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Houston Rockets fire coach Kevin McHale
The Houston Rockets have fired Kevin McHale, the team confirmed Wednesday. Assistant J.B. Bickerstaff will serve as interim coach.
"The team was not responding to Kevin," general manager Daryl Morey said. "There is no time in the West."
The Rockets are 4-7 this season, including a current four-game losing streak that prompted a players-only meeting at the Toyota Center on Tuesday morning. The Rockets have failed to reach 100 points during their losing streak -- the team's longest since 2013 -- and are averaging 20 fewer points in their losses overall this season.
"We were starting to address some of the issues that were the reason I was let go," McHale told the Houston Chronicle after news broke of his firing. "We just weren't playing with any juice, with any rhythm. We haven't been able to get the problems solved. We probably had more meetings in last six weeks than in my previous four years here.
"It wasn't working."
McHale, in his fifth season with the team, was in the first year of a three-year extension worth more than $12 million that he signed last December. He was coming off an 56-26 season where the Rockets reached the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1997. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last returning NBA head coach to lead his team to the conference finals and then not make it through the following season was Stan Van Gundy of the Heat. Van Gundy resigned 21 games into the 2005-06 season, and then Pat Riley took over and led that team to a championship.
McHale was hired by the Rockets before the 2011-12 season. He was 193-130 overall with the team, including three straight trips to the playoffs. The Rockets had improved every season under his tenure going into this season.
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich questioned the Rockets' decision.
"You always hate to see a colleague get fired, especially somebody who took a team to the Western Conference finals last year, and won more games than I think they've won in a long time or ever last year, I'm not sure," Popovich said. "So obviously at this short beginning of a season, you hate to see something like that happen. As we all sort of say: It's a volatile business, and sometimes it doesn't make sense ... like Kevin McHale getting fired."
Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said the former Celtics great would be a welcome addition in Boston.
"I told Kevin that today," Ainge said, according to the Boston Herald. "We've got a spot for him. I know we could figure something out for him in some capacity, but I think he's just in a wait and see mode.
"He appreciated me reaching out to him, but I think he's just going to lay low."
League sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that the Dallas Mavericks would also have interest in hiring McHale if he was prepared to switch teams immediately. McHale, though, is also expected to have ample opportunity to return to the broadcasting world should he prefer that route to choosing his next steps coaching-wise.
The Mavericks have employed McHale as a consultant before, bringing him to training camp in 2009 before McHale's hiring in Houston. Mavs owner Mark Cuban is known to be a McHale admirer and Dallas coach Rick Carlisle is one of McHale's closest friends.
During Houston's playoff run last season the Rockets raved about how McHale was a player's coach. Star James Harden said he was comfortable with him from the moment they met.
"I felt like I was talking to an actual player,'' Harden said in May. "Obviously he's won championships so he knows what he's talking about. So my ears are just locked in and focused in on what he's saying.''
Harden, the Rockets' best player, has gotten off to a bumpy start. Harden has maintained his scoring average (27.3 points per game) from a year ago when he finished second in MVP voting (27.4 PPG), but has required 2.2 more field goal attempts a game to do it, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Twenty-nine players are averaging at least 15 field goal attempts per game this season, ESPN Stats & Information says, and among them, only Kobe Bryant (33.6) has a worse field goal percentage than Harden (37.2).
Harden has seen his scoring average drop from 38.5 PPG in victories to 20.9 in losses. He's shooting 46.4 percent from the field in wins and 30.2 percent in losses.
Houston hosts the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
"The team was not responding to Kevin," general manager Daryl Morey said. "There is no time in the West."
The Rockets are 4-7 this season, including a current four-game losing streak that prompted a players-only meeting at the Toyota Center on Tuesday morning. The Rockets have failed to reach 100 points during their losing streak -- the team's longest since 2013 -- and are averaging 20 fewer points in their losses overall this season.
"We were starting to address some of the issues that were the reason I was let go," McHale told the Houston Chronicle after news broke of his firing. "We just weren't playing with any juice, with any rhythm. We haven't been able to get the problems solved. We probably had more meetings in last six weeks than in my previous four years here.
"It wasn't working."
McHale, in his fifth season with the team, was in the first year of a three-year extension worth more than $12 million that he signed last December. He was coming off an 56-26 season where the Rockets reached the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1997. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last returning NBA head coach to lead his team to the conference finals and then not make it through the following season was Stan Van Gundy of the Heat. Van Gundy resigned 21 games into the 2005-06 season, and then Pat Riley took over and led that team to a championship.
McHale was hired by the Rockets before the 2011-12 season. He was 193-130 overall with the team, including three straight trips to the playoffs. The Rockets had improved every season under his tenure going into this season.
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich questioned the Rockets' decision.
"You always hate to see a colleague get fired, especially somebody who took a team to the Western Conference finals last year, and won more games than I think they've won in a long time or ever last year, I'm not sure," Popovich said. "So obviously at this short beginning of a season, you hate to see something like that happen. As we all sort of say: It's a volatile business, and sometimes it doesn't make sense ... like Kevin McHale getting fired."
Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said the former Celtics great would be a welcome addition in Boston.
"I told Kevin that today," Ainge said, according to the Boston Herald. "We've got a spot for him. I know we could figure something out for him in some capacity, but I think he's just in a wait and see mode.
"He appreciated me reaching out to him, but I think he's just going to lay low."
League sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that the Dallas Mavericks would also have interest in hiring McHale if he was prepared to switch teams immediately. McHale, though, is also expected to have ample opportunity to return to the broadcasting world should he prefer that route to choosing his next steps coaching-wise.
The Mavericks have employed McHale as a consultant before, bringing him to training camp in 2009 before McHale's hiring in Houston. Mavs owner Mark Cuban is known to be a McHale admirer and Dallas coach Rick Carlisle is one of McHale's closest friends.
During Houston's playoff run last season the Rockets raved about how McHale was a player's coach. Star James Harden said he was comfortable with him from the moment they met.
"I felt like I was talking to an actual player,'' Harden said in May. "Obviously he's won championships so he knows what he's talking about. So my ears are just locked in and focused in on what he's saying.''
Harden, the Rockets' best player, has gotten off to a bumpy start. Harden has maintained his scoring average (27.3 points per game) from a year ago when he finished second in MVP voting (27.4 PPG), but has required 2.2 more field goal attempts a game to do it, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Twenty-nine players are averaging at least 15 field goal attempts per game this season, ESPN Stats & Information says, and among them, only Kobe Bryant (33.6) has a worse field goal percentage than Harden (37.2).
Harden has seen his scoring average drop from 38.5 PPG in victories to 20.9 in losses. He's shooting 46.4 percent from the field in wins and 30.2 percent in losses.
Houston hosts the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.