Kevin McHale blames the lockout for not getting along with certain players

The lockout messed a lot of things up, but there was some good too.

 

I don't understand why people think McHale isn't the right coach for this team. I think he is perfect. He wants to win & he wanted veterans so he will push the young guys. Because the team is so young & inexperienced they will have to go out & earn every win & I think McHale is the right guy to keep them focused & as competitive as possible.

 

McHale is the right coach to turn hard working rookies into proffessionals. He is the right coach to motivate hard working proffessionals.

I think he is possibly the wrong coach to inherit a group of rookies with a variety of circumstances, personalities, habits and potential and maximize their development. Some rookies/youngsters will excel under his leadership, and those are the rookies that are already solid professionals.

Every coach has their strengths and weaknesses. I think that McHale's weaknesses don't fit particularly well with this type of team. But the experience will make all of them more mature, whether through negative or positive experiences.

IMO no matter how hard this team works, they are not making the playoffs. I hope I am wrong and McHale recognizes that the goal of this season is not to get the best possible record, rather it is to support our young guys to realize their potential as much as possible. I don't care if we lose 5-10 extra games if, collectively, all our rookies have made strides towards their potential.

Unfortuantely, I think McHale is extremely competitive and old-fashioned, so this will be a rough season for all involved, including himself, players and fans. I would be extremely dissapointed if our rookies are only put on the floor based on how much they sweat at practice - we have to take a more multi-dimensional approach.

All we've heard from McHale so far is that everything is about hard work and experience and we don't have those things so excuses excuses excuses. Fine great, we can tell from the make-up of the roster this is a young team that is going to make a lot of mistakes. Let's hear more about how we are going to adjust our coaching style to promote youth rather than picking out the ones that are already veteran-like.

 

McHale really needs to own up to his mistakes! This article is nothing but deflecting the blame.

Morey was never for the hiring of McHale. He had much higher regard for JVG. The decision was solely up to Les, who wanted to hire someone 'smart.' Yeah....that was the the utmost importance in hiring a headcoach for Les. It all came down to Casey and MaHale. At the end, McHale out sold himself to Les.

Morey and McHale are totally opposite in many views about basketball. We all know Morey is a moneyball GM. McHale, a non-believer in advance statistics, will throw stats sheets into the trash can. McHale is very knowledgeable, witted, charismatic, competitive, and totally unconventional. But those traits dont neccessary translate to success as a headcoach. I bet Morey will be happy to see McHale's contract expires in another 2 years.

Lowry and Dragic is a prime example for his failure at selling himself to the players. He and Dragic never truly believed in McHale, or one or both would've stayed 'for the great good' of the team. Ask yourself this, "the 4th year team option really meant that much if Dragic really bought into McHale?" A lot of NBA players played for a lot less than the petty 4th year team option if they believe in the future of a team. (RAllen, Lebron, Battier...)

McHale first press after becoming Rockets headcoach:

http://www.chron.com/sports/rockets/article/Rockets-McHale-ready-for-challenges-high-1408493.php

McHale failed last season. He failed to make the playoff which can be somewhat acceptable. But he failed to own up his words and all we heard from him were excuses. His biggest failure was the rift he created between him and player(s) now he is blaming on the lockout?? Not making playoffs is one thing, but losing young talented players is a serious matter for any team. We all know Lowry was very vocal about McHale and hated to leave Houston. One the other hand, McHale had downplayed the matter anyway he could. Like I said before about McHale: he is terrible at managing players.

IMO This interview is not for the fans. This is the excuse intended for Les to hear.

 

Dragič said multiple times, that McHale was the best coach he ever had and his favorite one as well. He didn't have anything to do with Goran leaving, in fact I believe that he was a major reason for him wanting to stay.

 

Indeed, kuku wrote a huge paragraph making up bullish and made up facts that come out of his hate for McHale.

kuku, at least back your stuff up instead of revealing things from the inside of the organization that you just totally invented and that fit your view on McHale.

 

This is Gorans first big pay cheque obviously he is going to want to make as much as possible. And Ray has already made his money. LBJ took less but in Miami with the whole tax thing it wasn't as big of a deal.

 

Some of these guys probably just really enjoyed playing for Rick Adelman, who got a bit of a raw deal when he was fired. Adelman was apparently a player's coach and his offense was a thing of beauty to watch. And it was apparently something the players enjoyed playing in. McHale appears to be a more of a basic old-school type, which may have seemed like a step back to these guys.

Who knows what these players actual problems were with McHale. But now McHale gets to start fresh with a largely new and very young basketball team. In fact, there are only two players left on this squad that even played for Rick Adelman, Kevin Martin and Patrick Patterson. And it appears Kevin Martin will likely be traded before the trading deadline.

it is going to take a few years, but McHale is going to be in a position to make this team over from scratch, completely in his own image. He shouldn't have any more problems with this sort of thing going forward.

 

Maybe the opinions and views of this article are true, but one thing needs to be said here-

This whole article has one quote from McHale taken out of context of the entire interview he gave, and places judgement on what he should or shouldn't have done based on the the writers opinions.

This isn't quality journalism. Its blogging.

