Kevin McHale is entering the final season of his coaching contract with the Houston Rockets and appears as unaffected by the situation in his last year as he was in his first.

"That has no bearing on me," McHale said. "I never believed that. If you're going to play better in the last year of your contract because it's the last year of your contract, I question who you are. If you are going to coach better because you're in the last year of your contract, I question that guy.

"I'm going to do the same thing I've always done. I'm going to work as hard as I possibly can with these guys, try to get these guys to be the best possible team we can be and you know what, like as a player, you do the best job you can. If it's not good enough, it's not good enough."

McHale is referred to as a "players' coach."

"We're all in this together," McHale said. "The crazy thing about coaching is I've had players say I'm way too hard, I'm way too strict. And then you have guys that say, 'You need to get on that guy.' I always laugh at the guy that says, 'You need to get on that guy more.' I say, 'Do I need to get on you more?' They say, "No.' When you've had 14, 15 guys on the team, and I learned this a long time ago, I'm not going to connect with everyone. But they're going to play the system we're playing. And I'm not playing. I have to give them the ability and the confidence so they can succeed."

The Rockets' other head coaches hired by owner Leslie Alexander, Jeff Van Gundy and Rick Adelman, never received a second contract after completing their four-year term on the Rockets' bench.