Les Alexander: Rockets are contenders and do not need to get out of the first round

It all makes sense to me now. They just want to run a circus of wows with the Harden Isos. They think they are wowing the fans out their pockets. Only explanation why this team plays so dumb. Like a Kobe show.

 

Morayn is fine. The GM job is set.

Les cannot be the owner forever so we should think about adjusting to a younger owner (Ballmer, younger Jobs type, Magic Johnson?)

 

knowlegeable coach?

 

Of course people are trying to rationalize it. It's a really odd statement. Les has shown in the past that he does want to win, therefore people are trying to understand where this loser statement suddenly came from.

Does this imply that Kevin McHale and Daryl Morey have no interest in winning?

The owner isn't on the court playing, nor is he motivating the team, nor is he running basketball operations. Yes, he's a superfan who has veto power.

I just don't think the sky is falling. Morey and McHale still have professional reputations to uphold and I don't think they are going to suddenly reverse course and trade James Harden for Austin Rivers.

 

Saying something like what he said is head scratching because you hear the "championship or bust" talk non-stop in sports, but like I mentioned before, Les' actions over the past 20 years have said otherwise. The guy absolutely cares about winning at the highest level.

Anyone who has followed Les Alexander the sports owner over the past 20 years knows he's not the public persona that a Mark Cuban is. Coming out of the mouth of a better public speaker and the message probably would have been quite refreshing to hear.

The fact is, the Rockets, and probably all 4 teams that get beat in the first round this year SHOULD NOT overreact to their situation and make drastic moves this Summer. The top 10 team in the West are all really, really good. The Rockets, the Blazers, the Mav's etc. aren't going to be playing The Bad News Bears in the first round of the playoffs.

So to your point of "agree to disagree with who you want running your franchise", I guess we do disagree. I would rather have an owner that says stupid crap and his actions put a product like the Rockets have consistently on the floor rather than have an owner with Tony Robbins speaking ability who gambles with the teams future over the next ten years just so they can signal to their fans that they are going all in.

 

Seriously? Has the Rockets' nearly 2 decade era of futility convinced some of you that playoff success is some random act of God that's outside the control of ownership and management? Here's a crazy thought. If you have a team that can't win a playoff series, you figure out why and address those concerns.

Did Les do any of that after the Portland loss? Not really. He immediately exercised the 4th year option on McHale. Not even 24 hours went by before he did that. Did he bother seeing who else was available? Did he try to at least make sure the assistant coaching staff was bolstered first? Nope.

What about improving the talent level on this team? Well, apparently Les' master plan was that we were gonna sign a big name free agent. He said so himself. Not much thought seemed to go into whether or not the players we pursued were the right fit though. Otherwise he wouldn't have wined and dined Melo who never wanted to come here and made no sense anyway since we were presumably set at the 3 spot(before the Parsons debacle). Or waited around for Bosh to make up his mind, when all along he apparently had no desire to come here and didn't even want the pressure of playing on a contender. Meanwhile players who were perfect fits but not marquee names like Kyle Lowry quickly resigned with their teams(for a lot less than Melo and Bosh I might add).

We have a very long track record of Les as owner to examine and when you look at it, you conclude that his formula for building a contender is to try to trade for or sign big name players. He doesn't believe in building through high draft picks(Yao was the result of lucky ping pong balls following an injury-riddled season). He also doesn't seem too eager to replace coaches unless it reaches a breaking point such as 4 straight lotto seasons under Rudy or going 0-3 in first round series under JVG(funny how McHale isn't held to the same standard).

Is there a single foolproof way to build a championship NBA team? Of course not. Recent title winners like the Heat, Celtics, Lakers, Mavs, and Spurs all used different formulas to achieve success. And it didn't necessarily happen right away for all of them. But what they all had were very good or great coaches and at least one foundational player acquired through a lottery pick(Wade, Pierce, Kobe, Dirk, and Duncan).

As a long-suffering Rockets fan, I just wish we had an owner who was willing to reevaluate his approach to achieving success. Or if these comments are to be taken at face value, actually gave a sh-t about winning titles.

 

mchale is not the answer to postseason success, and that has been very apparent over the last couple years. giving him that kelvin cato extension early in the season was just pure lunacy. hard to feel happy about an owner who does something as foolish as that. and even more difficult when you factor in the unlikelihood of him ever eating any $ on that contract extension.

 

How is Ballmer doing so far? Or should I say... how is Doc the GM doing since Ballmer gave him free reign?

Ever played little league baseball? Remember the constant conundrum that comes from the "coaches son" situation? Do you think that's not going to come up and bite him in the arse when its not just a little aluminum trophy on the line, but millions of dollars on the line for other players playing behind the coaches son?

Again... this comes back to the public persona & public speaker owner. It seems like if you can woo the fans with smooth & tough talk you can get away with not walking the walk with making stupid decisions like giving the coach GM duties, or letting you starting center & bench depth on a title winning team go so you can chase Deron Williams in free agency.

