Of those coaches, if by some miracle of God they became available, who would be best to forge a relationship with James? That's who should coach the team now. Now, if what you're telling me is this team is more than Harden, then go in a different direction. But, everything ownership and management have expressed is this is James Harden's team. If the rockets were to lose this year, and fire MDA, I'm mulling how I would feel if they cashed out Harden and Russ and started the tear down early. The numbers tell me James somehow, someway is still improving, my heart says the window is almost closed.
A tear down will be very tough because of the assets the front office had to give up to satisfy Tillman wanting Westbrook immediately. We have our 2020 #1 pick free and clear. In 2021 we get the worst #1 pick between Houston/OKC/Miami 2022 and 2023 #1 picks are ours. 2024 goes to OKC (protected 1-4) 2025 goes to OKC (we swap with OKC) 2026 goes to OKC (top 4 protected) So my guess is they try to make this window last at least another year or two.
Others have cited this. Yes, McHale took us to the WC Finals against the Warriors. We were dispatched 1-4. I applaud him for getting us that far. However, MDA went up against 'the greatest team ever assembled'. That was the Kevin 'bandwagon' Durant version. We were #1 seed in the West (McHale didn't do THAT) We lead the series 3-2 until CP's hammy went down and the zebras helped decide the outcome. Took the 'greatest team ever assembled' to 7 games. NO other team had ever done that prior. As a matter of fact, NO OTHER TEAM had ever lead a series against the W's during the Durant era. But D'Antoni's Rockets went toe to toe with these guys in a heavyweight bout. I'm convinced had CP remained healthy and the refs not taken over, we could have beaten them, and had we won that series, we win it ALL. But we'll never know. Unfortunately Kevin Durant stood in the way of MDA achieving his ultimate goal. If Durant had not been on that team (and can run with the ball OUT OF BOUNDS), the Rockets were clearly a juggernaut themselves. GREAT basketball, exciting times, horrific refereeing. . . This is a coach who recently won Coach of the Year, helped turn James Harden into an MVP, our team has set scoring records, James has set scoring records, we've set 3 point records, etc . . In spite of shortcomings, I've really enjoyed Rockets basketball over the past few years. But apparently that's not good enough. Apparently Dave Joerger is coming in to take us ALL THE WAY?
Tells you how short lived everything is. The greatest GSW team just lasted three years. The Houston challenger 1 to 2 seasons.
It’s not good enough for an extension. It is good enough to give him another shot this year though. I think Tilman is being fair here. MDA is a good coach. A really good coach. Your stats show that and this isn’t a knock on him. That said, he had his chance here. If he doesn’t get it done this year it’s time to move on. Nothing personal. It’s just time to look for a different combination of coach and star player. Coaches are easier to replace than star players so buh-bye MDA. If Harden was 4 years older I wouldn’t care. We could just stick with MDA and no big deal. But right now, I wouldn’t be willing to spend the rest of Hardens prime with a head coach who has been given sufficient chances with us and the Suns and failed to get past the WCF. You can’t overlook his shortcomings with the Suns and just blame his lack of success on GS and refs. The bottom line is it’s time to move on after this year unless you want to get Jerry Sloaned for way too long.
This is just my opinion and it's not to take anything away from what Mike did here but i think Harden just developed as a player, he got better basically every year he has been here even when McHale was the coach, just like i don't think Kerr had anything to do with Curry getting better, he would've improved his game even if Jackson would've been the coach in Golden State.
Just like the previous terrible owner who low balled the better coach named Rick Adelman D’Antoni has issues I wouldn’t mind seeing a coach who is less stubborn
If I'm hijacking this thread, we can continue this convo in DM's, but I definitely find it to be interesting. Then again, I do enjoy discussing things with you on here, so I'm not shocked. I think you're also neglecting assets in if Houston were to tear down next year, instead of when Harden and Russ are done. I could see Morey pin-pointing precisely what year to get picks from, specifically the years where we swap and while being mindful of 2023. I am almost certain we will have a lockout in 2023. This could set into course a ton of possibilities that could change the course of the NBA. If the cap shoots up dramatically we could have another situation that the warriors capitalized on, if it goes down another amnesty program, and basically a ton of things in between. I think DM is mindful of all of that and can adjust on the fly. (Edit: all of this in my mind is contingent on what players will feel is appropriate in terms of revenue sharing. Look at the way the league has been trending it's going up) As crazy as it sounds, I could see Houston sending Harden off and getting some emerging talent and a couple of firsts in the process. With Russ, the return will be far less, but they could still get something. Then you go into a line-up with House, Clark, Harty, Clint and Clemons. That team won't win many games, but it could attract a young coach hungry to win. You take those 5, and those picks and just rebound as quickly as you can. Of course, Tilman throws a wrench into all this. He could fire DM, he could be extra cheap if the Rockets aren't winning, and he could be too emotionally attached to Harden to say yes to this. Who knows with him. It's a fun thought experiment nonetheless.
Geez, imagine what a good coach can do with this team who is not afraid to make in-game changes early.
@Remlap While I agree that MDA>Kevin ... these Wcf we were “dispatched” in had several factors going against us . Namely 1. No starting pg 2 no starting PF 3. dwight got hurt in game 1 Mchale wasnt a great coach. But he had the balls to bench harden during our game 6 comeback ( i thought harden showed humility too ) . He played guys like dmo , kostas , joey dorsey, and nick johnson and we won 56 games that year. I have no clue what happened in 15-16. We thought we had chemsitry but dmo was hurt, we didnt resign smith, lawson was washed. If i could know one thing about rockets history it would be what went down that offseason and the first 1/8th of that season. Did McHale really lose the lockeroom . Les' call ? Morey ? Harden ? anyways . We got really unlucky that postseaon ( not unlucky to come back vs LAC ... but unlucky that dmo and bev were hurt.) Would have loved to see those guys get a healthy run
