Breaking Down Adjustments Rockets Coach Kevin McHale Still Needs to Make

Houston Rockets head coach Kevin McHale entered this season with the hefty task of bringing an NBA championship back to the city. For the former Celtics legend to accomplish that goal, however, he must go back to the drawing board and iron out a few wrinkles before they continue to plague the team's season. 

As of Nov. 12, the Rockets are 5-3 but have yet to pull off a win against any of last year's playoff teams. Houston's victories have come against teams that are a combined 16-22, as Dallas and Portland are the only teams with winning records that have lost to Houston this season. 

On the flip side, the team played catch-up for most of the Nov. 7 showdown with the Lakers before losing on a Steve Blake buzzer-beater. In Houston's other two losses, the team looked overmatched against the Clippers. 

Part of Houston's plight has been the result of something they can't control: the injury bug, which has hit the team early and often. Shooting guard James Harden is dealing with a foot issue, forward Chandler Parsons is suffering from back spasms, and point guard Patrick Beverley missed time with a rib ailment. 

On the bench, forward Terrence Jones has battled a shoulder problem all season, while fellow big man Omri Casspi is playing on a bum ankle. Versatile wing Francisco Garcia missed the team's most recent game against Toronto with an undisclosed illness. 

That's where the Rockets' excuses end, though. The team's other issues are things that should have been ironed-out before the regular season began. Here are a few things coach Kevin McHale must do to right the ship before it's too late. 

Scrap the "Twin Towers" Idea

The catalyst for signing Dwight Howard and keeping Omer Asik was the idea that the two could work together to form the NBA's newest version of the "Twin Towers."

Skeptics noted that playing two big men with similar tendencies would cause a redundancy on the court as well as make the paint too congested for the team's bevy of slashing guards. Supporters of the strategy have asked that people give the lineup some time to work out the kinks and that the duo would give Houston an overwhelming advantage defensively as well as on the boards. 

Eight games into the season, both parties are right. 

The Rockets lead the NBA with an average of 47.9 boards per game, and their 383 rebounds are second only to the Los Angeles Lakers. 

Team	RPG
1. Houston	47.9
2. Oklahoma City	47.0
3. LA Lakers	46.6

However, despite having two of the best rim-protectors playing major minutes together, the Rockets are still giving up far too many points. The case-in-point came in the team's first loss to the Clippers, where Chris Paul and Co. thrashed Houston to the tune of 137 points. 

The Rockets are allowing 103.6 points per game, which is 25th in the league. Furthermore, the heavy traffic in the paint has made the team's wing players more reliant on the three-ball. Houston is second in the league in three-point attempts with 202, but they are only converting 31 percent of them (23rd in the NBA). 

Star guard James Harden leads the NBA in three-point attempts but is shooting a putrid 27.6 percent from deep. Harden, who averages around five tries from behind the arc per game for his career, is jacking up an astonishing 7.3 triples a game this season. 

The main solution to this problem is to scrap the idea of Asik and Howard starting together and use the big lineup only in situations that call for it. In the meantime, the team must find a power forward that can space the floor and open up the lanes so that guys like Harden aren't becoming too infatuated with their jump shot. 

Terrence Jones filled in for Asik in the second half of the Raptors game and saw the most playing time he's had all season. The result was a stat line of seven points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in 32 minutes. 

Jones and sharpshooter Omri Casspi are the team's best options to replace Asik in the starting lineup. Jones spent the offseason developing his mid-range game to be a better complement to Dwight Howard. Casspi has the perimeter skills to lure defenders away from Howard in the paint. 

Jones is the better defender of the two, although neither can protect the rim as well as Asik. Still, Jones or Casspi starting at the 4 makes more sense than the Twin Towers lineup that McHale has tried to stuff down everyone's throats.

Even the beleaguered head coach himself has admitted it may be time for a change. 

"That big lineup — I am 50/50 on that,”  McHale said after the Raptors game, per Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle. “Jones played some big minutes so I thought we should leave him in there.”

It is best for McHale to cut his losses now and quit trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The big lineup can still work, but it is better served in doses. If you played Asik and Howard together for about 10 minutes a game—and especially when the team needs a stop—that would be benefit the team more than forcing these two in the starting lineup.

Avoid Slow Starts

The Houston Rockets' bread-and-butter has been an uptempo style that has forced opponents to try to keep up with them. According to ESPN's Hollinger Team Statistics, Houston is sixth in the NBA in pace. The team is also fifth in scoring, with an average of 106.1 points per game. 

Still, the team has been plagued all year by slow starts. They have led after the first quarter three times in eight games this season and have had to close double-digit deficits more times than an elite team should. 

In a Nov. 2 meeting with the winless Utah Jazz (0-2 at the time, currently 0-8), the Rockets were down by 16 at halftime and had to rally to pull off a 104-93 win in Salt Lake City. 

