Basketballghana.com’s Yaw Adjei-Mintah looks at the perils of coaching in the biggest league in the world – the NBA.
James Harden scored all nine points for the Houston Rockets in overtime to lead his team to a 108-103 win over the Portland Trailblazers. Harden who has been inconsistent with his shooting all season dropped 45 points and dished out 11 assists in the win; the win snapped a four game losing streak for the Rockets. Prior to the game, General Manager Daryl Morey issued a statement which detailed the sack of head coach Kevin McHale. In the eyes of the world, the sack was due to Houston’s sluggish start to the season highlighted by a four game losing streak including embarrassing losses to the Dallas Mavericks (who played the game without Dirk Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons and Wesley Matthews), the Brooklyn Nets (who had not won a game prior to the game) and the rebuilding Denver Nuggets. However, the analytics-driven Morey had other ideas; responding to reporters on McHale dismissal, he stated “players weren’t responding” to McHale.
Six months ago Houston beat season expectations by going all the way to the Western Conference Finals 20 years after their last appearance which they ultimately won. Last season however, they couldn’t get past eventual champions Golden State Warriors but their play throughout an injury riddled season was commendable. So on 18th November, 2015 the coach with the highest winning percentage (.598 according to basketballreference.com) in the history of the Rockets was dismissed from his duties. The NBA coaching job is on track to become the most unforgiving in the sporting world.
McHale’s sack is the latest addition to a massive catalogue of NBA coaches who are-to be honest-unfairly sacked from their posts. Tom Thibodeau, formerly of the Chicago Bulls was sacked before the start of the current season despite leading the Bulls team to its first ever Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 2011 and churning out top ten placing in defensive rating for five straight seasons . For starters, the Bulls front office clashed with Thibodeau on the amount of minutes handed to players. The Bulls management felt Thibodeau wore his players down leaving them gassed out for the playoffs. This strategy is responsible for the long injury list the Bulls had to deal with during Thibodeau’s tenure including injuries which caused franchise corner stone Derrick Rose to miss 154 regular season games in the space of two years. Another reason for the Thibodeau-Bulls Management fracas was his unwillingness to play rookies. All-Star Jimmy Butler barely played in his rookie year but gained major minutes when the injury list started growing longer. Nikola Mirotic- a modern Power Forward with the ability to hit 3-point shots consistently- had limited minutes in his rookie season. Despite his impressive performances and Joakim Noah’s poor production last year, the latter was handed major minutes ahead of Mirotic; his sack cost the Bulls nine million dollars.
Next on the list is former Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks. A former assistant to P.J. Carlesimo, Brooks was given the reins at the newly located and formed franchise in 2009 which sparked the ascension of the team. The Thunder reached the Western Conference Finals playoffs twice and an NBA Finals appearance against the LeBron James led Miami Heat. Last season, the perennial contenders missed out on the playoffs mainly due to injuries. Star Forward Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka missed significant stretches of the season due to various ailments. Point Guard Russell Westbrook missed some games in the season but recovered in time to spur the playoff charge to no avail. As a result Brooks had a depleted roster to work and was forced to play second unit main stays like Enes Kanter (a terrible defender) and D.J. Augustin for extended minutes. His ordeal is similar to what current New Orleans Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry is going through with his side having just nine men in uniform for their match against the Thunder last week Wednesday. Brooks was dismissed in the aftermath of missing the playoffs for the first time in his six year tenure as head coach. One criticism leveled at Brooks was his unimaginative offensive tactics which didn’t get the best out of Durant and Westbrook. The offenses he deployed on a match basis were heavily reliant on the aforementioned duo thriving in isolation situations. When games were on the line, Brooks was accused of running the same plays time and time again which was simply dump the ball to Westbrook and Durant and let them work their magic.
Coaches in the league are being treated unfairly. For instance, in a copy cat league like the NBA, the Warriors triumph on the back of heavy three-point shots offenses last season means teams are now attempting more three-point shots than ever before. Byron Scott of the Los Lakers was chastised by everyone in and around the league for despising the 3-point shot opting rather for log 2’s and jumpers. He has since changed his style incorporating more three pointers into his offense; the Lakers are ranked eighth in three-point attempts per 100 possessions for the season per Sports VU. Yet Scott is a front runner in coaches set to be fired. McHale on the other hand oversaw his team launch a league record 2,680 3-pointers last season, which was 309 more than the league’s previous number of attempts beyond the arc. Not surprising, the Rockets are currently leading the league in three point attempts with 37.6 percent of their field goal attempts coming beyond the arc.
Perhaps over depending on this tactic led to the former Boston Celtics man’s sack; in the team’s defeat to the Miami Heat, Houston missed 15 of 16 3-point shots in the second half whereas the Heat went on a 67-26 run to win the game. But a potential three shot is always better than a two shot because three will always be bigger than two.
