This decision by committee is not working. And it is quite possibly the reason we are so slow to sign players. Before any decision can be made it has to analyzed by CD, moneyballed by Morey, blessed by Van Gundy and approved by Les. When West decided to trade for Gay you think he had to ask permission. Sure he had to get the financial part okayed but from a player personnel decision it was his to make. Yeah I am sure he passed it by Fratello but in the end the buck stopped with him. But not with the Rockets. Even with all that process I think we would be okay if JVG was just taken out of the loop. He has an exact type of player he wants and if they don’t meet his criteria adios. JVG has too much input in personnel Decisions. When CD suggested Redick could be the shooter we need. Jeff refused to go see his workout. When CD said Gay looks like he could drop to us. JVG voiced he wouldn’t play him. When CD said Vspan looks good and he might be are best option now. JVG said he’s not NBA ready don’t even waste my time. But when JVG gave his approval for Roy we are flying him down, He is at the workout, we are doing everything possible to get him. Oops and then it doesn’t happen. JVG says I don’t want anyone else. For you Van Gundy fans, this is not an attack on JVG's coaching ability. I'll give you he is a decent X's an O's man. But IMO because of JVG we’ve lost out on some players and passed up on opportunities for our future as well as our now. Still it’s not the end of the Rocket’s world just don’t make any more dumb decisions. Which means getting locked into Flip. He is a terrible shooter. He is a streak player. If he's in his groove he can be all star-ish at times but don't kid yourself in the end he is an under 30% 3pt shooter. He makes Bogans look like the Rifleman. (exxagerating a bit). If he was such a hot commodity you think Cleveland would be talking to Wesley instead of resigning him. They have seen him up close and don't want him. Just say no to Padgett. NJ is desperate for help at the PF and they said goodbye to him. We don’t need him. He is Novak lite. Okay to Banks by default. Banks is an improvement over Alston. He will bring us better and should be a better spot up shooter. But don't kid your self we will still have one of the poorer starting pg's if he is our man. Still I say sign him for the TE or some part of. Why are we not at VSPAN's door. Why are we waiting for the WOrld games in Japan over a month from now. We should be talking to his agent now. I know JVG doesn't want him but take him out of the loop. Why haven’t we signed John Lucas III yet. Vecseysux posted on another thread that CD was asked by Adam Wexler 610AM “about signing JL3, and Dawson totally dodged the issue. He talked about JL3's stellar play and raved about the summer league itself, but he made NO mention of the Rockets wanting to sign JL3 (not even a "Hey, we'd love to have him" lip service quote or anything out of CD)”. Is it no coincidence that JVG said he we sign Mike James there might be a spot for JL3 on the bench. Well we didn’t Sign James and we are about to lose JL3 because JVG is an idiot when it comes to personnel matters. It’s not too late to salvage the summer. If we sign JL3, Banks and Vspan and pick up almost any live body to back up Yao. Then in spite of all the craziness I would say we had a decent off season. So please management let’s get on the same page and do it. This Gm by committee is not working. What is the point of having CD and Morey if we are still going to listen to JVG. We tried Van Gundy's Veteran strategy and it worked for a short spurt but then all the old guys started breaking down and he resigned Ryan Bowen. Take him out of the loop. Pick the players and hand them over to JVG and tell him to do his job and coach them. Because this GM by committee especially when JVG is part of that committee is not working. This is your job and coach them. If he would focus on that and only that he might be okay.
I dont really know of another team who builds their team around the coach. Generally, teams are built around the star players, but for some reason that philosophy seems backwards with this team.
I remember seeing somewhere that CD has all the final decisions. Now that would be good if only CD can tell JVG to get the hell out of his office and stop bugging him to resign David Wesley. In the end, CD needs to put his foot down.
The only problem with this whole "moneyball" thing is that is doesn't help you find young and/or emerging talent, ala Boris Diaw. In other words, it'll be hard to take chances on potential when potential is the antithesis of statistics...
I agree with some of hte stuff you said, but not all. A coach HAS to have input in personel decisions, if JVG was taken out of the "loop", we'd wind up with players that don't play. It's better to get players that play than don't. The Rockets made a commitment to JVG and they are going to go with him, they are going to go with his strategy, his way of managing his players. That's what you do when you hire a coach, you don't give him 12 players and tell him to coach, you gotta find players that work into the system. Who would know those players better than JVG? In the end, it has to go through JVG, as long as he is here, and the Rockets are committed.
