Ditto. I also believe that it's better to get rid of Cat and MoT sooner rather than later, though they shouldn't necessarily be the priority this offseason.
I believe. thacabbage, DoD and sage have all made excellent points. I couldn't help thinking the same thing about JVG's defensive philosophy as I watched Detroit's "48 minutes of hell" rain down on the Fakers.
Because the Detroit Pistons were the right team to beat the Lakers. No average defensive team would've shut the Lakers down. The Pistons took advantage of every Laker weakness and took away their strengths. That is what we model after, not necessarily their exact offense or defense. For example, the Pistons' defense shut down the Lakers offense for the most part. The Rockets' defense, while good, did not do this. The Pistons' offense ran on the Lakers at every opportunity thereby reducing Shaq's effectiveness on D and to an extent on O as well. The Rockets do not know how to run (although we did do a better job of this against the Lakers). The Pistons' offense took care of the ball and didn't make boneheaded turnovers. The Rockets? We're not there yet. Someone stated that the Pistons were mentally tough - they messed with the Lakers' minds. The Rockets? We're too busy hanging back arguing with refs every possession about crap that happened 3 possessions ago. The Pistons did not fold under pressure. The Rockets often do. So, in essence, I disagree with the statement that the Pistons were not the prototypical team to win a championship. They are. Why? Because they could do everything they needed to beat the team they had to in the Finals. Sure there are many ways to accomplish this, but it all boils down to the basics and who can execute. I think it's more than who the focus of your offense is. I couldn't care less about the 5, the 1, the 2, etc. as the primary option. I care more about "if your primary options are not available can you get it to a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th option who can then convert". The Pistons did that. The Lakers could not do that. This is what I want the Rockets to model themselves after. If you look back to the 2 championships, that is what we did back then as well.
Its not a problem keeping Steve Francis as long he isnt the starting Point Guard and he is able to play his own game. JVG has been ruining Francis by asking him to be a playmaker- there is no way with steves 'A' game that he will ever be a playmaker.
These Pistons became the perfect group with the perfect chemistry under the perfect coach. It was cosmic, it was karma. Can they repeat? I wouldn't bet on it. I just would never bet on 'sheed. Billups continuing to play like Bibby? Even Bibby can't. The sum of the whole was greater than the parts. They'll be good for a good long time, I just don't see them repeating. I do see a team - the Rox??? - able to steal a page from them. The page is headed by the word 'smart', which our beloveds are definitely not. Yet.
I am not ANTI McGrady. I am ANTI-ANTI TEAM. I am not for superstar laden teams. And yes, superstars make a difference. But I rather have a team of stars than two superstars anyday. I know Yao is not able to run teams to death like Ben did. But he can dominate in the half court game and do it nicely. The way the league is going, after Shaq leaves, who is going to dominate Yao in the half court game? We just need to get tougher...maybe add a shooter or two. One last point. I am not comparing Van Gundy to Brown. That would be a Kobe/Jordan comparison that would make me look like an idiot. (And nobody does that except my kids). What I am saying that the philosophy that people hate about Gundy is what Brown taught everywhere he went. Defend for48 minutes +. Rebound. No turnovers. Remember Billups in Boston? Looked alot like Francis. Until two coaches came along and actually coached him to stop being a fool with the ball and play the right way. I don't want to score 100. I want to stop the other team from scoring 80. We can get 85 from Yao, Mobley, Francis and Jackson. If we get McGrady, fine. But if I was GM, I go and try to see if we can get a tough rebounder to play alongside Yao. Continue to teach Francis and Mobley. I want this team to be like the 94 Rocks. Tough. Tenecious. Defensive minded.
I'm with you Almu ... I believe and here's why... The Pistons were built on defense; as are the Rockets. Our team bought into the defensive philosophy of Jeff Van Gundy this year as evidenced by their improvement to third best defense in the league. It's very evident that no team will peak at their best in defense in the team's first year under the coach's tenure. Furthermore, we can ALL conclude that this isn't the team that Jeff Van Gundy built or helped build with Carroll Dawson. A couple of strategic moves, coupled with a full year under the retained player's belts, and things will start getting more interesting with each year. Depending on how many moves are made this offseason, (either one big player that JVG thinks can put us over the hump, or 3 or more) that will determine how much quicker our team collectively can master his system, thus giving us the improvement on this year. Personally I believe that our team has steeled their resolve with this year, with the constant nagging of our supposed fans. They played admirably and considering this isn't the team that Jeff built, coupled with the fact that we havent been to the playoffs in years, why wouldn't this be a great season? Next year will be much better. As far as Larry Brown and Jeff Van Gundy comparisons go, I believe that Jeff is already in Larry's class. I think Larry has been to one finals appearance more than our coach. And comparing the Sixers and the Knicks from 1999; I strongly suggest that the best coaching job was with the Knicks reaching the finals. All Jeff needs is more years coaching to enhance his resume.
