Who's the coach we replace McHale with, that is willing to stay entirely out of Morey's way when it comes to personnel, but will facilitate a marked improvement with the same group of players? He doesn't exist.
This is what you called stupid replies where you don't read the context of the post you are replying too....... ok..... is there an actual point? We don't play Dallas everytime and are you claiming we got to 5th in the West without zero in game adjustments? Carisle is a better coach than McHale no doubt.... but what record is theirs compared to ours? And experience. We are a pretty young team Perhaps you should actually watch the games then..... Or learn about basketball. Lastly, what is this forum's great infatuation with "running plays"? Do people not notice the offensive trend of the league?
The Pacers/Warriors game is a perfect example of NBA basketball. Huge first half lead for Indy gets blown, and now GSW is stagnant and the announcers are talking about how hard it is for them to generate shots in the half court. Are Vogel and Jackson bad coaches because the former's team blew a lead and the latter's team is relying on its superstars to lead a comeback?
One of our biggest problems remains set plays. We have like a 10% success rate inbounding the ball after a deadball or timeout with limited time on the shot clock. It also affects end of quarter and end of game scenarios. How can you expect to win in the playoffs when you are completely inept when it comes to the final play of a game! This all continues to fall on the coaching. We can't keep winning games by ten, eventually you gotta take the close ones against the good teams, and it's not enough to say "carry us to the promised land James Harden." You need confidence in your coach to outwit the other old man in a suit. How many guys in the NBA do you have faith in McHale to win a chess match against? Maybe McHale has been saving it all up, keeping our best plays secret. I doubt it though.
I think the main problem with the coaching is that the rockets seem to get out of any fluid offense too often. We'll be passing the ball around then a few shots won't go in and all hell breaks loose and we literally just have 4 players standing around while one player varying from parson, lin or harden tries to go 1 on 4. It's really up to the coaching to rein play like that in. Elite teams run their offense at all times. Our patented pass off with 1 second left on the shot clock is literally the worst possible thing that could happen outside a turnover.
Winning by double digits on national TV against the team with the 3rd best record in the NBA, and lots of coach bashing? I am SHOCKED, I tell you. SHOCKED that this would happen. /not really
Lol, I can't believe he said that. It's one thing to implicitly understand that the coach doesn't run a lot of plays, but for him to go on record and admit it on national television? Wow, just wow...only McHale, smh.
so, you petty much agree with what I said.... in other words, trying to credit the coach with anything we've achieved offensively... is without merit... we have an offensively loaded starting five... that's why Bev is a starter on this team... The defensive results are entirely on the coaching... Harden talked a big game about improving defensively in the offseason, and thus far has show but spurts... Dwight has made remarks about the lack of defense from this team... mainly the perimeter.... clearly someone's not preaching or emphasizing defense, or Dwight wouldn't feel frustrated enough to actually draw media attention to it, as he's been nothing but level headed, and mostly quiet this season with the Rockets... It's not a complete myth... That would indicate there's been irrefutable proof to the contrary... What we have had is indication that whatever "plays" we run, are limited to Harden isolation... and rarely a Howard Post up with reluctant passers... that's it... We've seen this all season, with a FEW rare adjustments that have worked and not worked... You have had players not knowing they scored less than twenty points in a half during interviews.... You have had Dwight frustratingly airing his grievances to the media... You have Harden consistently publically showing a casual attitude about losses... like his "it's an 82 game season it happens" remark after a personal poor performance... with apparently no one in management caring to address this, as it persists - because as long as Harden shows up for MOST of the games featuring an elite contender, it's all good... You have had issues with lackadaisical effort from the team collectively SEVERAL times this season... All the while, you have a coach seemingly stuck in a perpetual shrug and verbal stutter every time he's interviewed during a game when his team is struggling... This doesn't exactly exemplify sound hands-on management... with the foresight to actually design plays or emphasize the importance of defense to fall back on when the threes aren't falling, and the fast pace is merely providing extra positions for the OTHER team to convert on... This more exemplifies a hands-off, go with the flow, it'll fix itself approach... which is fine for a mature veteran team, unfortunately this is not the case in Houston... Everyone not named Dwight Howard is STILL in the developmental years of their career... they need proper guidance before nasty self-defeating habits/patterns become permanent habits.... especially Harden...
Completely agree. Though it looks like the last second iso 3 pointer is really popular around the league. Seen Lebron throw them up more than a couple times. Guys seem to forget when it comes down to the wire that the whole point of running a play is to get open and make a shot so you don't have to play 1 on 5. I guess with the coaching staff's dubious play-drawing skills, they might as well just chuck a shot though.
I think what gets forgot often is that in these last second instances in close games the defense is playing extremely tight and aggressive making it damn near impossible for any team to run an offensive set. This is why you see almost every team with a star player put it in their superstars hand and have him be great.
Seriously Mcfail fail sucks and needs to be fired! Regardless of the W tonight against the Blazers. He can't coach worth of crap.
