Van Gundy has taken away our offense... and given us nothing in return

The real problem is our franchise player spent the whole night getting his shot blocked, getting the ball stripped and throwing the ball away.

Just a HORRIBLE performance.

And not just Yao, everyone.

But Yao never stepped it up in a single game. Maybe he shouldn't dominate Shaq, but is it too much to ask for him to carry us one single game?

 

Look, our current roster has problems. Most of them are listed in this thread...low bball IQ, bad passers, poor decisions, inconsistent shooting. It's the same issues that we've had for the last few years, it's not like its something new.

Go back and read what Van Gundy was saying from the day he got here. He's been preaching effort, intelligent play and consistency. It's pretty difficult to become a championship team without those things.

I'd have to guess that JVG pretty much knew that our current roster wasn't a good mix. The problem was that he wanted to come in and give everybody a clean slate to prove themselves. The downside of that is that we suffered through another season of incredible inconsistency. But, the only way to tell who fits and who doesn't was to give everybody a chance. Cato probably benefitted the most. He did alot this year to undo his previous reputation as a lazy player.

After 87 games, JVG should have a pretty good idea of what each guy can do and what they can't. Now, I expect him to start making changes to get the right kind of guys in here. Truthfully, it's not neccessarily any single players fault, it's just the mix that doesn't work. We've got a whole roster full of incredibly inconsistent guys. They're not just inconsistent from game to game, sometimes it's from quarter to quarter. Alot of teams can afford to have a guy be up and down like that, but when you mix 6 or 8 guys like that in your rotation, you just don't know what you're going to get from minute to minute.

If nothing else it should be an interesting off season. We've got a MLE, a big trade exception,some decent players that can be included in deals and there's some good talent that can be had.
There's alot of ways that we can go, but regardless of what we do, I think that the two traits you'll see in anybody that we bring in is consistency and shooting ability. In addition to being more consistent, we need to find a way to get some easy hoops. Without a running game and good passing, we have to work way too hard for every hoop.

 

well, LAL should trade kobe too. i mean he only did the exact same thing earlier in the game. 2 on 1 fast break, boki committed to kobe, and kobe couldve just dropped it to the side and instead takes it to the goal and draws the foul from boki.

 

Bottom line: The Rockets never had an offense to begin with. Therefore JVG cannot take something that wasn't there to begin with.

The Rockets made it to the playoffs. In hindsight, making it to the playoffs with a team full of knuckleheads and journeymen that the Rockets have is a minor miracle.

 

I do agree partially haven that our offense could work much better if we didnt have all these different types of offense going around. I mean with our starting 5 the pick and roll works nice, Yao and Mobley do it reallly nicely together. But say Cato goes out and MOT comes in then anytime he gets the ball in the post its spread out and let him iso. He tries to drop it down low to Yao, but that rarely works. IMO I dont see MO as a player that Complements Yao at all, when Cato is in at C, mo at the PF is nice, but when Yao plays our center, then we need to give him room to perform. Of course im sick and tired of the Steve throws ball to Yao, and yao tries to post it up... Either he misses, or gets the ball stripped, and many times the ball never reaches Yao, or Yao gets it stolen. Many things wrong with the offense. no doubt.

and dont even start about when our 3 point shots don't fall

 

There's a couple of problems...
-Steve is not a very good POINT guard
-Yao still hasn't shown he has the attitude/intensity/intangible "it" to take over and not be pushed around
-JVG has never had teams that were very good offensively...probably why he never won a championship. You can't win just with defense.
-Yao is probably not of the mentality to be a low-post center. At least TRY to run a high-post offense
-Our team is just not as talented as other top Western Conference teams
-Our GM is not too bright

So there's two ways this can go. It has to do with Yao. If Yao is going to be a low-post center, then Steve doesn't really fit. If it's a high-post, cutting offense, then maybe Steve can stay. If it's a low-post offense, we need better shooters and a more competent point guard.

Also, it looks like we'd stay with JVG's style which is not really proven to do much more than win ugly back in the days of a more center dominated NBA. Yes we'll play defense, but unless there is an offensive system that uses our players talents rather than finding players that use the system (read: a flexible and innovative coach), we're not going to be a contender any time soon unless Yao develops an attitude and stops being so soft...I mean humble. Sick of these fluff articles kissing Chinese culture ass. This is the NBA, he'll learn soon enough that he needs to change or he really is a Rik Smits.

