Good Post but give me a break on Mike James. He got benched in Minnesota for sucking. Do you think he would actually help? He also lost a few playoff games for us for beinng a ball hog and not passing to TMAC. Rafer played just fine. People think Deron lit him up. He was in his face the guy made tough shots. Not gaurdable. Not to mention the pick and roll. He has to step up on boozer and recover on williams. That's a tough task for any Pt gaurd when u have slow footed Yao. He got soo many steals in game 7 that offset his poor shooting. Not to mention he only had 1 turnover when TMAC decided to give him the ball with 5 seconds on the shot clock. He h ad to force the issue. Tmac should have shot the wide open three instead Since he was in jump shooting mode. If we get a different pt gaurd some of you will miss Rafer. He just needs a competent back up cuz if we dont' ask TMAC to play 48 minutes we shouldn't ask Rafer to play 48 minutes.. Not blaming any of the players for the loss, but we did get really outcoached. JVG made 0 adjustments. And Sloan had wide open shots the whole series. And other than Deron they havev no play makers. Real Disappointment.
Zboy You are wrong. JVG is not even a good defesive coach. His defensive plan is also predictable. That's why Okur and AK who were ice cold in the first a couple of games become better and better in this serial.
I always enjoy reading your post, Zboy. This Rox team sucks on offense. I was puzzled why JVG not let Yao shoot 3s like okur did. If yao developped into a decent 3 pointer(he is capable), he would be much less predictable and became a team player as well. Can you imagine Yao and Tmac PnRs? I like Barkley's word: They are not going to die, You have to KILL them. JVG's defense but lack of offense is just like "wait to die".
It would have involved playing even worse than the deliberately tanking T'wolves, etc. and losing a few games at the end of the season rather than "building the attitude of winners now in order to build onto that the next season". JVG would not do what every other nba team, coach and player would do and do what is best in the long term interest of the team - lose the last bunch of games and get Brandon Roy. Now Jerry Sloan can teach and support players like Karla and Stockton and teach them how to play dirty and sleep at night. And he is still doing it in 2007. But what happens when Deke comes to Houston - he knocks out LeBron and since then has been a p***y. As has the rest of the team. Van Gundy? While Sloan's team beats the s**t out of our players, including Tmac. And the refs look the other way - except when our guys commit touch fouls. Not one hard foul by us. JHo's on Okur was more accident and Okur moving into JHo than anything else. Personally I was looking for a flagrant call on Matt Harpring when he knocked down Yao at the hoop last night. But did we even accidentally knock down Deron Williams once? Put Vspan on him for a hard charge even once? Then of course Giricek wraps up Tmac - shades of Malone and 1997 all over again. This team played like a bunch of p*****s because JVG allows it and in fact probably requires it. Sloan's boys play like borderline criminals because he teaches it, expects it, demands it. He always has and always will. I personally think the NBA, Stern and the refs all do not like JVG and call the games against us in order to drive JVG out. I hope it is successful. Van Gundy did not tank because he could care less about getting the 6th pick vs the 8th pick. Neither one would have played. He would have traded Roy for Battier.
I am all for change, but the coach is as much to blame as the players. Still can't beleive we're out!
Well said Zboy. For real get out of my head. When Gundy was taking the Knicks to the finals its was the same thing. Good fiesty defense and inept offense. Iso for Alan Houston on the wing almost everytime down court. NY used to go on 7 minute scoring droughts a couple of times each game. Easy points only ever came of steals that led to breaks. After every loss the excuse is energy from the players. The man is stuck in his ways which is fine if you are successful but over achievement for us this year would have been getting to the second round. We beat the teams we were supposed to beat but any real contenders we struggled against.
Gundy may have had most of this forum fool, but he never had me fooled. He's a fraud of a coach and his defense is fake like bill walton says. Funny now how 85% of people here now agree with me.
Phenomanal post Z-boy, agree with DD also about his lack of adjustments during the playoffs. JVG is just not the type of person that will take chances.
OT ...but if any of you get a chance to watch today's Euroleague final on a repeat or sth, do it...phenomenal coaching and major in-game adjustments from possibly the best 2 coaches in the euroleague today
I did some checking on former Rockets players who basically rode the pine or were traded away. At Orlando Francis's stats were better. Mobley's stats were better. Azubuike, Tyrone Lue, James, Anderson, Swift, Nachbar are all doing better and they were not favored by JVG. Bonzi will go somewhere else and ultimately shine. Now what about the players that JVG loved. How are they doing on other squads? Umm ok here goes David Wesley - 2.1 pts 10.1 mpg Jon Barry - Retired Oakley - Retired Ward - still on payroll???!!!??? Sura - career injury but still on the payroll???!!??? Padgett - waived Bowen - waived How's that for Big Chief Van Gundy's judge of talent?
Great Post Zboy. The truth hurts. I was a Van Gundy fan. I thinks he's good as gone now. He still might flourish.....somewhere else though.
Good post, punctuated with a heavy statement. If it was about his job, it make less sense. Cuz he'd know playoff success rather than regular season success would be the best job security (We'd sure hope he'd know that) Winning a bunch of regular season games and taking credit for it would be the most shortsighted thing ever, though most of his moves and decisions did reflect big time shortsightednes. Hard for me to believe a coach wouldnt have any real championship ambitions, though.
Shoot 3 ? Are you kidding me? Yao did'nt even shoot from mid-range which used to be money but somehow became a lost art under JVG ! But the biggest issue with JVG is his reluctant to play rookies.Sure they will make mistakes and make no mistake about it ,but that is part of the growing pain that we have to accept. Hack ,we even see mistakes and turnovers in all-stars games although all those players are one of the best.We need a shooterand we have Novak which TMac said is the best shooter he ever played.We want a player that can go to the hoop,we have Vspan.I don't mean that they will help us win the series,but they are our future and we have no clue how good or bad they are after a year in our team.Don't tell me that JVG can tell how good or bad they are based on their practice and on a few junk minutes they played under pressure to perform flawlessly since that is the only time they actually played against the other team .Under JVG,Boki was a bench warmer,but now in New Jersey,he is one of the cotributer.He is averaging 13 points 2 assists 2.6 rebounds in 25 minutes and shooting 46%. way better than Ruther Head I am glade that he proved that he can play if he was given a chance.We can accept the lost but wasting a year on our young bloods are not acceptable.I hope the news that JVG is retiring is true.Looking forward to next season and hopefully a better coach.
Don't waste another year with JVG With the age and health condition of TMac (and Yao Ming), for Rox the next year is Now or Never. So please don't waste another year with JVG. That's all I want to say.
Sorry, but this post seems wrong in so many ways I don't even know where to begin. Van Gundy developing young players? Hayes, Head, Lucas . . . hello? Who built the roster? Yao--pre-JVG T-Mac--does JVG get credit? Battier--does JVG get credit? Alston--did you know that when Mike James was a Rocket he shot more per minute than Yao Ming? Hayes--plus or minus in your book? If I were in the NBA would I want to get the JVG treatment like Swift or Bonzi? I wouldn't consider myself to be like Swift or Bonzi, problematic I mean JVG gets "personal" with his doghouse? Bonzi managed to get himself left off other playoff rosters! guess it was Fratello's doghouse too Do I come home wanting to see some Rockets offense? no, I just come home wanting to see some Rockets basketball, every game, and I've enjoyed them all relax, man. I don't think you're being very objective right now
