80 replies to this topic

[Steven]

Had to be said.

The Rockets have lost both second halfs. The second halfs are where adjustments are made, and the Rockets are losing them due to McHale's non-X's and O's.

Edited by Steven, 24 April 2014 - 04:54 AM.

[Cooper]

Not sure if id be for it or not but if they get swept mchale is for sure gone and some serious roster changes are coming. Still time to bounce back but its going to be a grind to get wins in portland and I'm not sure they have the mental toughness to do it.

[miketheodio]

team needs a more commanding presence from the coach. a coach that will check the players (no matter the player). someone who will instill discipline.

[feelingsupersonic]

Yup, this team is too soft. Too many soft players and not enough heartbreak. Harden and Howard will suffer this together and hopefully they come out stronger. Everyone else is on the block.

[Dayak]

That was embarasssing. How come you let LMA scored 40+ twice in a row?

[miketheodio]

That was embarasssing. How come you let LMA scored 40+ twice in a row?

he was even more efficient the second time

[rockets best fan]

I been saying it for some time now. McHale is not a good coach. I was willing to be patient this year but this is pitiful. YES I see some progress from him overall, but his short commings are to much for this team to overcome. McHale is afraid to check Harden......call him out. who is running the locker room? great basketball knowledge does not always translate to great coaching ability. what adjustments have McHale made in this series? some admit he is not a good x's and o's man, but his leadership was more important.......we sure could use a good x's and o's man right now. fact is McHale's defensive schemes stink and his offense doesn't have enough structure to perform when execution under pressure is demanded. you can't fast break on everybody. you have to have structured plays in the half court that you can count on in tight situations. McHale's teams consistently fall short in this area. looks like to me all the players are just standing around. ball movement without body movement means nothing. where is the pick-n-roll. we should be feeding Portland a steady diet of pick-n-roll. we are not attacking the rim........we are shooting contested 3's...........WHY?

Edited by rockets best fan, 24 April 2014 - 09:19 AM.

[08huangj]

My suggestion:

Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire Mchale!

 

I've gave my opinion about Mchale a lot of times. Never liked him, as a coach nor a player. Never draws up plays, doesn't use the players correctly, defense system is very bad, always ends the year with a disappointment, couldn't stop Lamarcus Aldridge from averaging 44.5 points per game in the series, couldn't invent a offensive strategy so James Harden can score; I can go on and on and on and on and on. The only thing he has done right this year is to keep Howard happy and keep the locker rooms content.

 

And my chant, as it had been since I started following the Rockets: Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire Mchale!

[08huangj]

And I wouldn't be surprised if Lamarcus Aldridge averages 58 points per game in the upcoming 2 games unless Houston invents a effective way to stop him.

[08huangj]

Also, I'm a person who believes in new and role players. I don't get why Troy Daniels doesn't get his time when Harden's just missing about every shot he takes. His defense is not at all better than Daniels, and they didn't even think of playing Motiejunas. If Aldridge is just knocking down shots, you've got to let different people try to guard him. You don't just stick with one or two.

[linonlyfan]

McHale's only chance to be around now is to turn this series around. The roster is so much better than the first 2 games of the playoffs suggest, and I disagree that the team needs a player clearout, some role players will be adjusted and the big Asik Lin contracts will be opportunistically traded. Its very very clear that the failings are not a function of team but of mental / coaching preparation. When the Spurs can go through a period with Paddy Mills leading the team, the gulf between McHale and the current coach of the year is clear.

 

The Morey blueprint is correct. Shoot 3's, score in paint and run in transition. But how to execute that gameplan is where we failed.

 

1) Open 3s come from good weakside movement in a pick and roll or post up set (or in transition). Todays Howard early post explosion showed zero weakside activity and Chris Webber called it, its no good to get a post double without flare screens to get weakside shooters good open shots.  The ball sticks because there are no good passes to make, and there are no good passes to make because there is no movement! There is no movement because the free lance system means no one is really sure what is going to happen on offense. Youch.

 

2) Scoring in paint is always easier when defense is chasing a cutter BEFORE he gets the ball. Howard is completely unstoppable when he wants to be against single coverage. Why are we finding this out now only??? OK maybe part of the learning process. He only really slowed down because Portland started to change his coverage a little bit after the 1st quarter. And once he got doubled no one knew what to do. Horrid.

 

3) We never really had practice developing a post oreinted offense. If we do pick and roll to force coverage changes or put defenders out of position, the post entry pass to Howard should force similar adjustments which can get the offense into gear. Also after today, seriously shouldn't Howard be dunking the ball every time he gets single covered? It seems like he found 6-12 inches today in his vertical. I hope he realises how good he is after today.

