McHale following Collins' coaching guide

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HOUSTONWhen Kevin McHale came up with the Boston Celtics during his Hall of Fame career, he was surrounded by some of the greatest coaches in NBA history. Red Auerbach was running the team years after winning nine championships.

McHale also played for Bill Fitch, a coach who should be in the Hall of Fame, as well as K.C. Jones, a coach who is enshrined in Springfield, Mass.

So with all of that knowledge to draw upon, who has McHale modeled himself after as a coach in his first season with the Rockets?

Why Doug Collins, of course.

McHale and Collins worked together as broadcasters for TNT and when Collins took the Sixers gig, McHale paid attention.

Doug has done a great job with this team. Doug was a wonderful guy to work with at TNT. He was such a giving and interesting guy. I was really excited to see his team play last year and I followed him and thought he was the Coach of the Year in the NBA, McHale said. And a lot of stuff hes doing I tried to model myself after. You have to change the culture, you have to change things and play the right guys and not worry about only playing certain guys. So a lot of things that Doug did, I tried to do.

So far McHale has done a pretty decent job. The Rockets head into Wednesday nights game with a 19-14 record, good for sixth in the Western Conference and third in the Southwest, just four games behind first place San Antonio.

Missing out on "Linsanity"
Strangely enough, Jeremy Lin is featured like any other player in the Houston Rockets media guide. All of the vital info is therethe stats, background and career highlights.

Interestingly, there is a line of data next to the mug shot of Lin dressed in a Houston Rockets uniform that reads: Claimed off waivers from Golden State by Houston on December 12, 2011.

Obviously there is something missing. Nowhere in the Rockets media guide does it say that Lin was released by the Rockets on Dec. 24, 2011 and claimed by the New York Knicks on Dec. 27. Then again, how were the Rockets supposed to know what was going to happen next.

I thought hed been an All-Star, McHale deadpanned.

Lin, of course, is the hottest phenom in the NBA, part mythical New York media creation, part Hollywood movie of the week, and part talent finally getting a chance to show off. Nevertheless, Lin has been the biggest story in the NBA this year, scoring 246 points with 82 assists in his first 10 NBA starts.

He delivered the big-time stats even though he was waived twice and played with three different teams in a span of two weeks. And that doesnt count his stints in the D-League.

So if McHale had seen any of this coming from Lin, he would never have allowed him to leave Houston.

Did I see this? No. Believe me, if I did Id cut half our team to keep him, McHale said.

The reason why Lin didnt stick in Houston was because of the numbers game. According to McHale, the Rockets already had three veteran point guards under contract, including Villanova alum Kyle Lowry, and there simply wasnt any playing time available for Lin.

But that doesnt mean Lin didnt impress during his short time with the Rockets.

He was a great kid and every time he stepped on the practice floor we all said, Wow, does he practice hard, McHale said. And what a nice kid. When we played the Knicks here, he came into my office to say hello and he was with us only about 10 or 12 days. You talk about a wonderful person. There wasnt a single person on our staff who didnt love Jeremy Lin.

Hes a wonderful kid, but in our situation we had three point guards under contract and an eight-day training camp and we were trying to figure out who the hell we were going to play on the 26th of December. Jeremy didnt get near enough looks, but when he did step in there everyone on our staff said, Man, that kid plays hard. Man, does that kid get after it. And man is that kid a nice kid. For a young man you could see how grounded he was.

And so it goes. One can only guess if the Jeremy Lin Linsanity would have happened if he would have remained with the Rockets.

E-mail John R. Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com.

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