Okay I know i probably have said it before and i am going to say it again. None of you can honestly sit here and say that when we made the trade in the offseason and having JVG as our coach you thought we were going to go deep in the playoffs this year. At most we would make the 8th seed and drop out of the playoffs. That was my expectation this year for this team. I didn't expect to much because you couldn't expect T-Mac to score the way he did or the team to gel just like that when you basically have a completly new squad from last year. It's foolish to think that and if you did then you were just wishful thinking. After all that has gone on i wouldn't mind it if we didn't make the playoffs. We get a better draft pick out of it then going into the first round of the playoffs and just bowing out. What's the point in that? Do we really accomplish anything when you know that this team will probably be changed again under JVG and more players will be traded and we will probably come into next year with another completly different team and starters? That brings me to my next point. Under JVG this team will never amount to anything and i have been against his hiring from the begining. I don't think he develops players well and doesn't teach to their strenghts and utilize them. Like Yao and T-Mac, until they start lashing out at JVG and saying "look it doesn't work" we are going to have problems with this team. You can't keep changing a team and making a run at the playoffs to just be knocked out of the first round. At some point you have to take the losses and get your team to gel and not keep taking pieces and getting new ones and expecting to make some kind of super run in the playoffs. So basically i am saying that we need to get over it and stop the whinning and just live with the fact that we never had a team that would do anything this year. No matter how i look at it from the start of the year till now i don't see us making a splash anywhere. Until a lot changes in the organization as far as coaching and staffing there won't be a change in the team. So just watch the Rockets and realize they aren't what they couldn't be under the system we have now and won't be until someone up there realizes it.
Well, if you want JVG gone, then simply hope that the Rocks really tank and do terrible this year, that way we will have a first-round pick and JVG would definitely be fired at the end of the season, although this would not be necessarily a great thing since we would still have to pay millions of dollars to JVG and still hire a new coach that we have to pay. But regardless, I certainly have a strong feeling JVG's days are numbered... --Tiger
I have a hard time accepting it. Les is really going to run this thing into the ground, before our eyes? Doesn't he have eyes? If we can all see it, why doesn't he do anything? I have hired the wrong guy before. I was man enough to admit my mistake and fire him, and eat the contract. That was for construction. Why would I let an incompetant guy continue to use up my boards and nails and concrete, putting them all together wrong? Pay the man his cut off the top, get rid of him, and save the raw materials for the next guy to put together. No point in destroying them all, especially the expensive stuff. You need really good subs to work with that. Step 1 - Fire Gundy Step 2 - Fire CD Step 3 - Hire interim coach - al la Micheal Cooper. Step 4 - Start new permanent coach search - Gm powers? Step 5 - Build up organization team of scouts and assistants to GM. Step 6 - Build up organization team of player development coaches. Step 5 and 6 guys are loyal first to Les. These duties are helpful to the head coach and GM - but really should exist independant. This ensures head coach and gm are accountable. Step 7 - hire good head coach with good team of assistants Step 8 - hire good gm that can work with head coach Step 9 - get good players, get the most out of players you have. Step 10- make the work enviornment maximally productive, and fun. Step 11 - get a good business staff, and make the whole organization a point of civic pride. Don't be a second-rate organization, penny-wise and pound-foolish, allowing ill-managed, incompetant business to continue. It takes years to undo that kind of business error. It's so much better to solve the problem now.
The talent drop-off from, say, pick 12 to pick 16 isn't that great. I'd rather Yao and T-Mac pick up more post-regular season experience, even if it's only four games.
In my eyes, if we make the playoffs JVG stays which won't even develop that pick, so that's a waste to me.
I am not a Van Gundy basher- I never wanted to hire him-I wanted Paul Silas. Van Gundy is competent as a defensive coach - not great , but adequate. I have written off this season - we wil never grow with this coach. this is a dead end. I agree with Pasox- I also work construction mgt. You have to cut your losses if the job is going sour. Like a project a team has a personality. This one is not working. I do not like JVG as a GM - we are getting older. Wesley and Barry and Sura for that matter were good five years ago-they are ancient now. Even if we could win with this coach-we would be breaking down come Feb and Mar with these old players. CD is just a figurehead now -the wizard of OZ behind the curtain-JVG has hand picked these trades with CD as the media buffer. I am sure there are performance issues in a complex contract JVG has with Les -and he could be bought out at a negotiated discount. Find a way to get rid of him-write off this year, talk to Yao and TMAC and assure them we have a plan and they have a future with us and we are trying to find our way with another coach.... Pasox - if the superintendent on the project has everyone disgruntled - I mean pissed off, the job is not making money , we don't wait it out while we are going south do we?? Cut your losses Les.....
I would always rather have the Rockets make the playoffs than not make it. . . I hope they make it and have a decent playoff run and make this and JFG's season a success.
<Originally posted by dcfma ? I would always rather have the Rockets make the playoffs than not make it. . . I hope they make it and have a decent playoff run and make this and JFG's season a success. you are a minority> Why?
because so many people yes would love to make the playoffs but what are we honestly going to do there? we will get knocked out of the first rund and start rebuilding again under JVG....JVG is not the person that will put us on a higher level.
I thought we'd do at least as well as last season or better because everybody said Francis was holding Yao back and I thought that with T-mac and an uninhibitited Yao, we'd still be a good team. I guess all the worries I had about Yao before we drafted him turned out to be valid.
CHampionship this year? Heck no, you were crazy if you thought that. But...... I didn't expect to be losing to Toronto, Knicks @ home, Hawks, getting blown out in Milwaukee and Bobcats twice! Two extremes, but I was hoping we'd fall somewhere in between.
Exactly. When a few players underachieve, it's the players' problem. When the whole team underachieves, it's the coach's problem. When JVG was coaching in NY, the Knicks consistently had the highest or 2nd highest payroll. He was able to obtain well-developed, well-paid FA veterans to prop up his record. His lack of player development skills has been exposed when management is unwilling or unable to overpay.
You're right, Stack. People are thinking with the players we have, we're even going to the second round of playoff. We don't have enough talent outside of Yao and TMac.
would you be so kind as to point out exactly waht it is about the "scheme" that is so limiting? I dont see it....but I dont pretend to understand why the players are playing as bad as they are.....we have players with some skills....you dont get into this league without a basic set of skills.... what happened to them? We used to be able to point to the low possession sets that were being run.....but lately....that isnt a factor...we have been scoring at or near 100 for well over 2 weeks now.