The strategy to get Mike James was a sound one. To blame JVG for contract issues - which goes to the owner, is ridiculous. You have absolutley no evidence that JVG had anything to do with all this. I think it is time for you to realize that if the Owner does not want to spend there is nothing you can do. Losing MIke james was not the end of the world- but how can you do that without a back up plan ready to fire!
I hear ya man - you are preaching to the choir. I am really afraid that as long as we have Gumby as our coach, we are going to be continually disappointed in who the Rockets get. BTW, sometimes I mistake you for another poster here in OldManBernie.
CD is going to the world games to watch V-Span and is talking to his agent, he said this on the radio
Agree. However, your last sentence holds the key -- "as long as he is here." JVG's time has come and gone. IMO, for the good of the team, he needs to be replaced.
This is all false. JVG actually does not have much say in draft and trades. Yes, he is approached, but CD will have the final say. A lot of the info from the original poster needs to be verified. JVG didn't want Swift. If anything, Fratello told him that he was a mess. That was all CD. JVG wanted Wesley, Barry, Hayes, Bogans, and they were all decent. He wanted those old asses (Mark Jackson, Rod Strickland, Oakley, Brunson), but that's because we needed veteran leadership on either injury-depleted or young, immature teams. It's not like they had that great of an impact. Mark Jackson was actually a much better pg than Francis. Look at the numbers. His Assts-TO ratio blew Francis out of the roof. JVG loved Lucas. I have hard evidence. If you want me to post it tonight, I will. It's at my computer at home. JVG was quoted as saying that he has no say in the draft. He said that 2 years ago when we selected Luis Flores, and then traded him to Dallas for V-Span. JVG saw tape of V-Span, and all he said was this guy has a lot of positives and he could be a rotation-player if he negates the negatives. That's how you treat Euros, otherwise if you tell them they're all that, they'll turn out like Boki or Nikilaz, etc etc. You get my point. I'd say this is the offseason where JVG has a lot of say. Previously, he didn't. I think the team will turn out just fine and JVG will bring in very good, young/veteran role players who can play. Give the man a chance to finish designing the team before you can pass cursory judgments.
You make a lot of assumptions about how decisions are made with the Rockets. I also have a picture of how it probably goes. But, we don't know. We certainly don't know well enough to be advising the team on how they should be changing their processes.
Whoever here has actual knowledge of how player decisions are made, please speak up. If not, please shut the hell up. Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach and Yoda couldn't have coached the the Rockets to the playoffs with all the freaking injuries they had. Maybe somebody should place SOME of the blame on the trainer?
There is no way to take coach out of it. You cant win games with Yao/TMac, you will get fired very soon.
I have wondered that since CD is a lame duck so to speak if he has as much say as he use to about the draft and trades.
I know you are Gundy Man so we will probably never see eye to eye. Suffice it to say Van Gundy has had his chances with personnel. Let him stick to coaching and see how he does. One other note: I will give you that Swift was more CD's decision than Jeff. Which was never more evident than season end when games were meaningless and Stro posted his lowest minutes of the year. It was a chance to give Stro some valuable minutes. This was a golden opportunity to develop Stro and Hayes but instead he kept them both on the bench in favor of JHO. Why? What was the point of playng JHO. Every other coach in the league out of the playoffs was playing thier projects. Stro played some of his best basketball of the year in those short minutes. So what could possibly be Jeff's motive for not playing him. I can only guess he never wantd this guy and was not going to give Swift the opportunity to show his abilities to the fans. Yeah if we saw his talents it would make him look more like an idiot when he traded him. Of course that's my opinion but if that's not the case than the alternative is he is just an idiot who doesn't have the slightest clue how to develop playrs or judge talent, at least not on an NBA level.
You have answered your own question. You just cant take JVG out of it. He will simply refuse to play him and make the player's trade value decline.
Yeah I believe you are right and it looks like we are going to lose another golden opportunity in JL3. Oh the humanity of it!
CD is the type of GM who follows his coach. He did with Rudy (Griffin, no Rashard Lewis, Nachbar), and now he is doing with JVG. This is exactly the reason why CD has to go. We need a GM that has a pair and will not be suckered into JVG's nonsense. Not that Morey will be any better, but it sure can't be any worse.
