227 replies to this topic

[Jason]

LOL. Y'all are hilarious with these comments. Bottom line is that you are all haters of McHale but just won't admit it. No matter how many wins he has or whatever moves he makes during a game, y'all will find a reason to criticize it. This, by definition, is a hater. I could understand all the criticism if we were bottom dwellers in the western conference (as was expected), but we aren't. The bottom line is that coaches are judged by wins and losses, and this season McHale has exceeded expectations in terms of record. This, by any rational person's definition, means that he has been a good coach this year.

[phaketrash]

LOL. Y'all are hilarious with these comments. Bottom line is that you are all haters of McHale but just won't admit it. No matter how many wins he has or whatever moves he makes during a game, y'all will find a reason to criticize it. This, by definition, is a hater. I could understand all the criticism if we were bottom dwellers in the western conference (as was expected), but we aren't. The bottom line is that coaches are judged by wins and losses, and this season McHale has exceeded expectations in terms of record. This, by any rational person's definition, means that he has been a good coach this year.

 

Like a merry-go-round haha. At this point, all I can say is "I disagree." To be completely honest though Jason, your inability to really acknowledge anyone else's points or counter-points has made me started thinking you just might be a very good troll lol.

[timetodienow1234567]

LOL. Y'all are hilarious with these comments. Bottom line is that you are all haters of McHale but just won't admit it. No matter how many wins he has or whatever moves he makes during a game, y'all will find a reason to criticize it. This, by definition, is a hater. I could understand all the criticism if we were bottom dwellers in the western conference (as was expected), but we aren't. The bottom line is that coaches are judged by wins and losses, and this season McHale has exceeded expectations in terms of record. This, by any rational person's definition, means that he has been a good coach this year.

 

From my decade or so of watching basketball, I've noticed that the Good to Great coaches always have one thing in common, CONSISTENCY. Mchale does not have that. He makes lineup changes that make little sense to most people and when he loses, people blame that. When the team plays hard but loses and Mchale doesn't make any stupid mistakes, I don't blame him for the loss. Just like I don't give him that much credit for the win when our team makes a ridiculous amount of 3 pointers, a la the first GS game.

[Jason]

From my decade or so of watching basketball, I've noticed that the Good to Great coaches always have one thing in common, CONSISTENCY. Mchale does not have that. He makes lineup changes that make little sense to most people and when he loses, people blame that. When the team plays hard but loses and Mchale doesn't make any stupid mistakes, I don't blame him for the loss. Just like I don't give him that much credit for the win when our team makes a ridiculous amount of 3 pointers, a la the first GS game.

It's hard to be "CONSISTENT" when you have the youngest team in the NBA, you have almost a completely different team from a year ago, and your GM trades away half your rotation players during the season for a guy who is clearly inferior at this point in his career than the players who were traded.

[timetodienow1234567]

From game to game, the lineup changes. I was fine with that early in the season, because we wanted to give everybody minutes to improve. But we're approaching the playoffs. We need to cull our rotations to 9 guys and get our postseason strategy in place.

[rockets best fan]

If you can work that in seamlessly into a future post, maybe a shortened version and with RBF's swagger haha, I will give you much credit lol.

 

Oh, I also just realized, since this is the interwebs, I should clarify one thing. Pretty much none of my posts are ever in a sarcastic tone. While I am a rather sarcastic person irl, sarcasm does not carry well online so I just refrain from using it as much as I can lol. Assume my comments are generally in a very earnest tone

I gererally like having discussions with you because even when we don't agree you remain respectful for the opinions of others. I wish all members had this same attitude, but looks like there may be a bad apple or 2 in the bunch

now back to my mchale bashing

[Jason]

From game to game, the lineup changes. I was fine with that early in the season, because we wanted to give everybody minutes to improve. But we're approaching the playoffs. We need to cull our rotations to 9 guys and get our postseason strategy in place.

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See, this is where you are clueless. We have a completely new team from last year, the youngest in the NBA, and recently traded key rotation players! Of course there is still going to be experimentation in terms of lineups! This is not a veteran team making a playoff push, it's a young team trying to develop, but because of McHale's good coaching we happen to find ourselves in the playoff mix as well which is just icing on the cake! Many coaches would have only about 25 wins with our current team and all we would be talking about would be player development.

[rockets best fan]

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See, this is where you are clueless. We have a completely new team from last year, the youngest in the NBA, and recently traded key rotation players! Of course there is still going to be experimentation in terms of lineups! This is not a veteran team making a playoff push, it's a young team trying to develop, but because of McHale's good coaching we happen to find ourselves in the playoff mix as well which is just icing on the cake! Many coaches would have only about 25 wins with our current team and all we would be talking about would be player development.

NO......this is where you are clueless. I agree with TTDN our rotations should be settling in by now yet they are not. WHY.....because we are young....no. it's because we have a coach who is also clueless.

[phaketrash]

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! Many coaches would have only about 25 wins with our current team and all we would be talking about would be player development.

 

I just want to confirm this. Do you believe the quoted?

[thejohnnygold]

Part of our rotation problems are with the players....no one is stepping up and making it easy on the coach.

[phaketrash]

I gererally like having discussions with you because even when we don't agree you remain respectful for the opinions of others. I wish all members had this same attitude, but looks like there may be a bad apple or 2 in the bunch

now back to my mchale bashing

 

Thanks! I think a lot of people raise interesting points, and sometimes, even if I initially disagreed with them, over time my position can change as I learn new things. If I only wanted to spout my own thoughts and never cared what others thought, I'd just start a blog w/ the comments section disabled

[timetodienow1234567]

Our guys are YOUNG. Don't you people get that? They're not going to always have great games. But if you keep screwing with the rotations it's hard to get into a rhythm and learn that consistency.

