Wojnarowski: McHale is someone guys like to play for

Almost every team would struggle if you took their starting point guard and center away.

 

Look at the talent level and our results. Noway this team with such mid level talent should have 29 wins so far this season. Thats another reason why McHale is extracting the most out of what he has.

 

Great to hear from someone who has actually coached a team. Fair and balanced appraisal.

 

A team is not only lost when displeasure is reported. That's just when we find out.

And no, I don't think McHale lost this team. I was talking more in generalities.
We're fine. We could be better but we're good to go.

 

I didn't mean our team was being lost. We're good where we're at and will get even better. We were just talking theoretically on what makes a coach "lose" his team.

 

Yeah, there are a lot of things that can cause a coach to "lose" his team, but I don't think I've ever seen a coach lose his team while the team was still winning. Even just in theory, a team underachieving can be a sign of a coach losing his team.

 

Unfortunately, the modern coach cannot "extract" anything from a roster. These players are grown men making millions of dollars, many with egos that are probably outsized from the adoration, the woman, the lifestyle. However the roster does want several things. They want to win, they (generally) want to be a part of the team, and they want to do the best that they can. They all have pride and want to succeed.

So what can a head coach like McHale do? He can make sure that both he and his staff treat the players with respect. He can have an open door policy where players feel comfortable discussing issues, problems, and hopes honestly and openly. McHale can implement an offensive and defensive strategy that fits the roster, maximizes their strengths and hides their weaknesses. He can look at every player and comprehend how to best utilize that player for the good of the team. McHale can guide the team to become better over the course of a season by enabling the players to learn and to understand and to receive excellent training and advise from specialist assistant coaches who focus intently on one area of the game. Pretty much people management 101.

And so how do we as fans judge McHale's performance. Unfortunately the only way is to judge the attitude and the performance of the team. And what I see should be plain for all to see. There is no quit in the Rockets team. Down 25? 110% effort from everyone and you can see that they think they can come back and win the game. Is the team improving as the season progresses? They certainly are. Does the play on the floor demonstrate that the players buy into the overall defensive and offensive strategies? They may not execute them properly but they are all trying to fit into the overall strategy.

So, by every metric that I judge coaching performance, McHale and his staff are succeeding. If it keeps up I think that the current roster, given a couple of Morey refinements, could be a major factor in the playoffs in two years.

 

I personally don't think we have "mid-level" talent.

- Harden: I think he is a bona fide superstar, top 5-10 in the league. That itself gets us nearly out of mid-level talent range. He is one of the most, if not the most efficient perimeter player and is underrated. Yes, I said that, he's underrated. What he brings to our offense, his one man drives that make all defenses panic, his range, his knack for getting the other team in foul trouble, his efficiency in shooting, he's going to be top 5, top 3 in our league soon. And dude's only 23!

- Parsons: I think even though everyone loves Chandler and raves about him, he is still underrated. He is a winner, he is hungry, competitive, and hard working, and he can do everything well. An above average player with potential and though he might not have the scoring punch of some players, is much more valuable. And he does not need the ball to score and be very effective. Every team needs more players like CBang if they want to win, not another scorer who needs the ball.

- Lin: Once again, he is still vastly underrated. I understand that he is a tough player to encapsulate as he is so full of flaws and holes in his game, but even with all those weaknesses, he still has multiple 38 pt games, still penetrates with the best of them, still runs a team well. He is an unselfish penetrating creating young pg with court vision, and I think once his team buys into who he is and what he brings, he will be the clear number 2 option until we get another superstar like Dwight.

- Asik: A defensive force, a rebounding machine. You can't ask for much more from a Center without him being a star. He's quite valuable to our team and clearly above average. Can he be a star? I'm not sure as he is not quite athletic enough to be a shot blocker, an offensive threat, but he's as a solid as they come and definitely more than holds his ground against the centers of the league.

- PPat/ Mook: Our weakest spot still features solid players who can nail the open 3. The weaknesses are numerous: no post play, no rebounding, not enough size and toughness in defense, not the best helping defense, but they're not that bad.

