Solomon: McHale didn’t deserve to be dismissed so quickly

‘This is enough’?” Alexander said.

But was firing McHale, who last season led the Rockets to the franchise’s third-best record (56-26) and the Western Conference finals for the first time in 18 years, the right move?

Is handing the team over to J.B. Bickerstaff, a rookie head coach, who has been on McHale’s staff for four years in Houston, for the rest of the season a wise decision?

As he sat in the owner’s suite adjacent to the court at Toyota Center just before his team took the floor against the Portland Trail Blazers — a game he expected his team to win (it did, 108-103 in overtime) — even Alexander didn’t know.

“You don’t know for sure, right?” Alexander said. “But when you watch your team play and you know you’re going to lose … I knew I was going to lose the Boston game. I knew I was going to lose the Golden State game. I knew I was going to get crushed.

“I knew the way the players were playing, the way they were playing defensively. They weren’t playing hard, they weren’t running back. And they were sloppy. Their movements were sloppy.

“I knew we were going to lose.”

Alexander doesn’t have a track record for hasty decisions.

In his 22 years as the owner, the franchise has had only four coaches. The only NBA teams with fewer coaches in that span are San Antonio (three) and Utah (three).

That’s what makes this move so odd.

Alexander isn’t just reacting to 4-7, because all of his previous coaches got off to worse starts than the mark that got McHale fired.

Rudy Tomjanovich (2-10 in 1999-2000), Jeff Van Gundy (3-10 in 2005-06) and Rick Adelman (3-10 in 2010-11) all survived those horrendous beginnings.

And for that matter, McHale’s first Rockets squad started 4-7.

What made this year’s start so different? Expectations. Alexander described the difference in what he thought his team was capable of doing and what they were doing as “A-to-Z.”

And something was amiss when the Rockets lost each of their first three games by 20 points.

“We have more talent than to be losing by 20 points,” Alexander said.

After McHale pushed all the right buttons in a superb run to the Western Conference finals, despite a slew of injuries in the regular season and playoffs, the Rockets spent the offseason talking about a potential championship.

They showed up at training camp talking big but playing small, as if last season’s success and a key offseason acquisition in Ty Lawson would guarantee another deep playoff run.

James Harden parlayed his superstar status into off-court success (a $200 million contract with adidas) and notoriety (canoodling with a Kardashian).

But from the first brick he threw up this season, the shooting guard hasn’t played anywhere near the MVP level he displayed a year ago.

If Harden had showed up ready to play, the Rockets wouldn’t have lost each of their first three games by 20 points. And McHale wouldn’t be out of a job.

But because Harden softened up over the summer.

Because Dwight Howard is in and out of the lineup with a sore something or other.

Because Donatas Motiejunas has yet to play because of back surgery.

Because Trevor Ariza and Harden and Lawson are having nightly brickthrowing contests.

Because Morey’s offseason moves looked better on paper than on the hardwood.

Because the Rockets have been lazy and sloppy and horrendous defensively. Because of all that — not just because of McHale’s coaching — the Rockets were an embarrassing 4-7.

Because team leaders Harden and Howard didn’t step to the owner, stand up for their head coach and take ownership for the team’s pitiful start, Alexander went with his gut and let the coach with the winningest percentage in franchise history go a mere 11 games into the season.

Alexander didn’t believe McHale could lift the Rockets so that their performance would meet expectations.

It doesn’t matter if he is right about that or how wrong I say it was to send McHale out so hastily.

He’s the owner.