No, they ran out of gas, too. That was a common complaint with Riley's Miami teams. The consensus was he underachived and wore them out early. Think about the teams that couldn't even get to the eastern conference finals - they had Zo, PJ Brown, Jamal Mashburn, Dan Marleje, Tim Hardeway. Bruce Bowen and Otis Thorpe on the bench. They couldn't advance. Phil Jackson was much better at managing the season. JVG proved he could beat Riley, but he couldn't win it all. The grinder game is all about neutralizing talent. When you have the talent on your side, you've got to change the game. 1999 Spurs-Knicks was also probably the worst series ever witnessed from an entertainment perspective. I believe it still has the lowest rating. I don't want to see another year of Tmac and Yao playing ugly. JVG is expendable. He is holding them back with his game, his personnel. Cut his head off.
JVG's record in Houston is mediocre at best, but I think he will stay for at least another year. First, Les just gave him the extension, we all know Les is not the owner who loves to give the money away for the wins. Second, there are too many injuires this season, I am not saying JVG shouldn't take any resposiblities, but injuires always is a valid excuse that everybody can accept. Third and most importantly, there are no elite coaches available on the market that we can hire right now. The moment has passed when Phil Jackson was available and Les didn't even pursue. So at this moment, Rox has to commit to JVG for next season. It will be interesting to see what kind of roster moves CD and he will pull for this summer. There are just too many holes need to fill in this team. I don't even know where to start.
Deckard, I know that your disappointed that Tmac is out once again...welcome to the club.I agree that Tmac has played a lot of minutes because of ego or because of sheer necessity...but injuries are a funny thing ,they always happen when you least expect them...I was reading your other post on this thread and you gave Tmac's minutes for games in the month of December....they we're 16 total games with an avg. of 40+ minutes per game....with a 48,46,44,ect. I find it ironic that when he got hurt in the Denver game he had only played 19 minutes......logic would say he should of gotten hurt in the 48,46 minute games and not in the 19 minute game..... since all those games with the higher minutes we're closer to him comming off the DL....Emeka Okafor plays 35 minutes and gets hurt the first game back......injuries are a funny thing.... well not that funny.
They are a funny thing, and we all don't mean the "ha ha" variety. I've already given my opinion about it, so I'll give it a rest. We should consider ourselves lucky compared to the Bobcats. Okafor has his first game back after missing 8 (sound familiar? the number of games, I mean) with an ankle injury, and he re-injures the same ankle late in the game. With the camera on him, the Bobcats' trainer is taking off his shoe out on the court and his ankle isn't taped! That was a case of mind-blowing stupidity. At least we aren't on that level.
theoretically that game last night, although very inspiring and nailbiting, shouldn't have gone past regulation. it took two miracle shots to keep the Rockets from losing in regulation.
Are you kidding? We are injured because we overplay/too old: Some facts: Sura played 65-75 games almost every season except last 2 (bad luck) Yao is not old and plays 30 minutes a game... Swift is not old and plays less than 30 minutes a game... TMAC never got any serious injury in orlando and he was full focus and he played 40-45 minutes a game DA is only in he early 30s (not too old according to NBA standards) Barry I agree is old but he didnt play many minutes and he was there to shoot and his enthusiasm.. BandWagon Fans are the most annoying thing ever... you are one of those fans if rockets get into playoffs/win a couple rounds. You will be like OMG JVG IS THE BEST COACH EVER, but as soon as rockets lose you blame everyone... we ran into a little bad luck but within 2-3 weeks both yao and tmac will be back together who says we cant make a run then, this team is much better than last years and personally if we cant get a top 3 seed i would much rather be #6,7 so we can avoid Mavs (cheaters), Spurs (just straight up good) in playoffs as long as possible...
It is more than just coincidence that the Rockets are always injured. And it almost all falls on JVG. It's not so much the players that he has but it is the way he uses those players. He knows how to do one thing and that's coach defense. And he coaches by way of switches and double teams and swarming. And all of that takes it toll on the players. Yes he is not the only coach doing that but he lives by it more than anyone. Okay I don't have time to give you all the evidence but here are a few examples. The constant switching of Yao ming from the low post to the top of the key. It's insane to demand so much from one of the biggest men to ever play the game. Have you ever played a game were you had to run back and forth across the court to help out after the game your feet hurt. Imagine Yao's pain. 300 plus pounds of all of that stopping and starting goes directly to Yao's feet. How about TMac bringing the the ball up court. Yes he is a talented player that can run the offense. But he's not Magic Johnson and is that what you want one of the most prolific scorers in the NBA doing. I want him to have the ball but let someone else bring it up. But I would say his biggest problem is that the Rockets don't really have a sound offensive system. They depend more on putting it in Tmacs hands and hoping for the best. Yao in all of his youth was used much better while Rudy was here than under JVG. We have 2 players that always demand double teams and JVG doesn't know how to take advantage of that. If we could score a little easier can you imagine how much pressure that would take of the defense. JVG and his do or die defense is the problem.
Lets analyze: Sura was signed in the summer then went to surgery, which is not bad luck he didn't even play a single game. He has had his problems for quite a while before being a ROX, IIRC. Yao is not old, but he runs Yao out of gas in most games and mismanaged Yao's minutes early this season. TMac has player 8 full seasons, JVG plays him no less if not even more when he was clearly not heathy. IMHO, a coach should manage a season not just a game. JVG focuses too much on how to win the next game rather than winning the season. Honestly,He's fairly good coach for play-offs, but is myopia for championship. I hope he proves I am wrong, and I would apologize if he leads the team to reach the finals.
