I think that rep about not playing rookies comes from these young guys only getting minutes out of necessity. Canaan got playing time earlier in the season....when Bev was out with an injured hammy. Once Bev returned, Canaan couldn't even get off of the bench as a reserve. Daniels saw minutes in crunch time against Portland last season....because Parsons had fouled out in Game 3. D-Mo saw a huge bump in minutes this season....because Dwight and T-Jones were injured. And then Capela got into the rotation....because D-Mo was lost for the season and Dwight has been on a minutes restriction. The good news is that when these young players perform well, they tend to continue receiving minutes except for a rare case like Papa getting bumped out of the rotation in favor of newly acquired(and more skilled) vets like Brewer and Smith. I just wish McHale was more proactive in working these guys into games earlier in the regular season. The D-League can only prepare them so much for the real thing.
McHale has done a great job but come on, we all know he's not the biggest reason for our success (cough Harden cough) Bud, Kerr, Stevens are all more deserving.
I second that emotion. Hard to say when he's giving a rookie crunch time minutes in the playoffs, and did so last year with Troy Daniels. Not too mention he pretty much let Chandler Parsons start from Day 1. I like Houston's system of developing rookies. Send them down to D-League to get their feet wet, bring them up in times of need to get spot minutes, and sometimes more. If not, they have a lot of experience heading into year 2. The reality is the vast majority of rookies just aren't able to contribute too much year one, especially on teams trying to win. The goal is to get them enough experience that they can contribute more in year 2, and I think McHale and the coaching staff have done a great job with that.
Marcus Morris was fine for a mid teens pick and Troy Daniels was a d-leaguer, with one speciality...shooting, who stopped being able to hit shots. Royce White had a mental disorder. None of that has to do with development. Sometimes players just suck or have a low ceiling. McHale's player development has been nothing short of excellent. Your false narratives are tired and stupid. Developing does mean giving a person playing time. Developing is the hours and hours of practices, drills, play book reading, tape watching, scrimmages and so on and so forth. Saying "Mchale was forced into dveloping some of those guys." displays your fundamental ignorance of how basketball player development actually works. Parsons started over Budinger almost instantly because he was a much better player. He had the fundamentals down, made the right plays on defense, and understood the off the ball game. McHale wasn't forced to do anything. He let Parsons play, because he knew how to play. He didn't let Dmo play, because, at the time, Dmo didn't know what he was doing. He couldn't stay on his feet to save his life, he had no idea what to do on defensive rotations, he was incredibly foul prone, and his offensive game was a mess. After two years of work, McHale helped Dmo develop a fantastic post up game. He finally figure out how to stay on his feet and not foul, as well rotate properly. Dmo got his shot, when he was ready. Enough of your nonsense. You simply have no idea what you are talking about.
Was gonna make a reply but this guy pretty much already said it. I still think he got lucky with D-Mo and that he didn't do as well a job with Marcus Morris. Canaan's gonna blossom somewhere else. McHale has a tendency to stick to his guys and overplay them. When those guys do become rotational players, it's normally when someone else serviceable is already gone. For the past few years, depth has been an issue.
D-Mo was still a mess when the season started. It's obvious the guy needed minutes to get comfortable and he only got that because Jones was out. It's not that D-Mo suddenly became a reliable player in the offseason.
Are you the same person that last year insist Kelvin Sampson should be the real head coach of this team?
Not me but.... You can't compare last years defense to this years defense and the only real changes are Ariza and JB. For the record, I like McHale. He's a players coach and that can work but that's why guys like JB are so important. We need his schemes.
Dude doesn't realize how f'ing stupid it is to hang out on a fan site and call people homers. NEWS FLASH: ClutchFans is biased in favor of the Houston Rockets! RESINator's mind=blown, like one of those cheap birthday balloons
I don't disagree with Budenholzer winning the award or any of the coaches finishing ahead of Mchale (maybe Kidd) but I'm extremely confused by the national media and voters logic. If Mchale isn't the coach of the year, per voters, and Harden isn't MVP, per assumed votes, then how the hell is this team the 2 seed? This team has missed a lot of valuable pieces all year due to injury, has played in one of the toughest conferences arguably ever, and the national consensus is to not give anyone on the team or staff credit. I don't get it.
Getting minutes to get comfortable is not developing. The "wait till you get your opportunity" is an age old mantra in sports, used by all coaches. Dmo was developed extremely well. Anyone arguing otherwise is just trying to confirm their pre-existing bias against McHale. What is the next excuse going to be? My guess is "Dmo developed in spite of McHale!"
Pretty interesting since we have a current thread claiming Hubie is biased against the Rockets. I seriously doubt Coach McHale would have done as well on this forum as he did nationally. The bias here is much worse.
I agree with this choice. I respect the record that the Rockets have, but we also had a decent record last year. These HAWKS came out of nowhere with a bunch of great players, but also through cohesive design. They don't have a traditional closer,but it hasn't mattered. They absolutely destroyed the league. Even more, Kerr isn't in the conversation with the talent on his team. Yes, his record is great, but any imbecile can see the talent discrepancies between ATL and GS. As for McHale. HE was part of a great season, record-wise, but to his credit, our team kept itself together with injuries galore. I'll get flamed for this, and even though I've heard that every Rockets' player isn't as supportive as you'd think, they still have a loyalty to Kevin. It's more of a general respect for his impact as a former player and that he doesn't "go hard" on his players when they mess up. He is very good at passive-aggressive behavior and using the doghouse for weeks at a time. (See: Papa, former DMo, former rocket, Cannan, and many more.) These are guys that become rotting talent on the bench until Kevin decides he needs them. I've heard that he doesn't give players much of an explanation for this, but just keeps them at bay. Despite this, I respect the assistant coaches for keeping our guys focused, and I give KEvin a bit of respect for keeping the culture loose for a guy like Dwight.Obviously our record shows a great season. However,without his assistants, Kevin doesn't come close to guys like Pop, Doc,Bud, Carlisle,SVG (finals), etc...He just doesn't have the tools. It's going to to take years for that to happen. I'm proud of our players for pulling together when things counted most,and yes, I have heard that our guys ultimately control this team. Hence, you don't hear Kevin calling too many plays. Kevin will be in the discussion of coach of the year, as he continues to grow and evidence improvements beyond what the record shows. I'm, in the least, proud of him for letting James take over to salvage our injuries. That's on James, too. Congrats. James Harden is the MVP in this league without question. If Curry gets it, that's to appease the bandwagon, growing fan base in this league. My gut tells me he will get it for the fans. Curry doesn't have JH skillset.It's not close. Congrats,Bud. Well deserved.Kevin needs more time.
Why did Pop get so many votes? Sure the difference between 2nd and 6th seed was one game... That the Spurs were completely unprepared for out of the gate. Yes they had injuries. Yes they have old man riverwalk... But Duncan is still a top big - credit Duncan, fault current state of bigs, whatever. He's still damn good. That's a talented roster still. Their depth is crazy. Did Pop do any amazing coaching this year I'm unaware of? McHale made Josh Smith a positive addition. Someone should just hand him the ward for that... Lol