Afterwards, starting center Omer Asik explained the lethargic start like this, via The Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen: "We just started the game, especially me, sleeping a little bit. We should never start sleepy. We know that. I’m sure, that will never happen again. In the second half, we just played the way we have to play."

"In the first half, we were just letting them score, letting them make their cuts and doing whatever they wanted," James Harden told the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com). "They were outhustling us."

If Houston is getting "outhustled" by a lowly Utah team in the first week of the season, how are they going to handle elite teams like Oklahoma City or the Los Angeles Clippers later in the year? Do you think San Antonio is going to just let Houston back into the game like Houston did? I think not. 

To that point, the Rockets have to do a better job of working through the rough patches. In the team's second loss to the Clippers, they let a bad shooting stretch get them off their game. The result was Los Angeles coming back from being down 11 to nab a convincing 107-94 win.

"We missed some shots and we started doubting,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “We stopped taking some shots we needed to take. We just got nothing going from that point on. We just couldn't muster any kind of response. It snow-balled on top of itself, which is a bad sign."

Center Dwight Howard added: "We just stopped playing the way we played to get the lead. It takes time. We can’t lose faith now. We can’t lose each other. We just have to stay together, stay focused, stay positive." 

"We just need to learn how to keep fighting," said point guard Patrick Beverley. "That's the biggest thing with us. Not offense. Not defense. Just to be able to fight and grind games out."

While the players are ultimately responsible for what happens on the court, it is up to McHale to keep everyone's head in the game. Through eight games, the Rockets have looked like a talented team without a rudder.

There's no clear-cut alpha dog. There's no clear-cut leader or voice. Someone has to step up and take charge so that the team can avoid both slow starts and coming unglued when things don't go their way.

Enough With The Turnovers

Turnovers were Houston's biggest Achilles' heel last season, when they led the league with an average of 15.8 TOs a game.

This season has been plagued with more of the same. The Rockets' 19.4 turnovers per contest is second-worst in the NBA, behind only the Golden State Warriors. 

Now, no player or coach can wave a magic wand and make turnovers disappear. However, McHale has the power to hold guys accountable for their miscues. A season after leading the league in turnovers, James Harden is once again at the top of the charts in that category with 36 in eight games. 

As much as Harden brings to the table on offense and occasionally on defense, it is up to McHale to stand up to his franchise guard and reel him in. If that means sitting him for a stretch when he gets reckless, so be it. 

Name	Team	Total Turnovers	TOPG
1. James Harden	HOU	36	4.5
2. Russell Westbrook	OKC	18	4.5
3. Eric Bledsoe	PHX	30	4.3
4. Kevin Durant	OKC	25	4.2
5. Derrick Rose	CHI	25	4.2

The same goes for point guard Jeremy Lin and center Dwight Howard. The only way to send a message to players is to hit them where it hurts. McHale can't continue to keep his guys out there and hope they can play through their mistakes. 

Houston won't beat anyone come playoff time if they are turning the ball over 20 times a game. San Antonio and the Los Angeles Clippers, whom the Rockets will inevitably have to go through to make the finals, are both within the top 10 of the league in terms of turnovers per game.

The Spurs are third-best in the league with an average of 13.5 turnovers a night, while the Clippers' 15.3 TOs per game is ninth-best. It's one thing to try to overcome your own mistakes to win a basketball game; it's another when the team you're facing isn't having the same problem. 

After last season, cutting down on turnovers should have been as big a priority for McHale and Co. as fixing this leaky defense was. Two weeks into the season, it appears to still be the rope that holds this team back. 

The pressure is on McHale to make good on the lofty expectations. If the Rockets fail, he'll be out the door before any of his star players will be, so this is an issue that McHale must nip in the bud immediately. 

In closing, the Rockets have looked like a team without an identity for the first two weeks of the season. Despite the presence of one of the game's best defenders in Dwight Howard, the defense is still an issue, particularly on the perimeter. 

While the team's "Big Three" of Harden, Parsons and Howard are having good seasons statistically, the team, as a whole, is a work in progress. There's no established leader or gameplan. It has just been an All-Star team trying to overwhelm opponents with their talent. 

As the season progresses, the team will get a better understanding of each other and what does or does not work. They will know when to run Howard in the pick-and-roll and when to let Harden do his thing. They will learn to play smarter basketball and develop a stronger stomach for tough situations. 

However, as with any superteam, it all comes down to coaching. It is up to McHale to manage his superstars instead of letting the stars manage him. There needs to be more tough love. He can't sit back and let Harden chuck up bad shots or watch Chris Paul dismantle Jeremy Lin or allow Dwight Howard get passive in the post. 

Additionally, he can't continue to tinker deep in the season. By the All-Star break, this team must look like it is under his control. Otherwise, the "win now" philosophy will turn into yet another case of "wait until next year".