During the Les Alexander era can you name one decision that was popular with fans? My guess would be the TMac trade coming and going. The Yao draft was controversial, many wanted Amare. All the coaching decisions were questioned by fans. I was never that thrilled with Adelman. The majority of the player contracts during the CD era were very controversial and typically awful as were the steady stream of players. You would never guess that the fans are paying for all this. We have lots of opinions, but they don't seem to count.
After I thought about my response here for a bit, it kind of reminded me of someone... Finch would be our Tex Winter. Joerger potentially would be the Rambis/Person.
I can name a whole lot more than one. 1. the trade for Drexler 2. the trade for Barkley 3. the trade for Pippen 4. the trade of Pippen 5. the trade for Steve Francis 6. the trade for Eddie Griffin (though it ended up being a colossal failure, it cannot be denied most of us were jumping for joy when they traded up for a player who just weeks prior had been widely considered the potential number 1 pick) 7. the trade for McGrady 8. the trade of McGrady 9. the trade for Luis Scola (I got to gloat to my friends who are Spurs fans for YEARS on that one) 10. the trade for Ron Artest I think all of those moves were undeniably popular at the time. And all of that is without even getting into when popular players and coaches were re-signed. It is also not including some moves that were very popular at the time but I think people have trouble remembering positively such as acquiring Bonzi Wells for next to nothing and stealing Maurice Taylor from the Clippers. I also think your memory is pretty foggy when it comes to drafting Yao. Sure, that pick was mildly controversial - but not because people wanted Amare. Amare didn't even get picked until the 9th pick and I can distinctly recall people hoping Amare would fall to 15 where we eventually instead picked Boki. No, as I remember it, the controversy there was that Cuttino had spoken of trading the pick for Lamar Odom and others thought we should draft Jay Williams and trade Francis. Amare wasn't even in the discussion for #1, though in hindsight he clearly should have been.
Memory a little fuzzy? There was no controversy, everyone was on board and excited for Yao. A few people made arguments for Dunleavy and Jay, but I heard very little about Amare.
KMac's relative lack of coaching experience and the rumors about Finch temporarily soured me on McHale and the whole coach-selection process. But now, I'm ready to give these guys a chance. I'm especially interested to see how bringing in a defensive-minded top assistant will play out. Will it help balance out the team instead of having the team favor one side of the court, as it did under previous coaches?
So let me get this straight: You want to compare McHale to Phil Jackson AND Doc Rivers both of whom have coached teams to NBA Championships to a guy with two interim coaching stints, NO titles (as a coach) and was a crappy GM to boot. THIS is your argument for McHale?
My god what a dumb reply. KMac has never even set foot in a training camp as an NBA head coach, he is for all practical purposes a rookie head coach. That guy was comparing his coaching style to successful coaches' styles because others are saying that style doesn't work. If I start comparing Williams' game to LeBron are you going to go berserk too because Williams is a young guy who's never done anything in the NBA?
I agree with you in general, but I think the trades for Barkley and Artest at least did have substantial detractors. People thought we were trading away our future giving up Horry and Cassell for Barkley. And, people were worried about Artest being a headcase.
I agree with you in general too! But I think your average, more casual Rockets fan had no such concerns in either deal. Those kind of debates only happened among the most diehard of fans. Hell, I was barely 18 when we traded for Barkley and while I knew I'd miss Cassell and Horry and I had previously HATED Charles Barkley on the Suns - I was THRILLED with that deal at the time. The Artest deal was definitely more controversial - but I still think even among the most diehard of us we generally agreed that when one considered what we gave up and where T-Mac and Yao were in their careers it was worth the gamble. And even though it didn't work out, I still think it was the right move. So that, to me, doesn't seem all that controversial.
i don't remember too many people screaming they wanted amare like that around the time of that draft. all i remember people saying back then was that he was a big risk highschool player, and a trouble maker because he had problems staying in one school.
Disagree with the bolded part. Offensive sets have 0 to do with defense. The triangle is basically have the same principles as adelmans offense. One of the keys to the offense is defensive balance. Its not like everyone in below the free throw line which is the start of defense. The problem with the rockets is more about the players vs defensive schemes. Its very difficult to be even average defensively when the team is full of small and limited players. 3 poor defenders in the starting 5,one average in lowry and 1 oakley type in hayes. I don't care if thibs or the late daly is the coach,that's going to be a poor defensive team. The lakers are a good defensive team and their offense is center below the free throw line mostly,but the poorest defender,fisher is still almost as good as the rockets best defender starting. The mavs were known as a piss poor defensive team,but this year,they have been good defensively. How many poor defenders do they have starting? 1,but he's a better defender than 3 of the rockets starting 5. What about the heat? Bibby is the only por defender starting. The offense has 0 to do with the hall pass to the rim.
IIRC, there were rumors of us trading down to the 8th spot (Knicks spot) to trade Yao for Alan Houston or Latrell Sprewell (can't remember which) and the 8th pick to grab Amare or Nene. Though there were ALOT of rumors after we got the top pick, I cannot even remember all of them. But there were many people in support of that one.
Okay then. We just have to agree to disagree. I know that unlike you, I've never played beyond pickup basketball. I'm simply applying common sense, or at least common sense in my mind. For example, I feel it's common sense that a player standing at the top of the key can get back on defense a lot faster than a player standing under the basket after cutting. I also feel it's common sense that players who can stand and watch fellow superstar play 1-on-5 offense can exert more of their energy for defense. In addition, I feel it's common sense that by going for the offensive rebound, you take yourself out of position to get back in transition should you fail in getting said offensive board.
McHale, for all of his competitive spirit, will probably lead us into a ditch next year - which will lead us to a Top 5 pick in 2012 Draft! Anyone else get a better idea?
