[NashyMingParticipant]

As I am also a Rocket fan, I have been following the Rockets Coach search.

I was disappointed that they let Rick Adelman go, but I guess Darryl Morey keep-fixing-the-team way does not work well with Rick Adelman’s keep-the-team-stable preference.

Rick Adelman led a starless team into 2 consecutive above .500 season.  I think that’s a proof that he’s a great coach.  He’s a top 5 active coach in the league.  Rick Adelman did have a history of trying too hard to influence owner / GM decisions on players.  That’s why he was let go from the Kings (too much difference of opinions between Adelman and the Maloofs).

I also like Darryl Morey who always keeping the future in mind in his every moves given a lot of bad luck with Yao and TMac for the past a few years, the Rockets remains competitive while accumulating young players and picks for the future.

I think the Rockets should have given Rick Adelman the Jerry Sloan treatment.  Locking him up for the long term and let him know that he has job security.  This way, Rick Adelman would probably understand and cooperate with Darryl Morey in terms of making players moves.

GMs and coaches would always have difference of opinions on players.

GMs need to look a few years ahead and also maintain financial flexibility (for the good ones), so they may not look for immediately results if they are not in a situation to contend.  They would consider tanking if the season does not go well to acquire high picks.  They would also look for projects to develop instead of mature players that can help now in the draft.

Coaches, on the other hand, just want to win now because their jobs depending on winning now, so they would prefer veterans that can play and mature rookies that can play now in the draft.  Also, they don’t care about financial and they just want to keep their favorite players.

The Utah Jazz did a great job in giving job security to Jerry Sloan regardless of players movement (at least until this season).  A stable coaching situation and a long history of success made Jerry Sloan a very respectable coach to any players.  I think it’s very important for the players to respect the coach because without that the team would break apart regardless of the talent on the team.  If you look at a very talent team like the Pistons, nobody on the team respect the coach, and it becomes very dyfunctional and playing much worse than the team’s capability.

That’s why I think the Rockets made a serious mistake for letting Rick Adelman go.  How many times you would have a chance to lock up a top 5 coach for many many years who is well-respected by most players?

Since the divorce already happend, I have moved on. 

Lawrence Frank had the most success but he also had a better team.  Kevin McHale coached a bad team, but he was generally liked by his players and helped develop Kevin Love, so he can probably help develop Jordan Hill, Patrick Patterson, and Hasheem Thabeet.  I wouldn’t want Sam Casey as he didn’t seem to have good relationship with his players during his HC time with TWolves.

I think Kevin McHale is a good choice among the coaches that the Rockets have interviewed.  He’s a good big man coach (notice not head coach) that can help develop young big men.  He also had good relationship with his players (Kevin Love really loved and showed support to McHale but did not show much love to Rambis).  McHale didn’t have the opportunity to show what he can do with better talent, so maybe he can turn into a very good head coach.

My biggest concern with the Rockets coaching situation is the 2 years deal + a forced in assistant coaching staff.  According to rumors, the Rockets really like Chris Finch (HC of Rio Grande Vipers), but they want him to gain NBA experiences as assistant coach before giving him a chance for the head coach job.  This basically tells Kevin McHale (assuming he’s hired) that they have a guy watching his back and he’s not in the long term plan and someone on his coaching staff would replace him if he doesn’t have good results.  This basically setups McHale into a pretty bad situation and if he cannot earn respect from the players quickly, the Rockets could be in trouble.

Hopefully things would work out, but so far, things haven’t gone the way I prefer.  

Good luck, Kevin McHale!

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

 I’ve always liked Kevin McHale. He was one of my favorite TNT analysts. He should do well in Houston. I think one of the reasons why Rick Adelman was given the boot was because he could never lead Houston back to the Playoffs after Yao Ming got hurt. They were so close yet they never could seem to make the hump. Hopefully Kevin McHale finally gets the Rockets over the hump. 

[NashyMingParticipant]

With so many injuries and no star in a tough western conferece, I think Rick Adelman did better than anyone in the same situation.  I doubt Phil Jackson can take that team to the playoff.  Not that Phil Jackson isn’t a great coach, but he needs specific talent to fit his triangle offense while Adelman’s style is very flexible and that’s why he had quite some success even though the Rockets made frequent changes to its top 8 players.

[kngojcParticipant]

 The thing I liked about Kevin McHale when he was helping make the decisions with the Timberwolves was that he picked players he liked that HE could develop. They never found a coach that could really coach those guys and so there was never really any success. As soon as he was put into the coaching job for them (for what was the remainder of the season), I thought the Wolves played great basketball and it seemed like McHale played each player to their strengths and downplayed their weaknesses. He could be a great coach for the Rockets if he gets some time to develop some of the talents that they have on that team.

[i’m jus so offendedParticipant]

 Regardless if he turns into a great coach, Patrick Patterson and Jordan Hill would greatly improve under his guidance, even though Pat is already a really nice player, he could take a big step if Kevin can pass down any of those incredible post moves…

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