Firing Mchale is step one. The cancer has spread and needs to be excised one by one. Next on the agenda should be Brewer and Jones.
Trade or release Ariza and his ill-advised 3s. Most if not all his stats are down from last year except personal fouls.
We run a bad system that is poorly coached with a roster of players that don't seem to like each other or care anymore. It's impossible for an entire team to instantly go cold all at once. It's statistically impossible. Two or three players can go into a slump, but when the entire team starts to phone it in at the same time you have a problem that runs much deeper. There really is no solution but to blow this team up and start all over again. This is not a hungry team. They are a bunch of well paid and spoiled veterans who have lost their collective fire and will to win. This is a team of losers.
Hank you are spot on, i think a new coach and a trade of Dwight or Harden needs to happen. Personally i would like to see Dwight gone, to me his actions on the court do not warrant the money he is making. You have to know by now how you are going to be officiated when it comes to another elite center against you. Choosing to let them and the refs get in your head in pivotal games is crushing to the team.
...so we already fired McHale, from here there are a few different scenarios - I think we could do one or more of these scenarios: Scenario 1: "Trade Harden" Result:There needs to be some serious cleaning of house and Harden is hurting the team about as much as he is helping it...but you'll never get anywhere close to real value for him after this so if you trade him you'll end up with a team led by a lesser star and Dwight will be gone. In 2016 our roster would look something like Capela, Dmo, Ariza, Bev/Lawson and a lesser star like maybe a Melo(probably the best we could get for James after this embarrassment) + a lotto pick from the next draft. End result, we get worse in talent but possibly improve in the standings a little bit - still a lotto team in the West though. Likelihood: Highly unlikely. Scenario 2: "Trade role players" Result: Just about any role player is on the table and the only thing Houston wants in return is decent shooting or some semblance of leadership. No idea what this would look like, but I imagine it's Capela+Harden+ a few better shooters/leaders. I would imagine we would dangle that inevitable lotto pick to sweeten a trade provided it's not a top 5 pick. Likelihood: Likely to happen. Scenario 3: "hire a new coach" Result: You don't turn over teams a few wins from the Finals over to rookie head coaches....you also don't fire the coach who took them there after 11 games, but that's another story. I've heard JVG, D'Antoni, and Thibs all mentioned. The leadership has to come from somewhere and if it's not the players, the coach has to be it. McHale's easy to get along with, but sometimes you need an authoritarian when leadership is lacking on the roster(we have Jet and that's it). Thibs makes the most sense here, but Les would be eating a lot of money paying both Thibs and the rest of McHale's contract and I don't think he is willing to do that. Likely, we keep Bickerstaff or hire a cheaper coach - it's a crapshoot. Likelihood: probably not likely getting a top tier coach(Les aint paying $$$), but I think there is a 50/50 chance we get a lesser tiered/under the radar coaching candidate. Scenario 4: "do nothing" Result: We shut down James for a few weeks while he gets into shape and gets his heard right(aka, give him a TMac break). Ty magically turns into Denver Ty, the Rockets are better than expected in his absence setting up an awkward dynamic and we just miss the playoffs after Harden returns and it gets weird again. Likelihood:Not happening - after letting McHale go, I think Morey's job is depending on him remaking this roster ...personally I think the quick fix is hiring Thibs to lay the hammer down and light a fire under James. I think Harden needs that - McHale was too laid back with James. The problem is, Morey has to convince Les that is worth the all the money he will be paying to coaches. Combine that with a little roll player trading to incrementally change our roster and I think we just run with that. I don't see much of a scenario where Dwight comes back next year meaning we will have lots of cap space and the ability to rebuild quickly. We could potentially be a sleeper team next year(or at least have more hope than this year) if everything breaks well, but I think who the coach will be and whether they can lead James is going to determine our fortunes. Harden can be a top 5 player so I think you keep him and find a coach who can manipulate him to do the things you need him to do on the court and while that is happening, Morey has to quickly put more shooters on this roster and just change the scene.
I heard a basketball analyst recently say something to the effect of, "the roster in Houston doesn't exactly fit together, but your coach is suppose to be the one who figures out how to get everyone to work together and complement each other's skills". This shines a bright light on McHale - we all thought the coaching was average to below average, there was never in game adjustments and the offense had no wrinkles for when the jump shots weren't falling and the team needed easy buckets/rhythm... and more importantly McHale didn't have everyone on the same page so he ultimately failed at what he was suppose to do.
Bump* When you deal with a complex problem, the only way to deal with it is to fix one step at a time. From the moves that have happened this season, we can extrapolate on "what went wrong". 1) firing mchale: we all knew that he wasnt an x's and o's coach. If he is supposed to be a player's coach but our players don't give full effort for him, then that is reasonable grounds to fire. The next coach rox hire will be someone they think is a championship caliber coach. 2) harden's injury/poor conditioning: mchale mentioned that harden was out of shape in camp. His subpar conditioning had a trickle down effect because of how dependent the team is on harden's offensive brilliance. As witnessed by the Portland game second half, that is the way we are supposed to play the season. Harden looks like he is back to form and I feel like he has learned a valuable lesson and won't have this problem next year. 3) acquiring josh smith, trying to trade dmo, tjones in and out of the lineup, the experimental brewer/capella at the pf: the rox have no confidence in their pfs. Whether health or consistency or mental toughness. I think that they will try to address this the most this summer. 4) thornton and ty waive/buyout/release: they were not part of the solution and maybe what jb refers to as players not being on the same page. Addition by subtraction. 5) fegan being fired: from the trade rumors to wanting max and the harden/howard feud and reports saying that he is unhappy, I think that from a PR standpoint, this has been a terrible season for dwight. He is still a very productive big and has been our best player in the last 2 playoffs. Who he signs with will give insight into what he wants. 6) freeing cap space. that is Morey's end game for durant. And howard or horford. Given these cullings, i expect that the rockets will be closer to their status last year and will sneak into the playoffs. Then go all in for Durant. Anything else happen this year?