This is partially correct. Yao, unlike Wallace, is a much more complete player capable of performing at both ends of the court. As such he's called upon to do many more things than is Wallace: set high picks, defend in the low post, fight for position in the low post, play with his back to basket, rebound and participate in the offense. Wallace is a defensive specialist (probably the best since Rodman) whose primary duty is to defend in the low post and rebound. In the Rockets' offense Yao is EXPECTED to score while any points the Pistons get from Wallace is icing on the cake so to speak. Because he does so much more, Yao expends far more energy than does Wallace and that's why he cannot be expected to run the court like Wallace. Very true for several reasons. First of all, their guards were picked because they met certain requirements. For example, in Dumars' own words, here's why he picked Hamilton: "This guy can score in a variety of ways, without having to come down, catch it, and go into his one-on-one thing," Dumars said. "That was appealing to me. Especially with the new rules, I thought it was going to become harder and harder for guys to just come down and hold it and go one-on-one." (does this ring a bell here?) Billups was picked for his consistent offense especially outside shooting. Prince was picked ahead of Carmelo because of his defensive prowness. All three are tall, long guards compared to Francis and Mobley and Jackson. Plus, Larry Brown's system emphasized guard movement without the basketball while the Rocket guards were picked for a pre-zone system that emphasized ISO play and breaking down their opponent one-on-one. Movement, movement, movement - that's the gist of the Pistons offensive strategy. Everybody moves without the ball - everyone passes the ball. Plus, and this is a BIG key: their offense is DESIGNED to feed off their team defense - to convert their opponent's misses into points. That's why they were able to run on the Lakers after playing in-your-face defense. The Pistons are the closest thing to the old Celtic philosophy of defense to date: Attack as a team and take away the things your opponent does best. Before JVG, Rocket players weren't required to play defense as a unit and to eliminate their opponent's primary offensive strategy. That's the major change implemented by JVG compared to years past. There's an article elsewhere on this board from Bill Russell that expounds team defense and how it's timeless. The Pistons validated his words with their performance during this series. The Rockets are much farther away that you may think. They need more size (guards), speed and athleticism (forwards) to play this type of defense at a high level. Plus, Detroit's best defensive players also happened to be their best offensive players and that's just not the case here with the exception of Mobley and Yao. I'm came out of this series with a deeper appreciation of JVG because I have finally come to understand what he's trying to accomplish here. This is no fluke. From the start 4 years ago, Joe Dumars had a plan and a philosophy on what he wanted to do and how to get it done. Every personnel move was based on this plan - every player was picked because that player possessed skills that fit into the scope of his plan. It's known as DIRECTION. I have followed the NBA for many years and the one thing I have learned and I've seen here (in Detroit), is that when there's direction, everything else will fall into line. They (Detroit) set goals, and they went out and got the personnel to accomplish those goals. Here (in Houston), under the brilliant leadership of CD & Co., the Rockets have been constantly searching and searching and searching - drifting along with no real sense of what they wanted to do or how to go about getting it done. It's no wonder this team has plateaued at the 40-something win level. Given a real chance by Uncle Les, JVG is the guy who will change all that. We saw glimpses of this from the Rockets all year. For them to step up to contender status, a number of changes in personnel and the organization have to be made and I'm just not sure that we have the right people to make those changes. I do know that every team in the NBA (well, maybe not Dallas) woke up this morning and began studying what the Pistons have done for clues in how to win. Looking back at Russell's Celtics, Holtzmann's Knicks, Riley's Lakers and Jackson's Bulls, it was always there for all to see - we just didn't bother to look.
What? Wallace is probably the hardest working man in the NBA. The reason why he can run up and down court is simply because he is just a much better athlete, in terms of speed, endurance, muscle mass, etc, than Yao will ever be. He didn't get to where he is through having great baskeball skills like shooting touch or a massive vertical; he just worked his way up and worked out fanatically (he works out, or at least used to in, a cage filled with weights at VUU in Richmond in an unairconditioned building in the summer) and conditions himself like crazy. Some of it is just mindset/work ethic (Wallace is an undrafted type who scrapped and worked his way up to the top) but a lot of it is just genetics Wallace just has a better body as far as conditioning goes.
Right he is! Maybe, one of these days, his work ethic can help him put the ball in the basket from 10 ft out too.
