Then work with what you have. make an adjustment instead of watching parker making lay up drills for 3 quarters. Instead, he left terry in the third till the lead got to 11, the rest is history.
Everyone needs to brace themselves for McHale to constantly be out coached during the playoffs. It will 100% happen. Only reason we win a series if we do is because of talent alone.
Well, if we cut him after this season, we are going to be forever mentioned as the team that fired a 55 win/season coach. Since Karl now has a gig, we would be viewed as the only bad guy.
I'll say it again. Morey's arrogance is why he's still around. Morey thinks he has "solved" basketball therefore coaching doesn't matter anymore. There is no way a genius like Morey believes that McHale is a good coach. Morey just wants a puppet coach so he can prove to the world that he has figured out basketball. There is no need for plays or a game plan or anything like that when you have Moreyball.
Hawks did not re-sign Mike Woodson after a 53 win season Nets fired P.J. Carlesimo after a 35-19 interim stint(49-33 record that season) Cavs Lenny Wilkens resigned after a 54 win season Cavs fired Mike Brown after a 61 win season Mavs fired Avery Johnson after a 51 win season Nuggets fired George Karl after a 57 win season Pistons fired Rick Carlisle after a 50 win season Pistons fired Larry Brown after a 54 win season Pistons fired Flip Saunders after a 59 win season Warriors fired Mark Jackson after a 51 win season Rockets fired Jeff Van Gundy after a 52 win season Pacers Larry Bird resigned after a 56 win season Clippers fired Vinny Del Negro after a 56 win season Grizzlies did not re-sign Lionel Hollins after a 56 win season Knicks Pat Riley resigned after a 55 win season Sonics Nate McMillan "resigned" after a 52 win season Sonics fired George Karl after a 61 win season Suns [allowed MD'A to look around] Mike D'Antoni after a 55 win season Blazers fired Mike Dunleavy after a 50 win season Spurs John Lucas resigned after a 55 win season Jazz Jerry Sloan resigned Bulls may fire Tom Thibodeau Thunder may fire Scott Brooks From 2010: http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7302 Doesn't matter though. McHale isn't getting fired, first round exit or not.
Haha, he left for Philadelphia https://books.google.com/books?id=_... Lucas resigned after a 55 win season&f=false A lot of these are flame out in the playoffs (after great regular seasons) or tension with the front office.
I actually think we will make adjustments in our next game. But not because of McHale, but because of Bickerstaff and Finch. Those two are more creative than McHale ever will be.
Morey did hint that the extension was mostly due to previous performance. Here's my current thoughts as we sit on the precipice of another playoff appearance that looks like it could be bleak or it will be a major uphill climb to even win a series- I don't think the Rockets are going to fire McHale regardless, but its not necessarily due to McHale's performance as a coach, and how he particularly does in this years playoffs. Its due to his staff that would be sent in disarray, and the fact that I just really don't see a high impact coach they could hire that is going to be able to do what an Adelman type could after taking over for a stagnant playoff team. Remember, Adelman was hired on the premise that his offense, which suited Yao mostly, could make life easier on Houston's two stars. It wasn't because Morey and Les thought that Adelman was such a better decision maker or leaders than JVG. It was a shift in gameplay that fit their personnel better. The current Rockets... how will another high profile coach make life easier on Harden mostly? Is Phil Jackson going to make life easier by infusing the Triangle? Would George Karl's high profile offense, and poor defensive accountability have been good for Harden? These are all major questions to be asked that I really don't have a great answer for. What I do know though is that the Rockets current offense is perfectly capable of allowing the Rockets year after year of manufacturing 50 win seasons. That means someting important. You have a fighting chance every year keeping this together. You also know that there is major comfort with the staff and coaches for your stars & key role players. They all love it and enjoy going to work for these guys. I don't have a great answer for you guys. I know McHale's offense sputters out later in the season, and I know its going to make it really hard for James Harden to be James Harden in the playoffs when teams double and triple team him. Honestly I actually think it would easier to keep everything in tact, but add another player that can create and take pressure off of Harden. Had Dragic been willing to sign long term with Houston then I think we would feel much better about our chances. But putting all of the pressure on Harden again doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I don't want to change the coaching staff to "Make life Easier on our Stars" like before, but I feel like we are going down the same path as before. One way or another Morey is going to have to find out a way to make life easier on Harden or we are going to wear him down, and its not going to be good. I don't think the answer is just to fire McHale though. There are other ways to go about it rather than just swapping the coach and risking everything else that is built up with this unit, and their chemistry. One thing I do know though- If the Rockets do win a playoff series this year, James Harden will be going down in my books as one of the all-time great athletes in Houston. If he's not superhuman, than its going to be tough.