Are fans really this dumb that all they need is a soothsayer who tells them what they want to hear, and they really don't pay attention to the process of the actions of the owners behind the scenes?

 

Ok, so now we have nothing so we keep pulling the coaching thing back out of our a#$es because we have nothing else.

Seriously... is that the best you guys can do?

Keep this in mind... Les can fire McHale at any point. Les' point was that he didn't want to create tension this season by having a lame duck coach. That doesn't mean that if McHale underachieves he wont think twice about yanking him in a heartbeat.

But as much as I said last year that McHale was a bottom 8 NBA coach, I still struggle to see how the Rockets are improved with a different big name old school half-retired coach like the ones you guys think would be a difference maker. If I hear 68 year old Rick Adelman's name one more time I swear I'm going to hit something. He's GONE, he's retired. He's not physically and mentally up for coaching anymore, and was already half retired his last year in Houston.

There is no salary cap on coaches. Why McHale getting an extension is such a hot point with the fans I really don't know. He's done well thus far with his winning percentage, he has an EXCELLENT supporting cast of assistant coaches, the young players coming into their organization are showing improvement, he has a great working relationship with the front office in being receptive to their roster moves & changes being made to style of play, and he has a great hold on the RELATIONSHIPS with the star players who love playing for him.

If there isn't value in all of that, I don't know what to tell you. YES... McHale is still probably a bottom half of the league coach as far as complicated executioner goes, but there if you arbitrarily throw out the entire equation of what coaching an NBA team is outside of complex play-calling (something that is rare anyways in the NBA), you will be smart enough to see that there are at least REASONS to see where this goes with this group and the coaching staff.

Nobody is saying that McHale is the greatest coach to ever walk the planet. I didn't even hear that from Les Alexander who seems to be his biggest cheerleader.

 

Mavs fans are, lol :grin:

 

What is Les doing behind the scenes? Over the last 6 months, he and Morey whiffed horribly on Melo and Bosh and then they reupped McHale for another 3 years before he's even proven himself in the postseason.

Now Morey has managed to salvage last offseason with a series of trades for role players like Terry and Brewer, signing free agents like Ariza and Papa, and lucking into Josh Smith(well, depending on your point of view) when Detroit cut him.

But is this because they've reevaluated their approach to building a contender and now value depth and defense(I've given up on them caring about coaching) over trying to put together as many superstars as possible. Or are most of these players just assets sitting around until the right deal comes along?

 

Looks like one of those tinman polls. :grin:

Anyway, my beef with Les in the past decade or so has always been his treatment of coaches. He just flicked his fingers when he didn't feel like it and they were gone. Extending McHale like that is totally unlike him. It's really a head scratcher.

I don't' understand the "cheap" accusation though. He's not cheap. In fact, I think he is too much into getting big name players. I am not sure if the "third star" chase is his idea or Morey's. It wouldn't surprise me if it had his fingerprints on it.

 

Les: "We are making good money, McHale is here to stay"

 

What is Les doing behind the scenes.... he's running an organization like he would any business that he wants to be successful long term.

In running any business, you can and you should have a vision with goals and a plan & processes put in place to achieve those goals.

However, where most management falls short is when they either bite off more than they can chew with delusions of grandeur that can bankrupt and destroy organizations, or when they fail to view how their environment is changing around them and making adjustments accordingly.

The Rockets making the run at Bosh & Melo I don't know why anyone would have a problem with. Its not like with Cuban and D-Will where he actually gave up key pieces for a supposed "superstar". Still people here still find a way to criticize. It cost the Rockets Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik... two players who weren't in the longterm future. Even then, with moving both players, they essentially get a pick swap with their pick (going to LA) for the Pelles pick (looks to be better than the Rockets pick). I don't understand the criticism. Are the Rockets supposed to NOT acquire all-star players when they are available? How would that look to the negative sports fans around Houston?

If you put yourself in the position of Les Alexander at ANY POINT IN TIME tell me the decision you would have made AT THAT TIME not knowing the future, and tell me what you would have done differently that would have taken that team at that time from a good 50+ win team to a team that was for sure going deep in the playoffs.

As I eluded to in the first paragraph, IMO the strength of Les Alexander the business owner is his awareness of his environment & where he stands. I know that Les and Morey are going to always make adjustments on the fly to recoup from losses & often come out ahead. The comfort Rockets fans can have with Les and Morey is they know their team is going to be in the fight every year. You aren't going to get too many if any years like the Knicks are having this year. You are going to get a consistent winning product.

I know I want more than that as I know all of you do too. But that's just the harsh reality of how things work. You can do everything right and its still not going to be good enough in the end. All you can ask as fans is that your team tries everything they can to get an edge to put themselves in a position to compete. If you have a problem with what they are doing, voice your opinion, but do so in a fair way. Tell us what is so blatantly obvious that they should be doing instead that you would do in certain circumstances.

