via sbnation. McHale has been hired as the Houston Rockets’ new head coach, according to Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski. News broke Thursday that, after three interviews with the former general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Rockets offered McHale the job. Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle has reported that the deal will go three seasons with a team option on the fourth year. Justice said the final item to hammer out was direction over the rest of the coaching staff.
McHale met with Rockets owner Leslie Alexander this week after interviewing twice with general manager Daryl Morey. The fit is an interesting one; Morey is the face of the advanced metric vanguard, and McHale is seen as an old-school basketball type who relies more on eyes than spreadsheets. McHale served as the general manager of the Wolves for more than a decade after his Hall-of-Fame career with the Boston Celtics ended. Under McHale’s watch, Minnesota drafted Kevin Garnett and made a string of postseason appearances. But the Wolves made it so far as the conference finals just once, in 2004.
Wojnarowski reports that the Rockets will have strong input into McHale’s staff, with D-League coach Chris Finch — who runs the Rockets-affiliated Rio Grande Valley Vipers and Great Britain’s senior men’s national team — expected to move into a spot on the Houston bench. read more