Mchale is incapable of doing anything besides ISO ball at the top of the key. Its pathetic. So pathetic that Josh smith got into the ISO ball act last night. SMH. MCFAIL
I agree 100% with you; I've been saying all this time, that the record we have is in spite of, not because of McHale. Like when we constantly give up leads to vastly inferior teams; I understand it might happen "every now and then", but when it happens every single time, that is attributed to coaching, and not having the wherewithal to keep opposing teams down to say "this game's over". Same thing was said of the D'antoni Suns teams; sure their offense was spectacular, but they were a horrid defensive team and always let opponents back into games. And we are a MUCH better defensive team than those Suns teams ever were, and this happens to us every game. Lack of focus is a 2 way street; the players should have come out with energy, effort, and hustle (last night was completely inexcusable, especially since we last played on Sunday, compared to SA coming off a B2B), but the coaching staff MUST prepare them and make adjustments when things are not going right (no Capela, or Johnson until garbage time???). Sometimes, coaches have to try some different wrinkles, different looks during a game.
We're talking about McFail here. Anything besides ISO ball is too complex for him. He won't make adjustments. Look no further than last years playoffs were Aldridge absolutely destroyed us for two games before McFail tried anything different
Mchale had 3 days to prepare for that spurs game while they had a game the previous night. That is what is really disappointing. Teams take advantage of us in those situations but we don't to other teams because our coach sucks at coming up with a competent game plan that's advantageous for us.
"You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Dobro1229 again". Everyone is right in the assertion that, in this offense, we need another above average wing play maker. It just bothers me that we have a roster than includes the MVP, a perennial DPOY candidate in Howard, a lockdown defender in Ariza, a great bench with Brewer and Josh Smith, and a sharpshooter in Terry (38% 3FG) - yet it seems we still need another borderline All Star to compete. This team is loaded! Even the Championship Teams didn't have this kind of depth. The regular season has been great - we didn't have our DPOY for most of the season, Ariza hit a slump, Brewer and Josh came in mid-season, Terry's old. The team still played great and i have no complaints for Oct-March. But if we stall out in the first round again because we need another all-star-caliber player on this team, i have to blame the coach.
Okay......... My point is that its easy to blame the coach.... because that problem is easy to identify. Kind of like Harden's defense last year. But swapping coaches isn't necessarily going to make life easier to fix that problem. The problem of taking a perennial 50+ win team that is susceptible to first round exits that is. It was easier to simply make Harden work a bit harder on defense than it was to swap James Harden with Kevin Love because his defensive win shares were higher or something like that. We already have the core of a really good thing, and we have a team that will have a "Chance" the next 5 years at least. However how do you take that next step to winning in the playoffs, and late in the regular season against the best of the best when they are playing at their highest level? We are talking about a very tough question seeingred. Do you think beating the Spurs is as easy as just replacing the coach? Do you think anyone out there is capable of outcoaching Pop? Or even Rick Carlisle for that matter? If so I want to know who that coach is out there waiting to take over. I've followed the NBA long enough now to see quite a few teams swap coaches. Some have great success after, and some take huge steps back even with the same talent. Its always a gamble because you mess with the core of what your team does from a philosophical basketball standpoint. When Morey swapped JVG for Adelman, he was taking that gamble, and personally I think it would have paid off had T-Mac stayed healthy. However I don't see any other coaches out there that have the kind of stature and system that I think would work quite like Adelman's would have before. The Rockets have pretty much guaranteed playoff birth with a Healthy Harden in this system. I just hope we are exhausting possibilities of simply improving on what is already there rather than just blowing it all to hell to gamble on another brand of basketball with our Superstar player & co. As someone who get's blamed for being a McHale apologist, I do have to admit that it will be very tempting to not fire McHale if the Rockets suffer another 1st round exit. However I don't think its him alone that standing in the way of the Rockets winning championships. First and foremost its the greatness of teams like the Spurs, and now the Warriors. As you mentioned, the Rockets with this core have a ton of talent that should be able to win it all, but what you are failing to recognize is even at that talent level how much better a few other teams are when they are on, and healthy. Its insane how good some of these teams are this year and how hard it is to compete in the West. Just food for thought.
