and I agree. His number does look good, but he actually does do some other nice stuff that doesn't get looked at. A crucial pass tipped for an offensive rebound, and the cutting and spacing that he provides by moving on the offensive set. At times, he's lost, especially on defense when Chicago went small and SA went small. However, in all likelihood, neither is Novak ready in that situation. A lot of things goes on in the background, especially during practice, that we just don't know.
definately true.....but it seems when things are falling apart as they have the last two nights you at least try a different formula.
It that were true, you'd expect him to have awful +/- numbers or PER differentials but Padgett's are very close to 0 so far. (Novak and Howard, on the other hand, are very bad, and Hayes' is very good)
The Jazz game showed that Novak needs to make a few adjustments before he's NBA ready, ie if he's going to play horse at least try to hit his shots.
Every time I see Padgett enter the game, I tell myself, "It could be worse -- last year, this would have been Rybo." Makes me feel 100% better immediately.
hey did anyone see that dunk by nachbar tonight vs. indiana? i sure would like that dude back with us right about now. =]
I cannot find any reason to like JVG being the coach. What he can do? he can only criticize the officials and his players after the losses, never critisizing himself whom should be critisized and bear the responsibility. Maybe Nowak is not very stable on the court, but who is stable? If the players playing on the court were stable, the Rockets would not have faced the same problem in the last two games. So why did not try Nowak or other players like Vspan? Sometimes even hope that Rockets loses five or six consecutive games if that could make JVG be fired! Last season Miami forced JVG's brother resign and then they got the NBA champion, if the Rockets force JVG to resign, it is also possible that they can win a champion this season with so many good players now!
False dilemma. There are other possibilities than the two you cited. For example, how about a bad player playing to his capability? Such as the aforementioned Ryan Bown, who even sucked on defence (last year, his DRtg was worse than Steve Nash's). If JVG is such a bottom-line, results-oriented, you-earn-your-minutes guy, how can we explain Flyin' Ryan?
Novak who? Ryan Bowen owns all. Cutting RyBo was the single most ginormous mistake of Van Gundy's career, by far, not even close, period.
Van Gundy likes scrubs who can play D and play smart. Rudy T. liked scrubs who could shoot the 3. You can't fill up your whole team with great players, you are going to have to fill your supporting cast with guys who have holes in ther game.
Its just you........Padgett is playing great for us right now and Novak is just not ready for rotation minutes. Or did you not watch the Utah game where he looked like a rookie just happy to be on the floor and not real confident as to what he was supposed to do. Bonzi is out of shape and a cancer....nothing we did not know going into the deal. He gave him some minutes to see what he could contribute and Bonzi didn't do anything at all. All his shots were short (tired legs / no conditioning) and he defense was slow. If he gets into shape JVG will play him trust me. Bottom line is you are not at practices (none of us are) so I am going to trust the judgement of our coach who has a winning record in this league (hard to do) ...
Steve Novak was selected by the Houston Rockets because he is a tall player who can shoot the three point shot and is a very good Free Throw Shooter. Not because he was anything else! Why can't JVG use him for what he can now contribute to the team and try and develop the other parts of his game as he gains experience? If we expand JVG's way of thinking and if he had been the Team Coach at the time Yao Ming was selected then Yao Ming would be just like Novak and V Span, sitting on the bench. We are playing Howard and Padgett, both players are not worthy of playing time on a potential contender. But JVG likes them!!
Yeppi to Yetti, I would like to say the same thing. Still remember when Yao joined Rockets in 2001, he played horribly in the first couple games. Cato looked way much better than Yao at that time. Had JVG been our coach then, he would have benched Yao forever. If you didn't play Yao, how the hell could he develop and adjust himself to this league. Another good example is SUNS. Players like Barbosa, Raja Bell, Diaw will never shine in Rockets, cause JVG won't give them minutes. Before joining SUNS, who knows these guys? They were simply small potatoes. And now they are stars. This kind of thing will nerver happen in JVG's team. I feel sad for VSPAN.