Is Les a perfect owner... no. Would I still choose him over more than half of other sports owners in the world... absolutely. The guy is at least going to give his teams a fighting chance every year. He's proven that and deserves that much from us as loyal Rockets fans.

 

i have not lumped you in together with every les lover, so either reply directly to my posts or don't quote them in your own. i don't want adelman here, i was one of the more vocal posters for having him let go several years ago. and i already posted that it's unlikely les would fire mchale and eat that 3 year contract. we are talking about the poorest owner of all 30 nba teams here. odds are slim that he accepts that loss. as far as mchale's strong points, imo they're irrelevant when he is simply unable to effectively perform the primary task of in-game management. his being unable to make adjustments, make judgement calls, and call plays when needed on the fly at crucial junctures in elimination playoff games overrides any other extraneous good he might bring along.

 

Les is a good owner, and Morey is an excellent GM, but people love to b****. Never forget all the obstacles that the Rockets have, tough division, tougher conference, not a glamor city, yet Morey has built the Rockets into a team that should average 50-55 victories for the rest of the decade and beyond, so let's just see how they do in the playoffs before pushing the rage button.

 

Please. You seriously think Les will eat $13 million guaranteed if McHale does a horrible job the rest of this season? There's no way he's going anywhere unless this team misses the playoffs entirely and even that's doubtful given how much money he's owed.

And why would there be tension with McHale not being under contract for next season? He technically wasn't last year since this season was a team option. Players play all the time without a contract for the following season. In fact, most times it's better for the organization since it motivates the person to do the best job he can in order to ensure he receives a nice fat payday from either his current team or another one.

If Les was seriously worried that someone else would swoop in and steal McHale after this season(and he's said publicly that he did have that fear), then that shows just how out of touch he really is. Trust me, no other contending team was desperately seeking the services of Kevin McHale.

 

Oh crap... well at least I didn't make a new thread out of it.

It really was surprising to see that vote of confidence, but the explanation makes sense if you read between the lines. McHale has an agent just like the players do, and if you remember correctly, they were apparently real pushy to get McHale in front of the Rockets when he was looking to get a job. It could be one of those things behind the scenes where he's essentially saying... look, here's the money, now lets all just focus on basketball right now.

As for the treatment of coaches.... 4 coaches in 21 years is pretty stable. It seems like the Lakers have had that many coaches in the past 12 months. The JVG firing was Morey's idea when he came on, but yeah Adelman and Les didn't really get along.

However Adelman, I'm sure wasn't a complete saint. We are talking about a coach who completely coasted after leaving Houston, was reaching his late 60's, wanted to just keep "his guys" that could run his system, and refused to put in time to support the team from a media perspective. There was a big fuss about that being made.

Point being.... 4 coaches in 21 years. Say what you want, but obviously Les believes in coaching stability unlike most modern pro sports franchises.

IMO, I think the big name thing is part of him understanding the business side of sports. The NBA is a big name star driven league. As a basketball fan I could criticize, but at the end of the day, put yourself in his shoes as a guy trying to run a business, and look at your product you are selling.

 

What does this have to do with any point trying to be made. How does Les giving McHale an extension have anything to do with consistent 50+ win team vs. a team that wins a championship?

You guys are seriously losing you mind looking for things to b**** about.

Tell me again... besides this idiotic coaching extension argument, what EXACTLY would you do in Les' shoes that would have made a 50+ win team a championship winning team?

Other than NOT give McHale an extension. And yes... if there is evidence that Morey and Les see that says with these X's and O's decisions weren't being made ON A CONSISTENT BASIS we would have won the title or gone deep in the playoffs, they make the switch & eat guaranteed $ on McHale's deal if there is a coach out there they thing makes that difference.

 

I really have no idea what point you are trying to make-

A. How is McHale NOT making adustments - (going small often if necessary, inserted Asik in starting lineup, etc. etc.)
B. Judgement calls- What does that even mean? Ask Byron Scott about his judgement call the other night to not foul with 35 seconds or whatever the clock was at. THAT is a judgement call... you want McHale to make those type of calls?
C. Call Plays?



If you think there is some glamorous Princeton set the Rockets should be running in late game situations I would love to see it. I'm a hoops junkie and love seeing actual basketball suggestions rather than the same worn out b****ing about these blanket statements like "McHale doesn't run plays", "his substitutions are poor", etc. etc. What does that even mean? Show me in terms of the actual gameplay and explain actual basketball sets instead of relying on the blanket narratives.

Reg the Rockets complex late game play calling... This is the modern NBA, and you have maybe the best isolation or P&R scorer in the league. What do you REALLY expect in a late game situation that Isn't a high P&R with Harden at the top of the key???