JVG "Congrats to Tmac for getting out of the 1st round"

Crap, I missed the part about "injury". I didn't even hear that. That's kind of brutal. LOL.

 

Yeah, I don't get it.

Do people on this board hate McGrady that much, to not want him to pass the first round?

Everyone knows he didn't play. But he is still on the roster for this team, and he is STILL a captain.

Get over yourselves, people. If you were in injured on a team, and they got past the first round, wouldn't you want to say you were part of that?

 

i wonder, if T mac is as bad as everyone says he is...why does Van Gundy openly support him so much?


Van gundy doesn't have anything to gain by supporting him. and it is safe to say he would know about Tracy's heart and desire better than, well say, ALL of us right?

 

are you sure about that? It is nah for me

 

and I don't want him to coach Blazers ...

 

If you were on a team with a guy who showed up for less than half of your games, slammed you every time he was asked about it, and didn't even have the courtesy to show up for the games he did miss, would you give him credit?

 

That was a spiteful turd of a thread.

 

Says the guy who still holds a grudge against Scottie Pippen.

 

Nobody hates Tmac that much. People are just too frustrated with him. Can you imagine what this Rockets team can do with a healthy, active, playing defence TMac? A 15-5-5 McGrady will help Rockets to go to the Finals!

 

Wow.

Somebody here is deciding to pay attention...
...it's got to be Christmas somewhere...

Jeff Van Gundy knows Tracy McGrady about as well as anybody around here does. I don't think Van Gundy cared what he would get in McGrady when he traded for him. He'd just had enough of Steve Francis, and was going to take whatever he could get to get him out of here.

He said after the first couple of weeks that McGrady was one of the best players he'd ever seen. Van Gundy practically begged McGrady to be aggressive offensively, that he didn't want McGrady coming here deferring to anybody. McGrady, it seems, wanted to do his part to help, but didn't want to be the main guy anymore. He didn't like what went on in Orlando, and he had a nasty divorce from that team. McGrady felt that the Rockets were Yao's team. McGrady felt was here to play second fiddle to Yao.

Sounded a lot to me back then that McGrady was a lot less selfish and uninterested in winning and cowardly that what he was painted as coming out of Orlando.

Long story short (or shorter, in my case), Van Gundy realized how complete a basketball player Tracy McGrady was almost immediately. How McGrady could make a bunch of nobodies and castoffs look like a championship team.

Van Gundy made two very big mistakes with McGrady, in my opinion.

First, he didn't pay attention to McGrady's demeanor and temperment. Setting aside the fact or myth that Van Gundy had to push McGrady (with McGrady responding favorably, by the way), I don't think Van Gundy believed McGrady wanted to be on a TEAM that could win. I don't think that Van Gundy paid attention to those hints in McGrady's behavior that should have let him know that McGrady himself wouldn't handle adversity very well. Especially the kind he faced in Orlando, where he was the only legitimate threat for them night-in and night-out, and the team still struggled to win, and all of that became McGrady's fault. The whole McGrady "faking injury" thing was as much a ploy by a clueless GM to try and land a high draft pick as it was anything else. But McGrady's the high-profile player, so he's the only one who gets blamed.

People are who they are. McGrady is who he is. He isn't perfect. Nobody is. But when people tell you what they feel and who they are, you probably should believe them.

Second, he made a HUGE mistake in assigning a role for McGrady as a Rocket. Or more accurately, in assigning TOO MANY roles for McGrady. This is where I have my biggest problem with Van Gundy's time here. He saw first hand against the Dallas Mavericks what McGrady could do if you gave him a specific role to play. Just like Phil Jackson does with Kobe Bryant or what Doc Rivers did with Kevin Garnett. Everybody's tempted to let their best players do everything for their team. It maybe even works for a while. But you don't enjoy any kind of playoff success (assuming you make the playoffs at all) if you're on a bad team.

Van Gundy says that McGrady's best skill is his passing ability. McGrady is complete as an offensive player. He can score and he get other people chances to score, no matter what defense is set up against him. In Van Gundy's point-guard-loving mind, that's what he felt he wanted McGrady to do. He didn't think that anybody could make a better decision with the basketball than McGrady could. He didn't need to devise an offense when McGrady could conjure offense out of thin air.

Excellent ballplayers could probably play any position you asked them to. They're that good. But you've got to understand that if McGrady's essentially playing point guard for you, then it might not be a bad idea to have guys around him that can make shots that he creates. Guys that can't or won't shoot around your point guard is just not smart.

Ask Chris Paul if you don't believe me.

Van Gundy loves McGrady because McGrady believed in what Van Gundy showed him as a coach. McGrady covered Van Gundy's and Carroll Dawson's backsides while the both of them had their thumbs up their butts instead of rebuilding a roster they gutted to get McGrady in the first place to help him win. Van Gundy placed an enormous amount of responsibility on McGrady's back, and he carried it about as well as anybody could have.

In spite of the fact that McGrady is a primadonna or a loudmouth, or some cross-dressing gender-bending-androgynous-she-male-wannabe-world-destroying-comic-book-character-loser-faker-overpaid-whatevertheinsultisthisweek.

Look at it like this. When Gregg Popovich drafted Tim Duncan, he made it a point to get to know the guy he was going to build a franchise around. He made a point of finding out what made Duncan tick. How Duncan approached the game. What Duncan wanted and what Duncan needed.

Popovich cared too much about Duncan to place the entire success of a franchise solely on his shoulders. He built a team around Duncan. He demanded that other guys step up and produce. He expected them to win WITH Duncan. Not win because of him or even in spite of him.

Jeff Van Gundy does know something, my friend.

He knows he didn't do what he SHOULD have done. For either Yao or McGrady. Both of them are his guys.

He should have done better by the both of them...

 

That quote of mine isn't a grudge. It's a friendly reminder to those who love or defend Pippen that he can get them off.

 

Speak for yourself! I know a lot of people here are just frustrated and enraged, but sometimes you really have to wonder.

 

great analysis

I think there was much to be desired from Van Gundy's era. Rafer Alston and Van Gundy trusting him that much.

Honestly I don't think anyone is more qualified then him to talk about T-mac. We'll see what happens next year

 

I think that was JVG taking a shot. I really do.

 

Talking about offense and defence.

The Rox ranked the 17th in 2007, 17th in 2005, 20th in 2004; and the defence has been the top three teams.

After Rick·I have no idea·Aldeman was the coach here, the offense turned into 22nd in 2008, and 17th in 2009 while the defence turned into 7th.


Besides, the bench in 2007 ranked 28th in the whole league, 3rd in 2008.

We all know when JVG was the coach, the Rox generally did blow up the lottory teams by double figures and got blown up by the contenders very often. So the bench actually could get many playing time, but their stats sucked like hell.

What a difference between the 2007 bench and 2008.

 

Someone may say Rick·I dont know·Aldeman brought us the second round playoffs, but dont forget the 2007&2008 Jass >>>>>>>>>2009 Blazers.
If we have no Rafer Alston last year, we probably got swept by the J ass.

 

JVG is a great guy.

 

I don't think so. He wants McGrady to succeed.

 

yeah there's no way JVG would stoop that low. he's has manlove for McGrady.

 

Shamrock for some excellent JVG analysis....

DD