I'm one of the people on record as despising McHale. His in-game decisions often baffle me. Our defense last year was so unserious that I felt it disqualified him as a head coach. I was aghast a year ago when Morey renewed him. However: The turnaround in defense, in a single offseason, has been shocking. So he gets huge points for "getting it" and executing a change of focus and culture quickly. That can be very hard to do. Also: It's true, as many of you have noted here, that our chemistry has been good, and that it has been good despite a lot of churn in personnel. Credit for that should absolutely go to the head coach. So the best rationale for McHale would be this: Morey believes his own job as GM is to churn personnel to improve the team. And what he wants from a head coach isn't so much X's and O's -- much of which can be managed by assistants -- but to manage whatever mess Morey creates (personality-, role- and minutes-wise) in the process of churning. "I trade this starter, I trade that starter, I let this one walk, I sign this guy and that guy and this other guy -- Here, you have a completely new team. Make it work." McHale has done that. He's done it with the departures and the arrivals and the injuries. For managing the mess, he gets an A. I do wish he were a better game manager, and I'm afraid that will cost us a couple of close games in the playoffs. Last year, that price proved fatal. But for getting us here, getting us the #2 seed, and putting us in a better position than the eggheads expected, we can't just credit Morey. We have to credit McHale too. Can somebody find Morey's description of what he was looking for in a head coach when he hired McHale? There was supposedly a car ride where they bonded, right? I have a vague memory that Morey talked about his criteria. But I can't remember the details.
