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

why arent we trying a zone...box and 1? 2-3? something different...If LMA drops another 30 point game, I dont know what I'll do...but "somebody is gonna get a hurt; somebody."

 

Sampson's profession is a basketball coach. He doesn't feel loyalty to an organization like we as fans do.

A better opportunity came up and he took it.

 

The fact that the head coach needs an assistant coach to hold players accountable boggles the mind. Isn't the whole point of McHale to be a leader of men?

 

Harden hated Sampson and also needed him as well.

 

Sampson was an assistant coach here. He wanted to be a head coach again and had been trying the past two years to get a head job in the NBA. He wasn't going to pass up on a chance to be a head coach again no matter what he thought about the Rockets.

 

mchale playing favorites has also changed attitudes withing the team. How can we forget chandler following Scola around like a little puppy and scola taking him in.

Flash forward 2 seasons and chandler is now a little too full of himself, like when vaughn "wild thing" started doing credit card commercials.

 

What a leader.

 

Ralph Sampson would have been perfect to put on Aldridge.

 

He did?

 

We definitely were.

 

I think that was well noted last year during the stretch Mchale was out.

 

Yup, that's why McHale is a phony.

 

Also- Keep this in mind guys-

(Probably how Cyberx found out about this in the first place)

Whatever the Rockets decide to do this Summer, Morey will almost surely get the opinion of Dwight through Dan Fegan. So as soon as the season is over, I'm sure we wont be kept in the dark very long on what Dwight wants, and what the Rockets are leaning towards doing.

I don't think Dwight will be able to pick and choose his next coach (or to keep McHale) but I absolutely think his opinion will matter in what they decide to do, and Fegan will be kept in the loop (which means we all will be kept in the loop).

-For the record, I don't think its necessarily right that superstar players get to pick or have a say-so in coaching decisions, but that's the realization that Morey and Les knew they had to deal with when they signed Dwight Howard in the first place. Its the NBA world they now live in.

 

Look everybody in this league know before the Playoffs start that the Rockets defense is very weak. Rotation is weak and they leave people open. These Playoffs games just validate that...it validate that Harden doesn't play defense and is being exploited. But i think every one will have a hard time guarding Adridge anyway. But the reason we lost is not just on defense...it's Harden inability to play up to his potential...that's the reason we lost. And the inability of the coaching staffs to help the cause. We could have won game #1 if we play a bit smarter and winning game #1 would have put pressure on Portland. Instead, they feel good about themselves after winning game #1 and just exploded again. All these due to stupidity of the coaching staffs and Harden to play smarter.

 

This surprises me less than it should. It was already fairly well speculated that Sampson was the architect of the top ten defense - after his departure it slid out of the top ten, and it really seemed more about the coaching than about the injuries over that period.

Anyways, "you took away my defensive whiz" is a really bad excuse for crappy performance because it easily leads to the question "well, why not just make HIM the head coach then if this is how much of a difference he made"? I hope Morey doesn't just assume that bringing in another defensive coordinator will fix the coaching issues, because the signs of McHale's ineptitude were there long before Sampson left.

 

Prior to Dwight and Beverley's injury, we were top 10 in defensive efficiency in the NBA.

As of February 27...

http://espn.go.com/blog/marc-stein/post/_/id/1731/defensive-player-of-the-second-trimester

As of March 28th, we had slipped to 10th (Beverley tore his meniscus on March 4th).

http://feelingjustswell.com/2014/03/28/why-the-houston-rockets-will-win-the-nba-finals/

On April 2 Sampson was hired by UH and coached his last game with the Rockets shortly afterward.

The Rockets finished the season 13th in defensive efficiency.

 

How is it legal for Sampson to leave and get hired in the middle/late part of the season anyways?? Stupid UH

 

I doubt jtr went into hiding. He hadn't posted anything for 2 weeks now. He also has no love for LMA's game, in which we had numerous debates. Despite his low efficiency, LMA's mid-range game is built for playoffs.

LOL read between the line. "Hey Morey, this is your doing. You hired Sampson and inserted him as MY defensive assistant. This one is on you!"

McHale never manned up his mistakes. NEVER. Don't expect he ever will.

 

so many coaching mistakes last night, not just on defense.

but who hired all these coaches we have, isn't it Morey???

 

I am glad. I predicted SVG, and now we will get SVG.