Finally a good thread on here....its like an endangered species on this board lately...with all the Yao for KG and TMac for Kobe crap going on. Very good post NY...but with our current team we aren't in a position to start stockpiling for a future run...we are on the clock with the Yao and Tmac era...its not going to wait 3 years for the talent to develop. Are we all ready to write off V-span, Head, Snyder, Novak, Hayes, and Lucas as never being able to contribute to a champion? That sounds like quite a few young players that might develop as future talent. Doesn't it? The problem this year was that Bonzi never showed up and Rox management was counting on big things from him....it would appear. We also thought Shane could play the 4 more...and that didn't happen either. If the plan was to roll the ball out and hope Tmac and Yao could score 70 to 80 a night...while the rest of the team played D like a mother, while scoring 15-20 a night...and hope to hold the other team to 85 pts....we had a crappy plan. JVG did as well as he could with the talent on this team...the young players weren't ready to contribute...and he made a mistake by not getting them the minutes to develop. Juwon and Deke are old...but he knows what to expect from them. He's trying to make Head that 6th guy he can count on for 15 a night. Nobody thought Rafer was going to have to play 45 minutes a night...or take as many shots as he did...its not the way the offense is designed. The coaches job is to put his players in positions in which they can succeed...JVG did a disservice to Rafer and to a lesser degree to Yao. This offense is old...and every team has seen it a million times....but it worked for the Lakers during their runs, and it worked for San Antonio then and now, it worked for Orlando when they went to the finals...and the Knicks when they went...it worked for the Rockets in 94-95. With the right support people...it works. The Rockets are a couple players and another year away from making another title run....its that simple. JVG is going to be back....Les will let his contract go guaranteed for this last year and see what happens. If JVG doesn't return...it will be because he doesn't want to return...not because the Rockets don't want him....or a bunch of people post on ClutchFans. What this team needs is a PF that can open the floor by shooting from the 3pt line...like Horry and Bullard and Chillcut...that would keep the double team off Yao....open the lane for Tmac's drives, take shots away from Rafer, and be one more threat to keep Shane and Head open on the perimeter...and he could set picks for Tracy instead of pulling Yao away from the basket. Could it be that easy? Wouldn't Sam Cassell have looked good out there picking up some of Rafer's minutes, and most of Rafers 3pt shots? Rockets in 2007-2008!!!
sweep vs seattle = trade trade = beat seattle chuck=hero beating gary payton=priceless also, mario was there when chuck was there. you got your rockets history mixed up.
How are the JVG years, with trades for McGrady, Battier, etc worse than the paying huge money for Mo Taylor/Matt Maloney/Kelvin Cato years? JVG hates Euros? So Rudy T really used Boki Nachbar and Mirsad Turkcan a lot, right?
also, make sure you have one of the greatest players in the history of the game starting for you at the peak of his career. a player who literally controls tempo of the game. a player you can count on when you need it most. big time players win championships. i don't know if Tracy and/or Yao are big time players. i know that when the Rockets needed big shots, Hakeem found a way to knock them down. i know that Yao and Tracy had opportunities to seize a couple of these games vs. Utah and came up short. i realize it's not all on them. i realize they need better support. i'll be honest...yao scares the hell out of me. i don't want the ball in his hands down the stretch. seriously. 3 things potentially happen and 2 of them are bad. he misses a shot or turns the ball over. i sincerely have no confidence in his ability down the stretch in a big game. so i think if any player is going to put this team on his shoulders, it's gonna HAVE to be Tracy. still waiting to see him do that in the big moments.
i don't see GS as a model here. this is a franchise with a poor history. they create huge matchup problems for the Dallas Mavericks. they were an 8 seed. i'm guessing none of us would have been thrilled with the 8 seed this year. they're pesky...but they're not exactly a model for building a champion, in my mind. maybe they'll eventually prove to be that. but they're not there yet.
depends on what the alternative was. we don't know that. my concern with the battier trade was that it implied we were ready to win NOW. that we were one player (one shane battier, specifically) away from being a contender which justified trading away young talent. i did not and do not think we were one player away from being a championship contender. battier is what he is. i like shane. he's really easy to root for. but i'm still not a huge fan of that trade.
