The thread title....aw, God! My eyes....It burns! MY EYES! Oh, God, it burns, make it stop!!!!!!! I mean, I won't stoop to "McHale should be coaching teenagers and taking the players to Cici's Pizza when the team finishes second, at best, like the Bad News Bears", but it's kinda early to praise him.
The COY award had a recent six year stretch where it was consecutively awarded to Mike D'Antoni, Avery Johnson, Sam Mitchell, Byron Scott, Mike Brown, and Scott Brooks. So why the hell not?
McHale's offensive and defensive philosophies are almost diametrically opposed to JVG's. Even their base concepts of what to emphasize are polar opposites. Although not as much at odds as JVG and Adelman's
There are few actual called plays in NBA basketball. That is the stuff run by JV high school teams. The NBA is dominated by three different systems. Motion, R&R and hero ball. There may be specific points of attack, designated by the players on a floor to fit the current on court circumstances, but NBA defenses have evolved to the point that they can always take away an offense's first option.
Call it what you want but when Harden and Howard are not on the floor, we look lost and that is something that would not happen under a good coach like Adelman for example.
But if Harden and Howard are not on the floor doesn't the talent level drop immensely? A note about Adelman. He was a great offensive coach. He emphasized offense to the point that it detracted immensely from the defense. I watched when he was the coach crying over the dismantling of the great JVG defenses. BB is played on both sides of the ball. McHale has a primary offensive focus, but unlike Adelman he is starting to put into place a truly great defense. McHale will never ever be a Coach Thib, but his defensive systems are beginning to take hold among the Rockets players. We all should be happy.
If the Rockets top last year's win total, you have to give McHale consideration for COTY. I'm certainly no fan of the guy and wanted him canned the moment that Lillard 3 went in, but if he can get the team to buy into playing defense for the entire season while not running the starters into the ground with heavy minutes(part of that's on Morey though), they could easily match or top the 54 wins from last season. If the Rockets win total winds up in the high 50's/low 60's, he's a shoo-in.
No, his plays out of time outs and in game adjustments are still horrible. I think the players win inspite of him and the offense is very stagnant at times..
I take it you do not yet understand that even calling a timeout on offense is a serious mistake? PPP drops 5% after offensive timeouts. There is nothing like an organized and set defense to stifle an offense.
I think y'all are giving Dunn too much credit. He wasn't hired that long ago, I don't think he's had enough time to install everything. His addition will payoff over the course of the year.
No doubt he'll win if we end up at the top considering that we are not even being considered as a ring contender.
You must not be watching games because McHale has been brilliant in finding ways to get his 3pt shooters open. He's been doing great in plays after timeouts too.
