jones clearly should have been starting since the season opener. mchale apologists like to shift blame to morey for allegedly forcing the whole TT experiment on mchale and prolonging it even when it wasn't working. i've yet to see any real indication or evidence of this notion. ATL was coming off home losses to crappy BOS and ORL teams. beating them at home after they just traveled on a b2b is no great feat no matter how you spin it. i don't think beverley sucks. in fact i can't remember ever saying anything negative about him in this forum. trying to paint someone who's been here even longer than you as an LOF is just silly.
What this thread has taught me is that people are passionate about their points of view. Although the back and forth occasionally devolved into name calling, there is a great deal of patience, mutual respect, and a willingness to debate honestly. I witnessed people putting aside some initial judgement, to really try and get at a common understanding of the Rockets basketball universe. This thread has a 2 star rating, but I actually think it's a 4 star example of the vibrancy and diversity that makes up ClutchFans. I really enjoyed following this thread, and am a little wiser from all the insightful things that you guys shared.
1st When I said LOF's I'm speaking LOF's in general not specifically you BTW, the Rockets are 3-1 on back to backs with 2 of those wins coming on the road so b2b really doesn't hold a lot of water to me this early in the season unless it follows something like 4 in 5 nights. 2nd There is no such thing as a poor win when you are missing both Harden and Lin 3rd It certainly was not clear who the starter should have been at the start of the season. Jones has been outstanding but at the very least most didn't think our starting Power Forward was even on the team yet. A large portion of the CF population was screaming for the player that Jones out played last night... Paul Milsap. When a team is missing Harden and Lin and still win by almost 30 and you refuse to give any of the credit you are just being silly. I'm guessing you give plenty of blame when things don't go just right.
It should have been clear that Jones should have been the starter... Howard is no power forward (even though he's the hight of one) and having two big men start who can't play 5 feet away from the basket and neither one has a legitimate post game is just silly. That Asik and Howard combo was always a boneheaded move in my opinion. I'm not a fan of McHale coaching this team (or as a coach period)... I believe he's too much of a players coach for these youngsters and would probably be better suited for a veteran group _ but it's hard to knock him when he has the team winning. But they may would be in a better grove if TJ started from the beginning of the season.
Here was the scenario with Twin Tower. During preseason, whoever the other 3 players we inserted into the lineup with TT, they performed well by knocking down 3's. All went well and we outscored our opponents and no one complained about TT. During the regular season, we had TT playing exclusively with players 1, 2, and 3. When players 1, 2, and 3 were shooting an abysmal 26% from 3's. We were outscored by oppositions. Everyone blamed on TT as the root of the problem, but is it really? This is basic when trouble shooting a problem. You have to eliminate other possibilities before declaring TT as a failure. When TT were playing together, Dwight played the 4 and his defensive instinct was to stay in the paint and there were times he wouldn't even put his hands up to contest any shots beyond 15 feet. Naturally, oppositions scored easily with stretch 4's. We beat Blazers mainly because of Asik was on Aldridge and contested his every shot. Not many gave credit to TT with our come-from-behind win. TT worked at times and failed at others. You can't say one way or another about TT experiment without: 1. eliminate or weed out other possibilities. 2. enough sample size.
You are so absolutely full of JL s**t it's not even funny. Scoreboard. 11 and 5. Beverly starts. Period. All you care about- I mean, all you care about, is Jeremy Lin. That's it. It's so transparent it's...well, it's just transparent, no analogy needed. And since this is a Rockets board, please feel free to GTFO.
Bev starting is an excellent decision by McHale because there are not enough shots to go around to accommodate Lin in the starting lineup. One of my posts from another thread: Moving a volume scorer like Lin to the bench makes sense. Much like Harden's role in OKC. Without Lin the starting lineup has more than enough offensive punch than is really needed. The Rockets, even with the failed TT experiment, are averaging three points more per game than last year. You have to give Morey and the coaching staff credit for running the numbers and understanding their meaning.
