Taking a closer look at the 3 finalists for the Rockets job

After interviewing seemingly everyone who has ever spent time on an NBA coaching staff, the Houston Rockets have whittled their list to three names to replace Rick Adelman, who was fired last month: Lawrence Frank, Dwane Casey, and Kevin McHale. This will be the third coach hired in the Les Alexander era, and regardless of who the Rockets elect to hire, this coach will not have the track record of the previous two (Jeff Van Gundy and Adelman) who had coached their previous team’s to the NBA Finals. Of the three finalists, only one has taken his team to the second round, the other two have never made the playoffs. A decision could be made any day, and I thought I’d take a closer look at the men who could become the next Rockets coach.

Lawrence Frank

Frank is the safest choice of the three, which makes me think he won’t be the guy. After Adelman was let go, Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! said the Rockets wanted to unearth the next NBA coaching star, making it sound like they didn’t want a known entity, which Frank is, with over 450 games as a head coach under his belt. He took over the Nets in the middle of the 03-04 season when Byron Scott was pushed out by Jason Kidd (allegedly) after taking the Nets to the NBA Finals two straight seasons. The Nets finished third in the East, losing a 7-game series to Detroit, who won the championship. Jersey went out in the first round in 05, and reached the second round the next two seasons. His last three seasons with the Nets were bad, as the team ended the Jason Kidd and Vince Carter eras. He lost 16 straight to begin last season and was fired. Frank was a manager at Indiana under Bob Knight, and is thought of highly around the league. His New Jersey teams seemingly played to their potential. He was never upset in the playoffs, and he pulled one upset, as the six seed in ’06 beating Toronto in 6 games.

Kevin McHale

The Hall of Famer is the ultimate wild card in this mix. He has never coached a full season in the NBA. He has never been an assistant in the NBA. He spent close to 15 years running the Timberwolves basketball operations. He did some good things in that span, and some bad things, but for about a decade, the Wolves were always competitive, and he did draft Kevin Garnett in 1995, when drafting high school kids was not in style. McHale has been an NBA head coach for 94 games. He finished the 05 season 19-12 after firing Flip Saunders a season after the TWolves finished with the best record in the West. He was not interested in being a full-time coach after that because of the grind, and actually hired Dwayne Casey as his replacement. McHale’s second coaching stint came in December of 2008 after Randy Whitman was fired. He stepped down as VP of Basketball Operations and became the full-time head coach. He took over a team that was 4-15, and lost his first eight games, but followed that up by winning 12-of-16, and it looked like the Wolves might have been on the right track, but Al Jefferson blew out his knee, and Minnesota ended the season 8-31, and Wolves owner Glen Taylor surprisingly let McHale go, even though he made it clear that he wanted to remain Minnesota’s coach. McHale has never started the season as a head coach, so Morey and company would be taking an enormous gamble to handa the reins to him.

Dwane Casey

When he was an assistant at Kentucky in the late 80’s Casey was caught mailing $1,000 dollars to Chris Mills. That discovery, along with many others, led to the resignation of Eddie Sutton at UK, and it put the Wildcats on probation, which allowed Rick Pitino to swoop into the Lexington. Casey wound up coaching in Japan, until the mid 90’s when he joined George Karl’s staff in Seattle, where he would remain an assistant for ten years under Karl and Nate McMillan before being hired by McHale in 2005. He inherited a terrible team and won just 33 games in his first season, and was fired after somehow managing to split 40 games the next season. Ricky Davis was his second best player. Since he was fired the Wolves have gone 90-280, so its safe to say his teams didn’t under achieve. He is now an assistant for the Mavericks, who could very well be the best-coached team in the entire league. I don’t know how much of that is because of him, but the Mavs are in the middle of a deep playoff run, and the last assistant to get a head coach job during a deep playoff run was Tom Thibodeau, and he was the coach of the year this season. Although the year before Kurt Rambis got head coach job, so never mind.

I have no idea what the direction the Rockets will go, or how much longer they will wait, but what I do know is that whoever they bring in will not have near the credentials that the last two coaches brought in by Les Alexander have had, and that concerns me.

Why I'm not taking sides during the Eastern Conference Finals

When you go to college over a thousand miles from home, like I did going to Indiana, you meet and befriend all sorts of people from all walks of life. My experience was no different. Three years ago when finished school, I left friends from all across this great country of ours, including the cities of Miami and Chicago, where some of my best friends reside. Because of this, I have decided to not be an obnoxious douche bag by taking sides over the next two weeks when the Heat and Bulls play for the Eastern Conference title. Its called growing up.

