The Houston Rockets have fired Kevin McHale and James Harden not changing, or his head coach and general manager not being able to change his tendency to hog the ball and give 0 effort on defense result in surprising chaos for a usually healthy, stable franchise, and obviously plenty of memes.
Focusing on McHale for a second, this shows just how much his work is appreciated by the people upstairs, which is not so much. McHale missed the playoffs his first year in Houston, winning 34 games. He made the playoffs (out the first round) in 2013, winning 45 games. Made the playoffs again a year later (another first round loss) with 54 wins. The Rockets won 56 games last season and made the conference finals for the first time since 1996.
You expect that to keep a head coach on a longer leash, with more credit. But numbers don’t tell the story of a team that looked like it hardly does anything during practice or training camp. Shoot 3’s, try to make layups, and that’s about it. Basically, give the ball to James Harden and hope for the best. A 4-7 start to the season, at least before uglier things come out, got him canned.
McHale failed to instill team defense or simply lost the attention of his players. Morey failed in improving the team during the summer, or simply by throwing all of his cards at the Harden ace, which turned out to be a 2 of clubs on too many nights. McHale got fired, but this is more on Morey and Harden than anyone else.
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