Looking long-term, Tom Thibodeau should be the Rockets' choice

ByBRADFORD DOOLITTLE
November 18, 2015, 3:26 PM

— -- On Wednesday, the Rockets fired Kevin McHale 11 games into the first year of a three-year, $12 million extension he signed just last December. That's eleven games into the first season after McHale led Houston to the Western Conference finals.

Rockets owner Leslie Alexander told ESPN's Calvin Watkins that Bickerstaff will be the guy for the rest of the season. However, Morey suggested that if the Rockets don't win, the changes will continue.

What happened

McHale didn't have his roster intact at all during his final partial season. Big man Donatas Motiejunas has missed the entire season with back trouble. Dwight Howard has been in and out of the lineup with back problems of his own. Terrence Jones has been limited by, first, an eyelid laceration and, now, a hand injury. Patrick Beverley is out indefinitely with a badly sprained ankle.

With his options limited, McHale needed his new backcourt of Lawson and self-proclaimed MVP candidate James Harden to gel quickly and prodigiously. Instead, the pairing has tanked. During Harden and Lawson's 304 minutes on the floor together, Houston has been outscored by 9.4 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com/stats.

The Rockets won 56 games under McHale last season and reached the conference finals, but he's looked tired and haggard for much of this year. Losing by an average of 7.7 points per game will do that to a person. He may simply be at the end of the line after a 35-year run as a Hall of Fame player, an executive and a highly-successful coach.

In fact, according to ESPN's Calvin Watkins, before the Western Conference finals last season, GM Daryl Morey said McHale didn't want a contact extension before the start of that season because he wanted to see how the team played.

Morey said the Rockets had faith in McHale that he could lead the team and gave him the extension anyway.

However, the Rockets have not played hard. As GM Daryl Morey told reporters on Wednesday, "The team was not responding to Kevin McHale. There is no time in the West." Maybe you blame McHale for that. Or maybe you put that on a group of players desperate for some sort of leadership to emerge from within. It really doesn't matter because Morey is right about one thing -- as the Thunder found out last season, a bad start in the West can bury you.

What's next

Bickerstaff is the son of long-time NBA coach Bernie, so he has familial roots in the league that date back to well before he was born. Bickerstaff's primary role for McHale was reportedly to oversee the defense, which worked out well last season. This season, not so much.

Morey can't bide his time. Houston was on the precipice of a title run just a few months ago. If healthy, most of last season's key pieces are still around, joined by Lawson and Marcus Thornton and buoyed by the emergence of center Clint Capela. Lawson has only a non-guaranteed season left on his deal beyond this year, and Howard can opt out.

The names that leap to everyone's mind to step in as a full-time head coach will be Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy, Scott Brooks and Mike D'Antoni. Let's play "eliminate the candidates."

Van Gundy: The much-loved ESPN analyst coached Houston for four years, the last of which was during Morey's one year as Houston's assistant general manager. Morey then fired him after a sequence of events that reeked of poor communication. Van Gundy seems like a reach.

Brooks: Brooks coached Harden when he was with the Thunder. Still, if Brooks couldn't get over the top with Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and company, is he the guy to finish the Rockets' puzzle?

D'Antoni: His offensive philosophy fits, and maybe that's enough. But when you're 29th on defense, bringing in D'Antoni would be a polarizing move, to say the least.

That leaves Thibs.

Since parting ways with the Bulls, Thibodeau has remained on top of the league, touring around and spending time with some of his colleagues across the NBA. Thibodeau earned plaudits as an assistant under Van Gundy in Houston before moving onto Boston.

You want to improve on defense? Thibodeau is your man. During the five seasons he coached the Bulls, Chicago had the league's best composite defensive rating and the fourth-best overall record. He did this even though the Bulls rarely had its full contingent of healthy key players.

There are concerns, of course. If the Rockets tuned out McHale, how would they respond to the shrill rantings of Thibodeau? If Howard needs his minutes managed, is there a risk Thibodeau would run him into the ground -- and out of town? And as Thibodeau's offensive success in Chicago was usually predicated on who was available, is he the right guy to figure out the Lawson-Harden conundrum?

There are going to be questions no matter which direction the Rockets go. The Rockets would be a virtual certainty to climb the defensive ladder with Thibodeau. Under McHale, the Rockets had grown stale and complacent. Under Thibodeau, complacency is not an option.

Thibodeau is the right guy, and the Rockets are the right team.