i don't disagree that the JBB year was a disaster of epic proportions and not truly reflective of our team, but we also had dwight howard as an important part of that WCF team and we let him walk for nothing so basically losing dwight and going right back to 55 wins and 2nd round (and arguably only stopping because of a harden concussion) was largely because d'antoni's bomb 3's from everywhere offense caught the whole league off guard and perfectly utilized harden. again, i don't dislike jvg, but he took over a 43 win team and won 45, so the fact it was the difference in being the 8th seed and the 9th seed doesn't mean much. and that was with yao added to the team. one of those pre-jvg non-playoff years was also a 45 win team (winning 45 games and somehow not making the playoffs is a rockets specialty). maybe MDA has lost this team. i don't know. but if he hasn't, he's had easily the most success since rudy and his style and adaptation to perfectly fit harden's game have certainly been no small part of that. i'd rather ride it out with the guy who is the only one to make the warriors sweat the previous 3 years. just writing all this (not talking to kjayp any more), it's crazy how differently harden, d'antoni, and morey would all be viewed if kevin durant didn't sign with the warriors and the rockets won that 2018 title and then maybe the 2019 title. i suppose we might not have traded for chris paul without the warriors dominance but i don't know why morey would turn down a superstar just because the best team was slightly worse. these guys are viewed as guys who can't win a title or whose approaches are wrong just because literally the most talented and heavily favored team ever happened to be in the way at the exact wrong time. i suppose their millions of dollars are nice to fall back on.
even if i thought jvg was the best choice, i would hate to lose him as an announcer. one of the few guys who can be funny but also clearly understands the game from both a general perspective (game tactics) and player-specific perspective where he clearly has insights into each player's strengths and weaknesses and not just the common (mostly wrong) perception of what those strengths and weakness are. cleveland/cavs game 7 from 2008 was on yesterday and after a tough foul with 2:30 to go, they were debating flagrant or not and mike breen said the rule doesn't say "unless it's the last few minutes of a big playoff game" and without missing a beat jvg just goes "it should! it should be written in the rule," with a perfect half-joking/half-serious tone because we all know that's how they actually call it.
JVG + the James Gang. Aha..If MDmA leaves then bring it on. Jeff was long ago absorbed into the Borg as a Houstonian.I love the guy. Respected the heck out of him in NY. (even during the ankle biting incident : ) Grew to love him here. Then wanted him fired. Now, I want him back.(not necessarily over MDA though) Gotta have the JVG D with that built in O!
I love JVG as an announcer and I'd hate to lose him there too. But I care much, much more about who our coach is than who announces our games on national TV.
The 'ankle-biting' incident made me a fan for life. To see him throwing his tiny, skinny ass out there to defend his guys was amazing.
Harden’s elite window to win a championship is closing... he better damn well be accountable or else what the hell is the point of any of this? Nearly every superstar who’s won a title, at some point, had to be held accountable for the team’s success... and be willing to adjust when the team wasn’t winning. Jordan, Olajuwon... everybody. Sure, guys like Magic, Bird, and Shaq came in dominant and started winning from the get-go... Harden isn’t one of those guys. He could be more on the Olajuwon pathway, but doubtful there’s a religious awakening.
hard to imagine it happening if it hasn’t already. This would be Harden’s 4th coach since his arrival and he’s just as unreliable in the playoffs now as he was when McHale was our coach. For some reason I don’t think a coaching change will make much of difference. Hope I’m wrong.
JVG is smart. He coached Latrell Spreweell for gods sake. He will adapt and play Morey's dumb philosophy to a certain extent, he won't let 0-23 happen or remotely close to it.
This is my view regarding Thibs - but JVG always seems loved by his players... I cant say I recollect JVG having problems with any of his players - most seem like theyd walk through fire for the man... I'm sure some squabbles must exist - just not recalling any..
what is he not being held accountable for, though? our team success for 2 straight years has basically been "one level below most talented team ever and, even then, maybe only because our 2nd best player got hurt." i don't understand how we could be expected to perform in the playoffs basically any better than we have. sure, we could always want more, but i don't think the mean outcome was ever better than what happened. i've never heard anyone indicate that d'antoni is telling him to shoot less. i haven't heard anyone in rockets land say he needs to change his shot selection. fans might disagree with our shot selection, but i don't think morey or MDA are telling him to do something different and he refuses. virtually any defensive metric says he's playing way better defense than 5 years ago and certainly perfectly acceptable defense for someone asked to score 35 ppg (amazing post defense, literally leading the league in steals over the last 4 years, rockets generally playing good team defense when it matters, etc). i guess he could move offball better, but again is anyone telling him to? and whatever they're telling him, is our offense not elite year in and year out? if the supposed issue is "he doesn't get along with coaches", then i'm not really sure what a coach is going to do about holding him accountable for that, short of asking for harden to be traded, which would kind of defeat the whole purpose of everything. that would just be one of those "it is what it is" kind of things.
I think catering to his every demand, and getting rid of coaches or systems that he may or may not fit in.... And fans strictly wanting the team to do what’s ultimately best for him, vs. what’s best for the team. Maybe 5 years ago that would have been the central theme... at this stage of his career, there needs to o be more. There’s clearly motivation issues at times, and regardless of his playoff stats, there have been critical games where he either cowered or couldn’t get the job done. Like I said, the window is closing.... I feel fans should be open to all possible options of trying to improve this team.
There’s a lotta There with JVG. I didn’t want MDA when he was hired; now I don’t wanna lose MDA. (Eek) Owner Alex was right that players want to play for MDA. Do they want to play for JVG. I dunno. My personal choice, if a replacement were requisite as tho any/all baited breathedly wanna know, is SAM - mee. Bring back Sam Cassell!!!
If that's the case, maybe we should grant his request. If your star can't stand being held accountable, he's not the solution, he's the problem.
Harden could have performed A LOT better in the 2018 WCF. I'm not going to put the 2019 series loss against the Warriors on Harden. He averaged 35 ppg on good efficiency in that series. But besdies that series,h performed well below his regular season scoring and efficiency. We've had some spectacularly bad ends to the seasons with Harden coming out with a massive did of a game, the worst of which was that 2017 Spurs series.
I just don't think Harden will accept playing in any other style besides this specific one where he gets to dominate the ball and have all those stationary iso dribbles. I also don't think he'll tolerate JVG's attention on defense where he won't tolerate Harden having lazy feet as often. Hence why the only option of people want to keep Harden is extending MDA or bringing in a young coach who Harden can control. Otherwise, he's not going to take it well.
