LOL. How many games did the Spurs lose by 16 points at home with five days rest against a team with little depth missing it's all-star point guard and flying in from the West Coast after a seven game emotionally draining series?
Nobody is acting like the Spurs don't lose but they don't go out and beat themselves in crucial games. If the Clippers came out and shot lights out and beat the Rockets then you just take that loss. But the Rockets beat themselves with sloppy play. Well coached teams just don't do that and especially in a game where you should be seizing an amazing opportunity. The Rockets were given the gift of CP3 and they completely failed to capatalize on it.
McHale shares the blame along with his players, but how about Morey? Two grandpas for pgs will not get the job accomplished in the playoffs. Everybody and their mother knew we needed another pg/playmaker by the trading deadline.
You honestly think McHale wasn't talking to them about taking better care of the ball? You honestly think that?
Waiting to talk about it at halftime is too late. The rockets have played like this the entire year (and years I might add...they've had major turnover problems during Mchale's entire tenure here). They aren't going to change. The time to get after people to instill good habits was during the season. Good coaches do that. You make the other team beat you. You don't beat yourselves.
If he was and they weren't listening then he has got to go. Your job as a coach is to get your players to play better. This team has given up 20+ turnovers in back to back games. What I honestly think happened is that McHale said the turnovers have to stop but didn't give a new game plan. Instead he said be safe with the ball and they just kept playing the way they have all year which is a way of basketball that had them in the bottom 3 in turnovers.
How exactly do you know he waited until halftime? You'd think some of you were in the huddle, given how sure you are about what McHale did and did not say and when.
What new game plan, exactly? I can tell you to make the simple play until I'm blue in the face, but I can't go out there and play the game for you. These are grown men. Professional basketball players who make millions on millions of dollars to play a sport most of them have been playing since they were kids. That so many of you are unwilling to hold them accountable just b/c it's more popular to dump on the coach is pretty sad.
Thank you. I can't understand why people think this one's on McHale. Obviously...he had his moments, but a vast majority of the reason we lost was our guys played dumb, careless, and lifeless basketball.
This isn't about one game. Since Harden has come to the Rockets the team has been 30th, 29th, and 28th in turnovers. Why hasn't this been fixed? Why is your team continually one of or the worst turnover teams in the league? Are the players just broken? Or do you run a system that is incredibly turnover prone? My guess is that it's bad coaching but I fully understand that I could be wrong. I'm arguing for what I believe to be the problem but like you said I am not in the huddle so I could be 100% wrong.
Hello mr. literal. Nice to meet you. Glad you couldn't actually defend Mchale so you feigned an inability to understand the broader point because of a simple turn of phrase.
It's a lack of discipline and structure that is encouraged under the philosophy of free flowing basketball.
Mchale and staff have been preaching consistently about taking better care of the ball. Again this is on the freaking players. This has nothing to do with a coach being good or not. It's about these million dollars players manning up and handling their business period.
Boom. Truth Bomb. McHale's "system" is horrible. A competent coach would put these guys in situations to succeed. Give me JVG coaching these guys and see what happens.
I remember feeling like this when we were down 0-1 to Portland last year. McHale came out and made no adjustments whatsoever, and we promptly went down 0-2. We'll see if McHale makes the same mistake.
What about holding players accountable? McHale has never held any player accountable for poor decisions on the court. Take a look at last year with Harden's defense. No championship-winning coach would allow a player to have poor effort on defense. TJones gives up on too many rotations and closeouts. He literally stands there. Every time he does, he should be benched immediately. All of Harden and Smith's poor lazy passes, bench immediately. This should have been done at the start of the season but McHale and the coaching staff allowed them too much flexibility. It's too late to correct that in the playoffs. This team can't win championships that way. Blame the players all you want, but who decides when a player gets to play? It starts from the top.
Unfortunately it happens all the time. You do know we can take the home court back RT?? He didn't allow this to happen the players did. They came out lethargic and uninspired. They didn't follow the freaking game plan. It's on the players, mainly Harden who always makes boneheaded lazy passes.
We play at the 2nd fastest pace in the league, so a high turnover rate really isn't all that surprising. But in games like tonight where it becomes obviously excessive, I'm not sure how you "fix" it, short of sitting the main culprits in Harden and Josh. These guys talk alllllllll the time about making the simple pass, valuing every possession, etc., so it's not like they don't understand it's an issue -- but then they go out on nights like tonight and do the exact opposite. McHale was mic'd up for Game 5 last series and yelled and yelled and yelled about how the Mavs were only still in the game because they were scoring off our turnovers. Hard to hold guys accountable when the ones making the stupid passes are guys you really need on the floor for other reasons.
Didn't Harden make a valid effort this off season to work on his defense? And didn't he not improve defensively this season? Now don't you think Mchale and staff told him he needs to step his game up defensively. You do know they have closed door individual meetings correct?