Nobody knows what happened inside that lockeroom other than the players, the coaches, and whatever organizational personnel were around at the time. a few players couldn't see eye to eye with the coach, but most players loved the coach. Sounds like basketball or sports in general if you have ever been on a team of any sorts.

McHale cant compromise what he does for one ego maniac/hothead that he has to baby sit. Thats coaching 101. He can't put his credibility with the entire team in jeopardy just to suite one person.

Maybe McHale is right, and this year he can forge better mutual respect relationships with an extended player get to know you period, but if history tells us anything its that this is bound to happen again with any coach. Its an emotional game, and this happens on any team.

 

McHale on sports analytics:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...le-isn-t-too-interested-sports-210615682.html

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/05/disgruntled-lowry-feels-its-his-time-to-move-on/? utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Why did Lowry said that both he and Dragic might not return this season?? Well..odd as it seem at the time, what he said came true and maybe he knew something we didn't.

http://www.chron.com/sports/rockets...-+NBA+Basketball%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...evin_mchale_houston_rockets_coach_owner052411

 

Rick Adelman had just as many player problems as McHale if not more. Actually the main problem child, T-Will, actually had less public Twitter outburts about McHale then he did with Adelman. Martin's butthurt mentality was more projected towards Morey and the trade the didn't happen at the beginning of the season. Nothing negative was ever said about McHale from Martin.

-I think its funny to also mention that Lowry was the player that noted a loyalty to the offensive system that Adelman used to run, but it was McHales PG pick and roll system that really allowed Lowry to elevate his game and stats last year to where they were. In Adelman's system he would have had the ball in his hands much less, and there's no way he would have put up those kind of stats in his system.

Adelman did have a very fun offensive system to watch, and play. That being said he was far from a perfect coach & person as is McHale.

 

You need to STFU!

 

That means Lowry didn't think both of them would return and implied only one would be a Rocket this season. You interpreted this wrong.

 

Well maybe you should because you throw out things that aren't accurate and act like you know what the involved persons think.

You read the interview wrong, misinterpreted the Lowry thing and made up stories that both never believed in McHale, when Dragic actually said he was the best coach he ever had.

See you can't write a paragraph about insider stuff when you just make it up and then completely exaggerate and throw in your own interpretations to add.

 

Lockout season or not, there's no excuse for the Rockets not making the playoffs last year, especially when Morey did all he could with the additions of Dalembert and later Earl & Camby. McHale knew he had a shortened season, yet didn't want anything to do with Adelman's playbook from the year prior. That to me is stubborn and if there's one thing we can say about McHale, as of 99% of all coaches, is that he thinks he knows best and is stubborn. I can only think of Rudy T who really adjusted to his personell and had a lot of different looking teams in his tenure here, others all had their way of doing things.

It doesn't help that McHale is really old school and is all about hard work. The problem I personally have is that after only a few weeks / months, McHale had nothing new to say. He kept saying players needed to work harder. That was JVG's answer to everything except he blamed himself whereas McHale hasn't taken much responsibility for last season's result(s).This seems to suggest McHale feels he can only do so much to get players to work hard and if they lose, it's up to them. Adelman was also very reluctant to blame himself.

I can understand why Leslie chose to hire McHale and we all should refrain from drawing conclusions until the end of this season. At least give the guy more than 1 season before we want him gone. Now don't get me wrong, I've never wanted a coach gone more than McHale during the losing streak at the end of last year. His reluctance to play big when we needed rebounding and rim protection when we had two bigs on the bench was mind-boggling to say the least.

I just hope he has learned from his mistakes, he can get the rookies on the same page, will let the rookies develop and adjust whenever needed. With a training camp, we will hopefully see more plays and more diversity because last year was the most simple basketball since Francis and Mobley dribbling out the clock. If it's more of the same from last year, just with new personell, it's time to go but let's just wait and see

 

Stop nikpicking at my post. The fact is HcHale failed in his first year. If you dont think so, you are entitled to your opiniono. But dont tell me about I made up my post of bullshyt.

He said if Rox didnt make the playoffs, it's all on him. Where is the interview where he owned up for his failure??

Losing young talent(s) because of his coaching style is not acceptable. It's not hate. It's those articles of excuses I am tired of reading about our coach! The bucks should stop with him. Take accountable for his own action!

 

Young talent? None of the player we traded or that left were younger than 26. All the players we drafted this offseason have more potential than the players we lost. The Rookies are the young talent. Lowry, Dragic, Lee have limited upside if they haven't already hit their ceiling already.

 

You can make this case, but the rest of your original post was made up and implied things that you see that way, no actual thoughts by the involved persons and you should see it.

If you would've reduced the post to McHale not admitting mistakes that would've been okay with me, but back your points up and don't invent things about how players think about McHale, especially Dragic never said the things you stated.

PS Your STFU reply was unnecessary, maybe change that behaviour.

 

Just like you called my post full of BS. There are links i provided. Click and read.
Facts:
- McHale is not into advance stats.
- Les wanted to hire a 'smart' coach as foremost important criterium. (Morey said it)
- Les had the ultimate decision in who to hire.
- Morey had high regard with JVG.
- Lowry left mainly because of McHale.
- McHale is very knowledgeable, witted, charismatic, competitive, and totally unconventional. (opinion agreed by most)

Damn....i just about listed the rest of my post. You are nikpicking again. Stop!