McHale just wants lineup that works
The NBA’s tallest coach would rather not have the NBA’s shortest team, despite the stats that lean otherwise and Clippers coach Doc Rivers’ suspicion that the Rockets secretly enjoy their small lineups.
It sort of worked out that way for Kevin McHale, but he would not mind having more than one healthy player who can look him in the eye.
The question now, with the 6-9 Terrence Jones ready to return to the rotation, is whether the Rockets will have more than one person in the starting
lineup who can at least come close to McHale’s 6-10.
The Rockets’ offense got rolling after McHale switched to a small lineup when Jones went out with a cut eyelid. Marcus Thornton (6-4) became a starter, Trevor Ariza (6-8) moved to power forward,
and the ball moved to open shooters.
McHale wouldn’t say Tuesday if he’ll immediately go back to the lineup he used before Jones was hurt. If he does not make the switch for Wednesday’s meeting with the Brooklyn Nets, it would seem to be a matter of time. McHale, however, would not offer clues.
“Sometimes, it’s (about) matchups,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s do what we do. Sometimes, they have to match up with us.”
With that, McHale launched into a long explanation of why he really does not know.
“If you step into a basketball game saying I’m only going to do this, you’re limiting yourself,” McHale said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I watch the game. If our small lineup is rebounding the ball, they’re having a hard time guarding, we’re getting shots, you like it. If you’re not doing that, you change it.
“I think about how we’re playing once the game starts. If I knew what was going to happen during the game, I’d run Wall Street … I’d be a multi-trillionaire. I’ll wait and see how they play, how the matchups are, what’s hurting us, what’s hurting them, and make decisions from there.”
Clicking with Thornton
The argument for sticking with the small lineup is clear, if based on exceedingly small sample sizes. In the two games with traditional lineups (one that included a power forward), the Rockets ranked 29th offensively. In the five games since Thornton moved into the starting lineup, even with a second-half collapse in Miami, the Rockets have been seventh in the NBA in offensive rating.
There is a compelling case, however, for switching back to a traditional lineup. The Nets and Nuggets are two of the league’s better offensive rebounding teams, ranking eighth and 10th in offensive rebounding percentage. Power forwards Thaddeus Young and Kenneth Faried do the bulk of their scoring going to the basket.
Though Dirk Nowitzki, whom the Rockets face Saturday, is much more of a jump shooter, the Rockets built much of their success against the Mavericks last season going at Nowitzki on the other end rather than allowing him to defend catch-and-shoot scorers.
Looking ahead
Beyond the schedule this week, the Rockets said their traditional lineup will have to develop the spacing and driving lanes that they used so effectively when the extra shooter forced teams to defend from corner to corner.
“I think we’ve just got to move the ball better when we have a traditional lineup,” Ariza said. “We have to have more ball movement, more cutting, more playing for each other. That’s something that we have been working on and something we’re going to continue to work on until we get it down right.”
There has been a league-wide trend toward having four shooters on the floor with one big man in the lane. But the Rockets’ offense worked with power forwards sharing the floor with Dwight Howard (6-11) far better in the previous two seasons than in those two games to open the season.
“We’ve got to get better spacing, better movement,” McHale said. “Our spacing has got to work in more coordination with each other. It’s going to have a little bit different of a dynamic. They have to set more wide screens. They have to set more picks for others. Their man is just not going to guard them outside the paint. We have to take advantage of that.”
He either wasn’t sure or wasn’t saying when the Rockets will try to take advantage of Jones’ return, but that time is coming. When it does, the Hall of Fame power forward who coaches the Rockets can go back to coaching a power forward again.