Well, if you use those defensive measures of "pts scored against" and "FG%" against then Lin is a better defender than Beverley and is also one of the best defenders on our team. It just doesn't make sense. Why do you think McHale used Parsons on CP3 and last game and Parsons on DWill this game. Do you think McHale doesn't know what he's doing?
The problem is people constantly make excuses on ClutchFans instead of just acknowledging McFail isn't a good coach. Here's excuse #1 tonight: The Rockets were missing 3 key players. Refutation of excuse #1: The Nets were missing 4 key players tonight. Here's excuse #2 tonight: The Rockets have "a lot of works-in-progress." Refutation of excuse #2: Jason Kidd, a first year coach, had two rookies in the rotation give him effective mins tonight. What's the excuse for the pathetic defensive effort?
Yeah our defence sucked tonight, whether that was due to match ups or not, I think we still would have lost this game because it was our offence that was crap. We have never relied on our defence to win games, and it's not gonna start now. We rely on our OFFENCE to outscore the opponent and with Casspi (man he really sucks) and Canaan and DMo playing like crap, we still only lost by 9. If Casspi had made his layups, and DMo had not put up a fat zero, we would have won this game, in spite of the defensive match ups, which is how we are built to beat teams. Whether Lin on Williams or Parsons on Johnson would have worked better, we don't know. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference anyway and we would be complaining about why McHale didn't stick Parsons on Williams instead. What we DO know is that Casspi sucks, and that's not McHale's fault - he had to play him out of necessity. All those WIDE-OPEN shots that our crappy role-players missed was the problem.
McHale is doing what he's paid to do he's developing employees to do their job. Morey didn't give McHale a balance roster with veterans. It's not fair to criticize him without mentioning that.
Your excuse for McHale seems pretty legitimate. I'm a little old fashioned. Win or Lose... how a team plays is ON THE COACH. I wouldn't mind this loss so much if we showed a little heart, especially on defense. Not only did we not show heart, our system (if you can call it that) was pathetic. What de McHale say after the game again... The ball wasn't moving... It got sticky... WELL I'M SICK OF HEARING IT... JUST FIX THE PROBLEM... (fall to my knees) DAMN YOU SPURS!!!
Rockets were hung over from partying last night. Net players live in New York and don't need to party every chance they get. That's why TJ was "sick."
McHale and Kidd inside trax: Navigate to @ 9:00 minute https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8ppsdllymikf08/Brooklyn%20Nets%20vs%20Houston%20Rockets%20-%201047%20-%201102%5B1%5D.asf
This "No System" offense isn't going to cut it when we are missing starters and in the half court. We can't read and react our weak bench into scoring baskets. We need a system that can get easy baskets when we need one.
To be fair, I don't think any team system outside of the Spurs is designed around losing your starting Center, PG, Power Forward and Back up center (Greg Smith). And the Spurs took YEARS to develop that level of cohesive play. Folks can say, "No excuses" however if you looked at last night's roster, it's basically a bubble play off team at best, and more likely a lottery team. Even last year's roster pre-Dwight was stronger and deeper than what we put on the floor in Brooklyn.
Look at Phoenix roster. They're going to make the playoffs and we have a better roster than them right now with all the injuries. Chicago as well has a trash roster but they have that system where the PF or center is midrange passing. Hell i see Boozer playmaking in the midrange as well. You don't have to be an allstar to do that.
Not comparable. Phoenix has had *ALL* year to implement a system with those players. The Bulls had all of last year and this year to develop their system around the absence of Rose. You don't jump magically implement a good system. It takes practice time and play time to develop chemistry. IF we had the same roster last night through the entire season, the results tonight would have been much better. However, we didn't and the team was adapting on the fly. And it showed. Teams are like well oiled machines. You just can't pull out parts and expect the machine to work well without doing some substantial tinkering and testing. Just look at how our core roster has developed over the season. The first 2 months they were nowhere near the level of play they were post ASG. Chemistry takes time, and no matter how much we wish otherwise you just can't plug and play players and expect good results. Especially a team as young and inexperienced as the Rockets.
Look at San Antonio's bench. It changes fairly often and they have new players every year. Baines, Mills, Daye, the list goes on. They plug and play. It's about coaching and repetition.
