In news first broken by Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Houston Rockets have offered their vacant head coaching job to ex-Minnesota Timberwolves general manager/coach Kevin McHale.
This is not a guarantee that the Rockets and McHale will actually come to an agreement on the terms, but Wojnarowski says that the two sides are determined to make this happen. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle is confirming Wojnarowski’s report.
McHale beat out Dallas assistant Dwane Casey and Celtics assistant Lawrence Frank for the job despite little NBA head coaching experience and a resume as a general manager that would make most blush. He’s perhaps most famous in NBA circles for offering an under the table contract to Joe Smith, which upon discovery, cost the Timberwolves four first round draft picks. He was not considered one of the better coaching prospects, so it will be extremely interesting to see the front office explain this hiring. I am dying to know what they saw in McHale that everyone else didn’t.
More as this story develops, naturally. Wojnarowski says a deal may not be completed until after the weekend. McHale coached parts of the 2004-05 and 2008-09 Timberwolves, leading them to a combined 39-55 record.