The Houston Rockets have fired Coach Kevin McHale. After a 4-7 start to the season which has featured two 3+ game losing streaks, the Rockets apparently felt that a change was needed. J.B. Bickerstaff, a longtime assistant in Houston, will take over as the head coach. McHale led the Rockets to the Western Conference finals a year ago and was rewarded with a contract extension, all of which he will still receive.
If you have to blame any one thing for the Rockets horrendous start, defense was the real issue, particularly the defense of James Harden who constantly leaves shooters open and loses cutters regularly leading to easy buckets and contributing to the Rockets leading the league in points allowed in the paint per game at 50. McHale should not have shouldered the blame for the Rockets’ issues, but looking for a jolt to the team, and considering any losses even this early could be detrimental to a team’s playoff positioning in the Western Conference, something had to change.
Hopefully Bickerstaff can bring back Houston’s defensive intensity that consistently improved throughout last season, and hopefully he can bring back some fluidity to the team’s offense that has seemed to fall back on isolation basketball more often than not, which is not fun to watch and is not how you’re going to win games.