The Pistons have sooo much more chemistry on the offensive end. All of the uncontested dunks, the fast break points, the wide open jumpers, the crisp passes. They played flawless basketball on the offensive end with hardly any turnovers. The Rockets are so far away from having that kind of chemistry on offense, it's not even funny.
Ben is atheletic because he is strong and short. Yao is atheletic enough for his size. If Yao were like Hakeem and Ben, he would definitely be the G.O.A.T.
ONe of the glaring weakness of Francis is turnover under pressure defense. He should learn that from Rip and Billups
My fantasy offseason would go like this: Trade #1 S. Francis + TE (portion) to Orlando G. Hill + 1st overall selection to Houston Trade #2 K. Cato + C. Mobley to Indiana A. Harrington + A. Croshere to Houston Trade #3 M. Taylor to Seattle B. Barry (sign & trade) + C. Booth to Houston Trade #4 E. Piatkowski (selected in expansion draft) + TE (portion) to Charlotte D. Fisher (if left unprotected?) to Houston 2004 Draft selections #1. Emeka Okafor #2. Possibly a point guard? Projected fantasy lineup for the '04/'05 season: C - Yao Ming/Calvin Booth PF - Emeka Okafor/Austin Croshere/Malick Badiane SF - Al Harrington/Jim Jackson/B. Nachbar SG - Brent Barry/Grant Hill PG - Derrek Fisher/Chris Duhon?/Mike Wilks *None of this is likely to go down, nor do I know if it is even likely financially, but I thought it would be fun to type out anyway.
That's the thing though, Francis CAN'T learn. You want to see players who are capable of learning, you look at Yao, Cat and Boki who dismiss the bs "transition" excuse for Francis, with their productivity and elevation of game during the same year Francis became stifled, confused, and down right more useless than I've ever seen him in his career. The Allen Iverson comparison has been made before, and he indeed gives us that image, which Larry Brown spoke of, "I just couldn't get through to him, I think somehow I just couldn't get that across with him.". They are just certain players that aren't capable of learning anything new that differs from their already set game. I agree with Almu's suggestion, but it's just not gonna work with Francis in the line up. Not to mention, in order to pull through with such an organized smart style of play. You need chemistry, and this current team, just doesn't have it. While it's not all Francis' fault, he doesn't help the cause. And you mustn't look at superstars and stars labels, as to deciding just what will make chemistry flourish and what will make it another "two superstars and role players" team. Because, although T-mac is a "superstar", he would give more towards achieving smart TEAM play, and chemistry. Which Francis a "star" cannot. For several reasons. One, T-mac can play defense which he won't need to "learn", but will elevate further under JVG tutelage. Two, T-mac is a quicker passer than Francis, and would be a much better entry passer to Yao. Three, has all the diversity to his game, all the tools to play a consistent scoring SG or a SF with a complete game. And finally four, his talents and style are not only very complimentary to the current role players the Rocket's do have (Cat, JJ, Boki), and very complimentary to the center of our team, Yao. But, the same players are very complimentary to T-mac in the same way. And with that, leads towards building more than solid chemistry. And those players grouped together, would be a better way, would give more opportunity towards building a team with such chemistry and such balanced team play, that Almu and I aswell, wish to obtain. Than by going with our current line up and just picking up a balanced PF. Because, balanced as that PF may be, the rest of our team will not be. In Detroit the only player I saw that didn't have defense, was Hamilton, and Steve has no such jumpshot nor is capable of ever having one. So, I agree with the idea, it's what I want aswell. But, I don't see these same players, especially Francis, helping us achieve in fullfilling that balanced ideal.
Sorry, I think with proper training, Francis definitely can learn it. Rudy spoiled him with the one-on-one crap. Now JVG will teach him how to run the offense.
Will he also teach him how to have a respectable jumpshot? Will he also teach him to have a reasonable 3pt shot? How to be a better slasher? Half his turnovers come from his inept driving, dribbling, hesitant "skills". And come now, Rudy spoiled Cat just as much if not worse with those iso plays. But, you didn't see him have troubling LEARNING something completely new to him from a completely new coach. So, tell me, what of Francis during his career and one year of JVG ball, show you that he is capable of learning? His heart?
I just realized, if we played this LA team in finals, we probably would have dominated them too. Obviously, we were a few plays away from being up 3-1, and for the most part, the player keeping LA team alive against us was.... Malone. Malone didn't miss a jump shot against us, which was the main reason we got beat. Don't know how valid the reasoning is, but I truly believe JVGs got us on the right track.
Yep, he definitely has on the right track. But, no, we wouldn't 'probably' have dominated them too. Let's not be so ridiculous.