 

4) Transition, what does Miami preach? Transition offence comes from defense. So if we want to run more, we need to learn how to play better defense. McHale has not been able to impart a consistent defensive identity and this has hurt when the team really needs a stop.

 

I can almost write Morey's fire McHale speech, its sure to contain "we decided we had to go in a different direction as the composition of the roster and the results of the post season did not correlate sufficiently. Although McHale remains liked and respected by the players, we felt it was time to bring a new approach to the offensive and defensive philosophy"

 

The only problem now is who do we hire? Championship coaches are generally not available (Phil Jackson, Rick Carlisle, Doc Rivers, Eric Spoelstra, Gregg Popovich). Its all good and fun to bring in a promising young coach like Hornacek but for a team with championship aspirations (the roster IS good enough), that may be a bit tough. Can we really go back to a Jeff van Gundy or down a Frank Vogel route?

 

I think there are plenty of guys here who have decided already that McHale isn't good enough. Getting a decent regular season result was good, but I think the postseason results so far are pushing a clear case that he may have taken the team as far as it can go and that this is the right time to make a change. Don't you think Phil Jackson would have loved this team and taken it much further? Imagine if we swapped rosters with San Antonio??? I think the only discussion now is who can credibly and realistically replace McHale given the contender status we so clearly crave after putting together Howard Harden and what is actually a decent supporting cast. 

 

And no Mike Woodson or im watching football/soccer from here.

[dbd]

Howard had 25pt in first half and killing Lopez; he got only 7pt in second half. What a great adjustment from Blazers.

 

We had two days to prepare. Came out with only one solution, fed the ball to Howard in the post which didn't get any success after Blazers made adjustment. And no other plan, LMA still scoring big. What a sad thing to watch.

[dbd]

http://instagram.com/p/nKXQ_RIYnB/#

[linonlyfan]

I think Jeff van Gundy would come and coach this team if asked. He picked Houston to be dangerous.

 

Would he work? Would Daryl Morey rehire him after firing him for exactly the same 1st round failings? Would love to know more about his work stylistically and what people think of the team (Howard and Harden) accepting him.

[tombrokeoff]

if you dig deep enough on here, or twitter, you'll see i have been on the fire mchale train for 2+ years now.  i gave him a bit of a reprieve when he was kind of one of the reasons we got dwight, but the rockets have been mediocre for a month or more and completely leveled in this series.

[thejohnnygold]

[Dayak]

I'm not blaming it all to McHale, i also blame Harden and Howard as our go to guys. While he is our budding "superstar, Harden didn't show up for the 2 past games. He was a liability on both side and he has to step up for the next games if we want to go further.

I still put my trust in this team, because i really love this team.

[Buckko]

It's not Howard's fault, he gave it all, but he gave it alone. We all know mchale's issues, no set plays, no out of bounds plays, terrible half court offense, never running the best PNR possibly since Stockton to Malone, never having the players motivated or energized to start a game, terrible defensive schemes, never calling out or getting on his best players, running his starters into the ground while having the 5th best bet rating bench but playing them the 3rd least, never giving young players a chance, never making half time adjustments like someone we know cough* cough* Kubiack, and never exploiting match ups or changing them. Damn that was one runoff, repetitive sentence and I still feel like I miss something.

[thejohnnygold]

It's not Howard's fault, he gave it all, but he gave it alone. We all know mchale's issues, no set plays, no out of bounds plays, terrible half court offense, never running the best PNR possibly since Stockton to Malone, never having the players motivated or energized to start a game, terrible defensive schemes, never calling out or getting on his best players, running his starters into the ground while having the 5th best bet rating bench but playing them the 3rd least, never giving young players a chance, never making half time adjustments like someone we know cough* cough* Kubiack, and never exploiting match ups or changing them. Damn that was one runoff, repetitive sentence and I still feel like I miss something.

 

"You forgot bigoted, blow-hard buffoon who is just a puppet for Morey's numbers game."

 

[Cooper]

What I don't get is mchale has shown flashes of doing stuff, harden curled off a screen and got and easy layup in the 2nd qtr but then they never went back to it or anything similar. Lin Harden p/r at the end of game one worked. Harden Howard p/r works. Even though he's shot like 18% the blazers are still scared to leave harden. Have him be the entry passer to Dwight so the guy from the other side of the court has to double then you have a wide open three or lane to drive if guys weren't just standing around watching Howard go to work.