of our players have become developed. James Harden 6th man to superstar, Parsons 2nd rounder to potential future star, Asik bench player to a super quality starter. 6th, all players enjoyed their stay at houston. They love it here and it sets an example to other stars and players who may increase their desire to come to houston. IMO, I don't think we could've asked for a better coach. Most great coaches have great players already without having to develop them much. While in Houston we've watch all these guys become such incredible players. If you hate on McHale than you are obviously need to become more open minded of his situation. He's a great coach.
Y'all take this too seriously, as if the media knows how to vote for COY...much less rank the Top 10. So soon we forget that Mike Brown and Scottie Brooks took COY in consecutive years. LOLs.
Oh? I didn't know the media voted for coach of the year. No wonder the rankings suck. As Mark Cuban said, "The NBA media are a joke... man"
OK, points taken. I agree with everything you said except for this... 6th, all players enjoyed their stay at houston. They love it here and it sets an example to other stars and players who may increase their desire to come to houston. I dont think this can be attributed to McHale. More of just how great an organization the rockets are, what a great city houston is, and the character of the players... its like a love in!
I also think that a lot of people here don`t give McHale the praise he deserves (mostly because of questionable in game decisions). But think about it this way: He basically got a whole new team this off season, and most of the players were young and unproven. Then he gets a rising star in Harden 2 days before the season starts. That changes everything with no time to implement a system for him. But McHale changed the whole style of this team to a style that perfectly fits our players - that is good coaching. And despite what many LOF on here might think, he got the most out of the players, with several of them having the best season of their careers. Most of the people here only credit Morey with finding great players - but it really is the coach to put them in a situation, where they can succeed. McHale isn`t a coach with a system he sticks to, he is a coach that designs a system based on the players he has. And he is a coach that can make his players better. Yes, he doesn`t always look good with his decisions during games (though that is overblown a bit as well) - but he is a great option for a rebuilding team like us.
Most complaint here on McHale is his rotation, mind I said really really bad? Most of the time, he has no idea what is going on in the game. Failed to develop a mid range. Too much isolation. The list go on and on.
People sure do love to hate McHale I swear. I get it, he benched "certain players" to close out a few games, and now the tagline is "he sucks at rotations".... Look the guy got the most out of his players, and took the youngest team in the league to the playoffs, and took it to the #1 seed. Is he a perfect coach?... No.... but do you know of any "perfect" coaches out there available instead??? Please dont say JVG, SVG, and please, please, please dont say Phil Jackson. Even Phil has his faults too as an X's and O's coach. 9th place is respectable yet very forgetable.... Nobody is going to rank what he was able to accomplish 29th just to suit a certain segment of the Houston Rockets fanbase that think he has it out for their favorite player so get over it.
Thibs has one MAJOR flaw...you guys should take a look at his starters minutes. He runs his players into the ground. He's a brilliant coach, but that flaw us pretty glaring
To add to my post, if McHale played his starters like Thibs did, everybody would be fu**ing pissed. And I don't know why everybody is joking themselves, pop is the best coach EVERY YEAR hands down
People sure love McHale. Instead of being 6th seeds playing the Nuggets, he "deliberately" lost to Suns and Lakers to get the 8th to play against the healthy #1 seed to give the Rockets more "experiences" I also got it he got the credit for winning 2 games against a Westbrook-less OKC, a team yet adjust to the change.
