Everybody pile on Van Gundy, Yao or whoever, but let's get real. 1. I don't like Van Gundy's people skills but is that the real problem? We could argue about his coaching skills but our offense creates good shots and allows for both uptempo and transition BB, and the defensive scheme puts players in position to take away good looks and penetration. 2. Yao is a very poor rebounder. 3. Howard and Taylor are very soft and poor rebounders as is Padgett. 4. Yao is clumsy with the ball and is not an assertive player, and he lacks quickness. 5. Sura and Barry are not top guards, they are role players. We lack good outside shooting. 6. Sura and Barry are not lock lown defenders. They are not quick defenders that can stop penetration. 7. TMac is a great 2 guard, we don't have a legit small forward on the team though TMac can do it but we give up our best mismatch. 8. In fact we don't have one decent PF on the team. 9. Come to think of it we don't have one decent PG, PF or SF on the team. 10. Yao needs more development, TMac is a super star and the rest are scrubs. 11. We lost alot of defense to get TMac. Mobley was a lock down defender, Cato was a rebounder and shot blocker and a big body and Francis was quicker at the point and was beginning to stop penetrators. 12. I still love TMac and would make that trade, but every other move we have made has been a disaster. Now if Jeff Van Gundy is making the player moves- well that is bad for him. He needs to stick to coaching. The fact is we are about where we should be considering the team on the court. If David Wesley makes a big difference I will be surprised. We need a starting PG, PF and SF to go with Yao and TMac. Wait til next year.
1. I think the players just aren't listening to him 2. agreed 3. agreed 4. agreed, though I don't think he's clumsy, he's just a big guy. The lack of quickness makes him seem clumsy. You should see Muresan or Bradley, those are guys clumsy with the ball 5. agreed 6. agreed, both are just too old 7. agreed 8. 100% agreed 9. LOL Agreed 10. agreed 11. I wasn't that sold on Cat as a great defender. Cato had a bad habit of letting his man go after the first step, I remember Yao picking up a lot of fouls cuz Cato's man would simply blow by him 12. We didn't need to give up Cato. In fact in hindsight, we probably coulda gotten Vince from the Raps with a package of Cat and Cato plus a draft pick or two. How frigging depressing is that
I agree with all points made. But somebody, sometime is going to have to step up and acknowledge that CD is a JOKE of a GM! He doesn't have to validate and pull the trigger on these dumb-ass moves. And I don't think he's through yet. No matter what Van Gundy wants. The last of Steve Patterson's watermarks are gone and these last few years have been a disaster for player selection/development and trades. No one else in the league takes him seriously... why should we. JVG is in panic mode trying to save face after a playoff team has been completely dismantled. Oh, that's right... we still have Mo and Padgett from last year.
No way to deny or spin it our player moves have been terrible- wasted 7 #1 pics signed terrible contracts- Mo Taylor, Maloney, Norris passed on Damon Jones, M James Drafted some second rounders who will never contribute The trade for Francis was great, The trade for McGrady could be argued had to be made The drafting of Yao was the best choice at the time The drafting of Cuttino was great, When you lose more than you win on player movements you become a bad team. Right now until we can get good pieces around TMac we are a bad team. Yao will never be a superstar, but he will improve and be a good center. So we have two positions set- center and 2 guard.
I'm going to say what I said when SF got traded. We shoulda kept Cato and SF and just trade Cat for a big PG like Antonio Daniels.
I agree that it is time for CD to go. I've just seen too many of his dumb trade moves and draft picks. I also have to agree that Yao will never be a superstart, just a good center. I'm trying to think of someone to compare him to, but the one guy I don't want to name is coming to mind....Smits. Pugs
The problem though is that wasn't the trade to get T-Mac also done to get rid of players who were having problems playing under JVG? So now we have a team that plays even worse under JVG. So what should we do keep on revamping the team in the hopes of finding a team that can play under JVG or maybe we should think about getting rid of JVG. Totally agree to that CD has screwed up.
Our two power forwards.. they're so sh!tty its disturbing. I agree with the main point of your post. Lets be patient.
I agree with most of what you said. To me, Yao is not a poor rebounder(last night he sucked). Unless you think 90% of the league are poor rebounders.
If Yao is a "very poor" rebounder, who is a poor rebounder, a good rebounder and a great rebounder? If Yao is a very poor rebounder, I would say TMac is just a star but not a super star. Do not kiss TMac's ass, he is overrated and overpaid. Compared with Kobe, he is nothing.
I agree. 9 rbs from your center are not great but good enough. Last time I checked, no scrub can draw 7 FTs and give you 19/9 on 13 shots. Tmac is a bit overrated. A superstar like him should draw at least 8+ FTs each game and put the team on his back when needed.
I don't know if the right word is poor, very poor, or what but what Yao needs to do is: jump every once in a while hang on to the ball seal off and get rebounding position fight for every rebound when he has position jump all of the above consistently I know he pulls down rebounds and at times he shows all of the above, but he still must learn to control the glass. He must rebound night in and night out to be a good rebounder for his size. Sura had 10 rebounds last night. Yao can do alot better on the boards... I want him to live up to the greatness I have envisioned in my own mind?!?!?! I probably have too high of expectations but I don't like the way he let Mil. get 2 offensive rebounds off missed free throws last night and they were his fault and JVG sat him down after that second one because it was utterly ridiculous. And I think JVG was really hot and rightfully so.
Hell, at 7'- 6" I could get a dozen rebounds just standing there... and hold onto eight of them. Too much Ralph S (another Rocket underachiever) in him for my money...
Jeez, rhester. Now that you're getting real about this team, I'm....I'm....well, kinda depressed. Can't we live in fairytale land, in which the Rockets magically find their groove and start winning games despite a poor coach with piss-poor people skills and no ability to teach offense, and despite no-rebounding centers and power forwards, and poor outside shooting, and all the players getting down on themselves and the organization because they don't know where the ax is gonna fall next? You want to get real? Can't we all just.........fart sunshine instead?
19/9 in (31+ minutes) is pretty good not matter what. Yao is a poor rebounder but is still getting his share of rebounds. His relatively poor reflexes and lack of lateral quickness make him a phone booth rebounder - that is he just gets the balls that happen to bounce his way or above his head. That is okay though, since he is so big, it still gets him close to 10 a game. With a little more aggressiveness and hand/forearm strength, he should be able to get to 11 a game. I agree with you, though, the most annying thing with Yao is number of rebounds he seems to get but get swatted away. It seems that a lot of Rocket fans talk about Yao like he's already gotten a max contract. Whether the money will be important to him still remains to be seen. I can't say that I know him at all - but ego and max $$ don't seem to important to him but I could easily be wrong. SHAQ makes 25+million!
It was just a bad night for Yao. This season, Shaq had 5-7 rebounds for many times. If you were 7'-6", I do not know if you can run for 10 minutes on the court.