If the problem with the Rockets offense, whatever problems that exist despite them being consistently top 5 in the NBA, is simply "running more plays", you'd think Morey, Hinkie, Ross, their entire analytical army, their entire scouting staff, all the coaches from McHale to Bickerstaff to Sampson and on down, ex-coaches like Dawson and JVG, all the players would be able to see this. So I ask, which is more likely. A. All the people above are basketball r****ds who do not see something so simple even random online posters see or B. All the above people are actually smart at basketball, know what they're doing, helped make the Rockets a top-5 offense, while online posters who constantly bash at the stupidity of the above Rockets player and personnel are in actuality the ones that are wrong.
you forgot C. there may be a system and plays that are in place, but since the coaches do not have total control over the superstars, players like Harden routinely ignore these plays and try to do too much themselves to the detriment of the team. and on defense the opposite happens, there may be instructions from the bench but if players ignore them or are lazy, there might as well be none because the coaches do not have the balls to enforce them.
I vote C. Still think McHale is flawed... His best coaching in last nights game was to tell his players to play hard. It actually worked but it would've been nice if he threw in a little X's and O's. But I vote C because all the other coaches know the system and teach the system to the players and mostly Harden (but not only) disregards it.
You can speculate all you want as to the root cause, but the end result is the same. This team CANNOT execute on set plays. And it's probably gonna end up being our Achilles heel more than any other deficiency, defensive woes included.
Uhhhh...... Holy crap. Why is it so freaking hard for people to understand how the Rockets offense works? The whole idea of having a "free flowing" offense means that they are instructing players to react naturally to the way the defense is playing them, and adjust on the fly to make the right plays. Yes the Rockets run plays, but unlike your basic YMCA plays, think of these plays as more like sets where there is a basic structure to the placement of players on the court, but they are allowed to sort of audible on the fly. Watch this clip and see for yourself how they setup their sets. (This out of bounds set is called "41" and listen to McHale instruct them that "the defense dictates how they react") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUxkYh3VNyY THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF THESE SETS IS WHAT IS CONSIDERED A STRENGTH TO TEAMS NOT BEING ABLE TO PROPERLY GAMEPLAN AGAINST THEM. YMCA traditional plays are easy to predict before and during the game. Morey himself has said this unpredictability is part of the plan. So its not about the coach not having control over his superstars (obviously you are talking about Harden here), its about the players not making the right audibles to how the defense is playing them. Harden, Lin, and Parsons have alot of responsibility on the offensive end to react to the defense and adjust on the fly. If you dont think they are up to the task of running this offense than adjust your argument accordingly. The responsibility is PUT in their hands. So while yes it looks ugly at times like any free flowing offense does(I remember feeling ill watching Adelman coached Rockets teams when the offense was out of sync), it works as the Rockets scoring 126 points last night, and having a top 5 offense in the league proves it. The defensive end on the other hand is a whole other story with this team. -Lastly- To those of you who constantly b**** and moan about McHale not running plays.... What the hell do you want??? -Do you- A. Want the Rockets to go to a traditional old-school style of play, and risk dropping to a mediocre offensive team with a predictable play book. or B. Are you just looking for ways to bash McHale to try and convince people that he is the sole problem here, and him not running plays in a traditional fashion is the excuse you are using for him getting fired. Because if B is your answer than your going to have to do better than that. Try a little bit harder.... maybe even bust out your racist excuse next time. As Meh explained, the entire organization(Owner, GM, consultants like CD etc.) and beyond believe in this style of play. Its not going anywhere. This is not McHale's coaching on the offensive end.. this is the Rockets organization's offensive philosophy. McHale might be going elsewhere but it wont be because of the style of play on the offensive end. Try harder folks.
So sorry, but it's predictable to watch McHale's apologists jump forward after we have a good win (and, I grant you, just as predictable to watch his detractors swarm after the team loses). You can point out the read-and-react, the this-and-the-that, the "if the system was so flawed, you'd think all the coaches, players, staff, ball boys, and cheerleaders would say something", and in the process say how could all those people who killed Kennedy (if it wasn't actually Oswald) possibly keep it a secret after all these years... Seriously, last night during the miked-up sessions, my wife was next to me on the couch looking at her Kindle. She saw me with my head in my hands: "What's wrong?" "They just showed McHale coaching. 'You have to play harder, guys! Play harder!'" Because that's all he's got. Or when the team was humiliating itself against OKC; the bleak, beaten look on McHale's face. A Rocket looked to him for guidance and he just did a "keep-pushing-it" gesture. You saw it. We all did. No wonder the Rox drop so many games, blow so many leads. Everything's left on the players. Everything. The one thing the announcers mentioned last night that's very true (I think it was Reggie Miller?) is how the team needs a defensive identity, how the just-run-it-up-and-chuck-three's and hope-the-other-team-doesn't-figure-you-out just isn't gonna cut it. With McHale, that's not going to change. I like the guy, he's a mensch, and last night was a good win, but please let's not call him a good coach, or act like the only possible replacement would be some goose-stepping control freak of a coach. The pendulum wouldn't have to swing that far. Anyway, last night was fun to watch. Good to beat a tired team instead of being the tired team getting beat (and no one saying anything).
