JVG is the master at coaching different personalities.

Wow, I have say I'm really impressed with JVG after reading this quote. Perhaps he's not "Mr. Grumpy" afterall...I give him mucho respect for this type of attitude with swift, and I imagine it's not something that Swift heard in Memphis.

 

Damn, I was going to post about JVG's comment. Yeah, I am also very pleasantly surprised by his comments.

 

Now lets see how Stromile will respond.

 

Have to give JVG some credit for his positive remarks. He's definitely trying to instill confidence in Swift which is what Swift needs to grow as a player.

 

If he understand people are all different and need to be handled differtly, great quote!

 

I wonder if people will continue to complain about JVG being too negative. Hello? Are you still there?

 

Van GUndy is going to get everyone on this team playing as a unit. Its going to take Alston,Anderson and SWift a few games to get in the swing of things but once they do this Rockets team is going to be on par with the Spurs by the end of the season. Go Rockets!!! OH and Mcgrady will be just fine don't worry.

 

Awesome comments and the article was a good read. What suprised me the most was that it was from the Rockets website.

 

Well I am still here, and I will complain when I think people here are giving JVG a blank check. The only time I've done it was in the context of criticizing two weeks worth of Feigan articles buying the literal chapter and verse of JVG's moaning without giving those quotes an ounce of outside perspective.

I love JVG, but he doesn't always tell the truth. He has learned that the easiest thing to do with the press is to be negative and critical. It's his style and it works for him and his players. Great, but I don't have to literally believe what he says in order to appreciate what he does.

His remarks about Stro's game Wednesday are still in character but I'm not surprised he came out with the "I read his comments..." quote. My eyes were glued on Stro when he was in the game and I winced so often that I guess I could hear JVG's screaming the way Lopez did. JVG knew what he saw and we do too.

Or you can read Yao's comments from the interview, or Barry's postgame comments about blown assignments and figure it out.

That JVG got up and read the newspaper and became concerned about Stro's perceptions isn't really a great sign. I, for one, am not alarmed about Stro's performance at all, but JVG's comments do give me pause. I pray Swift's not that emotionally fragile.

But props to JVG: His idol, Parcells always says "it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease".

By the way, this "roll-eyes" thing has gotten way out of hand here. People are using it often specifically to attack one post, or one person and not intending to insult 25% of the bbs when in actuality, they are.

apostolic3, tell us what you really think (I do value your thoughts) about JVG's comments, you obviously didn't put much into your one-liner.

And m_cable I think you might have hurried your assessment slightly, but thanks for the thread and I've really enjoyed reading your posts.

 

I am still here and will inform anyone who will listen if I think Mr. Van gundy is not doing his job. I will also give credit to him for good player motivation. I am very impressed with Van Gundy's quote.

Van Gundy is growing on me. I did not jump on his bandwagon, and my respect for him is growing.

I do not blindly support any coach or other factor on this my favorite team.

I could not be happier with our off season aquisitions and the good start we have. A streak would be so cool now like in 1993 season beginning.

 

declan32001, I hope you took my post in jest because I meant it that way. I put the rolleyes in at the last second after previewing the post. The emoticons actually mean very little to me when I use them and when I read others' posts. Don't take it as a personal shot. I hate the tit for tat personal shots some posters take at others, having been on the receiving end more than a few times because of my opinions (though very little recently).

On JVG's comments, he was just publicly sticking up for a player. He knows Stro had a bad first game but also realizes it's a long season. His comparison of Stro to JH last year was right on the money. His comment that Stro did "better than expected" in the first game is clearly not believable. Bottom line: Stro knows JVG has his back.

Like many coaches, JVG is one thing to the players and a different persona to the media. He likes to keep most things within the team but will also use the media to talk to his players.

My point all along has been don't take everything JVG says to the media too seriously. He measures his comments and speaks with a purpose, which is not necessarily to tell people what he really thinks about something. When he seems overly Van Grumpy with his comments, do what I do: Ignore what isn't credible. He's just trying to manage expectations downward and keep his players humble.

Lastly, I agree on not giving JVG a blank check. I called for his head last year until he started adjusting the offense to match the skills of our players. He isn't too proud to change his system. This year, I'm gonna evaluate the team after 10, 20, 30 games and coach will also be in the crosshairs.

 

Um, I owe you an apology because I did obviously take the post too seriously. And my comments in the "Shaq is Injured" thread were somewhat of a Friday happy hour thing .

 

Kelvin Cato: "The ladies love my stone hands"

 

No need to apologize.

 

So many of players previously coached by JVG still profess such respect for him, that I doubt JVG acts in such a two faced manner.

I don't think that JVG is the pessimist we all think he is. I just think he is all about winning, and he does not get excited about moral victories the way many of us do. He does not see a poorly played first half turned into a second half win as a good thing. He knows that will not cut it in the long run. Me, a win is a win. One down 81 to go, I'm happy now.

 

Like good managers, good coaches are masters of manipulation. It's impossible to discern too much meaning from this quote, other than JVG is prioritizing Stro for special attention.

He did the same thing to Jon Barry, and the guy exploded against the Kings. Hopefully JVG can find Stro's buttons as quickly as he's found the rest of the team's buttons. The poster who equated Cato to Stro hit the nail on the head. Cato is again floundering in Orlando because he's being poorly coached.