Sources: McHale using Sampson's absence as an excuse for poor defense

Now that you say this... i guess it does seem like the team started to go into a slump once sampson left.

 

lol.....you need the assistant coach to hold your superstar accountable?!?!? Ridiculous, can you imagine Spo needing an assistant to control LeBron? Some OKC assistant to keep Kevin Durant in check?? Either find a star that holds himself accountable or one the freaking head coach can get through too.

 

And this whole time I thought cyberx was the chair in Morey's office.

 

sampson was the real head coach. he came up with the game plans, he made the in game adjustments, he kept harden in check... sounds like mchale made a good case for how useless he is.

 

Orale!!!

 

Perfect summation.

 

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Na'Na'Na'Naaaah

Hey! Hey! Hey!

GoooooooooooooooodBYEEEEEE!!!!

 

This is nice & all, but I do not remember Harden ever playing defense...

 

true....but when you're shooting 30% and the team is losing it's not as easy to overlook.

 

Sampson was the one who held Harden the most accountable for his play and effort. He wasn't afraid to call him out. There was a brief period were Harden actually played solid defense when Sampson was still here.

 

I assume that Morey had a vision of how this team would be built. And it would be reasonable to also assume that the coach would be a part of this vision.

So to say that the situation is different and the coach is not suitable now just means that Morey either judged McHale's ability wrongly or Morey did not know what he was doing then. A third possibility is that McHale was never hired for the future. He was just a transitional figure.

 

Would OKC get rid of Scotty brooks I really like him.

 

Even if this team bounces back and wins the series...(I give that about a 1% chance) Mchale should still be fired. The only thing that should save his job is a trip to the WCF.

This is just sad.

 

I think that McHale was hired as a young coach and Morey was hoping that he'd grow into the role.

Morey also probably believed that he had more time before the team would be anywhere near contention.

I mean really, before the 2012/13 season, if anyone told you that in the next 2 years we would sign Asik, Lin, Harden and Dwight, that Parsons would become a fringe all-star and Terrence Jones would develop into a starting caliber power forward, that we'd pick up an elite perimeter defensive guard on minimum salary from RUSSIA, AND that we'd be winning 54 games with HCA in 2013/14 would YOU have believed it?

Remember, even when we signed Harden we were being pegged at 30 (THIRTY!) wins. We ended up with the 8th seed and 45 wins.

I think that Morey may be a victim of his own success. He didn't expect us to get THIS good THIS fast... and nobody in their right minds would have thought that either.

McHale's team option comes up at the end of this season, which is about the perfect timing in terms of determining whether McHale has grown sufficiently or you need a legitimate Play Off caliber coach. The problem is that Morey hit the target a full year ahead of schedule.

Morey is like the small business owner who's business exploded and he's busy trying to hire and train people on the fly.

On the other hand, it's not such a bad thing that Morey now has such an embarrassment of riches for his efforts. It's a lot better than tanking and the long term rebuild that most were expecting.

 

This. I wonder if Mchale would get fired even if we somehow get past the 1st round and lose in the 2nd.

 

I'm not going to lie all of this is interesting. If we do fire mchale I want a young underrated coach nobody is talking about. No matter who we get they are going to be successful from the beginning based on talent alone. I would love somebody like Scotty brooks or Erik spolestra or however you spell it.

 

And I would love somebody like Kevin Durant or Lebron James or however you spell it.

 

Jerry Sloan. Hard to swallow but after a pushover like McHale, this team needs a hard*ss.

 

ooooo this intrigues me.

 

Somebody from Europe