The coaching for sure. Those players know their role and know it well. The rockets do not have a defined role due to injuries and random rotations. Still a year for finding themselves.
The Spurs play their bench players FAR more minutes together than we do. How much more? Think about this... of the ENTIRE Spurs team, there is not a single player that plays more than 30.1 minutes per game. Top 5 Spurs players by minutes played... Tony Parker 30.1 MPG Tim Duncan 29.3 MPG Kawhi Leonard 29.0 MPG Marco Belinelli 25.1 MPG Boris Diaw 25.1 MPG Here are the top 5 Rockets players by minutes played James Harden 38.0 MPG Chandler Parsons 37.7 MPG Dwight Howard 34.0 MPG Patrick Beverley 31.3 MPG Jeremy Lin 28.9 MPG So where are the bench players getting ALL this time to work out their chemistry exactly? Especially with Canaan having just joined the roster?
Injuries happen. It's pure procrastination and negligence to ignore the fact. San Antonio has prepared their bench players ALL YEAR. They've rested the vets and challenged the bench to win games. What do the Rockets do? They overplay the starters and now the chickens have come to roost. Torocan nailed it. They teach and we don't. They've prepared their bench while we haven't.
On the flip side, we also have to accept that McHale likely doesn't have anywhere near the clout of Pops. Pops basically runs the basketball operations, and has implicit trust from the FO and Ownership. McHale is fighting for his job this season (like most head coaches). And the vast majority of head coaches will NOT sacrifice wins for the purposes of player development. McHale is behaving like an average head coach, which is pretty much what I expected from him this season. While Pops way of coaching is definitively superior, I can only blame McHale so much for not being Pops or not being in a position where he could make play time decisions like Pops. I just accept that McHale is who he is and hope he either develops and improves, or that Morey hires a coach that can take the team to the next level.
I'm trying to focus on the positives that Kevin brings as a coach, and at times, that's very difficult. Quite frankly, I think Kevin McHale is EXTREMELY "slow" when it comes to reacting to the game. His adjustments are chronically late, or when they happen, the necessity to adjust has already passed. You can see JB and Kelvin looking at him with disgust in some instances, probably because their reaction time is faster. Kevin's a cool guy, says positive things and people seem to like him. That doesn't translate to him being an effective coach. I'm thankful for our record this year, but I cannot lie to myself and say McHale put a system or an identity in place for our guys to be at the 49 win mark. We have a fairly talented team that has really worked to get to this point. There are times where I feel flat out bad for our main rotation of guys. There are times where they have to coach themselves in those crucial moments, or one guy has to step up and tell the rest of them the plan. Normally, it's James who decides. I'm okay with it, but only because it has translated to wins. If we had more of a systematic coach like Pop, Doc, Thibs, JVG, RA, the UNDERRATED RICK CARLISLE ,Terry in Portland etc....our guys wouldn't have to work even that much harder on the analytical side. Props to Kevin for being our coach during a winning season. Props to Kevin for a positive attitude and making no apologies for his substitutions, even when they backfire. Either way, my opinion is that our team would have a stronger identity, toughness to persevere in rough moments and have other teams fearing them come playoff time if there was more of a powerhouse in our coaching circle. It all trickles down. Just look at what Doc did to the Clips, especially DeAndre. Look at what Thibs did to the Bulls without the MVP. Look at what Pops does with his nursing home roster and new guys each year. Their identities are defined, strong and create fear among the league. We don't have that. BUT...we DO have a winning record and we're set to make the playoffs. I can't complain about that. Could we be better, in terms of preparation and collective knowledge in the final moments of close/meaningful games? Damn right. We just don't have the personnel for that luxury at the moment. Firing McHale right now would be ridiculous. However, if we fail to make the second round and if we lose because Kevin is downright outcoached by a team with lesser talent, I think you give him his exit ticket. James Harden and Dwight Howard aren't going to be patient for a former Top 50 Player of All Time to work out his coaching kinks that should have been smoothed out a long, long time ago. I understand that the season is a long struggle, but that's why the coaches who counteract the struggle and WIN BIG are paid so much. They breathe that identity to the ENTIRE roster, who in turn, recognizes that there are no excuses and win not only with talent, but with an intelligent, wise and forward-thinking approach to 4 quarters. Love my Rockets, and our die hard fans. ROCKETS fans that is. one love. -Cod
