Steve Clifford To Houston Rockets? You’ll Miss Him When He’s Gone…

Steve Clifford is a lot like an ex-girlfriend; you won’t know how good he really was until he’s gone.

The Houston Rockets are just hoping you don’t realize that.

In a move that took the NBA by surprise, the Rockets fired head coach Kevin McHale on Wednesday morning after Houston’s 4-7 start to the 2015-16 campaign.

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Despite back-to-back 50-win seasons and a historic playoff comeback that eventually led to a Western Conference Finals berth last year, McHale was deemed the problem plaguing this Houston team.

The Rockets — while packed to the brim with talent — have played with an unprecedented lethargy this season, which has equated to surrendering 108.5 points per game (second-worst in entire NBA).

Parting with McHale has led to much speculation about his impending replacement. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that assistant J.B. Bickerstaff will likely coach for the remainder of this season, but Houston has already been linked to a few other big-time names, including Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford:

"Nevertheless, the Rockets are pushing for results now, and several elite coaches with Rockets ties in the past – including Jeff Van Gundy and Tom Thibodeau – could lurk as future candidates. Another strong candidate with Houston ties, Charlotte’s Steve Clifford, could be a free agent this summer."

Last season, Clifford had the Charlotte masses calling for his head. Fans wanted him out the door. He was deemed the reason that the 2014-15 Charlotte Hornets — a talented and deep club playing in a weak conference — was unable to tread above .500 and make the playoffs.

On top of having one of the weakest offensive systems in the entire NBA, Clifford was guilty of horrendous lineup mismanagement and an inability to design effective plays to close out tight contests. Worse yet, his team just wasn’t winning.

But a lot has changed since last season, and Clifford’s response to the criticism, or, really, the lack of success, makes him indispensable for the Hornets now. Barring yet another missed playoff berth, the Charlotte Hornets should plan on keeping the now-dynamic Clifford around.

This year, the “fire him” sentiment hasn’t been nearly as present, but that’s much of Clifford’s own doing. He bounced back over the summer, completely redesigning his offense.

Charlotte has upgraded talent-wise for sure, but the new system encourages much more off-ball movement in attempts to put Charlotte’s players in easy positions to score, rather than giving it to them in straight-isolation and asking them to create.

The redesigned attack has resulted in a huge jump in production: after scoring just 94.2 points per game last year (28th), the Hornets now put up 100.7 (17th). Obviously, there’s still room for improvement, but the isolation-aspect of the offense is tough to completely abolish when it’s two of your top-three scorers’ specialty. A team is only as good as the man running it, but also those executing for him.

The staple, of course, with Clifford is his defense — likely the reason the Rockets are interested in him in the first place. Clifford was the engineer behind the Orlando Magic’s smothering defense back in the 2008-09 season — the year the team made the NBA Finals, riding on the massive shoulders of now-Rocket Dwight Howard.

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For Charlotte, the defensive turnaround under Clifford cannot be overstated. In 2012-13, the Bobcats were surrendering 102.7 points per game, the second-worst average in the league. One season later, then-rookie head coach Clifford’s club was allowing 97.1 points per game — the Association’s fourth-best mark.

Even last year, the defense was consistently effective (97.3 opponent PPG), even with an absence of any elite individual defenders, save for Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

This season, the narrative has been a bit different, likely due to Kidd-Gilchrist’s injury: the Hornets are giving up 99.5 points per contest, which puts them at 13th league-wide. Still, their point-differential is positive this season, meaning on average, they score more than their opponents.

In wins, the Hornets are outscoring their opponents by an average margin of 9.1 points per game. In losses, they are being outscored by 5.3 points, indicating that they continue to hang into games, even the tough ones.

Charlotte picked up the third-year (this current season) team option on Clifford’s contract back in 2014, so he will become a free agent this summer. The Hornets have much to decide in the upcoming offseason, in which the contracts of Clifford, Al Jefferson, Nicolas Batum, and Marvin Williams are all set to expire.

Much of the team’s future depends on its success (or lack thereof) this season, but Clifford has really improved his weaknesses to become one of the most well-rounded coaches in the NBA, hence the Rockets targeting him.

Next: 25 Best Players to Play for the Charlotte Hornets

They see something in Steve Clifford; does Charlotte, too?