Did anyone catch this yesterday afternoon? I was able to hear most of it and here are some subjects talked about. 1) Said that there has been alot of improvement, but there is still along way to go. Yadadada 2) Said mostly the same stuff regarding the TMac trade about how they had to give up alot to bring in someone of his caliber. The interesting thing is that he went on to say that they wanted to keep one or more of the guys (Steve, Cat & Cato), but Orlando wouldn't except the offer of two draft picks. WTF? I'm not sure if he was joking or there was realy a deal on the table involving less players but more picks going that way, but it was just interesting for him to say that. 3) Said that Yao is moving much better on defense and that the two things (conditioning and defense) that he wanted Yao to improve on since he became coach, has gotten alot better. But, again, he said there is still a long way to go. 4) Said that judging an offense's or defense's effectiveness by only Points Per Game or FG % isn't accurate. The real way to view this is another stat - Points Per Possession. He said that with the Rockets being second in the league in opposing FG% last season, the team was not nearly as good as that stat showed. He also said he will have this information available for now on when he is on SportsRadio 610 so the fans can keep track of this also. Anyway, this is as much that I remember right now. I was just surprised it hasn't been posted yet. They said he will be on again at 6:30 a.m. next Wed. with John & Lance.
I believe he said it was 2 second round draft picks. Also said he hopes the fans give Rudy a long and loud standing ovation when they play. Steve Cat and Cato didn't receive nearly as much credit for wins as they deserved. That's all I remember besides the stuff already posted.
My gut tells me that the Rockets probably tried to make the T-Mac deal with Francis+Cato and keep Mobley here. It would have Mobley at the 2, T-Mac at the 3 with JJ off the bench. But the Magic wanted all 3 players. It would be great to have Mobley still on the team but the trade was well worth it in any case in my opinion. Especially if we can fill some roster holes via FA/trade/draft over the next 2 years. Much easier to obtain those players than T-Mac's. Thanks for the recap!
The points per possession thing is interesting - I guess he's saying that the Rockets had a really low opp FG%, but that the extra fouls and perhaps the 3P% diminished some of that impact.
You know I have to give much props to JVG and Les. They definitely took the higher ground with this T-Mac / Francis trade. Before the whole Weisbrod and Francis statements came out, I was actually rooting for the Magic. Now, sadly, I enjoy seeing them lose almost as much as the Lakers.
Thanks, I knew I had forgotten a few things. I thought I heard two 2nd rounders, but it seemed so far off that I thought I mis-heard it. I agree with his point about Rudy. Fans need to get out there early and give him a BIG standing "O" for what all he has done for this organization. I remember them saying that there was going to be a video-presentation dedicated to him right before the game as well.
The remark by JVG on the T-Mac trade was about as tounge-in-cheek/sarcastic as it gets. I guess I could see someone not being able to tell because of his dead-pan delivery, but there's no doubt it was a joke. I think someone was asking him about our play last season, and he was trying to defend SF, CM, and KC a little. His remark was that they would have liked to kept Steve, and the others, but the Magic wouldn't accept our offer of 2 second rounders for T-Mac(like I said, it doesn't get any more sarcastic than that). It would be like someone offering us 2 seconds for Yao. It wouldn't even take 2 seconds for CD to LOL, and hang up the phone. A caller was asking about Yao, saying that he thought he was moving a little better/quicker on rotations/rebounds the past 2, or 3 games, and JVG agreed, and gave props to the caller for noticing. He also said that so many people always ask about Yao improving offensively, but that he(JVG) thinks that getting better at the defensive aspects of the game is more imperative. Talked about centers of great size always being pick-and-rolled because of lack of quickness, etc... What JVG was saying on the stat thing was that even we were the no.2 field goal defense in the league last year, we were NOT the second best defensive team. He said we were not as good as people thought on defense, and were actually better on offense than generally thought last year. If you have a team that doesn't run much, and goes deep into the 24 second clock a great deal it's going to skew things toward the defense(fewer possesions per game). Not to mention that if you give up a lot of off. boards, and don't force many turnovers, that will counteract a great fg per. defense somewhat. He said that the best statistic for guaging a teams defensive efficiancy is points-per-possesion. I forgot where he said we were in that category last year. Someone asked hom about the ppp rankings this year, but he said there wasn't a big enough sample-size to be accurate yet. He did say that he will try to have the ppp stats with him on future shows. It was really nice to hear him give Rudy props.