[blakecouey]

Which coaches would only have about 25 wins with our current team?  

 

I don't have any idea how you think McHale is a +10 win coach compared to any of the current coaches in the NBA.

 

 

As far as trading key rotation players, we can go back to pre- All Star break, where we had those rotation players, and I'd still have the same view of McHale(average-at best).  As far as a "young team" goes, I think too much emphasis is put on that.  Asik has been in the league 3 years now, and played in every game his teams played, including playoffs with the Bulls.  Harden, has been in the league for 4 years, as well as playoffs.  Parsons, was a starter for the majority of last year.  Lin has experience too, on the "big stage" of New York.  Delfino, Garcia, and Brooks are veterans.  Aside from our PF position(and Beverly), just about everyone else(that gets important minutes) has experience that should get them through most situations.

[thejohnnygold]

Our guys are YOUNG. Don't you people get that? They're not going to always have great games. But if you keep screwing with the rotations it's hard to get into a rhythm and learn that consistency.

 

I do get that.  I don't expect them to suddenly turn into savvy veterans.  Your point is valid.  I think McHale should find more minutes for certain players...I think it's tough because he is trying to make the push for the playoffs and guys like T-Rob, D-Mo, G Smith, Beverley (coming back to earth offensively), and Ohlbrecht are what he has to work with.  They all will get better, but right now they are making so many mistakes....I imagine it's frustrating for McHale.

 

I'm curious...what kind of rotations do you think McHale should be running on a consistent basis?  Obviously, having our strongest 5 in for the end of games would be good....what else are you thinking?

[rockets best fan]

jason:

we are young...........you are going to beat that horse to death  every problem we have is not based on the fact we are young. true we are still growing and developing, but at which point do you expect us to grow up or at least start showing signs of growth? as for the 25 win comment for any other coach..................I would say that only a hand full of coaches in the league would be worse at this point with such a young team. we are young, but very talent laden. except for t-rob and d-mo at PF all the other rotational problems should have been figured out long ago. mchale still doesn't have a handle on the players abilities and how to mesh that into a unit this late in the season.........that's pitiful. are you kin to mchale?   maybe got some connection to his agent or something?  sorry i'm bashing your hero, but fact is the man is lost when it comes to knowing what a good coach should be.

[Mason Khamvilay]

I do get that.  I don't expect them to suddenly turn into savvy veterans.  Your point is valid.  I think McHale should find more minutes for certain players...I think it's tough because he is trying to make the push for the playoffs and guys like T-Rob, D-Mo, G Smith, Beverley (coming back to earth offensively), and Ohlbrecht are what he has to work with.  They all will get better, but right now they are making so many mistakes....I imagine it's frustrating for McHale.

 

I'm curious...what kind of rotations do you think McHale should be running on a consistent basis?  Obviously, having our strongest 5 in for the end of games would be good....what else are you thinking?

Pick me pick me!

 

I think the rotation should go as follows:

 

Asik - T-Rob (T-Rob's rim protection and rebounding is much better than Greg Smith's despite his height)

D-Mo - Parsons - Delfino 

Parsons - Delfino - Garcia

Harden - James Anderson - Lin/Beverley (Anderson needs more minutes, McHale should give him a chance)

Lin - Beverley - Brooks (sub Lin out early because I want Lin back in while Harden rests)

[timetodienow1234567]

Lin/Harden/Parsons/DMo/Asik

 

At the 9 minute mark take everybody out but Harden, put in Beverley/Delfino/TRob/Garcia

At the 12 minute mark take Harden out and either keep Bev at the 2 or put in James Anderson and put Lin back in at the point.

At the 15 minute mark(3 minutes into the third quarter), put Harden/Asik/Parsons/DMo back in to close out the second.

There can be up to a three minute leeway time if the bench is playing well.

 

Rinse and repeat for the second half. Obviously there will be some changes due to unforeseen circumstances(such as Asik/Lin foul trouble), but that's what I think the lineup should be. Anybody think of a better rotation?

[thejohnnygold]

I like most of that....that second unit is awfully small....I still want to see what ohlbrecht can bring defensively....even if he can't do much on offense, we need more size and rebounding when Asik sits.  I'm thinking instead of Garcia in that 2nd unit go with Ohlbrecht or Greg Smith...they can finish (usually) around the rim and give us some big bodies to keep the opposing offense from killing us on the glass and second chance points.

 

I also want to see more of James Anderson...I've got a good feeling about him.  He can flat out score and if we aren't going to play defense anyways might as well keep up with the other team.

 

On a diff. note...I feel like D-Mo isn't getting many post opportunities...am I just missing them?  He has been effective from the post and after watching our offense break down the past couple of games it seems like a good idea to try.

[rockets best fan]

thejohnnygold:

why d-mo has not been getting more post plays is something I have been puzzled by also. he clearly has an advantage there on most bigs. for mchale to have been a post player when he was in the league it sure looks like he is some what against it now.

[Mason Khamvilay]

Asik's back-up needs to be someone who defends and rebounds, Greg Smith has been horrible in that department. Smith is a great finisher but scoring is not a problem for us.

 

As for James Anderson, even Hollinger thinks positively of him:

 

RT @johnhollinger: I lost
this in the shuffle the past 48 hrs, but very surprised that Spurs didn't pick
up James Anderson's option.
2012-01-27 02:27:39

 

But I can't help but wonder that if the Spurs didn't pick up his option maybe there's a good reason for this.