If I were a GM, and the owner meddled in personnel decisions, I'd resign as GM. There is nothing worse than an owner with no basketball background making basketball decisions. I presume that's sarcasm.... If a GM lets the owner make the decisions to enhance job security, then apparently job security is more important than a title. I thought we were going to have a season similar to last season, with a first round exit. I just knew "Moreyball" would never work in the postseason. My hope was the team would maybe deviate from "Moreyball", and then take it to the next level. But no such trend took place. It was a carbon copy of last season. The fans were fooled once.... But won't be fooled twice. I think of that blocked shot from behind by Deandre Jordan on Steph Curry in the last minutes of Game 7 of the Clips/Warriors series.... And the emphatic putback on the ensuing offensive possession. And I was thinking, "It's not in Dwight Howard to make those kind of plays late in big games." Dwight actually performed above my expectations. But still, he lacks the "turn-it-up-a-notch" gene, where an incredible late game play could change the outcome. I think Harden's problems on defense were more on the coaching than on Harden. Coach McHale does not know the proper reasons to bench a player. The only real reason to bench a player is when the effort isn't there on defense. Not because a player isn't shooting well or committed a turnover. With the "Moreyball" offense, there is no better fit offensively than James Harden.... He really covered up the deficiencies of this offense because he's capable of bailing it out. Harden's downfall is when he doesn't get the calls. Which unfortunately, almost always happens in the postseason. Parsons was once an excellent defender... But I think the coaching enabled the development of bad habits from him. (I can say the same thing about Lin's defense.) Parsons was the one Rockets player who did try moving without the ball... The problem was nobody was setting screens for him off the ball... Parsons would be DYNAMITE in a normal offense. Again, I think the coaching was the problem here. Parsons' problem is he lost consistency in his three ball. His mechanics are messed up. And apparently, the coaches didn't know how to fix it. Add his right hand... Which is even weaker than Lin's left hand. That's because we didn't run a proper half-court offense. In a proper offense, there is a Plan B and Plan C..... When players stand around waiting for Harden to collapse the defense, and the defense makes adjustments to deny that from happening, Harden has nowhere to go. The problem is the coaching, not Harden. (Lin has the exact same problem, except the threshold for failure is lower.) Especially if McHale and the "Moreyball" offense are still around. In fact, I'm expecting a significant decline in attendance if things stay status quo. Morey's problem isn't player acquisitions... Only few do better in that regard.... Morey's problem is taking too much basketball advice from the owner and laying down these "Moreyball" rules on how to play offense. I wouldn't lay blame on Morey for that. (Dwight is one of few players who actually benefit from "Moreyball", because it does simplify the game for post-up players.) "Moreyball" being the biggest one of all. I don't think Dwight is championship material.... He played as well as he could have played this past season.... And I do think Dwight would flounder in a true half-court offense, because he's a "pet play" player, not a situational player.
McHale will squander another season of the Rockets unless there are a couple detailed oriented assistants added to the staff. Book it!
Our biggest gaping hole last offseason was PF...not center. What was our biggest gaping hole entering this post season? PF. Morey had the whole year to upgrade but nothing was done. No cap space? No problem to Dubs when they signed Iguoldala with no cap. I'm sure Morey the Wizard is 10 times smarter than the NBA logo when it comes to cap flexibility.
You can only assess the move to bring him back when you look at who else is out there. Who else would you prefer? I would take McHale over Steve Kerr and Kerr is already taken. Apparently the Rockets would have had to pay McHale for next year if we fired him. Did lez step in and make the decision? Who knows.
more frustrating, hair-pulling basketball ... and a 1st or 2nd round exit Definitely not a real contender.
Dump McHale, hire a new "defensive coordinator" as head coach and retain Finch for offense. JVG is who I'm talking about.
You don't need a crystal ball. The Rockets will lose early in the playoffs again. Maybe they'll get lucky and eek out a first round victory, but there's no way in hell this team as currently constructed with this coaching staff(and no, a "defensive specialist" being brought in won't matter with McHale still at the helm) is suddenly going to go from first round knockout to WCF or Finals. That doesn't happen in the NBA. I challenge anyone on here to give me one example.
How the **** do you lose to ******* portland with dwight howard and james harden in the first round and are not immediately fired. They should have beat them in 5.
Our offense is not effective. But I agree with you that we need legit shooters to play along Harden. All championship caliber teams in recent years got those shooters. Miami had Miller & Allen. Lakers had Fisher & Vujacic. Dallas had Terry & Kidd. All we have is Parsons & Lin. They can do a little bit of everything , but not good at anything. Their mediocrity at shooting was what killed us.
lol. Ridiculous. So he should have made negative value trades in moving Lin and Asik to clear space to sign who? Warriors paid 71million and gave away a handful of assets for a damn 6th seed team and that's who you point to as an example of how to do things? The man signed Dwight Howard and to some that's not good enough. I swear people act as if NBA2K is how it works in the real world.
If it's more of the same, I predict some players will turn against McHale before next season ends. Including Howard. You think he wants to waste another year of his prime? If the perimeter defense does not improve, he will complain loudly.
I used to be like you. In the eyes of many, Morey can do no wrong. All season long, he could've added some veterans, he didn't. Instead he wanted to save his MLE (correct me if I am wrong on this). He obviously prides himself of cap flexibility instead of bring Rockets closer to contending this year. If he had talent over cap in mind when he kept Flynn, Lin's cap hit is probably $3-5M instead of $8.3M. He undoubtedly prides himself of discover hidden talents. But we all know those are hit and missed. For every gem he discovered, there were a lot more misses. What happened to those misses? They were cast away like commodities and Rockets became a revolving door. You don't get that from veterans. After TT experiment, What kept Morey trading Asik was IMO his biggest weakness as a GM--his ego of winning in every trade! Instead of taking a step back and see what this team needed, he held on to him til he had little to no value left. The Rockets were in a win-now mode the minute they signed Dwight. Morey had a 3-year window and all the moves he made carried no urgency whatsoever. All were wasted. Look at our roster. We are in the same position as we were last year after signing Dwight. Our dire needs are still there. Nothing had changed! One down and two years to go.
if that's the case then dwight doesn't want to win. anyone that wants to keep mchale is not interested in winning. if les is backing him, its because he doesn't want to pay more for a coach. if morey is backing him, its because either les told him to, or because he believes his numbers on paper more than the outcome on the court. if the players back him its because he doesn't hold them accountable for anything and they rather have it easy than win. no one who understands basketball, wants to win, and is of sound mind at the time of their decision, would back mchale as the coach. as a rebuilding coach, he's great for player development and building chemistry... but we are now talking about winning championships. he absolutely must be replaced or we will not win a championship, and waste dwight/harden's prime, period. if management wants him out and dwight puts up a fight, dwight and anyone else who wants it easy under mchale can go with him and be replaced by people serious about winning. i'm not saying that's the case... i bet that dwight would be ok with it if it meant a better chance at winning. i bet morey would want to find the best coach possible too. my hunch is les doesn't want to pay for mchale's final year on top of the new expensive coach's salary. i bet he wants to let mchale's contract run out then replace him... i hope not, but only time will tell.
