As of Wednesday morning, the Houston Rockets fired Head Coach Kevin McHale. McHale, who went 189-123 in 4 seasons as head coach, with his first year taking over for the organization being in the 2011-12 season. Although this doesn’t seem like the greatest record for someone who coached players such as Chandler Parsons, James Harden, and Dwight Howard, going to the playoffs three years out of four is a good feat that not many coaches can say. He only missed the playoffs once. He lost in the first round his first two years, and then lost to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors in 5 games.

But after a 4-7 start to the 2015-16 NBA season, the Rockets front office decided they need a better head coach, and McHale was fired.

Yes, losing to Brooklyn at home isn’t impressive, but the firing of McHale was an extreme overreaction. A 3x NBA champion for the Boston Celtics, McHale has the experience, and going to the Western Conference Finals meant McHale transitioned nicely from TNT commentator to a high paid coach. But like the firing of Mark Jackson, because one head coach can’t pass a certain opponent or they finished in a spot in the postseason that the General Manager wouldn’t like, it necessarily doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be relieved of their duties.

There were many problems with the Rockets in the past two years that wasn’t McHale’s fault. The front office in 2014 traded away Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik to the Lakers and Pelicans, respectively. They drafted Clint Capela from Switzerland over players such as Chris Wilcox, P.J. Hariston, K.J. McDaniels, Glen Robinson III, and Cleanthony Early. Clint Capela. It wasn’t McHale’s mistake, it was GM Daryl Morey’s fault. In 2015, they failed to re-sign Josh Smith, who left for Los Angeles and joined Doc Rivers’ Clippers. If it wasn’t for Josh Smith, the Rockets weren’t going to come back from a 1-3 series deficit to beat the Clippers in last years playoffs.

They even gave Corey Brewer an $8M yearly salary. Corey Brewer.

And after 11 games, you rarely see a head coach being fired, much less McHale. Talk about an overreaction. The word overreaction is an understatement. If anything, you would fire him if the losing continued at the All-Star break, so you have a couple days to decide as an organization who would serve as interim head coach, or a permanent solution. But this was a big mistake on the part of Morey. If there was firing, they should have sacked Daryl Morey. He is part of the reason for the Rockets failures this year. The other blame is on the players themselves. The Rockets don’t play defense.

Specifically, James Harden doesn’t play defense. Patrick Beverly is hurt. Sam Dekker, their coveted draft pick from this year’s draft is also hurt. It took overtime to beat the Orlando Magic, and 6 points to beat the Sacramento Kings.

As great as he is, James Harden needs help. He has to play better defense, and stop hacking twenty shots a game. It doesn’t help the cause of the Rockets if he continues. Yes, “The Beard” finished second in MVP last year. But the play shouldn’t be “Give Harden the ball” every time. It needs to be “Hey, let’s find the open man,” and the same goes for Trevor Ariza.

Marcus Thortnon shouldn’t even be in the starting 5. He should be the 6th man, and be replaced with either Terrance Jones or Patrick Beverly. Take your pick.

The failure of communication between McHale and Morey is most likely what led to his firing. But it isn’t McHale’s responsibility to be the one who goes to Morey’s office. He has a job, or had a job, and it was to coach his players so they can win. The GM during the season, does not have as many duties compared to the coach.

Best of luck to the Houston Rockets after this firing. They’ll need it because if there was a coach who could manage this group of players, it was Kevin McHale.