IMO, Messina is better choice than JVG, learned from Pop, well respected coach. BTW, Messina coached Llull for 2 years.
We already tried with JVG with a better team and didnt go too far. Messina is a good choice but im sure he'll choose another team
There's no way Messina joins this team with Moronic and Toad Smith in the FO. Especially after the ish they just pulled. That's price you pay for stupid twitter pride.
Pretty sure jeff has said he's learned and changed some from sitting out so long...I wouldnt expect his second stint here to be the same thing as the first
McGrady > Harden Yao > Howard Rest of the roster from top to bottom is a huge plus for the current team. The JVG Rockets were not better than this one.
Why do we think he would be a good coach? I'm not doubting it, I just know nothing about the guy other than he was a role player on the Spurs for a couple years and is now on their (large) staff. What specifically makes people think he'd be a good choice (I've seen his name in a few places)?
Honestly, this decision is harder for me than Thibs v Messina, mainly due to the emotional attachment for JVG as the only broadcaster who has consistently shown love to the city of Houston even after his unceremonious firing. JVG has/will always have a special place in our hearts for never taking a day off, working harder than any coach we have ever had, for always preaching discipline (especially when taking over the streetball era of Francis/Mobley), and for toughening up Yao into an unstoppable force even if it did end up costing him his career. At Yao's peak under JVG, it was glorious, even if short lived. I don't think most would have really disagreed that having Yao turn into a true post player was really a bad move at all, even if using the Rick Adelman high post style would have extended his career, there was something manly about going down into the low post and being dominant, regardless of the long term consequences. Where the real issues with JVG showed up was his stubbornness to a fault. The very same thing that made him so appealing, his absolute dedication to hard work, forcing Yao into being a low post force, making sure Steve Francis played with discipline and defense, also was ultimately his greatest weakness. JVG never played for the long term, much like his successor Tom Thibs. Even to this day, he still believes that minutes shouldn't be restricted. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/69JXL1QMdUU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Without making this essay any longer, I'm simply going to now breakdown the pros and cons of JVG, and while I ultimately like Messina more for the long term potential of the hire, and the idea that taking the longest view in the room with the correct culture is the most important (players be damned, because Morey will figure something out if he is still here that is), JVG still has serious appeal as a short term maximization of our current situation. JVG - Pros -Best Short Term candidate maybe even better than Thibs as his original mentor -Potential ability to have evolved on offense having been able to watch the game for so long from the sidelines -Discipline and complete change of culture to blue-collar team (MUCH NEEDED) -Structure and actual defense (Top Tier) played, no more ridiculous lapses on defense without getting chewed out Cons -Stubbornness with rookies/veterans, will he really now finally actually play his rookies or not try to get washed up veterans to fill in the gaps (JVG would definitely have played Terry ridiculous minutes as JBB did) -Minutes, will he actually try not to burn out players before hitting the playoffs, -Will he take the long view and not try to win meaningless games (I will still never forget the damn season where we won the last game of the 2005-2006 season and ended up with a pick two spots lower 6th -> 8th). Then as we all remember, Portland stole Brandon Roy at 7th. Then again by this same logic we should have definitely not won the last game of this season either.
Messina doesn't have the personality and character to coach a player like James Harden and Dwight Howard.
he was a very smart player who played for Pop and I think would be respected because he played the game. I know it's a stretch but he's so under the radar that he would probably be ok working with Morey and not wanting full control. I think this President of basketball operations stuff is now the new stock options incentive teams are going to start giving out to coaches to lure them and I don't want that for the Rockets. We have to take a shot a lower level guy because the JVG's of the world are going to request it.