Doesn't deserve 9th. In what world? - Offense philosophy = statistical driven Moreyball taking efficient shots and high tempo, which he never employed before coming to the Rockets and didn't employ in his first year. Basically he got out of the way, and didn't screw it up. - Defensive results = When Asik is in the game, pretty good defensive team. When Asik is out, bottom 5 teams in the league. - Get the best out of his players? 1) Harden was already developed before he joined the Rockets. Remember the first two games? If anything, he regressed in the 2nd half of the season under McHale (either couldn't rein Harden in, or Harden tuned him out) 2) Asik was the defensive beast he is now, in Chicago, all he did was raise his stamina in the offseason plus work with Dawson. 3) Lin was better-utilised in NY 4) Morey got the Rockets 3 players that had either or both high offensive/defensive plus/minus, high win-share and 4th quarter PER players in Harden, Lin and Asik, and Parsons developed a better 3pt and set shot over the offseason which opened up his all-round game even more. And Parsons was clutch since college. 5) Delfino & Garcia were given roles to succeed in this 3pt shooting offense, basically getting great 3pt looks on kickouts from Harden, Lin and Parsons, and taking career high % of shots from 3ptFGs which raised their overall TS%, in line with Morey's offensive philosophy. 6) 2Pat and Morris developed over the offseason. 2Pat his 3pt shot (nothing to do with McHale) and got his health back and returned to his rookier season shooting from 2ptFG (~56-57% already in his rookie season, under Adelman) + added a good 3pt shot, while Morris became a 38-40% 3pt shooter and that's basically all he did. McHale can get some credit for Greg Smith's development, but he probably had little to do with DMo and TJones development, both done more in DLeague plus DMo had his post moves in Europe already. DMo was utilized pretty poorly as a 3pt shooter, which he complained of (not his game), when his post-up FG% was 50%+. McHale's rotation, unlike what some here have suggested, is more than just Jeremy Lin being benched. People seemed to have forgotten the memes of Pau Gasol + Carlos Defino small-ball failures, which have persisted from last season to this season. McHale also got a veteran team last year to drop out of the playoffs, and was a Jermaine O'Neal goaltend away from doing the same this season. Basically, McHale got 9th in COY voting because the Rockets are a young team and made the playoffs. Look closer, the offense has got little correlation with McHale (except he didn't get in the way too much), and the defense was held up by one person - Omer Asik. We had two top 10 PnR players, but set relatively poor screens. But it was still enough to get great 3pt looks for the team ... and who got the two PnR players and the 3pt shooters, and who's 3pt shooting did McHale develop? The only position that McHale was in position to develop and improve ... was our worst position. PF. Asik was Dawson, plus his own defense. Greg Smith did improve, but probably only added 2-3 wins to the team (and probably net-net including his bad game had zero impact on the team's winning percentage). So offense no. Defense no. Rotations no. Development little impact. Want more? McHale was 3-3 before taking a leave of absense (including two games against Detroit, and one against Atlanta where Harden got 45 and Asik had 19 rebounds). Kelvin Sampson was 6-6 when he coached, losing only to the Heat by 3 (rigged game if you guys recall), Portland away in OT, LAL away, Jazz away 3rd in 4th night (away), OKC away, and San Antonio away. All very tough games. And the Rockets went from 9-9 to 22-22 before not dipping below .500 again. So McHale wasn't even better than Kelvin Sampson, and perhaps even worse given the strength of schedule issue. Once we got past 22-22 ... the main reason was Jeremy Lin shot better + Beverley was a significant upgrade over Toney Douglas and our team developed chemistry together. Early in the season, under the situations, Sampson did a clearly better job than McHale. How on earth would McHale be even ranked #9 when he was out-coached by his own assistant, and without Morey giving him pieces that was underrated/underestimated by the supposed experts. If you took away Lin, Harden would have been exhausted from carrying the playmaking load for the whole season (and his FG% and TOs are much below his average when he takes on that load of being PG as well), the the Rockets would be getting the 12-14th pick in the draft. If you took away Harden, easily 8-12pick in the draft. Asik gone? 10-12th pick in draft. And McHale? You guys would be wanting his head on a platter. Morey should get the COY award on top of the Executive of Year award. McHale deserves to finish his contract. Unless he drastically improves, he should not be renewed. Morey is probably kicking himself for hiring McHale instead of Sampson (given that we're on the verge of losing Sampson). That is what one of the insiders (forgot his moniker) posted a month or two ago ... that Morey was quite worried about losing Sampson.
Yeah I totally forgot that McHale put on a wig, and fake beard to look like Pau Gasol out there to completely dominate the Rockets defense with his passing out of the high post. Also, does anyone have that footage of McHale going out on the court, and kicking the ball out of bounds during the Sun's game? That was a cheap play, and I want to see the footage again. How about the money under the table McHale paid Scola to go Scola-beast-mode of the Rockets... Go away....
I thought he was going to be ranked much higher than 9th, I was dead wrong. I agree Karl did a great job, but most of the coaches ranked above McHale just had a much stronger roster. I think McHale did more with less talent and experience on the roster than most of the other coaches. I would have had McHale in the top 3 or 4.
Welcome to my ignore list, idiot. Go back to English class and learn how to type coherent sentences. Idiot.
