Official Fire McHale Thread

Nope, let him build the team then bring in a coach that can actually have the attention to detail needed to win.

DD

 

I understand what fans say when they say that, but I'm leaning towards what JTR has been saying all along, this team is coached by morey, and having some egomaniac coach will work

 

So the truth comes out to be
Morey: I will keep on trading players until you play Harden ISOs

XD

 

What's wrong with a some harden ISO? He is pretty good at it

 

Guys second family member passes away in less than a year, the team loses with the interim coach, and this thread gets bumped..... fitting CF.

The team is currently a 5th seed, with trade issues leading to an incomplete roster, one of the most battered rosters in the league with injuries. I'd say that overall even though this coaching staff isn't perfect, they are doing a damn good job with what they have as a whole.

Morey and Les have the ability this summer to make a coaching change if needed. Dont think for a minute that they wont consider it. However they will not fire McHale during the season. If one thing is a lock this season its that much.

 

Dobro,

This discussion has nothing to do with the guys family. We all understand the human element involved in that.

I do not believe that Kevin McHale is a good coach, I don't believe he is a championship coach, I don't believe that the Rockets will be able to be a serious contender with him at the helm.

Nothing he has ever done in coaching leads me to believe that he is the man for the job, other than he seems like a coach the players like.

I don't hate the guy, I just don't think he is a good coach.

DD

 

Same people complaining about McHale the way that they complained about RA and JVG. SMH.


McHale and the guys are doing fine. I would like more offensive structure but I can't complain. I don't think we get Howard without McHale so I am content to see where they can take us.

 

McHale is the perfect coach for Harden and Howard. McHale plays them long minutes and give them the signal to ISO all they want.

I don't think you bring in a coach that want team offense will make H&H happy.

 

Dream deserves more credit for that than Mchale.

Odd, that we should be patient for Coach to grow with the team. we should be patient for Harden to mature as a leader because lebron and all the great ones didn't come into their own til their late 20s, but giving another player who has worked on his weaknesses another year..that is out of the question and crazy!

 

Howard has said that McHale is a big reason he is on the Rockets.

 

Credit Kobe also.

In other words, he didn't want to play for Mike D'antoni because he didn't want to be forced to play the PnR.


Les has said that he likes McHale and that McHale will be here for the duration of his contract. Not what I would've wanted to hear because McHale has not done anything to convince me that he is a championship caliber coach. Nor does he hold anyone accountable, hence our "taking two steps forward, one step back" progress.

On a different topic, does anyone watch the Blazers consistently? I'm curious about people's opinion on Terry Stotts. I've been very impressed with how he has turned the Blazers' offense around within a span of 2 seasons. He's like the offensive-minded Frank Vogel in terms of how much they both have changed the teams' identity based on their personnel.

 

Of course, but McHale doesn't have to be the head coach in this team, he can move to the front office or other roles

 

I understand it doesn't have anything to do with his family. That's an easy way to get bounced on here.

I just find it funny that even when McHale isn't coaching, he's still the sacrificial lamb for all the Rockets problems. Its the way of professional sports now I get it... its all the coaches fault.

However that doesn't change the fact that he's not getting fired until the Summer at the earliest. The Rockets simply do not make coaching changes in the middle of the season like knee jerk franchises do. Maybe if things are so bad that they have nothing to lose by doing it, you do it.... but RIGHT NOW only 25 games in, when the team is actually performing well (despite what you believe by reading this thread), and in the middle of a major trade that could reshape the surrounding parts of this team, its probably not a great time to completely reshape the coaching situation and set off a potential atom bomb into the locker room if they brought in a coach the team wasn't fully bought into, tried to change things that were working, or the players didn't respect.

I think people here severely underestimate the common sense of the front office & ownership (and underestimate how "CHEAP" people think Le$ is.... yes haven't heard anything from you DD yet on this topic you preached about for years). They WILL ABSOLUTELY upgrade the coaching situation down the line if it makes sense. Les Alexander and Morey are two people who have never once gotten themselves married to any particular coach. JVG and Adelman all were both let go at the correct times for better fits with their future plans.

