2 potential replacements for Kevin McHale in Houston
Off to a vexing 4-7 start, and driven to players-only meetings after three weeks of the regular season, the Houston Rockets made the knee-jerk decision to let go of head coach Kevin McHale on Wednesday, 11 games into his three-year, $12-million extension.
They've promoted assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff on an interim basis, and according to owner Les Alexander, he'll remain in that role for the remainder of this season. Bickerstaff - the son of longtime NBA coach Bernie Bickerstaff - has served as an assistant for 11 seasons, and has no NBA head-coaching experience.
Assuming the Rockets look outside the organization for a McHale replacement at season's end, here are two candidates that fit the bill:
Tom Thibodeau
With virtually the exact same personnel that ranked sixth last season, the Rockets are languishing at the very bottom of the league in defensive efficiency. In other words, they could probably use a boost, and the notoriously tough ex-Chicago Bulls coach could be the man to get the engine running.
With Thibodeau, overwork and subsequent injuries are a necessary consideration, especially for a Rockets team already dealing with a heap of them. At the same time, it seems like all the drama and friction between him and the Bulls' front office last season - over things like minutes management, wearable tech, and offensive scheme - has clouded the fact that Thibodeau can flat-out coach.
He's familiar with the Rockets organization, having been an assistant in Houston for four seasons (2003-2007). As a lead assistant in Boston, he engineered some of the best defensive outfits the league has ever seen, and went on to craft top-five defenses for four straight years in his first head-coaching gig with the Bulls. Despite his apparent intransigence, he's also proven himself to be a forward thinker in the past, creating the blueprint for a smattering of today's most popular defensive principles (packing the paint, icing pick-and-rolls, taking away corner threes).
It probably goes without saying that the Rockets - and any front office that seeks to hire Thibodeau from here on out - will emphasize the need for him to adapt. The Rockets, to use one example, love to run. They ranked second in the NBA in pace last season, and, for as often as it's looked like they've been stuck in mud, they still rank seventh in possessions per game this year. No Thibodeau-coached Bulls team ever finished outside the bottom 10.
Thibodeau could step into a really interesting situation in Houston. Is he amenable enough to make the potential partnership a reality?
Scott Brooks
In his seven years as Oklahoma City's head coach, Brooks earned a reputation as a player's coach, which is something of a backhanded compliment in today's increasingly nuts-and-bolts obsessed NBA. But a strong motivator and relationship-builder may be the cure for what ails these Rockets.
General manager Daryl Morey said the team simply wasn't responding to McHale; that he'd lost the locker room. McHale himself said the situation "wasn't working." Perhaps what the Rockets need is less a coach than a manager. To put it simply, they need to start trying harder, and that starts with having a guy on the bench they feel compelled to try hard for.
Most of the players on the roster have been there a while, and have their Moreyball principles down pat. They run out on the break at every opportunity, shoot lots of threes and lots of free throws, and avoid long twos like the plague. Brooks' teams never launched as many triples as the Rockets do, but they got to the line a ton and feasted in transition. They also ran a lot of isolations and simplistic pick-and-roll actions. Which is to say that, for better or worse, Brooks could transition pretty seamlessly to the Rockets' bench.
He may lack for offensive creativity, but his Thunder teams were always strong at the other end, particularly when it came to defensive rebounding, forcing turnovers, and challenging shots at the rim. The Rockets, despite seemingly having the personnel to succeed in those areas, rank 29th in defensive rebounding rate, and are giving up nearly five more points in the paint than any other team.