Cyberx blames Harden's defense last season on Sampson! No wonder Harden's D is so much better now. Rockets' defense is great this year. I guess McHale "owned up." Thank goodness. That part about Morey scared me a lot! Sincerely, A Rockets Insider
It seems pretty simple to me. After last season the coaching staff and Morey sat down calculated that the greatest flaw in the team last season was the defense. McHale and his staff worked on defense with the team the entire preseason. And voila! An elite defense pops out! Kudos to everyone. Assigning blame is not generally done in today's organizations. The current philosophy is to figure out what went wrong and come up with a plan to fix it. Assigning blame poisons a business culture. Every MBA program for the last several decades has stressed this fact.
Fun Fact Did you know . . . Kevin McHale, Rockets coach, is 8-5 against Gregg Popovich? Somebody's unhappy and somebody's not! :grin:
I'm sure Pop loses sleep at night over those regular season wins, with 5 rings vs. McHale's 0 playoff series wins.
Doubtful. Do you lose sleep over McHale's coaching, or just complain about it during your waking hours?
I personally cannot see how any Rocket fan could not be more pleased with the Rocket's performance this season. They have had at least one starter out for 12 of their 14 games so far. And multiple starters out in 7 games. And they are 11-3. The players have performed exceptionally well. The coaching staff is still maintaining a 9 man rotation, even with Bev, Jones and Howard out. Nobody is panicking. A front court rotation of D-Mo, Black, Dorsey and Papa may be the worst in the league. But the defense somehow still holds the competition down. An excellent coaching job this season. An elite defense!!!
Can you say easy schedule? The improved defense is the result of acquiring Ariza and the brutal elimination last season inspiring the team to pay attention to the little things they weren't before like effort and defense. James Harden is playing at an MVP level which has carried us to wins. The only starter we're missing that truly hurts is Dwight. Neither TJones nor Beverley would be considered top 10 at their respective positions in the league. We should be 12-4 ideally. Losing to the Lakers at home with them being on a back to back is embarrassing. Needing a minor miracle to beat the 76ers by 1 point is actually even more embarrassing. Yes, we actually could be more pleased with the season. How about playing a competitive game @ Memphis?
Sigh. This is basketball. Perfection is not possible. Why fans expect perfection is beyond my understanding. In Memphis the Rockets were on a brutal back to back going up against a rested and very strong Memphis team. Against the LAL the last minute Howard scratch caught the players and the coaching staff flat footed. That the Rockets are 11-3 despite the brutal number of injuries to starters gives me hope that when those starters get back the Rockets will be dominant.
Unrealistic expectations. No team is competitive in every game they play. No team completely destroys every bad team they play. And I'm talking about fully healthy teams. We just went through our 7th different starting lineup 14 games into the season. Completely understating the value of Bev and jones. They might not be top 10 at their position, but they are better than the backups who are taking their spots. And the guys taking their spots are better backups than the guys who are now taking over the back up minutes. It's a domino effect that really hurts a team. Especially one so top heavy. Swapping Parsons for Ariza and a playoff loss alone does not equate to the huge defensive improvement this team is showing, especially with our 2 best defenders sitting a handful of games. Hell a good chunk of our current rotation had little or nothing to do with that playoff series. People can continue to go on and on about the schedule, but I think the way we have handled the schedule in combination with our injury troubles pretty much negates all that talk. I continue to agree that McHale is not an elite coach, but after the elite I see just another group of guys. Unless we are bringing in a proven elite guy what is the point?
I believe that the jury is still out on McHale. That he currently has the best winning % of any Rockets coach in history, in these days of complete WC dominance, says a lot about McHale. He quite possibly could be an elite coach, and is certainly no worse than an average coach.
McHale has been blessed to have Morey who's the best GM in Rockets history. Getting Harden and then Dwight will drastically improve win % regardless of who's coaching. Complete WC dominance is also paired with complete EC incompetence. Rockets have constantly feasted on Eastern teams to boost their win %, so it goes both ways. This year, we're undefeated vs EC. The jury absolutely is still on McHale. Regardless of the excuse, if the Rockets for whatever reason do not make it past the first round, there is no way his contract is extended.
Yes, for a few days after the portland series i lost sleep over the boneheaded decisions made during that series.
With this logic Scotty Brooks might be a top 3 coach of all time. McFail is not elite. At best he's average but more than likely he's overmatched.
Absolutely true. For the most part. But great coaches always have had great players. No sub 500 coach is considered a great coach because the effects of coaching are subtle and not easily identified. But Pop and Phil and every other "great" coach has had HOF players at his disposal. As the monumental Berri study showed, the difference between Phil and the worst coach in the league was no more than five wins. As long as McHale keeps the players motivated and happy I am just fine with him as a coach. If the players are not buying into his offense and defense I will be in the vanguard calling for his head.
So you're going to share your pain with everyone on a Rockets fan site until next May? Don't be so damn selfish. Find some anti-Rockets board, or send some letters to Les Alexander. All you're doing is expressing partial dislike of the Rockets on a Rockets fan board. It is precisely the wrong place for you to discuss your sleepless nights.
It's no different from going to the Lin website to express your sleeplessness over Lin's shortcomings. In other words, you are a troll.
Why don't you show us some facts about how another coach would "in game coach" different from what McHale has done with the same roster? Facts, not armchair opinions.
