It really seems that way. Mchale never seemed to push cohesiveness. It was all about Iso ball and it seemed that it allowed players to put their own agenda ahead of the main focus. Just watch Harden making an effort to get Dwight into the game. The chest bumping after an alley oop. Dwight giving Harden the props for a nice alley oop play. If those two finally learned to play together and use each other, this team is going to be scary. When Golden State came in with Kerr you saw the relationship grow between curry, Klay Thompson, and the rest of the team. JB seems to be implementing that type of bond. Now Harden needs to learn to move without the ball better. Now that he is learning to pass Dwight the ball, he should learn how to get in position to get the ball if Dwight is in trouble. Once that happens... oh boy watch out Spurs and Golden State cause this team can not be stopped.
Subjectively I feel that you're right - certainly our 0-5 record against the Nets and Nuggets stings and is perhaps evidence that we sandbag it against crappy teams - but I don't think we've played good teams night after night like we're about to do.
I mean, it's nice and all to think we had no chemistry in the last two years and the playoffs, as a way to convince ourselves a big turnaround that has never happened before is happening. But sorry to burst your bubble. We won 57 games last year and got to the WCF based largely on great team chemistry. Good narrative though. And it great Coach is riding any wave he can muster. But there are still noticeable tactical changes that are very evident that Coach is slowing injected. A double-high post that has PnR options, and spacing of the PnR that a secondary big on the weakside low post. Both are designed specifically to build "chemistry" on the PnR by dealing with how defenses have been clogging Howard's roll in the past while still showing to Harden. Those are tactical changes.
I think McHale's offensive philosophy is "keep it simple." It was obviously true in Harden's first season here. I think it has been true ever since. It was understandable because of the high roster turnover under Morey. (It might also be because of the lack of high IQ players to execute complicated systems.) It's a stark contrast to Adelman's way. I guess it could be the reason why McHale got fired because this was the first season where he had the roster continuity to set up a more sophisticated system and he failed to do so.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Last few days in practice,JBB has been working with Harden and Howard on pick and rolls. Trying to develop better chemistry.</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/679369412130934784">December 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> w/ grain of salt...but still worth noting: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/patbev21">@patbev21</a> says it'd mean "everything" if <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a> play well enough for JB Bickerstaff 2 keep job on permanent basis <a href="https://t.co/cmXsl17vIz">pic.twitter.com/cmXsl17vIz</a></p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/679427283036147713">December 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