 

Where would this team have been in these playoffs if not for Francis? We would've gotten blown out of the building every game. Or a better question is how high in the lottery we would have been this year without Francis? Think back to 2 years ago when francis missed all that time and how the team fell apart without him. That is how we got Yao in the first place. And Yao is nowhere near ready to lead this team right now and if he doesn't develop an attitude, he will never be. The Smits comparisons are starting to make alot more sense right now. Could Smits ever lead a team to a championship?

I agree about Van Gundy though. This offense is a complete joke. There is no rythym to it at all. Its like a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off in more ways than one.

 

"Played better"? 3-10 with 5 boards is " played better"? Francis had a lousy shooting night, too, but come on, this is like arguing that dog crap smells better than cat piss. In the end they both stink in their own special way.

EDIT: Francis was 5-15 for 16 points with 5 assists, 9 boards, and 4 TO's, Yao was 3-10 for 10, w/5 boardswith 4 tos, though he had 4 blocks. "played better"

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Everyone is talking about Yao Ming Yao Ming, I know its his 2nd year, but EVERYONE thought Yao would vastly improve this year, and he really didn't. 2 more ppg? 1 more rpg? As Barkley said during halftime "the Lakers will go as far as Shaq can take them," and this is the same for the Rox.

Until Yao becomes the player we want him to be, we won't be the team we know we can be. We also need a PF!!

PLEASE CD, GET A PF!! Sheed, Camby, Swift, ANYBODY.

 

After seeing Yao this postseason, you have to start questioning his ability.

 

why... its his firts postseason. heard of the word "chance". give the man some time, i call this an experiance gatherer. it is just going to help us next year provided we keep the team intact.

 

I still want to give him a chance, but I don't want the Rockets to bend over backwards to build a team around him either.

 

"Why don't we get shooters?"

Isn't that what Piatkowski was supposed to be? Boy, that was a complete and utter waste.

Can we please get rid of the former Knicks? 'Spoon was respectable, but I'm really not a fan of Mark Jackson. He may have a high PG IQ, but he's waaaaaay too slow. If we want someone to fulfill his role, it should be Avery Johnson as an assistant coach. I hope JVG does not try to convince Mark Jackson to come back.

Also - I think the biggest problem with the JVG offense is STILL that Yao is treated as a traditional big man who should post up, back his man down, and take a shot.

If that's what Yao is going to be, then this team will not win a championship until it has a smart guard or forward who is willing to be the man. This is where haven's right - who the heck is the focal point of the offense? What the heck happened to Yao being the 21st century version of Bill Walton?

Also: Whatever happened to moving off the ball? Why the heck has no Rockets team gone two-for-one at the end of a quarter since 1997?

 

Pike can shoot. But the problem is that he can't play defense and to slow to follow his man..I wonder why this team signed him up

 

Don't know how to quote so sorry but give Yao a chance?

Yeah was completely horrible tonight and the whole series, he pretty much dissapeared and was a non factor. I am sorry but I may eat my words eventually but Yao played like a huge Pu$$%!

 

Francis is a 60% free throw shooter? JJ is a 95% 3pt shooter? JJ jacks up enough of his own crap as it is. The problem with this team, IMO, is that JVG hasn't pointed out who he wants taking shots on their own, and who he wants as spot up shooters. JJ being the older player in the starting line-up seems to think it's his duty to put the game on his shoulders and he failed badly in game 1 which really could have changed the whole complex of the series. When you start missing (eg. 1-10) do you keep shooting? No. But he did and cost us the game.
Yao needs to drum into his head that without his inside presence we don't have anyone consistant for an inside-outsde game. He had a very bad series for his standards and it cost us around 10 points per game (low percentage outside shooting), less turnaround jumpers... especially with Shaq on 4 fouls.
Cuttino, is he a spot up shooter or not? 40% 3fg in the season and couldn't buy 1 in the play-offs? no excuse.
Francis played a great series but with the team needing a scorer he must step up being the floor leader vocally, encourage Yao to get to the basket and get him more involved.

JVG seems to think he has alot of scorers which he can distribute the ball with even shot attempts, it's not working. Yao and Francis must take 40 shots between each other for this team to succeed, JJ and Cat would be so much more effective with the defense focased on stopping Yao and Francis.

 

I was frustrated to hell when I saw that. Even Kobe could dish to his teammate to score easy bascket when he was really hot today. Why Francis just could not do this?

 

JVG's defense is to chase the other team all around the court and get fatigured and melt down eventually. You simply cannot win championship by defence only. You have to offense to drop the ball in the hole. Let the other team chase you around instead of you chasing the other team.