I know it is the preseason, but we have new members on this team that need minutes playing together to develop some chemistry. It's like he is trying to make them look bad or loose, by not putting a true point guard on the floor. Memo to Jeff "Let Alston start!, Allow T-Mac to be T-Mac and not 2005 version of "95' Penny". Start Stromile to help Yao with defense and allow these guys to learn how to play with each other." If he waits untill Nov 2, that will be too late.
hey! i'm not even the mastermind of ced and i can predict that we will see the line up of rafer, wesley, tmac, swift, yao starting the last 2 games of the preseason
It is a little confusing isn't it. If i recall correctly, last year, we were at our worst when T-mac had to handle the primary ball handling duties which is why the trades for Barry and Wesley were made. those moves and bob sura coming back, we all know, is what reallly turned this team around. the reasoning for that, and this came from jvg and the players mouths, was it allowed Mcgrady more freedom to score because he did not have to bring the ball up the floor and fill the role of the point guard and all the responsibilites that go along with that. so you're not alone in noticing how bad the offense is this second go-round with Mcgrady as the primary ball handler/point guard. I don't know what JVG is up to. He's a shrewed dude though, so there may be something going on under the surface of things that he has in mind when going with this starting lineup we have seen the last two games.
He is simply seeing how lineups work.. i doubt he's seriously considering using any line up or rotation that he's used this whole preseason for the regular season... these last two games we will see something close to the normal rotation. The games before were just experiments to see what happens with those players on the floor together.. say if Alston gets injured, the team and Gundy now have an idea of how to tweak the lineup for that situation...
McGrady is going to be the primary ball handler when Rafer ain't in the game. McGrady will initiate from the top and they will run the pick and whatever with Yao to death. Van Gundy has just been trying to figure out what else to go with that pick and pop/roll. He's trying to figure out what unit plays best as the second unit and then subsequent to that what units work best together when TMac ain't on the floor. I would expect us to come blazing out of the gate the first game with our starters averaging 30 minutes a piece save maybe Wesley and the PF position.
I think the problem is when T-Mac brings it up and DA & Wesley are on the floor at the same time. DA & Wesley don't seem to mix well. Either Luther, Skip or JB needs to be in there. A major part of the problem could be Wesley's sorry jumpshooting. Even with the weird lineup Wesley gets WIDE OPEN. If he hits half of those shots the offense doesn't look as dysfunctional. The last 2 games JVG will finally reveal his hand. I'm guessing Wesley will start opening night at SG and get a quick yank if he kills the offense. At PF, I'm thinking more and more Stromile may get the nod for Game 1. ced, I hear your frustration man but don't sweat it too much.
I'm frustrated with Howard getting starters minutes so far. I know it's just the preseason, but if you remember, Mo Taylor inherited the starting job last season and we stunk it up until Juwon got a much larger role. I think we might be in a similar situation this year, but Juwon is still a very solid player. Not nearly as bad as MoTay was for us last season.
C'mon guys, lets not make the same mistake and doubt JVG again. He knows what the hell he's doin. Its better to try out different things now, rather them wait for the season to start
think about that for a second. we stunk UNTIL juwon got settled in the starting lineup. why is it so important to push him out of it, then? stromile has had some great highlights and will at some point be our starter but i expect juwon to keep that job until swift shows more consistency. juwon has had a great pre-season thus far. as for t-mac, he's not going to be the starting pg. jvg is on record as saying he's just experimenting with it for the times when rafer is not on the court. he wants to see who can be the back-up pg. i think the last preseason game or maybe the last two will be more similar to real game rotations.
Yeah, I know, I know...it's just frustrating that we really haven't gotten to see a lineup with Yao/Swift/T-Mac/DA/Rafer on the court much in the preseason. If anything, I'd be experimenting with all sorts of lineup that included Yao, Swift, McGrady, and Alston together on the court at the same time. The potential for points with that lineup is explosive.
Im pretty sure JVG knows his job. Let him experiment all he wants in the preseason. Im sure his reasons for doing so are beyond all of our comprehension, no matter much we think we know about basketball .
I hear what everyone is saying, but !. Wesley does not need to start. ( He is old and will wear out by the end of the year) START ANDERSON 2.Howard and Yao are the same type of front court players.. jumpshooters with no hops!! If you think about it, if you start Stro with Yao and play Juwan and Dek you will always have weakside help. Plus you will always have a front court player who can hit the 15ft shot and someone who can block shots. Like I said earlier Alston is a no brainer when it comes to starting. After that running Luther, Barry, even Moochie for 10 min. won't hurt.
I don't pretend to be a basketball coach but I'm pretty sure that JVG is doing a couple of things with the offseason games... 1. Seeing how some of the bench guys mix with the vets (i.e. possible shifing of roles on the team) 2. Resting his starters when he can so they can start the season fresh 3. Evaluating the deep bench guys to fill that last roster spot and figure out whether to cut Moochie for another guy or not 4. Giving everyone some actual game time to get a true sense of how they play (i.e. pass first or shoot first, do they play defense, etc) 5. I'm sure he has an idea of who his starters will be when 11/2 rolls around but he has to make sure he knows how to use his bench guys prior to the real deal I trust our coach and am not even going to try and start second guessing him at this point...
Very good points. 1. DA could also wear out or get injured by the end of the season if he gets too many minutes. His durability is much more suspect than Wesley's. He's also our backup SF, which adds to his minutes. I want DA & JB to be fresh for the playoffs. 2. We already know Yao & JH click together very well based on last year's run. The idea of having JH pop jumpers and jump hooks while Deke plays is a good idea. My reply is both Yao & Stromile play mainly in the low post and only rarely shoot jumpers. They could conceivably get in each others way. We'll have to wait and see how they end up complimenting each other on the offensive end. Of defense, I completely agree your PF/C comments.
I still think (or maybe just hope) Moochie will get traded before the season starts. Could be JVG is just evaluating how the offense will work out with only one true PG on the roster.
