Houston Rockets: Time To Let Coach Kevin McHale Go?

According to Bovada, Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale is on the hot seat. Of all 30 coaches in the league, Houston’s head man is the odds-on favorite to get fired this season. Here’s Bovada’s list of the most probable coaching candidates to be dismissed during the 2014-15 campaign.

Kevin McHale (HOU) 7/4
Flip Saunders (MIN) 2/1
Monty Williams (NO) 4/1
Jason Kidd (MIL) 7/1
Scott Brooks (OKC) 8/1
Byron Scott (LAL) 10/1
Randy Wittman (WAS) 10/1
Dave Joerger (MEM) 10/1

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It seems odd that Flip Saunders is high on this list, given the fact that he also serves as Minnesota’s president, and it’s reasonable to believe that none of these head coaches will get fired this year; however, if Kevin McHale doesn’t play his cards right, he may eventually find himself watching games from home rather than on the sidelines.

Quite frankly, it seems as though McHale often serves the role of a spectator instead of a coach who draws up effective plays for his team down the stretch.

During training camp, Dwight Howard revealed that many of Houston’s issues from last year were never addressed during the season; the problems eventually manifested themselves in Houston’s disconcerting first round exit during the playoffs, per CSNHouston:

"“A lot of things were probably swept under the rug last year because we won a lot of games and I think some of that stuff was exposed during the playoffs,” Howard said."

One “thing” that certainly wasn’t swept under the rug — at least by social media sites — is Kevin McHale’s failure to hold James Harden accountable on defense. The fact that McHale allowed Harden to get away with sheer laziness on defense is true coaching criminality.

Nonetheless, delving into Houston’s performance during their first round oust will help elucidate some of the problems that Howard mentioned.

In game one against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Rockets held a comfortable 11-point lead with just more than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter — and lost.

Howard’s poor free throw shooting certainly debilitated Houston’s offense when Portland decided to employ the hack-a-Dwight strategy, but it was Houston’s stagnation on that end in addition to poor time management in the game’s critical moments that led to their demise.

Houston showed a propensity for launching shots too early in regards to the shot clock, which provided extra possessions for Portland and allowed them to crawl back into the game. Running down the clock while holding a lead in the final minutes of a game is a basic principle in the game of basketball.

If the coach can’t instill this concept in his team early in the season, then perhaps McHale is on the hot seat for good reason.

Additionally, the coach neglected to incorporate proper defensive tactics, which led to Houston’s reluctance to double team the scorching-hot LaMarcus Aldridge in the first two games of the series, effectively ending Houston’s season. Any team that’s deprived of proper coaching and preparation will certainly be exposed in the post season.

On the bright side, the second part of Howard’s aforementioned quote indicated that the Rockets will be more equipped in his second year with the team.

"“So now everybody is paying attention to detail and everybody is doing the little things that will make a big difference especially late in the season.”"

Should the Rockets amend their mistakes from their disappointing post season and improve their play on both ends of the court, not only would McHale would secure his coaching job, but Houston would also advance in their quest to win a championship.

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