Yea, seems like Lin and Harden may have found the right balance. I also like the Lin/Harden/Douglas lineup. Plus, both Lin and Harden's TOs are down. for these past couple of games. Hopefully they can build off these 2 games
Thank God Mchale is back.. don't if it's luck that Jlin showed up during the spurs game that made them realized that they doing it all wrong during the Sampson period. Had one stinking rotation in todays game. the rest was great. Anyway the Grizzlies game I think will be the real test to see this sticks and works. Machale >>>>>> Sampson
You are right, the Griz are a fearsome team with that front court. And starting Christmas day the Rockets play 4 games in 5 days. Ouch! But I think McHale is doing a heck of a job with the team. Lin got through a really rough patch, and seems to have his confidence back. McHale stuck with Douglas, whom we all wanted to see benched forever. The Rockets have not become a contender through the first 23 games of the season, but I think all of us fans can see the improvement. I am looking forward to the rest of the season. This young team is entertaining.
I actually like the small lineup we've been using lately..douglas, lin, and harden. Having TD out there opens up a lot for lin and harden. TD is perfect as a SG, which is also his natural position.
I'm actually fine with that one rotation because they were experimenting with the lineups/rookies. Let them try it out for a bit; it's not like you couldn't tell from the opening that the starters couldn't have the game in hand.
Yah he was finishing strong tonight... This guy is only 26... 7 footers like him (have size and dont rely on athleticism) can play productively into their early 30s... He rebounds so well it drastically improves this team...
So this has become the thread where we congratulate McHale on his coaching? That's awesome! Go Rockets!
What's happening right now is the players are executing to McHale's decisions. This is making him look good. I do not mean that in a bad way. I just mean things are going according to plan. For example, Carlos Delfino is draining deep shots and getting dagger steals at the top of the key. Tony Douglas is making baseline jumpers off the dribble. Things are going well for McHale. I don't think he's even an average caliber NBA coach in terms of X's and O's, but I'm willing to wait and see.
The Rockets currently rank 7th in the NBA on offense despite a patchwork of new players and James Harden arriving 2 days before the season. So you honestly believe there are 15+ coaches in the NBA who would have us ranked 6th or higher right now?
both samson and mchale looked good to me all season long... so many players developing their talent game in game out being competitive in almost all games, losing mainly in OT or last minute although playing well are all indicators of good coaching...only knee-jerkers could think bad of samson and mchale...
When you have top 2 players +41 & +33, and your bottom two players at -18 & -23, something is still wrong in the substitutions. Only if the coaches followed what we are all along saying here, Rockets would easily be 3 ~ 4 games more on the winning side... Still don't like pulling out Lin too early, especially arround 3:00 mark before the half time... Need to define the roles and minutes for everybody in every game, before I am fully convinced the coach knows what he is doing. Yah, don't give me that experienmenting crap !!!
Ultimately, I think the TOR game's utter coaching failure put the coaches on notice with 2 picks on Calderon for an entire half and half the 3rd. Since then, the NYK game had been raining picks for Lin, MEM game had been raining picks for Lin, and CHI game had been raining picks for Lin. Also after they had that one play where they stumble upon the "novel" idea of having Harden set a pick for Lin in the NYK game (one time), there have been many Harden picks for Lin since. It's not that Lin and Harden are figuring it out; it's that the coaches are figuring it out. It's hard to believe it took the coaches this long to figure out something this basic, but at least they are capable of learning, which is a good sign.
This thread needs to hurry up and die already. McHale is a players coach who wants to run, it's just what a young team wants, and needs.
