We're not trying to prove the existence of god here... Exactly. The coach with one of the greatest records ever. The same one who speaks out to the media. Same for Adelman, JVG, and countless other great coaches. You may not agree with it, but doesn't mean it's wrong.
Classic response when throwing out something baseless. I believe there is an invisible gnome living in your house, you may not believe it but I do. There is no proof, it is simply what we believe. Too bad all proof suggest that teams have been successful despite treating players like assets, Hakeem included.
Effort level is obvioulsy a concern in light of the Memphis, Clippers and OKC (road) games. However, this team did have some good effort games (in both wins and losses) this season. So I hope the problem can be fixed. There are lots of theories out there, but to me, it seems that the big reason is the loss of the team's "security blankets": Chuck Hayes and Adelman. It's not so much that the personal toughness of these two guys inspires everyone to be tough. Instead, what happens is that, last season, the team could always go back to the motion offense (with Chuck as the high post-passer) when it struggles to come up with points. Now, a few bad offensive possessions seem to result in guys forcing shots or drives, which leads to even more bad offesnive possesions, turnovers, and bad runs in favor of the opposition. Remember, we really don't have the superstars on this team and playing "hero ball" is a recipe for disaster. Also, Chuck was always the defensive anchor of the team: not only did he force opposing post players to take tough shots, he also played good team D, takes charges and gets deflections even if he was not a shot blocker. The loss of Chuck was compounded by the fact that many of his minutes went to Jordan Hill, who was, frankly, quite terrible last year (leads tended to get blown as soon as Jordan Hill enters the game) and still has a long way to go to be a positive on the court. On this front, I also blame Patrick Patterson' health-- he was supposed to be the capable Chuck replacement.
His job is doing what McHale says. So, is he doing is job or not? Brooks is the one who pouted and didn't do his job. you have such weird logic to spin anything you want even if you contradict yourself.
I don't think it's the coach, I think it's finding some combos of 5 players that make sense together. Last season, the same thing happened early in the season until the they found a rotation (Lowry, Chuck, Scola, Martin, Battier (until the trade) Budinger, Lee and Patterson) that worked well together and guys who were disasters in the lineup (Brooks and Hill) were excluded. Something similar is going on now, with the added challenge of a limited training camp and pre-season where a lot of the rotation sorting was supposed to happen.
The Rockets will never be a contender until the Morey/Les era is over. Les doesn’t understand basketball and Morey doesn’t understand people and neither guy complements the other guy’s weakness. Throw in Sergeant McHale and you’ve created an environment where the players don’t trust the organization and don’t want to be here which makes other guys not want to come here. Not much of a winning recipe. I was more than happy to see Adelman go but that was before Morey tried to trade two of the three best players on the team for a choking loser of a “star”. The players were pissed about that and Adelman could have rallied them together to play for him and for themselves. McHale does not have that type of relationship with them (and probably never will) so he is just another part of the Les/Morey team that repeatedly treats these guys as assets and without any sense of class. Congratulations Morey and Les. You took a team that was short on talent but long on heart and ripped that heart out. Now we have a team of guys going through the motions until that day when they turn on ESPN and find out they were traded to the Raptors the night before.
Chemistry matters. 2nd half of the season, with Adelman, every seemed to compliment each other and play hard. Aaron Brooks leaving helped the team chemistry. Look at the Nuggets and Blazers. You have to play together and have players who love to play basketball. Everyone loves to play in games. Unless you have a ridiculous amount of talent, the only way you can compete is if you players who love and respect the game enough to work their ass off in practice.
You are funny HP, thinking that a guy with a guaranteed contract is simply going to fall in line and play hard for an organization that has shown it does not value him as a player. Look, I get that a bunch of you don't get it, fine with me. Let's watch how McHale gets them to up their effort....maybe it will work, maybe the vets will buy in, maybe not. We shall see. DD
Nothing at all wrong with what McHale said. Motivation is part of coaching. This guy is an All-Time great with multiple rings. He knows what he's talking about.
Could you please on behalf of Clutchfans release this statement to the Houston Rockets. I cannot put it in better words than this.
We get it. When facts and quotes don't align with your drama queen theories then you spin things and change the argument. We get it. You logic is so poor. Seems like your only logic is to boost your post count. You are more about creating arguments like a radio talk show host than talking real basketball. We get it.
The ****ed up part is McHale seems to be a people person. So one would think he's a "players coach" which he very well still may be. Perhaps that's why he was hired and he still might be able to compliment Morey/Les.
I agree about Morey not being a people person. He just doesn't come across as that type of manager, and massaging egos is huge in the NBA. As far as Les goes, they guy doesn't seem to have a real vision. His 20 years of ownership can mostly be characterized as "tossing stuff on the wall to see what sticks". With that out of the way, I still think Les is a good owner and Morey is a smart GM, but the theory that they might bring out the worst in each other has a ring of truth to it.
I am giving the blame in 4 seperate directions. 1) Les Alexander & Daryl Morey - 50% I'm jsut wondering. Are the rockets trying to get into the playoffs or are they trying to tank? I would kind of like to know the direction of this franchise for the next 3/4 years. 2) McHale - 25% Maybe 25% is a bit too harsh, it's difficult to come on to a new team and try to get everyone on the same page. but little things like playing scola as center and jordan hill as center were wrong. also starting budinger wasn't the right decision either, thank god he put an end to that. this team is horrible on defense, even though we have lowry, lee, williams, and dalembert. even parsons has shown some defensive skill. there has to be something wrong there. 3) the Players - 25% Well this team sucks lol, when you don't have the talent, you don't have the talent. but i would like to see some flair, some passion. i haven't seen that at all this season (with the exception of lowry, parsons, and dragic)
Are you talking about the same guy that should have won Finals MVP a few years ago going against the Celtics? The same guy that has won multiple rings and played well in the playoffs virtually every season? NEXT....