I think going into this year, it was all about what is the best fit for our roster. Obviously with Howard wanting to come to Houston to learn from McHale, that made it an obvious choice. Also Harden, Asik, and Parsons saw huge improvements offensively under McHale and the system the front office was running, and Lin showed improvement in the second half of the season.

McHale's contract is up at the end of this season. The overall consensus of whether McHale stays or goes will come down to-

-Did they finish the season with home court
-Did they perform well & compete hard in the playoffs(hopefully make it to the 2nd round)
-Did the stars perform well, grow, and respond well to his leadership
-The surrounding cast perform well, understand & perform their roles, improve & develop, & respect his leadership
-lastly- The relationship with other in the org- does his goals & vision for team still correlate well with ownership & mgmt, is he open to critical analysis to help improve, & are they having a positive working relationship

If they hit all 5 milestones, McHale has a case to be made to return after this year. However the Rockets ownership & mgmt aren't idiots, if its not working than they wont bring him back.

and before someone says they should be holding him accountable for poor gameplay, id say that this all relates back to the evaluation of his relationships. If he's working well with others, that should affect positively his improvement as a coach in making good in game decisions to win games.

 

Dobro,

I am not interested in them firing him now - more of a general comment that I think he is not all that good and will ultimately lead the team nowhere.

If he is unsuccessful this year, than yeah, he might not get a new deal - whatever happens is ok with me.

DD

 

I totally agree with McHale being here until the end of the season.

But to say McHale has improved a lot of the players is a stretch.

Remember Harden's first two games? That didn't have McHale's coaching imprint.

Asik we all know was due to Carroll Dawson in the offseason. There were no reports of McHale working with Asik.

Lin was injured first half of the season, and he for the most part regressed vs his Knicks play other than for the improvement in shooting (which has little to do with McHale).

It's not McHale bashing. It is what it is.

And it's also not conclusive this is McHale's system. In fact, you don't see many coaches changing their 'system' mid career. Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, George Karl, Thidobeau, JVG, SVG, Lionel Hollins, Mike D'Antoni ... whoever. Most coaches have an identity. Either offensively or defensively, or PnR vs post-ups, or fast vs slow-pace.

Before McHale's second season, his teams never played this the type of free offense, fast pace, stretch 4 type of game (actually McHale tried to play Patterson post-up in the first 15-20 games of last season too). He was more traditional offense.

So while this isn't conclusive that McHale didn't somehow see the light and change, it is more likely (and most of us know it) that the coaching philosophy change was due to statistics or simply Moreyball.

So giving McHale all these credit for things that most likely had little to do with him other than that he didn't get in the way ... is probably too much. At least for me.

 

I think with the team the Rockets have got, it is going to be hard for us to drop out of the playoffs or out of the 5th to 6th seed.

Morey/Les will then have a difficult decision to make. Lame duck coach going into 4th season without a new contract, or just replace him for someone who's better and can help us take the next step.

It doesn't help that McHale has been competent (not great, and upgrades available) and helped us get Dwight. It also doesn't help that he is genuinely a good guy and well liked.

But this is the head coaching job. It isn't sticking with Drexler and Bullard in broadcasting. It has a big impact on how far the Rockets can go in a short contention period (Dwight can opt out in 3 years).

It is a tough decision to make. I hope Morey/Les makes the correct one.

 

If you want to see a team that's currently very well coached, look no further than the Phoenix Suns.

Bledsoe has missed 6 games. Dragic has missed 3 games. Gerald Green was unwanted by most teams and is currently their 3rd leading scorer. So two of their top 6 players are new to the team.

The other contributors like the Morris twins and PJ Tucker aren't high lottery picks.

Miles Plumlee played about 50 minutes in total last year.

Channing Frye is having a resurgence after a pretty bad season last year with Nash gone.

Dragic is becoming more consistent.

And Alex Len, the 5th pick of the 2013 draft has only played 5 games due to injury.

Tell me we're not a better team on paper than Phoenix, and yet we have the same record. Not saying McHale has done a poor job. But it is certainly far from good and I just don't see why we shouldn't upgrade.