McHale is still not the best Xs and Os coach. But I now think that he is doing a good job, where as in the first part of the season he was getting outcoached. Maybe a light bulb lit inside his head. Or maybe the addition of hamilton, Omer being back, are among the reasons he has been coaching better. Let's see after a few more games.
I think McHale has been pretty good since he was hired. We thought there would be a huge drop off once Rick Adelman was let go, but the Rockets still stayed competitive. Last 2 seasons have been exciting to see simply cuz this is the least amount of player turnover we've seen in quite awhile which means more continuity and chemistry. Clearly, the players love playing for McHale and have full trust in him in as well. I would say he's quickly gaining respect among NBA coaches.
I like McHale, there are better coaches out there, but I really think he is what this team needs right now. We have a young group of guys that need to learn how to play in the NBA and learn how to play well together. McHale is allowing them to do just that. Throughout the season we have seen him start to tinker with the matchups more as each player has shown what they can and cant do. Ive also been impressed with some of the inbound plays that have been written up as of late. I think this years playoffs will tell us what we need to know about our team and our coach. Regardless its a very exciting time to be a Houston Rockets fan.
Crunch time situations and substitutions are always questionable, to the fans. That's what all fans do with every team. They like to second guess all coaching decisions after the fact. I guess that's what makes sports fun for some fans. No coach gets it right all the time. Coaching is always a guessing game. I haven't been critical of McHale at all. He knows a lot more about basketball and the capabilities of his players than any of us. I think it's important to keep in mind that this is a young team with a lot of players that haven't played together very long. McHale is still experimenting with different player combinations to see what works and what doesn't. I think the results speak for themselves. The Rockets are 44-19 and are still improving.
Kevin McKale have to step up his coaching game in the playoffs and we should be ok! match ups players, play his bench more in game so they will be ready to step up when the starters are tired or just can't do it, should give his players rest before game only practice an hour before the game, seems they have no energy before some game, continue to work on defense. We will be ok !
McHale deserves credit for his adjustments and for raising the morale of the players. X's and O's aren't his forte, but he does run a few good plays from time to time.
He has had my support but last year and and earlier this year the lineups he put out were very questionable. It's nice to see now he has actual well thought out lineups out there and the X-factor lineup (Bev,Lin,Harden,Parsons,Howard)
I've been saying this for awhile and I'll say it again, you have to give McHale time as a coach before you expect so much out of him. This is really his first year coaching a real contender with real expectations. He is learning how to coach winning basketball just as our team is learning how to play winning basketball. Is it just a coincidence that the Rockets are playing extremely well and McHale isn't getting coaching hate? I think not. He's done an amazing job as of late incorporating guys, being patient with other and just making the right calls in general. Honestly, he wasn't even supposed to be the coach when we contend. He was brought in as a "yes man" for Morey to rebuild around. But fast forward 2 years and now he is coaching a true contender and I'm happy he is the coach of the Rockets.
He has done much better. He finally realized he needs to call timeout when a team is making a run. I like the rotation he is using, going to TT and going small. He has the group together and wanting to get better. He still lacks big time with play calling and keeping the offense effective when the pace slows down. His main focus needs to be the defense...when we defend and get stops we can run.
I thought the move made sense. 8.8 seconds left the opposing team is probably in bounding for the final shot at a walk off game winner. Harden is average on defense even when he's engaged, and if he got his sixth foul we wouldn't have him if we had one possession following the foul or OT. If someone else out there fouled, we'd be able to sub Harden back in during FT's if there's a final possession to try to send it to OT.
I guess I was to hard on Mchale at the beginning of the year, although I do think he made some big mistakes. The Rockets are winning now, and the players seem to like him a lot, I think the players belief in him really means a lot, and hopefully he will continue to improve.
At the end of the day, a coach is as good as his players are. Put him in Utah, and he won't achieve much. He's in charge of a good team, and they are doing great things together. You can feel the chemistry between him and the team. Even the Asik situation didn't mess them up. I don't think the Rockets need to change anything right now. I was a bit skeptical before, but after the all star break, I'm sure that they have a legitimate shot at winning this thing.
If you think about it, is there really anything else more important than this? NBA coaches have the impossible task of having to control many employees that make more money than they do, have more power within the organization than they do, and have huge egos and probably overly high opinions of themselves. McHale didn't bring his own staff. Morey did. It's clear the Rockets entire philosophy was built from ground up. And McHale was tasked to drive the message home to the players. Whether you believe this is the correct message is one thing. But the Rockets players all buy into their quick-hitting, transition-heavy, at-rim & 3s offense the moment they get on the court. To me, that's already 90% of what makes a great coach. The other 10%, we'll have to see in the playoffs.
Morey did great job building up the roster. I bet Sloan, Carlisle, Pop, Rivers or even the youngsters Matt Jackson and Hornecak may win a title with it, but not McHale even when he slightly is improved regarding X&O. As a long-time Suns fan, I'd say McHale is maybe half of what D'Antoni was: can win games in regular season based on talent, but cannot win it in the playoffs with more than sufficient talent. His R&R offense is freelancing like MDA's. Actually, if MDA were to coach this roster with help of defensive coordinator, there might be more playoff success expectation due to his better grasp of how to do offense and the XOs. So, we'll see what the PO gives and I'd expect him fired after the season.
