I think JVG has to take all the blame because he definitely don't wanna any rocky guy on this team. Look this Rockets team...you can't single out one guy on this team with the fighting spirit. That's why we are so soft and shoke!
Thanks, and yeah all of this blame is just heart-breaking. I (and most of us) feel what JVG is feeling too. It's just not working and we're no closer to contending than we were three years ago. It's just time to start getting better reguardless if umpteen fans (and analysts) think Yao and T-Mac are getting worse. We need a different approach or should just give up all hope.
The rox this season were not destined the win it all, and there are several reasons why. You can blame it on alot of different people, from the players to the coaches to the front office. First, the players on this team do not compliment each other. Tmac and Yao are great and do play well together, its just that we do not have the right pieces to compliment them. TMac and Yao are the only 2 players on the ROX that can create their own shot. Everybody else relies on the scheme or offense to create shots for them. There is no other rocket on this team that has the capability of creating anyshot for themselves. not hayes, not battier, not head, not juwan, and not even rafer. When the offense breaks down, and tmac and yao can't get the ball, nobody else on this roster can improvise and create a shot on their own. After Tmac and Yao, the rest of the team are a bunch of one-dimensional players that are known for a certain thing, and thats it. Hayes rebounds, Battier plays D and takes charges, Head shoots 3's, etc. Secondly, JVG needs to seriously come up with more offensive plays and design some more plays to get other players involved. the rockets have 2 plays, the high pick and roll, and the play where we reverse the ball and have yao post up weakside. Thats it. No creativity or variety. So when we run this simple offense of ours, and we can't get tmac or yao the ball, our offense fails. Someone throws up a lame a$$ 3, and we don't get the rebound and thats it. At the beginning of the season, i thought with the acquisition of snyder and wells, we would've had alot more versatility and athleticism in our lineup. But instead, since these 2 players didn't fit into the offensive system, they were banished to the bench. JVG needs become more creative on offense if he wants us to run a half court set all game, or else let the rox get out and run. Lastly, the rockets front office needs to find the right players to surround our stars. no more signing players from the nbdl. Go out and get seasoned veterans who have heart and have the skill sets that compliment Yao and tmac. Battier was the right move this past offseason, but we need more of those. Morey has alot of work cut out for him this offseason.
Honestly, I don't think Mike James would have been the deciding factor. Everybody played DECENT at times, but nobody played GREAT.. or atleast Great all the time.. The Rocket's played a half-assed series and I can't say they outright deserved to win, even though I am very disappointed. I was hoping they could still pull it out but they couldn't.. Very very disappointed. And sad too... I feel like this could be the beginning of the end of this GROUP of Rockets. A very special group. Some of the best people you could ask for, and awesome chemistry. They just weren't good enough..
I understand that the Min. Wolves relegated Mikle James from the starting line up and has been rumored to be asking for a trade. If so I hope he goes anywhere but to the Rockets!! Possibly the trade Kicker saved the Rockets from another mistake among the many!!
Clutch, while I normally agree with you, you can't put this whole series on Rafer. It took a team effort to go from 2-0 to 3-4. It took a courageous Yao Ming to make rookie big man mistakes. It took a bold Shane Battier to close his eyes when shooting wide open shots. And it took a cunning Tracy McGrady to settle for jumpers instead of attacking the rim. This was a team effort. In fact, you could argue that, based on this, Chuck Hayes is not part of the team. He tried to win. Skip isn't a shoot-first PG. I don't know whether or not this was an aberration year for Mike James or whether last year was, but I DO know that having him aboard would mean the Rockets would be 3-4 in this series. Shane is normally a good 3 shooter. So is Luther. We weren't hot, and we fizzled out. A normally great 3pt shooting team went ice cold. While T-Mac did settle for jumpers in a few games, when he turned it on, he was ON. If that can't save us, I highly doubt Mike James could've either.
Exactly. People are raving about Mike James, but wasn't he on the other Rockets team that blew a 2-0 series lead and lost by 40 in Game 7? He didn't make much of a difference then.
Incorrect. In Game 1, Mike James single handedly kept the lead for Rockets in second half while Dallas was making a run with Tmac on bench. He was great in Game 1. He was also great in game 6. He also played very well in game 3 or 4 but Rockets lost. MJ had been causing so much havoc for Avery that D. Armstrong was summoned just to contain James in game 7. Dallas raved about Mikes James play and were very aggressive in trying to get him last offseason....along with the Rockets.
And Devin Harris and Jason Terry were on a team that pulled off the biggest choke in NBA history -- would you take any of them? The 04-05 team had plenty of problems.... the backcourt was pretty much not one of them. James shot 46+% in that series and was huge in the three games we did win (against a 58-win team without homecourt advantage). All I'm saying is Mike James' skillset looks to have been the perfect tonic in this series. If people could put their hatred for the man aside for just a moment they would see that. Defending Rafer right now looks about as weak as a Yao Ming postup. We have perfect knowledge now of what Rafer for 44+ minutes gets us in the playoffs. This problem should have been addressed last summer. It wasn't. It burned us.
"It would probably be a good idea if Dwayne (Casey) would settle on the primary PG and not disperse the minutes so randomly" close paraphrase of TWolves broadcaster and former Rocket Jim Petersen. Casey was fired, Wittman isn't much better, Ricky Davis was inconsistent and Garnett has never been closer to leaving MINN. Laying the TWolves lack of success at the feet of Mike James is myopic.
What is it with the Mike James love here? What has he done for Minny, BTW? They made the playoffs right? And I distinctly remember him being present during our 40 blowout loss in Game 7 vs the Mavs. Let's not dwell on the past, because if we did, I would blame it on our "WIN NOW" mode when we traded away Rudy Gay AND Stromile Swift. The whole point is, we desperately need a 3rd scorer, and a bigger man at the PF position.
just to let you know a PG's job is to make everyone around him better...I don't think Alston did that and please blame JVG for having him take so many shots! if you know he has a bad shot, don't have him take it, but what else can he do besides bring the ball up?!
Agreed. The Rox made a very good offer to Mike James. He demanded a trade kicker because he claimed to no longer want to move his family around. Not even one year later, he is wanting to be traded. This is a guy who had one really good year on a really bad team. Now he goes to the Twolves where he has a chance to be the team's second option and he not only struggles, but loses his job to a rookie. Why would we want him at three more years and 18 million more dollars, especially at his age?
If we had overpaid Mike James what he wanted for a 4 year contract at his age then the same people crying about not getting him would be crying about his bad contract in 2 years. He is a decent roleplayer and could have helped no doubt. But he didn't exactly have a good year on a team that was bad. To expect him to be the difference between first round exit and championship is a huge stretch.
I can't be mad at Rafer. The man plays every minute of the game and gives his all. The coach won't play anyone else and the few he has are worse than Rafer. He is limited in his ability granted but its not like he is taking games off. Blame the owners or the coach for not having a better choice for PG.
I like Mike James but I don't think he would make the Rockets a championship contender, and by the time they do get there, his contract would be an albatross, much like Rafer's is looking right about now. We need a new coach.....one who will let the players be a bit more free and allow them to acheive rather than fail. JVG is far too controlling, he may win if everything falls exactly right....but for the most part.....JVG just doesn't cut it. DD
while I agree that we turned the MLE into nothing this year, Bonzi was a calculated risk worth taking and Novak/Vspan could well be contributers next year. Aside from that, this year was like a song we all know. Same as it ever was. And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful Yao. And you may tel yourself, This is not my beautiful Tracy. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
