What was your perspective of the Kevin McHale hire?

And what direction that would be? Had anyone figured it out yet?

This was not about who is a better coach... that question is even insulting to RA. This is about how cluless our front office is.

 

Amen brother.

 

The direction was to blow the whole team up. They did that in December, and had no choice but to go the first half of the season with the current roster. Do you really think that Les/Morey/ and the coaching staff for that matter really believe this is the roster they want going into the summer of 2012? Yes, they want to make the playoffs, you know who also said that his goal was to make the playoffs... Paul Westphal who coached in Sacramento the first half of the season. Every single team wants their players to have some sort of end goal.

 

Perfectly said. It would have been fine if the Rockets goal was player development and tanking, but since it wasn’t it was definitely a head-scratching move.

 

They are trying to trade for Pau Gasol.

 

Clutch, you are so right. See, when Les let JVG go, he was clearly said he wants a more offensive minded coach to make his product more fun to watch. And RA was hired for that reason and we exactly saw the result. But this time around, all those reasons for let RA go... I do not see it happening in McHale hiring and the way team is playing and the moves that are taking place(or not taking place).

It is a directionless organization, at least for now. Hope I am wrong.

 

They blew the team apart in December? What are you talking about?
Did Kmac was hired to make the play-off or to develop our young players? Both? Can you achieve both? According to Les - yes. According to commonsense - Les is insane.:grin:

 

McHale was puzzling, at first, given his limited coaching experience. But in interviews and such he seemed like a serious and likable person to run the team.

But honestly, if Chris Finch is supposed to keep running Adelman's Princeton offense, I'm not seeing it. And I'm not seeing the defensive improvements either, outside of adding a true center.

That's the most puzzling part. We added very qualified assistants with very clear (supposedly) roles, but nothing has really materialized on the court. Is that due to the lack of a training camp? The shortened season that cuts into practice time? The coaching isn't very clear, yet at the same time it's hard to say that it's not purposeful. I do at least feel like McHale has a vision and direction for the team.

The tragedy is that his plans for the team don't really mesh with the team that we have. He needs a passing big man who is a credible low-post threat that draws defenders. We don't have one, so I don't know why we're still trying to do the same thing.

/boggle

 

On a lighter note : Is Leslie Alexander planning to sell the franchise back to Charlie Thomas? You know, since we are all going backwards.

 

My take was that firing Adelman, JVG and Rudy T for no apparently good reason was sort of like waiving Yao, Hakeem and Moses in their primes.

I didn't (and don't) give a crap about McHale. First because he was brought in to be a toady; second because why would any sane person become attached to a Rockets coach? As soon as they do well for us they get fired.

 

To this day I think it was a big mistake letting RA go, specially when he wanted to stay here.

 

Adelman would have been perfect for a Gasol led team.

I actually like McHale more now than when they first hired him. But like I said elsewhere, the McHale hiring is contrary to every excuse they put out for letting Adelman go. So my only conclusion is that there was really no basketball reasons for Adelman's firing. And since I don't think Morey is a petty guy, I'd say it's Les Alexander's doing.

 

Clutch brought up a good point. McHale was second-guessing his decision to coach the Rockets during training camp and when we lost a game to the Timberwolves. By contrast we have RA...

"Leslie Alexander did not want Rick Adelman to coach his basketball team. Daryl Morey didn't want Rick Adelman to coach the baskeball team... Rick wanted to stop the shuffling of the roster and add a center... Daryl Morey was stunned to learn Rick Adelman wanted to continue coach the Rockets and he wanted to very badly."



I really think we'd be in much better shape right now with RA's coaching, especially since he seemed much more invested in the team.

 

I was 100% for it. Because I knew he could finally enable us to play so bad so we could get a high lottery pick.

 

First of all this is surely not thread worthy, 2nd of all it is from Hoopsworld and 3rd of all it is from Bill Ingram. Does this guy just make **** up or does he have any proof of this? I mean what the hell is he talking about? I didn't know CLee asked for a trade..

Bill Ingram – 03/13/12 4:35 p.m. EST

The love affair between the Houston Rockets and Kevin Martin continues to be on-again-off-again, and now it’s more off than on. Martin, according to a source close to the Rockets shooting guard, is tired of being pushed out of the rotation to make way for Courtney Lee. He and Lee are quite close, but Martin has had enough of head coach Kevin McHale’s unexplained rotations. Terrence Williams expressed similar frustrations over the weekend in talking with HOOPSWORLD’s Alex Raskin.

The word out of Houston is that they prefer to keep Kevin and may look to move Courtney Lee, whose agent asked for a trade over a month ago. Of course, the New Orleans Hornets have interest in Martin and would likely send Chris Kaman out in a deal. They know they’re losing Kaman anyway.

As for Courtney Lee, the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Indiana Pacers have all been linked to talks about Lee, and any of those could still be in the running.

The bigger picture in Houston – according to Martin’s camp – is that Rockets players are rapidly tiring of McHale, as well as GM Daryl Morey. Either one of both could be on the outs if Houston can’t get this thing turned around in a significant way before the end of the season.

 

I didn't really care either way, mainly because I feel all "competent" coaches are replacable parts. Similar to how I'd view replacing good role players, say Shane Battier with Bruce Bowen with Tayshaun Prince type of a thing. They are important, but there are many, many people capable of performing the job very well. JVG did it. Adelman did it. Rudy did it. And I felt that assuming Morey was not an idiot in his interview, McHale would do it.

But in the end, I mostly feel that as long as your coach is competent, it's more important to get better players than to change coaches.

 

Yes they were going to blow up this roster and build around Gaso/Nene/Lowry. Trading Scola, Martin, Dragic, and Patterson is pretty much whiping the slate clean IMO for an NBA GM.

Yes Kevin McHale was hired to help develop players at the expense of a few wins, but with that development should come a few wins to make up for it.

IMO, Morey's tone when he was hiring McHale was that McHale should make the playoffs with this team IF more than one player can take huge steps forward. Those huge steps forward were to be part of the rebuilding process. The Rockets could not rebuild through trade until the trade deadline this year mind you. This was their best option towards rebuilding.

 

This is the best coach we could get?