After watching last night's game, and hearing all the Magic comments, I'm wondering about one thing: Does JVG know something we don't about how the Yao-Mac combo would work? Remember JVG days when he always tend to play Yao and Tmac separately leading the offense? And we are screaming for playing them together on the court? Maybe, JVG knows it's best to not let them on court together for too long, except the pick and roll play. thoughts?
Considering that both averaged over 30 minutes a game with JVG, there really wasn't much time they played separately. The reason JVG disliked benching both at the same time because the offense would grind to a halt with both out. Maybe more importantly than X's and O's, he knew how to psychologically motivate TMac.
Interesting point, maybe after the first quarter they should be mostly playing with separate units until crunch time in the 4th? Is that the secret to solving our problems?
no i do not remember this, only time tmac and yao weren't on the floor together were for injuries. does michecon know something noone knows?
i think Jeff knows a whole lot of stuff we dont know. like how to get a bunch of scrubs to win 60 odd games.
JVG's success formula = using playoffs mode to outclass others in effort and game preparation in the regular season, make out to be contenders, then get exposed as pretenders in the playoffs, in which every team is in playoffs mode. JVG's regualr season success is also his playoffs failure: overspending playoffs drive. And JVG doesn't know a thing on developing players, Yao carries a p***y around under JVG's dictatorship. Now that JVG is gone, Yao is acting up and speaking up. He is trying to grow a sack of balls, which he never had under JVG. Tracy has had no balls in his ten years career, he just wants the spotlight. None of them has a sack of fully grown balls to be the field leader yet, and a field leader cannot be a coach. This lack of field leader problem is masked by JVG's fools gold regular season success, but is acting up now. Tracy doesn't have balls, guts, work ethic and passion to be a field leader, and his skills are declining, but he doesn't want to be the second man either. He plays outside the system, flaunting his "the man" status. He's become a drama queen. JVG is fools gold, so is Tracy McGrady. The latter has been a non leader when team needed him the most in his whole career.
^^^^ however many we won last year. I could look it up but it has been washed away by all the disapointment of this year. all i know is he led a team with less talent than the one we have now to play a HELLUVA lot better.
So... JVG's teams played too hard during the regular season.. hmm... I would think that'd be a good thing? No?
Anyone can play a hell lot better on steroids, that doesn't mean it's the right way to win, and if there's no right way to win, there will no be long term success. If you take steroids in high school contests(regular season), and are winning because of it, you'd be disappointed when a coach doesn't allow you to take steroids to win in the high school contests. He knows you'd better take it later in the Olympics(the playoffs) than now. What I'm saying is, winning in the right way is important, to beat teams in the regular season on playoffs steroid is nothingg to brag about, it only lead to rude discovery in the playoffs. Weren't you disappointed when we played worse and worse, and the opponents better and better in the playoffs? why? We took our playoffs steroids in advance in the regular season, and when our opponents with their fresh body and mind starting to take playoffs steroids, JVG has no other tricks up his sleeve. We always played well in the beginning of a series because we are always in playoffs mode, but when our opponents got used to playoffs mode, we began to be outhustled, outworked and outsmarted as a playoffs series went on. It has become a pattern. That's why we were pretenders and will always remain so under JVG.
Get a grip. It's amazing the type of stuff people on here will make up. All this stuff about Yao not having balls under JVG is BS. Yao became a low-post monster under JVG. The reason Yao is speaking up now is because he does not like the changes from last year. What did Yao have to complain about last year? "I'm getting the ball too much?" "We're playing too good defense?" "JVG prepares us too much?" So of course you did not have Yao speaking up. And this "fool's gold" idea is crap too. JVG is an excellent coach who goes to the playoffs ever year and has been to the Finals. Yes, I know, he has never won the WHOLE thing, but that is on the players, as people are belatedly realizing. Is Tmac "fools gold?" Maybe, because his heart is not into it. Let me ask you this- who in the NBA is NOT fool's gold, as you are defining it? Only one team wins the championship each year. You dont fire a good coach or trade a good player for the heck of it. You have to find a better replacement. My guess is all of you guys would have wanted to fire Rudy T and trade Hakeem the year Seattle eliminated us in 7 games before the 2 championships.
Playing hard in the regular season is not a problem, every team must play hard all the time, but playing too hard to win in the regular season is not necessarily a good thing, even with good results. If a team always play its hardest to win regular season games against average or bad teams(we couldn't beat the elites mind you), then this team is quite possibly a pretender, despite what the record says. That's the story with a JVG team. The story revolves around a team that's always talent depleted, filled with a bunch of hard working yes men, beating average and bad teams and pad wins in a fashion of a woman gives a hard birth, losing to the great teams in the regular season, and getting dismantled in the playoffs by elite teams. They were good enough to pad wins in playoffs mode in the regular season against average and bad teams, but their playoffs mode is nothing compared to the playoffs mode of the elite teams. They look good with a nice record in the regular season, but is waiting for a rude awakening in the playoffs. Playing too damn hard with all that effort and preparation just enough to beat average team isn't the right way to win.
Then how about giving JVG a deep, talented team instead of firing him? JVG has never had a team like Dallas, Phoenix, or San Antonio yet he still wins. Rick has the same story in his career. He almost always took his team to the playoffs but lost to more talented teams and players (Jordan and Shaq). Does that make Rick fool's gold?
Dude, I do not know what you are smoking. Right now, with the talent we have, we are not even on course for the playoffs. Get a grip please. If a bunch of 'hardworking, talent depleted' guys can get to the playoffs and become pretenders, they sure as heck are performing better than this bunch of 'talented, but not very hardworking and not very motivated' players who might not even sniff the chance to become a pretender.
