Sudden realization while reading "The Art of Coaching Adjustments in the NBA Playoffs"

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-t...t-of-coaching-adjustments-in-the-nba-playoffs

For those teams without massive injury issues, the changes are less noticeable, and they often focus on accounting for matchups. To find those, Van Gundy says that it’s not so much about making changes to the starting five as it is finding lineup combinations — big or small — that can provide a slight edge at various points against a specific opponent. This seems like another instance of an on-the-fly experiment, but testing different units during the regular season gives coaches a sense of what styles and specific lineups are available to them.​

You know, I’m wondering if this accounts for McHale’s weird rotations during the season. I was one of those calling for McHale's head and wondering wtf was going on, and while trying to becareful of Lin and Asik's minutes due to, respectively, injury and conditioning, accounted for some of it, other rotations just seemed bizarre. Then there was the whole musical chairs ASB, and of course the Harden v Lin controversy and etc.

Meanwhile, Rockets get into the playoffs and everybody expected McHale to fail utterly with both rotations and adjustments.

Except...

Everybody’s been pretty much applauding his rotations and adjustments in the post-season. The Rocket's defense has been lauded on bbreakdown.

And perhaps it's giving the coaching staff a bit too much credit to say that all the rotations were pre-mediatated. But certainly a MASSIVE on-the-fly experiment seems to describe the Rockets season pretty well.

All the more astonishing given that they've managed to get into the post-season despite all that.

 

Okay, good point about using 'everyone' (it's a trap!)!

Though I did notice that even the people who were sticking up with him were confused by his rotations at times. I did always maintain that I thought he was excellent with player growth and encouragement.