Even worse: What if the Rox get to the conference title game this year with McHale as coach, and Morey rewards him by extending his contract and trying again next year to give him the best players possible? Then our painful future would be a horrible winning coach and a terrible winning roster who will probably be even better and more cohesive next year. WE CAN'T HAVE THAT!!!1!
I don't see scenario A playing out as you stated. Even if we did beat Portland convicingly, and took SA to 7 games, Asik and Lin would still be seeing the door. Morey isn't going to stand pat. He'll keep making moves to improve the team regardless of what happens in the playoffs this season.
Right, but if we're comparing Harden and Schaub (not by skill level of their respective games, but by how important they are to the team): If Schaub went down or became inefficient, there was no one to pick up the slack. Keenum did well before our O-Line phoned it in and other teams game planned for him. If Harden became inefficient, we still have Parsons / Lin / Howard to salvage the offense. A star QB becoming inefficient would only be comparable to the LeBron era in Cleveland - the Cavs are the best in the East with him, and probably dead last without him. There are so many other factors, as other posters have said, that make the NFL and NBA analogies incomparable. Cap space, the amount of games played, managing the respective organizations, etc.
Lets say we go with option A, which the Rockets will lose a tough fight second round series against the Spurs and eventually we are going to keep both Asik and Lin for another year, so you truly believe under this kind of cap situation we will just have a better team next year and reach the final? My point is simple, there is no much more "potential" to be seen from Asik, Lin or even McHale. Howard signed a 4 years contract last year, and he can opted out after 3 seasons. If we will waste another year being mediocre again - which is the best we can see from this current roster, I don't see Howard will stay (or even should it matter) 2 years from now. Bottom line, yes we are improving, but I would rather take another bad fall in the process of building up the team than just stay at mediocre.
LOL Just because YOU dont see any upside to this team does NOT mean you are correct. Your opinion can not be trusted once you keep implying that the Rockets are mediocre. They were mediocre when they were getting the 14 pick every year, they got better last year and even better this year. That is the antithesis of mediocre. Face it, you are wrong. Your analogy is wrong, your conclusions are wrong.
Let me get this straight, you want us to suck ass this season to force big changes to keep Dwight? You must have missed the last 5 years of Morey's GMing. He doesn't settle. He's always making moves. He isn't like Rick Smith.
For those of you who don't seem to have understood the OP, let me rephrase the question so that it's a bit clearer. Is it better to win or is it better to have a good excuse to fire the head coach and our least favorite player?
The Clippers did well under VDN, but still got ride of him so that they could hire Doc Rivers. Thus, the Rockets can still win in the first round while simultaneously getting rid of McFail and upgrading to a new, better coach, which shouldn't be hard to do. That would be the ideal scenario.
Morey is not an idiot. The Martin-Lowry/Brooks-Scola squads were relatively young, (barely) winning squads that probably could have been the core of winning squads for another 5 years. He didn't just go "well, good enough" and sit on his hands. He completely destroyed and rebuilt in a 24 month period in service of his plan, because it would get to a team with a real title shot. I'm not a McHale fan at ALL but I also don't accept the premise that offering a three-year contract to him ends our title contention. McHale is at worst a slightly below average coach and unless you hire one of the top ten coaches of all time I really don't think you're going to move the needle much from where we sit now. Also, "getting rid" of Asik and Lin is almost certainly going to be a talent downgrade, because the actual $ amount of their contracts ding their trade value pretty substantially. Paul Millsap isn't walking through that door, that dream's over. So I really don't accept the premise that a roster overhaul involving shedding those two is a clear road to a title either. Generally as the road to a title you get your core in place (which generally fills up the cap all by itself), then you make one or two years of strong MLE signings to get your supporting cast in place, then you polish the roster with vet min signings using the appeal of your core and supporting cast as a draw. The Rockets have a brilliant core with no depth. Making small additions to buff the bench and acquire a reliable stopper isn't the crippling indecision you make it out to be - it's the blueprint.
I have confidence in Morey. He will make the right decision regarding McHale. This is the complete opposite of Uncle Bob, Rick Smith and co. Rockets are 10x the organization the Texans were. I hope O'Brien is changing that though.
Show me this crystal ball that you see so far into the future. Actually might as well tell us how far Rockets go this post season too. rofl.
Lin is gone regardless I think, especially if he blows up and plays well....perfect chance to trade him... He's just not right for James Harden....or the way the team plays.... Morey would prefer Lin plays well, raises his trade value...
If the Rox wilt in the first round, it would be more of an indictment on "Moreyball" than on Coach McHale.... Sure McHale would likely get canned if that were to happen, but "Moreyball" will stick around regardless, and the new coach will have to deal with the exact same problems. Some here might be stunned if the Blazers were to oust the Rox.... But in the postseason, defenses are turned up several notches, and the transition game is taken away. The name of the game will be creating good looks using screens and player movement off the ball. And I hate saying it, but unless James Harden takes his individual game to yet another level, or this team suddenly sets more screens and players move off the ball, we might be in for yet another short and disappointing first round. I just have no faith in "Moreyball" succeeding in the postseason.
One of the best regular seasons in Rockets history: Let's Talk About Firing the Coach!!! This place has problems.
Portland's defense is awful and they have terrible shot selection. They've held us under ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN POINTS two times out of the last 8 meetings. They are not a legit playoff team.
since we are speaking about the Texans they are a ****ing dumb team that needs to fire everyone in the front office Schaub should of been released a long time ago but NOBODY listened to me. i would run the team better. I know damn well if I ran things Kubiak would of been fired that one year. Which btw Bill Cowher was interested in coming here. Now he wants no part of this garbage We will draft Clowney and let JJ Watt go. Just wait this is not getting better
