I'll run his ass off and make him sell the team. Trust me, all I'm saying his to HIM, it was a win. I didn't mind the McHale hiring...he didn't lose us 7 of 8 late, I don't think.
I am all for letting folks voice their disagreements. You cannot understand people, work through problems, or find new solutions without dissenting opinions. There is a time and a place for everything. These kind of discussions are best done privately. Some folks seem to believe that every player who has any kind of opinion that differs with the coach should be running his mouth on camera. It makes you wonder what type of organizations these folks are associated with that would encourage this type of behavior.
DD I think that most everyone at CF.net can agree how annoying it can be when someone thinks that they are the "smartest guy in the room".
He certainly played his part by being hard headed and insisting on playing the lineup with Scola and Patterson. Why? only Mchale knows. That lineup got murdered in the paint and on the boards. Its not like the big guys were injured. Often both Camby and Dalembert would play in the first 3 quarters and then be benched in the fourth in favor of the smaller lineups. During that losing streak Rockets blew a ton of leads in the third/fourth quarter, partially because of trying to play Scola at center. Scola is a really good player but he is definitely not someone that can anchor the defense and block shots. The fact that Patterson regressed from his rookie year did not help much either.
I think this is all just a reflection of what many here on this board feel. Frustration. Its understandable the players feel it too. 2011/12 didnt advance our cause in any way. We didnt gain a better pick. We didnt make a significant trade. And in many a persons view, we took a step backwards in our head coach (certainly offensively speaking). So whats to look forward to in 2012/13? In fairness, its not appropriate to ask this question at least until the draft is done and September is approaching. Something could happen. One thing is McHale could decide to expand his offensive playbook. If he doesnt have this skill himself, he can tap the shoulders of his assistants more. If they dont have something to offer, get some that do.
HOOPSWORLD Everyone.... HOOPSWORLD. Notice something in this article.... NO QUOTES. This is strickly Bill Ingram's perception/opinion here. Might as well be coming from DD. Kyle Lowry came out and quoted something about the rift between him and McHale, but other than that... who else has publicly come out and said anything that can actually be quoted? More importantly, what player went out of their way to question the direction of the franchise to essentially not tank for a draft pick. Because that's what it seems like Bill is trying to explain what the "PLAYERS" concerns are here. Kevin Martin got his feelings hurt and was bothered by the trade first and foremost, and T-Will is well... T-Will. You had three players who had some issues this season. How many were more than happy to play for McHale and seemed very happy to be in a Rockets uniform? And what players have publicly said anything about trying to rebuild the team and NOT try to make the playoffs?? How many players had a rift with Adelman last year and the year before that? Almost the exact same amount as McHale did this year that we know about. Last year it was AB & T-Will, and the year before... T-Mac & T-Mac.... come on. This is just something that happens in the NBA. Everyone is not going to get along in life, and especially with an emotional game like basketball. This is completely Bill Ingrams disgruntled fans thoughts that he's disguising as the players thoughts just because Lowry gave him one line that he can blow out of proportion last week.
LOL With the hour upon hour of media analysis we are exposed to, we hear about a coach leaving a player in too long, using the wrong defender etc, but it all is phrased as hindsight with the knowledge that there are different approaches and they all don't work every time. Seldom do you hear about a real coaching "mistake", and it seems like it is usually in football and relates to clock management.
Houston Rockets are one of the worst run organizations in the NBA Morey is so overrated, and Les is cheap Morey treats our players like trading cards. What player would want to come here, and sign a long-term deal
We all do know that there were several players who made more than 100 grand for every game they played last year. How the fan base, many who would be delighted to scrub toilets for that 100 grand a year, could get behind those miscreants is beyond me.
