The Houston Rockets have signed 53-year old Kevin McHale to a 3-year deal to take over as the team’s head coach. McHale last was a head coach in the NBA back in 2008-09 with the Timberwolves and he was 20-43 (31.7%). He has coached parts of two years in the NBA and he is 39-55 (41.5%). McHale was elected into Basketball’s Hall of Fame as a player back in 1999. He played in 971 games in his NBA career and he averaged 31.0 minutes, 17.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.7 blocked shots per game. The Rockets must be hoping that McHale can coach up the team based on how good of a player he was. The Rockets have a lot of talent on the roster, so they might not be too patient with McHale if he gets the team off to a slow start.

The Houston Rockets have decided not to bring back 64-year old head coach Rick Adelman for the 2011-12 season. Adelman led the Rockets to a 43-39 record (52.4%) in the 2010-11 season in which they missed the playoffs for the second straight year. Adelman was the Rockets’ head coach for four years and he compiled a 193-135 (58.8%) record during the regular season and he was 9-10 (47.4%) in the playoffs. The Rockets are going to be hard pressed to find a better coach than Adelman, so I’m not so sure I like this move for them.

The Rockets have signed 24-year old C/PF Marcus Cousin to a 3-year, non-guaranteed contract. Cousin played in 4 games (0 starts) earlier this year for the Utah Jazz and he averaged 4.5 minutes, 1.0 point and 0.8 rebounds per game. He also played in 46 games (45 starts) for the Austin Toros of the NBDL and he averaged 30.5 minutes, 14.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 1.1 blocked shots per game. To make room on the roster for Cousin, the Rockets have waived 24-year old forward DeMarre Carroll. Carroll played in 5 games (0 starts) for the Rockets last year and he averaged 2.2 minutes per game and he didn’t score but had 2 assists. He played in 12 games (0 starts) overall this year for the Grizzlies & Rockets and he is averaging 4.2 minutes, 0.8 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. Carroll was part of the Rockets’ return in the Shane Battier deal.

The Houston Rockets have sent 24-year old center Hasheem Thabeet to the D-League. He played in 2 games (0 starts) for the Rockets since the deal with the Grizzlies in which he has played 4 scoreless minutes with 1 blocked shot and 3 fouls. The Rockets feel that Thabeet will be better off getting P.T. in the D-League than sitting at the end of their bench for the playoff run.

The Houston Rockets have bought out 29-year old forward Jared Jeffries. Jeffries played in 18 games (0 starts) for the Rockets this season and he averaged 7.7 minutes, 1.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. He played in 36 games (0 starts) in parts of two years with the Rockets and he averaged 13.1 minutes, 3.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. Jeffries will likely get snapped up right away by a team like the Knicks, but he was just taking up roster space with the Rockets.