I'd rather us have some better players than just Tmac and Yao. I'd rather us have a Mad Max or Robert Horry or Elie or Cassell. I thought Luther Head was the dude, but he was not up to the challenge. Look at the Spurs and the Laker championships, they had Shaq/Kobe and Duncan/Parker/Ginobli and they still needed a "ROBERT HORRY" Type role player to win games for them. The Lakers battles were very even in the Sacremento and Portland series, it took an Horry to make them champions. its true, look at when they brought in OTHER ROLE players like Glen Rice. Great historical shooter, but did NOTHING for them in the playoffs. you can also put Derek Fisher as a good player on that team. It takes 5. TMac is right. No matter how great Dream was, he still needed players who can help free him up by hitting some jumpers and he was much more COMFORTABLE if he knew he had good supporting cast. The great thing about Vernon was that you know he was a streak scorer, something we don't have except for Tmac. Vernon will miss his share of shots, then blow up and hit 5 3-pointers in a critical game or 21 pts in a game 7 of an NBA Finals. The formula never changed: Dream + scrubs = no championship Tmac/Yao + scrubs = no championship Dream + great players = championships Shaq/Kobe + great players = championships Magic Johnson + great players = championships Bird + great players = championships Jordan + great players = championships
wait a second. is kenny smith a great pg? without hakeem, does Kenny ever win a championship, provided he doesn't play with MJ? or does Dream so control a game that he makes it easier for guys like Kenny to get open shots and look great? the nba is a game of superstars. with just a few exceptions in the league's history, superstars win championships. the key players who make plays provide the difference between two evenly matched good teams. we don't remember hakeem as great because kenny was so good with him. we remember hakeem was great because he stepped up big time over and over and over again. he was ridiculously reliable when he was in his prime. even when it counted most. either t-mac or yao have to do that. luther head isn't gonna do that. i'm not talking about a bob horry who scores 8 points, but hits THE big shot at the end. i'm talking about the guy who is asked to carry his team with him. do we have that kind of guy? clearly dallas doesn't...that's all the talk in dallas right now. they thought they had that guy...they don't.
Kobe is that type of guy. his team flamed out. Explain that. I'll give you my version. Kobe =great Other Lakers = scrubs you put Prime Dream on this years Lakers team or Rockets team minus Kobe/Tmac/Yao, and you get Bumblebee Dream.
wait...i never said that you could play with scrubs. never said that at all. and i specifically said that t-mac and yao need better support. no doubt of that. but both players had ample opportunities to seize control of a couple of these games vs. utah...and didn't. so i don't know if they're going to. we have seen players who have seized control. in my mind, this seperates very good from great.
JVG is a Coach that does not trust his players They can only be trusted if they do what he says when he says it any deviation results in bench time Rocket River
I know Rudy will not coach again, but we should get a disciple of Rudy T. Mario, Sam (after next year). JVG is an Xs and Os coach. Rudy T was more of a motivator, his offenses were simple, but it seemed he got the most of his players. for God's sake, we almost made the playoffs with Steve, Cuttino, Moochie, Mo Taylor, Kato. To Rudy T, the Rockets weren't a basketball team first. they were FAMILY first. look at the "Year of the Yao". Rudy was concerned most for making Yao feel like he was welcome and party of the family. Thanksgiving etc. Rudy was there when Steve had all those migranes.
Roster strength is the main difference between the rockets now and when we won. Our drafts and free agents haven't worked out over all outside of TMac and Yao. I doubt anyone thinks the current rockets team could beat either of our championship teams. And it wouldn't be because of coaching. The fact is that we had 2 of the best supporting role draft picks in the last 15 years in Horry and Cassel directly prior to the championship years. Since then the best support player we have drafted that is still with the team is Luther Head and Chuck Hayes.... The fact is that every jazz bench player who was in their rotation would be fighting for a starting position if they were on the rockets, and I don't expect Utah to go to the Finals. That says all you need to know about the state of our roster. We need a penetrating point guard and a more atheletic power forward. With those pieces we could win with Jeff or another coach. With out them we won't be favored to win a title any time soon regardless of who the coach is.
Old Man you killed me with the www.firejvg.com website... I am actually waiting for you to lower the price on the shirt one more time before I buy it. T_Man
