McHale and Lowry: What Was the Beef?

[Abba Zabba]

Hi, Raptors fan here seeking some insight.

What went down between McHale and Lowry?

We just got a great point guard for a song because he couldn't co-exist with his coach. I'd feel a lot better about Lowry's future in Toronto if I knew more about what caused the rift with his coach. We have a strong willed defensive minded coach in Duane Casey who just shipped a player out of town due to conflicts.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

BTW: I like your GM and really enjoyed his candid responses on REDDIT
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10mrkx/iam_the_houston_rockets_gm_ama/

[tisbee]

Random speculation:

Previous Head Coach(Adelman) was really tight w/his PGs and new Coach was/is more known for his work w/big men.

McHale obviously thought too many players came into camp out of shape and started first practice yelling at team-again huge contrast to Adelman.(McHale's never said who,but safe guess Lowry might have been one.)

McHale was a huge fan of Adelman's corner sets and said he would run them. Unfortunately the Rockets no longer had big men who could handle the hi-post passing required and the coaching staff had to retool the offense on the fly.
Despite the new offense being very,very good for Lowry,he was very,very PO'd over having to discard a system he thought was successful and that he knew inside and out.

Then there was the fall-out from Lowry's infection.
While he was out Dragic played extremely well.
When Lowry returned the team won it's first 2 games but then went on a 6 game losing streak that knocked the team out of Play-Offs. Lowry felt he was being unfairly blamed by coaching staff for losses. Of course the Rockets lost the last 5 games he started,which didn't help. Lowry started to believe the coaching staff felt the Rockets won as a team but lost because Lowry wasn't leading correctly,playing well and/or not running the offense properly.
Throw in Lowry never regained his starting job-a deja vu experience as that's how he became the starter,replacing an injured Brooks and not letting go-and his disgruntlement was complete.

And the underlying problem was the Lock-Out.
McHale and Lowry didn't have a typical off-season to build a relationship,store up trust in one another and just get to know one another. In a normal off-season,w/a longer camp to make adjustments,I believe Lowry and McHale's common old-school thinking,toughness,desire would have led to a strong relationship.
Unfortunately,Lowry's first real experience w/McHale was of McHale yelling at the team for being fat,out-of-shape a-holes.
They never built a relationship that could handle stress.

[Meatcookie]

I don't know about any problems before Lowry went down with an injury. But when Kyle went down with his injury and Goran stepped in and did a wonderful job, that must have made Kyle a bit nervous about his minutes. So, most any player would want to rush back to his starting job. But you need to be cleared by the doctors and then by the coaching staff before you get to return... it's not your call to make.

I would guess that Kyle wanted his starting job and his game minutes back to where they were supposed to be. But McHale kinda liked how the team was doing and how the chemistry was working and being able to get some playing time for Goran. He already knew what he had in Lowry. He needed to increase the value for Goran as much as he could and maybe get something of value from him... and if not, maybe get something of value from Lowry.

So that probably was the root of the argument because Kyle didn't feel that his position was secure. Goran was a little more exciting to watch, but Kyle was the more complete player. Kyle could get you wins, but Goran might edge him out in butts in the seats. Kyle might cost more than Goran too... the number crunching might have begun in Kyle's mind.

But McHale doesn't care about any of that. If the team is playing well and the chemistry is nice, he will be in no rush to change the lineup as fast as Kyle wanted. It would seem that Kyle is looking out for himself first and the team second... which IS understandable, but you can only do that to a certain point.

So trading Kyle Lowry to Toronto for a future first-round lottery pick seems like it good work out in the long run to a pretty good deal.

Toronto 1st round draft picks:
2012 - 8th pick
2011 - 5th pick
2010 - 13th pick
2009 - 9th pick
2008 - 17th pick
2007 - 22nd pick

So if your coach like him, and gives him lots of playing time, Kyle should respond well to him. But if your coach gets replaced and Kyle feels he has seniority over the new coach and doesn't want to buy into his new system and adding that the new coach likes another player competing for Lowry's minutes... well, hopefully Lowry is more mature and a little wiser by then.

[Abba Zabba]

Thanks for the insights!

We are discussing the same question in a thread on the Raptors board. I'd like to repost your comments to share the knowledge.

[twix2500]

I dont think it was nothing visual from a fan standpoint on the court that was the problem. I have always thought it was something to do with personally how they communicated with each other behind doors, something we will never know. The relationships behind doors, is usually where most of problems happen dispite what happens on the court.