Not sure if "there are players angry with a coach" should surprise anyone. Every coach has players angry at them, disagreeing with them and not happy about minutes, roles or whatever. Bonzi Wells and Spanoulis were angry at Van Gundy. Steve Francis, Tracy McGrady and Terrence Williams were frustrated with Rick Adelman. Deron Williams and Jerry Sloan were apparently angry at each other. Scott Skiles and Andrew Bogut could not get along. Raja Bell just said Tyrone Corbin was "unprofessional." And lets not even get started about Melo and Dwight Howard and their coaches. It's probably easier to have most players happy when you have an elite team and a clear separation between the talent levels of the stars, role players and non-rotation guys. When you win, people complain less. When everyone sees the separation in talent level, it's easier to keep the peace among guys. After all, Juwan Howard n shouldn't have any right to think of himself as being entitled to minutes over Bosh, Lebron or even Battier and Haslem. On the other hand, before each of the last 2 seasons, Bill Simmons mentioned that it would be hard to keep guys from griping on the Rockets because you have a bunch of guys, particularly young guys and players still in their prime, with comparable talent level. So, whoever has to sit is liable to be angry and frustrated. Morey was asked about this, and I recall that his reply was something like "I see the issue, but we have to use the roster spots to gamble on guys who actually have talent/potential because we are not an elite team and can't afford to wast roster spots on 'veteran chemistry guys.'" So, a bit part of the gripes by agents and players (which may well be legitimate) is a necessary result of the strategy that the Rockets have pursued: build up enough depth so that if you make a 2-for-1/3-for-1 trade for an elite player, you still have enough depth around the guy to compete (and to convince him to stay).
Trevor Ariza and Brad Miller to name two. Scola also chose to stay when he had the option of heading out ot Europe.
The fingers and pouting come out when the team is losing. Win, and these finger-pointers and pouters don't have as much traction.
And it's easy to kick a coach when his team hits a rough stretch. It's easy to keep kicking the coach all summer when the rough stretch came at the end of the season. Kevin Mchale, as far as I can tell, is the same guy on April 1, 2012, April 15, 2012 and April 30, 2012. However, the perception was that he was a fine coach after the Rockets won 4 straight on the road, but suddenly he became a idiot a couple weeks later. He didn't do everything perfectly, but neither did Adelman (WHY U KEPT PLAYING JORDAN HILL AND AARON BROOKS?!). In the end, both coaches achieved similar results with similar rosters.
Sam Amick partially(?) backs up HW's claims. [rquoter]-(Around the NBA, if McHale got good reviews for the job he did): Yeah he did because in my little corner of it, it's interesting that early on, I was hearing negative stuff. That the locker room was not loving his rotations, not loving quite a few things about him. I remember writing a notebook where I had quoted a scout anonymously saying that his sets were as easy to defend as they come in the NBA. Rough goings early on but they put some wins together. Seemed like it reached a point where you couldn't knock the work he was doing because they were doing ok, all things considered, and by the end of it, it was decent reviews.[/rquoter]
Obviously a more reliable source than HW, but there were more than a few people on that roster that weren't going to play given the way the roster was structured, and at the beginning of the season he was going almost 12 deep to try and get a pre-season type of feel for who should be in his 8 to 10 man rotation. The rumblings coming from the lockeroom.... probably were the guys not in the rotation. T-Will, Morris, etc. I dont see that as anything McHale could have avoided even if he wanted to. As for his sets, yeah. Swing the ball side to side/post up Scola to draw a double team and open up shooters. Other than the pick and roll thats a pretty basic offensive set that any NBA team can defend. IMO, that offensive system was put in place to play off of a dominant big man. McHale/Sampson/Finch have enough knowledge in the game of basketball to run the princeton offense that this team is really built to run. I personally believe there was a reason they decided to run this system from training camp on. Obviously it was a bad system fit for the players that were on the roster, but from a fan's perspective, there are obvious reasons why it was there from day 1. These players weren't the players that they thought they were going to be playing with before the season began.
This is what I talked about last year with the roster being over crowded with like ability players. Guys at the end of the bench are as good as those that are starting, thus making a good majoriy unhappy. There is no clear heirarchy on this team - there is no seperation, it is a coaching nightmare.... Morey has built a roster of young role players with not enough time available for them to develop, it is going to get ugly unless we can clear it out some. And having 2 or 3 more picks this year is only making it worse. DD
Agreed sending lottery picks to the D-League hurts the development of players, not helps them You only get better by playing againist NBA level Talent