- Bench Mob: With a bench of Delfino, Mook, D-Mo (my wish), TD, and Beverley, it's good enough though definitely slightly sub-par.

Considering that most of our boys have something to prove, are hungry, unselfish, and are just good kids, I'm not so surprised (in retrospect) that we are where we are. In fact, I think we could've been even better. As an example, we could have avoided the 7 game win streak if McHale had got us back on track quicker. It sounds easier said than done I know, but it was clear to me (imo as a Monday-night quarterback) that we were not playing Lin as pg and sitting him in the corner is like playing 4 on 5. Plus, we get turnover happy without our pg running the offense. That's why Harden struggled during that time. Anyways, my point is, I give credit to McHale for putting it together but it's not like we had a bunch of "mid-level" players and McHale made them "overachieve." No way, we have the talent and the youth to be this good and will be even better here on out.

 

I disagree with most points here, and especially the conclusion. First of all, much respect for supporting our coach and I'm just voicing my opinion, but..

- These "grown men" are on average 24 years old! Their maturity and even understanding of the game of basketball game on this stage is still fledgling. The coach can definitely affect the outcome of games and the season depending how he utilizes the players and how he uses them. It might be less true on a veteran team, but our boys will do what the coach wants them to do and they are still moldable. So I disagree that the coach doesn't have much effect on our team.

- I strongly disagree that McHale & Sampson are utilizing our players to maximize their strengths and hide their weaknesses. Instead they have a system they want to run, and our boys are adapting to it well cuz our boys are just very very talented and flexible enough to do that. As an example, PPat had a mid-range which was not utilized, Lin was shooting spot-up 3s, Delfino's been bringing the ball up court for one of the highest turnover percentages in transition, Harden is being overutilized as the pg making him turnover prone , TD is overplayed period, Aldrich is being played at all (I jest, I actually do think he brings a decent backup worthy game and is being unfairly treated by us), D-Mo is not being given a chance, TJones is not being developed, Mook is overrated, etc.

- By every coaching metric you say, but even as you admit, a large part of coaching is player management, i.e., managing minutes, substitutions, egos, and I don't believe he's done that well in that regard, imo. What he has done well is that he is trying to hold everyone accountable and as everyone respects him (he is a hall-of-famer!) they are falling in line. Also, he's very competitive and that is definitely something a great coach needs to be. And our team is successful and that is the ultimate metric for a coach. But... a large part of that is just how underrated and talented our players are and how well they listen. We have some really great kids on our team. Not a bad one out of the bunch.

 

Earl and Steal&Deal you're both bailing out water with busted condoms, on the bottom of the ocean.

Time to walk towards the light. Carol Anne awaits

 

If you use some common sense, this is just about true for every player in the league. Why would anyone outside of Detroit have a reason to hate Rodney Stuckey? Or people from Indiana have a reason to like or hate Roy Hibbert?... cuz he plays for their team! If you're too dumb to figure something like that out, you're beyond reasoning.

Another thing, although you can feel Jeremy's inner emotions and share his deepest personal thoughts... *important!* you are not Jeremy Lin. So just because some guy on CF comes off hating you, try not to get confused into thinking that he, our elected representative of all of Houston and its fanbase, hates Lin too.
mmkay?
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Most of them of trolls, if you notice their join dates, quite a few are 2013ers.

They aren't Lin fans man, stop falling for it. Those are the trolls pretending to be Lin fans since they know saying these exaggerated comments will upset everyone.

 

EarlIII is missing a chromosome

 

I see the labels LOF and LOH. Is it time to break out the label LOT (Lin Only Troll) so that we know who to ignore (assuming that acronym has t been used yet)?

 

I don't get the McHale hate.. then you all should also hate Chandler Parsons cause McHale was the one who brought out his full potential and played him despite being a rookie.

 

I don't get it. Why should anyone hate on Parsons for reaching his potential or doing well? What am I missing here?