You are exactly right meh. The biggest burdens a NBA head coach shoulders are strategy and team cohesiveness. X's and O's are far down the list (but how about the coaching at the end of that Wizards game? And last nights Portland game?) Morey handles offensive strategy. Current defensive strategy in the NBA has been defined by Coach Thib. So by far and away McHale's most important job is managing the players. And he is doing a great job! Morey brought McHale in to be a "Leader of men". McHale is certainly excelling at that. Great hire by Morey. McHale is the Rocket's head coach until he decides to retire.
So the play was for the rockets to foul and just give them the lead? LOL... You are the 2nd person to respond and have given the same answer. This shows me where yall bball IQ is at
Good thing I'm not the GM. I was calling for his head a couple months ago. He has improved his rotations and play calling out of timeouts, which were my two biggest gripes with him.
You're missing the point. The game was tied with a only a few seconds remaining. Why risk playing Harden on defense when it's likely that you'll be going to overtime? Harden isn't exactly a defensive stopper, so he's not needed on defense. He WAS needed on offense in overtime. How is this hard to understand? You see teams sub for offense/defense all the time late in games, and that's just what the Rockets did. Parsons was also removed to protect his foul total as well, and he's more valuable on defense than Harden, right? This was the correct call by McHale.
Or the ones that see a problem in the playoffs when we face OKC or the Clippers. Mchale's more of a motivator. But when the playoffs come, we need a X & O's guy that can pick the other team apart. I don't see Mchale as this type of coach
Have to admit I've doubted McHale but lately I've seen a change is the way we play strategically. I've seen some new plays that weren't used before. Dribble handoffs, pick and roll plays and plays out of timeouts that have given me some confidence in McHale. My worry is that he's learning on the job and that's great and all but we need someone who can adjust on the fly in the playoffs. I'm hoping he can learn that on the fly as well.
How am I missing the point. The other 2 posters suggested that the plan was for the rockets to foul and give the blazers 2 free throws and then sub harden back in. Are you agreeing with that as well? You gave a more respectable response, but I still don't agree with it. If harden is our best player he needs to be on the court crunch time offensively and defensively. I don't agree with taking out parsons either. These subtle moves can cost you in the playoffs.
So, an "X & O's guy" is one who would do things like turning a game around by going small when the team trails?
Obligatory "Players play good. Players play good, coaches coach good." But in all seriousness, coaches look terrible when players don't play good, and coaches look fantastic when they play great. If we lose that game, everyone would say he coached poorly. Flip side, if we made ANYTHING in that first half, we woulda blown them out. Run KMC (where's my trademark sign!) has done us well these last few years, people need to just accept it, we can win with him.
Keeping them in would have cost us in the playoffs, you made a bad comment against a smart move, and look stupid by making it, even if it's just an opinion.
whats the problem? He took Harden out because we needed him to hit that last shot, if he would have fouled we would have lost that game!
i dont know if it has already been posted but the game only went into overtime because of a very strong-willed Beard and a busted play miracle 3. the play coming off of the break was horrid and well defended and so the Beard ended up sideline fading away shooting a 3. there wasnt too much 'coaching' imo. there was a lot of strong play by individuals. if you dont agree, look at the assist column. there were barely any plays ran. just helter skelter typical mcfail offense. really good win but really good individual play by everyone.
If you want a team that is going to run a bunch of plays go watch someone else... no matter who the coach is we are not going to run a lot of plays. Morey and the front office are feeding Mchale the stats and they know that if they get off enough shots and play some good D they should win most of the time. Its about sticking to the system regardless of the situation (like the blazers game when we were down by like 15) because the law of averages says it will work out. Mchale doesn't have to pull someone if they miss 5 shots in a row because he is smart enough to know that odds are they will make their next 4. This type of philosophy gives the players confidence also, they don't have to look over their shoulder every time they miss a three, because the philosophy says that missing 66% of the time is still good enough to win. This is Rockets basketball, it's not conventional but it just might work. Who is to say that we would even have as good a record as we do now if we had some ball buster coach trying to force Harden and the guys to play a certain way?
That might be true, but the players had to be motivated and playing hard in order to make those plays. The fact they did, rather than give up when down late in the 4th, reflects well on McHale.
from BlazersEdge. Why the Rockets won This game was won by the Rocket’s coach Kevin McHale. The Blazers had the game well in hand until McHale switched to a small lineup. By inserting Jeremy Lin and benching power forward Terrence Jones, the Rockets were playing a three guard lineup of Beverley, Lin, and Harden. Chandler Parsons moved over the power forward position from his normal small forward spot. Lin brought a burst of energy which infected his team mates and elevated the Rocket’s play during the last half of the fourth quarter and OT.