I am sick and tired of the McFail talk all the time on this forum. I am not a Mchale fan and I hate his late game decision making for the most part. But there are things you must understand why he is the coach of the Rockets and why it works with Mchale and very few others. 1.) He was a player and not some Joe Schmoe player he was one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history. A hall of famer top 50 player. Also one of the greatest low post players of all time. 2.) He is an a multiple NBA Champion. 3.) So when he speaks people better listen because he knows a thing or two about winning and the culture it takes to win. 4.) Do you think Dwight Howard comes to Houston with Rick Adelman coaching? Enough said on that subject. 5.) He is a no non sense coach. I have noticed the Mchale bias against Lin but unlike LOF's I actually think this a good thing in the long run for Jeremy and the Rockets. This has enabled him to expand his game and learn to play off the ball but still continue to be who he is an probe the defense early in the shot clock. I think Jeremy is tough as nails and he needs to be continuously think of himself as an underdog to prove himself on the court. Some people are wired like that and Jeremy Lin strikes to me as that kind of a player. Mchale not playing him in the 4th and benching him in favor of Bevereley I believe is a good thing for him. He is in the need to constantly prove himself. 6.) Mchale is a fairly young coach (in terms of games actually coached) and you can see the way he is managing games so far earlier in the season he is feeling his team out. Examples are the hack a dwight to keep him in or take him out he has done both. To foul or not to foul a three point shooter at the end of games he has done both. He is seeing what his team is capable of. 7.) Iso plays are not as bad as everyone thinks. They can be very effective especially if you have a player that is in the right spot for them to makes those baskets. James Harden iso's are things that he is really good at. A top of the key three point shot or on the wings or a drive to the basket resulting in a foul or a hoop or maybe even both. The only issue is running it for the last six minutes of a close game that is when it becomes a major problem. But I believe we should always incorporate some iso into our offense when Harden is in the game. 8.) He even sat Dwight Howard the entire 4th quarter of the Memphis game while we were making our comeback with the bench. Because he wanted to win with the unit that put us in that position. Quite possibly the Grizzlies could have ran a hack a dwight if he put him back in to slow our momentum. I believe he will do it again superstar or not. That showed me some stuff because that shows he is trying to win regardless of who's happy or not. I like that. The only way Mchale gets fired this season is if he does a Gary Kubiak type of nose dive in the season and we don't make the playoffs or get swept in the first round as a lower seed. Try to support our coach and understand Rome wasn't built overnight. I just don't like it when people keep using McFail as a name. It is very disrespectful and I wouldn't call him that even if he wasn't in front of me. I can disagree with him and his decisions without being disrepectfully disagreeable.
I get what you are saying but the OP is also talking about AB starting over bev so this thread isn't solely about Lin not starting. OP isn't a LOF he's been on this board long before Lin. I am not sure if you saw my previous posts but I said that I am fine w/ Bev starting and I think he deserves a full season as a starter to show if he is starting PG material. Defense is entirely a team concept very hard to attribute Teagues poor game to solely bev. teague has played poorly against Lin and I don't think anyone would say Lin is a great defender. And you can't say that Teauge scored 16 points on the previous b2b so the fact that he could only score 4 on this game is because of Bevs D. You have to take into consideration a ton of other factors such as who teague was playing against when he dropped 16 etc. This is an issue. THe fact that McHale can't impliment an offense that permits more than one playmaker is a bit worrying. Our team would probably be a lot more deadly and Harden wouldn't have to play as many minutes if McHale could balance the offense more
Our offense is better than every year in history, except one, including 2 championship teams and 2 other finals teams. This is including the time when we put both Asik and Howard on the floor together which was an offensive trainwreck. There is nothing worrying about our offense at all, except turnovers and Jeremy Lin is not going to help improve the turnover issue as he one of the biggest turnover machines in the league. Patrick Beverley as the starting point guard for the Rockets has been a resounding success.
great analysis.... during the time when tt was failing if i recall well all our players were cold from 3 except lin...i think tt will still be useful particulalry during playoffss
Don't be ghey. Are you actually complaining that people have not criticized McHale enough? This bothers you?
Interesting fact. We never won more than 58 games. Not 59, not 60, not 61 And probably if we win 56 games it's the best season since 1997 (16years)#HolyCow
the difference here is that i'm not interested in coddling mchale's coaching career and watching him develop and improve his X&O acumen, etc. this roster is built to win now and deserves an experienced and exceptional coach to guide it. beating the lowly hawks at home even with a depleted guard rotation doesn't mean jack if you can't manage to beat the better teams and better coached teams (ie. losing at dallas with a double digit lead in the 4th). mchale's prior 2 years here with twin epic collapses to end each season and doing it with entirely different rosters is a better indicator to me of how he coaches under real pressure than beating up on a scrub team on a b2b. we saw how shortlived the window for contending can be with tmac/yao and that's why i simply don't want to waste this roster's potential waiting to see if mchale can grow as a coach. jerry sloan, SVG, or george karl would have this team in the finals this season. mchale, no chance.
Sir, before I go on, I must know whether by "asshat" you mean "ass hat" or "as shat"; there is a big difference. Now, I looked at your posts in this thread: OK, that one's not very useful. But the next one: So you think we should be 14-2 right now and you like Jerry Sloan. And you think McHale blames the players. (Lots of people blame Harden, Lin and/or Howard, but you don't.) And he should've started T Jones instead of trying TT. So you want McHale to be fired immediately and replaced with Jerry Sloan, SVG, or George Karl. Now, you are aware that all of the coaches you want have won the same number of championships as McHale has (as coach). You are aware that Howard already left an SVG team. . . . And George Karl made it exactly as far as McHale did in the playoffs last year, even though his team looked much stronger (57 wins). And Sloan is a seventy-one year old D-bag, 4 years older than any active coach. Nevertheless, you want to fire McHale immediately and replace him with one of these three, and you are upset that more people aren't saying so. Sir, that is ghey.
Pip, I get what you're saying, but you have to give McHale until the all-star break. The starting line-up has changed every year for at least the last 5 years and this looks like the most stable line-up in a while. You have to give these guys sometime to play together and that includes giving the coach sometime to understand his players as well as the players to understand the coach. I am not a big McHale fan, but the man has not done a bad job and yet he has not done a great job. So at least wait until after the All-Star break before you bring out the noose. T_Man
