(End of Season Poll) Where do you stand on McHale?

Why do people think Karl is?

 

jejejejeje well he is kind of tall, so there are many places to stand on him. jejejej

Back to you, bill.

 

The season hasn't ended. I'll give you the answer when the Rockets are either eliminated or hoisting a trophy at the end of the season.

 

It will be nearly impossible to get a fair and objective assessment of the coach here because of the presence of certain factions.

My opinion is, if you look at his record since arriving in Houston, it is hard to deny that McHale has earned an opportunity to see how far he can get this team with a little more experience and some roster adjustments.

I was not a fan of the McHale hire initially, especially in light of the line of coaches he followed. But after watching him manage winning records with three differently constructed Rockets teams he has earned my respect.
The pendulum really swung watching him coach against former COTY Scott Brooks in the playoffs. The decision to insert Beverley into the starting lineup that series was smart and McHale continued to make adjustments to keep the upstart Rockets competitive against the top seeded Thunder.
I was delightfully impressed when Brooks and OKC had to resort to the infamous hack-a-Asik tactics.

So yeah, I think he has earned the opportunity to guide this team further.

 

I am a fan of McHale but I abstained. I think he needs to show he can get his guys to play team defense during the playoffs. We've seen it at times, but others it has been lacking. Especially towards the end of the season.

 

Under Van Gundy are offense would struggle and players would break down. Just like Yao and Tracy did. Look at Chicago and Thibodeau, pretty much same philosophy. Look at how many injuries they have with that grind it out ball. Also it would be a predictable and boring offense to watch.

Under Karl I don't know he might work but he's got his own issues. You just can't let go of McHale after the last two seasons we've had.

Personally I think Mchale is better than both of those options.

 

I honestly think that he was hired just to be a good rolemodel for young inexperienced players to look up to while we somewhat 'tanked.' We'd still be mediocre if Sam Presti was a semi-intelligent GM. But somehow Harden landed here and Dwight shortly followed. He was not hired to lead us to a championship. He is a fun, witty, respectable guy that was willing to ride a sinking ship a few years to get paid.

 

he is just a decent character guy, whithout any recreative sense.
the red nation can’t win a title when he is on board, with the current squad.

not until we bring melon in, i don’t see him as a title contender.

 

There is a lot of hate on Mchale for no reason! He has helped bring this team together, and the team plays hard for him. He is embracing Morey's style of play and so far it has worked.

Everyone wants us to be something we are not, we do not need some balls to the wall coach. The players respect Mchale and they like him, and he gives the players the freedom to play their game and excel.

 

I voted to keep him, I think mainly because I like him, but I am open to upgrades. Look what Doc Rivers has done with the Clippers. I think he has taken them to another level. But, if Howard wants to keep him, keep him.

 

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/ESPN-Forecast-COY-140415/coach-year

Not a single vote for McHale.

Pop 276 (obviously)
Hornacek 241 (not surprisingly)
Thibodeau 102 (deservingly)

 

I find it a bit difficult to find fault with Mchale when he has his team sporting the 3rd best record in franchise history entering the playoffs.

He has done this while the following has been true.

-He has one of the youngest teams in the NBA.
-He has possibly the weakest talent pool on his bench of any playoff team.
-He is coaching a team that didn't have any of these guys on this team (except Parsons) 2 years ago.
-He has had to struggle with juggling lineups all year due to multiple injuries to every single starter at some point in the season.

Now, is he perfect? Hardly. Has he won anything yet? Nope.

Regardless, its safe to say (IMHO) the man while maybe not overachieving this season certainly hasn't underachieved either.

So now comes the time that really matters. Lets see how that goes before passing judgement. That's my humble opinion.

 

Hey if George Karl or JVG is available, an upgrade would be good. Nice guy, but not a championship caliber coach in my humble opinion.

 

If our achievement (our record) because of or inspite of Mchale? With the talent on this team, I personally feel we could have achieved this with most coaches.

 

Interesting.

Well lets see....

Rivers only a few years ago was viewed as a liability for the Celtics, especially when it came to X's and O's.

Vogel almost was replaced by Larry Bird two weeks ago, and the Pacers have shown a complete lack of ability to adjust to the moves made by opposing teams over the last 2-3 months.

McHale has actually made adjustments very well against Pops this season.

Thibs and Carlisle are 2 of the 5 best coaches in the NBA. I would love to have either (we almost had Carlisle) but they are not available.

 

Only two of your four points are really true.

I don't agree that our bench has the weakest talent pool among the playoffs teams. We have arguably a top 5 center as our backup center. We have a skilled 7-footer as our backup PF. We have a guy who was a decent starter as our backup PG (not to mentioned a former starting PG as our third string PG before he was traded). The only weak spot in terms of talent on our bench is the wing positions.

As to the injuries, every team has had injuries to their key players. It's not like any of our top guys have been out for a long stretch. Actually, McHale has been quite lucky compared to our previous coaches in terms of injuries.

 

I respectfully disagree.

Yes, Asik is a solid backup (although top 5 is a bit of a stretch...top 10 more like it). The problem with his impact this year, is he was pouting/hurt for 2/3'rds of the season. Greg Smith was also hurt. We essentially didn't have a backup center for most of the season. As far as backup power forward, I think your descripton of Montiejunas as "skilled" is generous. Whether someone is skilled or not skill only matters if you actually showcase it consistently throughout the season. At best, Donuts is inconsistent. At worst, he is a potential bust. You already conceded our problems at the wings at the 3 and 2 backups are weak spots. That leaves Lin who...again...is a talent but very inconsistent, and Cannan who hasn't gotten enough playing time to be trusted as a backup in the playoffs.

None of the above screams a solid bench.

re: Injuries.
Harden missed 9 games
Howard missed 12 games
Parsons missed 8 games
Beverley missed 26 games
T.Jones missed 7 games
Lin missed 11 games
Asik missed 33 games

None of the above takes into account the number of games players played hurt which also affected their performance dramatically. Case in point Parson's playing with back spasms for most of the year...Jones playing with the flu, etc.

We were fortunate to not lose a key player for the year, but injuries certainly were a factor in our success this year.

You might downplay these injuries, but what I would simply state is it is difficult for a team that is new to each other to gel without playing time together. Most of the key injuries occurred at the beginning of the season which delayed that "gel time" both the starters and bench needed to optimize their play.

 

Some Rockets fans are seriously spoiled. Seriously, some of y'all are worse than Longhorn fans.

 

I like McHale a lot. I do feel like he brings a lot to this team and has done a solid job with managing a team with two star players. When McHale was hired, this team wasn't expected to have a chance to really compete. Now that Morey has been able to trade for Harden and sign Howard, I think that changes everything.

Does McHale have enough experience to manage a win-now type of team? I can't say honestly that I believe he does. Sampson leaves and you can see the effects it's caused on this team on the defensive end. If McHale is going to continue to coach this team, there needs to be an upgrade at the assistance coach level. You need a guy who can really help this team defensively.

The other thing I would point out is Morey really needs to upgrade this bench. That's also another reason why this team struggles as well. As much as I like D-Mo, he has really struggled this year along with a few others. I think he would have been one of the players that could really step up. How much is it on the coaches and how much is it on the players? I think it's a little bit of both but ultimately this bench isn't going to cut it.

 

I've heard he will probably resign after the year so this discussion may be irrelevant. If he really does leave on his own terms, I hope he goes out a winner.