For much of my life, I have basked in my friend’s misery when their teams have lost. I have done the same all throughout this season with the Heat, so much so, to where I drove a friend of a friend into hating me even though he has never met me! I have done the same thing to my Chicago friends. I remember giggling like a high school girl as the Cubs were getting swept in the Division Series by Arizona and then by the Dodgers. Hell, I even wasted $30 on a Pittsburgh Pirates hat when we went to Wrigley for a Cubs game. I will do this no more.

Now, I do have rivalries with these respective cities, like with the Cubs and Dolphins, but when it comes to this series I have none. The Rockets are in the other conference, and its not like they have a history with either team, so why do I care who wins and loses? The truth is, I don’t, so why take sides against friends when I don’t have to? This series has the potential to be one of the best 7-game series that we’ve ever seen, so I am just going to sit back and enjoy. When it is all said and done I will congratulate my friends who win, and console those that lose.

So, I wish everyone involved the best of luck. We have three of the five best players in the world playing in two its loudest arenas (except for the first and third quarters in Miami), which will have the seats full for all 48 minutes (by human beings in Chicago and by white bed sheets in Miami). Its hard not to like either of the teams. You have the Bulls with the young, humble superstar, who has never been to this point before. For Miami you have the great LeBron James, whose string of MVP titles was snapped. He has the experience of failing in big games before, and how about Dwanye Wade. What a classy guy, and you know a guy wants to win when he tries to snap the elbow off another team’s best player, and you can’t not talk about these two teams without talking about their histories. The Bulls have six NBA Championships that were won by Michael Jordan, and the Heat won their title 5 years when Wade and Bennett Salvatore coupled to shock the Mavericks.

If you don’t have a dog in this fight, or money on the line, you might be tempted to take sides in this series. Don’t do it. Just sit back and enjoy the show, just like me, and may the best team win!

Conference Semifinal Predictions

Here are my predictions for the Confernce Semifinals. I was 5-3 with my before-series picks in round 1, and 6-2 with my mid series picks.

Eastern Conference

#1 Chicago vs #5 Atlanta

Even though they beat Orlando in round 1, the Hawks were probably the least impressive out of the 8 teams remaining, but they are in the second round for the 3rd straight year, one of 3 teams that can say that (LAL, BOS). However, it is important to note that they have been swept in this round each of the last two seasons. They looked great against the Magic at times, but they weren't consistent with that great play, which is how they have always been. I don't think they are capable of being great for an entire game. The Hinrich injury is huge because he is their best shot at slowing down Derrick Rose, and now Jeff Teague is going to have to see important minutes in this series.

Prediction: Bulls in 5

#2 Miami vs #3 Boston

This series is being hyped up more than a Yankees/Red Sox series, which will get annoying soon if it hasn't already. Everyone is talking about how important this series is for LeBron James, but I think it is just as important for Chris Bosh. He has something to prove, and if he can't come through against Kevin Garnett, I think the Heat will have a decision to make with him. I like Boston in this series because I don't think Miami can match its sense of urgency, especially early in games. Its one thing to come from behind against the Sixers, its another to have to do it over and over against the Celtics. As dumb as it sounds, the most important players for the Heat could win up being Mike Bibby, Mario Chalmers, and James Jones. They have to knock down shots.

Prediction: Celtics in 6

Western Conference

#4 Oklahoma City vs #8 Memphis

When the Thunder made the Jeff Green for Kendrick Perkins trade everyone immediately talked about how that trade would help them against the Lakers. Well, as it turns out, its going to help them immensely against the Grizzlies. Perkins will help OKC matchup inside against Memphis. Even though they beat Denver in 5 games, I saw something that worried me about the Thunder: Russell Westbrook. He played selfish against the Nuggets, and I think thats the first time that has happened with this OKC team. Memphis would love nothing more than for him to hoist up 30 shots a game. Memphis shot over 47% against San Antonio, and I'm not sure that can continue. This could be a great series, and neither team lost at home in the first round.

Prediction: Thunder in 7

#2 LA Lakers vs #3 Dallas

Dirk and Kobe finally meet in the playoffs, and its a chance to see Jason Terry and Matt Barnes go at it after they had that little scuffle back towards the end of the regular season. Dallas played much better in the first round against a better team, but I still don't like the matchup for them because of rebounding. They didn't rebound well against Portland, and as has been said hundreds of times, that how the Lakers beat you. I think Dallas will cause the Lakers problems with Terry and Nowitzki, but they are just a little too reliant on the 3 to beat LA.

Prediction: Lakers in 7