Houston Rockets
Rockets fire coach Kevin McHale
Rockets let their coach go after their horrific play in Houston’s 4-7 start.
The Houston Rockets have been absolutely awful, but I didn’t think they would take this step just yet.
The Rockets have fired coach Kevin McHale just eleven games into the 2015-16 season and coming off a year where McHale guided the Rockets to the Western Conference Finals. The move was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
The Houston Rockets fired coach Kevin McHale, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) November 18, 2015
The current assistants move up — JB Bickerstaff becomes the interim head coach with Chris Finch becoming the associate head coach, according to Woj.
A flustered Daryl Morey spoke to the media at a press conference on Wednesday
“We’re under the gun. We have to turn things around right now,” warned Morey. “It’s not just losing. It’s not just 4-7. It’s how we’re losing.”
The Rockets gave McHale a three-year, $12+ million fully guaranteed extension less than a year ago — and he followed that up by taking the Rockets to the West Finals last year.
Very excited about Coach McHale's extension. He is the winningest coach in Rockets history and knows what it takes to win championships
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) December 24, 2014
But anyone who has watched the Rockets this season knows that something is seriously wrong with the team. The perimeter defense has been atrocious — to the point that at times it looked like the Rockets were not even trying — and the team has lost four straight games, many at home to squads that have no business beating the Rockets (much less destroying them).