Is Kevin McHale Just a Transitional Coach for the Houston Rockets?

In perception... a whole hell of a difference. Especially with the fairweather fanbase & the media. The hardcore fans probably still would have picked apart things here and there, but overall McHale would have been viewed as a miracle worker. But thats the difference in a great coach, and a regular NBA coach... maybe 2 wins a season.

In reality, the Rockets would probably be in a worse position going forward in the rebuilding project post Yao years. Last years draft was probably not the draft you want to be giving up mid-first round picks in. Thanks again T-Will.


- I admit that I was wrong about last year. I thought that making the playoffs would have sent the value of players like Scola and Martin skyrocketing, and allowed for better upgrades to re-tool the roster moving forward. I underestimated how much the new CBA would affect trade value among role players to borderline all-stars on larger contract.

The value of those players has plummeted on the trade market in the last year since the new CBA has kicked in. I now think the Rockets still wouldn't have gotten great trade value for those players either way now.

So in the end, I think last year it was a positive that the Rockets ended up in the lottery, but there would definitely be some positives regardless either way. I guess it all depends on how good Jeremy Lamb turns out in the end to justify the results.

 

Spurs new offense is a PG dominant system, where every plays runs through Parker. The system itself inflated his stats. And with one year of experience behind him, Parker naturally thrived last year. Not putting down on Parker. He is still a great PG with a certain skills (mostly his quickness for penetration) that was required for his success in that system.

The thought that came to my mind: what if you switch Ty Lawson with Parker? Will Ty have the same success as Parker? My conclusion is: yes, Lawson would do just as well as Parker in that system.

The downfall to Pop's system is that it became a double edged sword; Spurs lived by Parker and died by Parker. Brooks was able to expose that during Game 3 of WCF.

In their first year 2010-2011 AND with the same roster, Pop was able to improve Spurs offensive efficiency from 9th to almost 1st. It worked well for Spurs with a skilled PG. Rockets coaching stuff should seriously looking into what Pop did two years ago and perhaps it can help us in the future.

 

If you switched TP and Lawson the results might be similar to the overall team product, but that is mainly because Lawson is a very, very good PG. Should have been an all-star last year IMO even as much as I wanted to see Lowry make the team.

I dont think he's the scorer that TP is by any stretch, but he's still very good. Different type of PG and there are very few players(much less PG's) in the league that score as well as TP does in the P&R. That being said, I am a huge T. Lawson fan for different reasons, and a self proclaimed T. Parker hater because... well I just hate the guy. He's a Spur, what can I say?

I honestly think that is besides the point. You just said yourself that there was a downside to the system that Popovich installed two years ago despite him being one of the greatest coaches that ever lived.

-You play uptempo, your going to struggle to score i late game situations where the game suddenly becomes slow-motion.

-You play a slow-motion/grind it out half court game, your going to struggle to score without a go-to low-post dominant scoring option.

A coach is a coach. They can install a system and gameplan that can help maximize the abilities of the players they have on their roster, but they can't win it all on coaching alone. Greg Popovich could have added what.... maybe 2 or 3 wins to the Rockets last season??? If even that.

McHale is not the Rockets issue here, its the roster first and foremost.

 

it becomes a super-duper conundrum for a coach at all cost.

lets just see the players play... right now that's the fun part, and the hope and dream this year, of rockets fans is for us to get there again someday.

Did any of the old school rockets fans even know at the time that they were seeing the greatest center to ever play the game????? It was a hope and a dream... no internet... no blogs... news papers and live tv to show us who was who.

zzpot

 

Grab Mike D before the lakers do. Please.

 

So many...McHale threads