If people were trying to give JB Bickerstaff all the credit for the teams defense, I'd say maybe. But the Rockets had all offseason to find a defensive coach, they said they may not go with any defensive coach, then they hired a guy that lost a job with the Timberpups. Boy... let me tell you how good those guys played on defense. Bottom line, they brought in someone that they knew and I'm guessing he agreed not to try to steer McHale's train off his well laid train tracks. There are tons of defensive and other assistants on this Rockets team, but there is only one guy in charge of the defensive ship: McHale. And the defense has won us about 9 games so far. Everyone gets credit, but the biggest coaching slice goes to the guy that righted the ship, not the last minute hire. Give it a rest. Abandon ship. McHale is a good coach and he proved you wrong. That's okay. I'm wrong all the time, dude. It's no big deal. Especially, if I don't try to defend myself while my boat is sinking.
I definitely agree that some credit goes to Morey as well, but I don't think Ariza would be as good without an overall team philosophy that allows him to do comfortably what he does. Also, Hardens turn around can either be attributed to his own progress due to being tired of hearing how bad he was on defensive, him with FIBA and working with those coaches, his work with Dunn and the team defensive philosophy this year, his talks with Dwight over the summer about defense, or a combination of all of the above to some degree.
Absolutely. Crafting an NBA team takes an organization wide effort. Crafting an elite defense requires the entire organization to perform near flawlessly. Kudos to everyone!
You guys are hilarious, backpedle relegate backpeddle. All of these generalizations come in after you are called on your BS. Now the majority of the credit goes to Morey, lol. All of these reasons why Mchales is this coach of the Rockets but not one saying he is actually a good coach. In the end it was admitted that he was ultimately responsible for the wrongs of the Rocets for the past few years. Which proves the point eveyone has been making all summer Mchale should have been fired. NO ONE expected him to still be Rockets head coach and it is by the grace of god that he has great asst coaches who do his job for him.
I totally expected him to still be the Rockets coach. And guess what? He still is. Most fans have difficulty understanding how an NBA organization is put together. What the roles and responsibilities are. Most NBA head coaches are responsible for two main areas. Setting overall offensive and defensive strategies and people management. With people management taking the lions share of the effort. Believe it or not if you have 30+ people working for you that is going to be how you spend your time. A few like Pop have front office responsibilities too.
McHales biggest critics has been his in game adjustments and rotations. This year, his rotations have been much better with the exception of his lack of use for Canaan sometimes, but he is yet to prove that he can make critical in game adjustments against top strategic coaches. Probably only playoff success will reverse this opinion. But he has to be given some credit for the team's overall defensive improvement this year, even if his assistant is behind it because ultimately even if he is only getting out of the way to allow it to occur, that means he is a smart manager of his staff.
Game adjustments do not worry me at all. That is why several assistant coaches are over there on the bench. McHale is not a dictatorial egocentric b*stard like many big name coaches out there. Which is certainly one of his strong points.
They worry me because it took us two games to adjust to LMA last year in the playoffs, which I think cost us the series. Hopefully McHale learned from that just as players learned from the experience in different ways as well. Hopefully they will all do better this year in the playoffs. But if he doesn't improve, just as some players don't improve sometimes, then we would all be asking for him to be gone again. If he improves, so will his support for him to stay.
If it took more than two minutes it obviously was a serious problem. With no simple straight forward solution. And did the Rockets ever really make a decent adjustment to LMA? I have some small hope that D-Mo this season can slow down the likes of LMA. We shall see.
I have to really tell you that I hope that he is paying you because if he's not it's just sad. I at the very least I have to respect your persistence in defending him. Literally almost everyone in the NBA thought Mchale was a goner not just the fans. You and about 2 other people are the only ones I've seen or heard any different.
I was never ever uncomfortable in my position. I have a lot of understanding how large organizations work. And McHale certainly never underperformed. And no, losing as the 4 seed to the 5 seed is not under performing. I feel sure that Morey and McHale hashed out the entire season over the summer. And set the goal of improving the defense. I doubt either of them expected this much success. Fans struggle with emotions and it destroys their ability to analyze teams, players and coaches. As soon as McHale was hired the hate started. And from day one I took the position that Morey is not stupid. There is a reason that Morey hired this guy. At that point my defense of McHale was totally based on my trust in Morey to hire the right person for the job. It was easy.
Yes, but there is an I in lineup!...:grin: I agree with you, McFail is s̶o̶m̶e̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ m̶o̶s̶t̶l̶y̶ inappropriate! I henceforth proclaim an indefinite moratorium of this s̶o̶m̶e̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ m̶o̶s̶t̶l̶y̶ hateful term! As far as attracting a lot of heat, well... I always wanted to be a fireman, maybe there's a correlation in there somewhere?... ....... ....... .......
You keep attacking the fans but most professionals thought he should be gone as well. Just because fans get emotional it doesn't mean they are wrong. Sometimes fans would've made the right decision where organizations have made wrong ones. You speak as if Organizations never make mistakes, not true.
Organizations handle mistakes differently than people do. Much more rationally. The most I ever saw in print was that McHale was perhaps on the hot seat. By the credentialed people anyway.
How about some credit for Assistant Coach Josh Powell, ever since he came aboard our D has gotten so much better
Like I said - kudos to everyone. But realistically McHale is the one who sets the strategy, what the coaching staff focuses on, and what is practiced. And there is a lot to an NBA defensive strategy. The methods Chicago uses are very different from what the Spurs practice. Defense has to be tailored to personnel. The Bulls use a strong 4.9. The Spurs not so much. If you have Asik as the center, the defense will be much different than if you have Howard. When and where you shoot versus switch on screens. Tag-tag spacing is different for different players. And on and on. NBA defenses are actually much more complicated than offenses. It is the modern NBA.
wow! are you seriously trying to give most of the credit for our improved defense this year to mchale( the same guy that kept playing jason terry and benched canaan for 3 straight games). where was this great defense in the playoffs last year or in the second half of last season. heck what about 2 years ago when it costs us the 6th seed all hail t.r. dunn
Lol i was just being sarcastic, yes its too short sighted to say TR Dunn is the one who turned the teams defense around. IMO McHale is growing as a coach, but also the Ariza has played a great role as well, and who can forget James effort and focus this year he's definitely shown maturity so far, Papa is another under rated defender and DMO has improved on the defensive end as well. I am just enjoying it man, i love my team man whether they loose or win, hoping to make some noise one the playoffs is just icing on the cake
