http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-wojnarowski-kevin_mchale_houston_rockets_coach_owner052411 Kevin McHale’s moment of truth for the Houston Rockets’ coaching job will happen Wednesday, when McHale, the vacancy’s frontrunner, will meet with owner Leslie Alexander in Miami, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. Alexander will huddle with his front office soon thereafter the meeting, and will come to a final decision about whom to hire. The owner will make the ultimate decision on Rick Adelman’s replacement, but McHale will get the strongest endorsement of the basketball operations staff, sources said. Casey is running a close second in the search, but sources said that Alexander loved his initial meeting with Frank, too. Several factors will come into play when Houston makes an offer, including the next coach’s willingness to accept a short-term deal – possibly two years – and strong suggestions on an assistant coaching staff. The Rockets want their D-League affiliate coach, Chris Finch of Rio Grande Valley, to be part of the coaching staff. They see him as an eventual NBA head coach. McHale, an analyst for TNT, is in Miami for the Eastern Conference finals.
So now it's out there for everyone to see. The Rockets seriously want Finch to be the coach eventually.
Perhaps this if he proves he can handle the task of becoming a head coach and they can continue running a similar offense that was ran under Adelman since Finch implemented it on the Vipers. But if they win under McHale, there will probably be a push to stay as is.
Will McHale be allowed to buy his own house in Houston, or will he be contractually obligated to sleep in the Caretaker's Shack outside the Toyota Center?
This has been a little bit of a sticking point in our contract negotiations. Les has special arrangements set up so that I would be able to use the palatial koi pools over at Kim Son for bathing facilities and be able to sleep at the house at The Orange Show. I've argued that I want a loft overlooking Minute Maid Park...so I can see exactly how not to run a team. I'm also stalling over becoming Les' personal vaulted-ceiling lightbulb changer for him. I told him that he should get Yao to do this since he was paying him a sh**load of money and he was doing nothing. Les laughed and waved an insurance check around.
i think they see finch as an offensive coordinator. he learned adelman's offense sufficiently enough for the team to think they can have the same (or very similar) offense without having to pay adelman. with mchale as the motivational speaker and finch as the offensive coordinator i think it's the start of a decent staff. we'll see how it fleshes itself out.
I wouldnt mind seeing Mario Elie taking the role as Defensive coordinator as well. Those three alone would be pretty sweet. Mario is a "free agent" coach this year anyways, and if the Rockets open up a spot for him alongside Finch and McHale, I think he would jump on the opportunity to come home.
