Whether he gets fired or not, I think most would agree that losing in the first round of the playoffs would be regarded as a failure. Most would want not want to see a repeat of the same coaching style next year, so the coach is the easiest person to replace.
Really it depends how you lose in the first round. If it went 7 games and every game was competitive and decently coached, that's one thing. Portland is the #5 seed and has a very good offense so if LMA and Lillard just shoot lights out there's only so much you can do. Losing the first 2 games on home court and having a joke of a defense and awful offense, and THEN losing the series? Yah, that will get a LOT of coaches fired. Right now, I think McHale is gone if he loses this series even if it's in 7 games and down to the wire. You just can't excuse what we saw on the floor the first 2 games. I suspect that even if we get to the 2nd round by some miracle that McHale is gone unless our team suddenly transforms into a well-oiled machine. And while that would be nice, I just don't see it happening under McHale and Co.
its not just a first round exit that will get mchale fired... its the complete lack of preparation. any decent coach could win this series for us... sampson could've won this series for us. mcfail not only can't lead this team to a championship (which is the goal), but he can't beat a team that we are better than in a playoff game. our next coach better be a good enough strategist that all the assistants are learning from him, rather than him learning from the assistants which seems to be the case here.
One other reason that McHale doesn't deserve another year is that he's squandering a golden opportunity this postseason. Had the Rockets won this series, they would've faced a vulnerable Spurs team or an inferior Mavs team in Round 2. And if they won that series, who knows what could've happened after that? Even if the Rockets eventually lost in the playoffs, think of all that valuable experience they won't be getting because they flamed out in Round 1. It's 2007 all over again.
As much as i like McHale...I think his actually a real nice person, genuinely loves the game of basketball, very loyal and has a very likeable character in/out of the court. However, his real limiting hurdle to becoming a great coach rather than your average coach is his high reliance on his gut feel and he is very slow and stubborn to change it even tho it's wrong. May it be a player, or a system or idea... once he makes up his mind it's almost impossible for him to change it. I also notice he is very extreme when he makes up his mind...and he normally makes up his mind early. If he feels if he can't trust you as a player early on then you will be in the dog house (until you do something drastic to change his mind), or if he doesn't trust a certain system then he will rarely go into it (especially when things get tight) etc.. The opposite is true when he does trust you as a player (you will play 40+ min every game regardless if you are playing like a zombie 5/20 on the field with 5 TO) or he will play a certain system regardless if it's not working throughout the whole game. He has very big faith in his gut feel (he must assume his gut feel is superior), and I really feel it is his downfall. He needs to be open minded and allow himself to trust more players, systems and ideas.
Ok we do that, then what... who do we get next? this is NOT the answer at great team takes time a lot of time.
Hmmm... A great team is always coached by a great coach. It will always start with the coach and his ability to steer the team. McHale by definition isn't a great coach. If he's that good, he should have adjusted already the defense when he saw LMA wreaking havoc already. If he's that good, he should have set a lot of screens for Harden already to keep start-plug him. If he's that good, he should have not gone to Howard or altered the game plan already when Portland adjusted to neutralize him. I wonder why we're not seeing that pick-n-roll so much when Rockets got the 2-3 best pick-n-rollers in Harden, Dwight and Lin. Rockets could have made LMA and/or Lillard tire with pick-n-rolls.
McHale is gone. Or if he isn't, its because he has incriminating pictures of Morey and Les Alexander. I feel that McHale was instrumental in getting Howard here and building a strong culture of comradery, but he is average at best as a coach and will consistently get outcoached. The Rockets have talented enough of a squad to mask that most of the time, but it gets scarily apparently in the playoffs. Unfortunately I don't have an ideal replacement coach in mind, but with the team the way it is, we will need somebody who commands respect and can implement a system of play. To get to the next level, barring trades, we will need to have Harden and Howard buy into a more team-oriented style of play. Neither Harden nor Howard are transcendent enough of talents to dominate ala Shaq/Kobe - two superstars and a bunch of role players. Honestly, I think Shaq and Kobe might be the last of the 'dynamic duo' style of systems that has won in recent memory. Even them, Phil Jackson's system wasn't just to iso Kobe or dump it down to Shaq. The new coach needs to use Harden/Parsons off ball more, have Howard post up less, encourage Lin to initiate the offense more, and a number of "swallow your ego" type of moves that will create a stronger over team than Harden shooting 3s and Howard dunking on people.
i have been saying that mchale isn't a coach for this rockets team early on this year. must i say again that mchale is bad at X and Os. He makes little adjustments from game to game. He makes even rarer adjustments in-game. he is even poorer with his line up management. he is just being out coached now. it is sad really.
No idea since Bob Hill was the coach at the time. And despite getting to the Conference Finals in 1995, he was in deep trouble with Popovich(the GM at the time) a year later when the Spurs flamed out against Utah in the 2nd round. I wish the Rockets organization had that kind of standard with this team instead of being content to just make the playoffs.
McHale is a poor man's Vinny Del Negro. Even Del Negro got Clippers into the post season with 55+ wins only to be found out come playoff time. Now look at what that team has done with a good coach like Doc Rivers. Gone from playoff fodder to contenders. McHale MUST go.
How pathetic of a coach do you have to be to be considered a "poor man's Del Negro"? Mind you, I'm not disagreeing. But that pretty much sums up McHale. And BTW, Del Negro for all his supposed faults did lead the Clippers to the Semifinals in 2012. That's way more success than McHale has ever had as a head coach.
jtr: I'm right here. All you fools, idiots, and pond-scum subhuman hermaphrodites (no offense!) can rant all you want. You think you know more about basketball than Kevin McHale? I'm saving my ammunition for when the team comes roaring back to take the Blazers in 7 (never mind that if we win the series now it'll be in spite of McHale, not because of McHale, but let's not allow the truth to stand in my way), at which point I'll drop anonymous rep comments to all of you who'll owe me an apology! larsv8: You rang? All of you McHale haters don't have the first clue. Yes, the Rockets are down right now, but it has nothing to do with coaching, except for McHale's inexplicable use of Jeremy Lin. Lin has single-handedly lost us 28 games in the regular season and now two more in the postseason. And his fans represent "something that's unholy and evil" (Diane Keaton, The Godfather Part II).
