Nobody should be suprised with our very inconsistent offense considering who the coach is. When has a JVG coached offense ever been consistently good over the course of a whole year?
Then again they have a coach who implements a pick & roll along with a motion offense... Look at how much difference it makes to have a coach who can actually COACH.
Then what.... When they go to Utah and their stats increase and Boozer and Williams stats decrease, you want to make a do over with the trade. My point is this... Coaching is the big difference.. A good coach can make adjustments and win... Let me know when Van Gundy learns how to do that. He's been here since 03 - 04 and he has learned yet.
I don't care much for VG at all. But the problem isn't his coaching. It's his, Morey's and Dawson's personnel decisions of late. The 51 win team of Mike James, Sura, Wesley and Jon Barry never had a problem scoring points in half court or transition.
Defense is an aspect of the game that can be improved by effort while offense is based a lot more on talent (think Ryan Bowen). I do not think the Rockets are a very good defensive team inherently, but JVG does a good job in brining out 100% effort out of his players. I mean in the LA Laker game, we had to hack Kwame when the game was very close. If we were TRULY a good defensive team we would've have opted for the defensive stop. You can make a case that everyone on our team outside of Tmac, Yao, and Bonzi should not be starters on a playoff team in the NBA, while some of the players should not even be in the NBA period (think Rafer Alston). I feel JVG is doing the right thing by focusing on defense, it is the right thing to do when your team has no offensive talent. Maybe if we had more scorers like we did in 04-05 JVG would focus on offense a little more. When Tmac comes back he will cover our weaknesses and we may go back to our winning ways, but we will be exposed in the playoffs big time. I think the solution for this is to replace Alston with a PG who is an efficient scorer. Of course, easier said than done. Also, we are not going deep at all in the playoffs if Tmac doesn't play well.
We have to play Novak and Lucas more - simply because they might be able to score eventhough they are not there yet defensively. Because as it stands - it's not working with the current rotation.
IMHO, it's not that T-Mac covers up our deficiencies, but more that the system is predicated on him (and Yao) being in the lineup. Like all teams, JVG's system revolves around his stars, and with T-Mac not playing at 100% or out of the lineup, we're naturally seeing the holes, esp. offensively. JVG strikes me as a coach who does superbly when he has all his pieces, but is not as good when he doesn't and has to make numerous adjustments. In those cases, he ends up relying on his primary players too much, which also may be the reason his teams tend to wear out so much by the end of the season. It worries me, for example, that the one time he took the Knicks to the finals was in a lockout-shortened season, while in other seasons his teams often seemed to be running on fumes come playoff time. Of course it goes without saying, all coaches would have a difficult time winning if he's missing his main player(s), and all teams wear out by the end of the season. But this seems more the case with JVG than other "top-tier" coaches. That said, if come playoffs we have all our players relatively healthy and happy (Re: Bonzi) and Yao and T-Mac playing at a high level, I think we have as good a chance with JVG at the helm as anyone.
Yes because in the NBA when you retire your salary magically comes off the books. It doesn't work like that and it's not a huge surprise that you all are the same smart people who think every other GM out there (probably not Isiah) wouldn't have the exactly the same concerns you have. You want to trade him because he has a chronic back problem, now why would another team want him and his remianing salary? If he was healthy and disruptive then you'd be in business.
Of course you know this, but just to reiterate.... That 51 win team with James, Sura, Wesley and Barry had elements that our guards dont have right now. Sura and James could drive,penetrate and FINISH at the basket. Our guards cannot. James and Sura had pitbull personnalities that wouldn't allow this team to go through scoring funks. Our guards do not. Wesley could hit a medium range jumper in the half court offense. Our guards do not. If we had those qualities NOW, with our guards we wouldn't be having these problems.
Just for the sake of reminiscence, here's our roster list from 2004-2005, the 51-win season: Tracy McGrady Bob Sura Juwan Howard David Wesley Yao Ming Mike James Charlie Ward Jon Barry Moochie Norris Clarence Weatherspoon Torraye Braggs Scott Padgett Ryan Bowen Vin Baker Dikembe Mutombo
They also had a healthy, dynamic, and dominant T-Mac next to them. Offense comes much easier when you have a guy like that on your team. You put that year's Tracy and Yao on this team, and I think we'd be on a 55-60 win pace.
Not sure what your point is. My response was to the poster whining about Van Gundy's offense. Sura, James, Wesley and Barry were scorers before they came to Houston and that didn't change. Alston's never been a scorer anywhere in the NBA...Alston's performance is indicative of Alston not Van Gundy's system. Now, unless you think Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams would come to Houston and be less efficient under VG then we don't have any discussion points.
I thought you were saying our offensive problems have to do with recent personnel decisions, compared to the players we brought in 2 years ago. But if you replace our current role players with those guys, would we really be any better? Without a 100% T-Mac (or with no T-Mac period, as in this current stretch) do those players make our offense much better than it is now? I do agree with your main point that JVG is capable of coaching a good offensive team. As you say, he did so a few years ago. But I think the major distinguishing factor isn't the role players, but McGrady.
Current personnel? Then YES, we do have a disagreement. The Rockets have far too many role playing spot up shooters and not enough slashers/creators. And definitely no Pitt Bulls. The current spot up shooters struggle without McGrady. If Mike James and the healthy equivalents of what was then Sura, Barry and Wesley were on the team right now...they would not have had a 1-4 road trip.
I don't disagree there. I was on the same page as you in wanting us to get a slasher/creator with our draft (I was in the Brewer bandwagon). We have Snyder, Wells, and Spanoulis on the roster. All of whom fit in that mold. Unfortunately, they aren't in the flow right now, but potentially they can give us a lot of that.
