[Chron]Gundy: Players should enjoy win + Spanoulis wasn't good

This is a great statement and unless we can see into alternate timelines there is no way knowing how the Rockets would be if V-Span had been playing this whole time. The Rockets could be undefeated or the Rockets could not have a win.

That said though I find the spin among those who are the most vocal JVG supporters speculative too. That JVG was right to wait to play V-Span and this is really all part of his master plan. Without looking into JVG's head we don't know if he intended to bring V-Span out about now but I think it is a pretty solid argument that the injury to Snyder pushed his hand to start playing V-Span now. Judging by JVG's comments it also seems like JVG is far more surprised by how well V-Span is playing and that if Snyder hadn't been injured its likely V-Span might still be riding the pine.

 

because your understanding is superior? you really do work for the rockets.

 

Still, JVG is producing results. How are people not happy with an 8-4 record for a team that was in the lottery last year and that outside Yao, Tmac and Deke has been completely overhauled from the playoff team he coached against Dallas?

Think about all that's happened?

Yao and T-mac are returning from injury plagued seasons.
Jho is finally fully recovered from a heart virus
Rafer Alston is relatively new.
Chuck Hayes is relatively new
Head is in his sophmore year
VSPAN is new
Battier is new
Bonzi is new
Synder is new

People are crying about VSPAN nad Novak, but we're still trying to see how the other new guys fit in. You have to build a level of consistency - some kind of foundation. Coaches that rotate players at whim rarely do well because it's not a stable situation.

Let the rotation get comfortable first....then JVG will bring in Novak. He's not going to sit on the bench all year. His time hasn't come yet. People need to realize it's not about whether or not he can come in and hit some threes or about growing him into a talent.

There's more to coaching then just that.

 

Sure I'm happy with 8-4 but do I see problems? Certainly. And why not? I'm a fan who enjoys the game and someone who also engages in critical thinking. If I didn't care as passionately about the game or the Rockets I would be OK with going.. JVG is good, he knows all...

As I said before I can't see into his head but I don't think you, New Yorker, or anyone else can either. That said I totally admit to it being speculation that JVG has been forced to play V-Span much earlier than he wanted to and is now eating some crow over it. I think his own words show that.

Someone else in this thread said earlier that JVG is more willing to admit that he might've been wrong than some posters are that JVG might've been wrong and I think that's true.

JVG for this forum has proven as polarizing as GW Bush to the whole country.

 

yesterday was my first game of the season to the toyota center and the fans kinda disappointed me. when rafer put up that 3 to make it a 4 point game with 6 sec a lot of people started leaving and im sure they werent wizards fans. luther head couldve acidentally made that free throw to make it a 3 point game with 3 secs. then someone might heave a 3 and tie the game to make it overtime. then we would have any fans to chear.

all im saying is at least stay until the end of the game. and good game for vspan and rafer. its a nice position battle going on. hope bonzi and novak best of luck.

 

It's thanksgiving week, there's more to life than a single basketball game.

 

No there's not...there's only....the next basketball game.

 

I Live For This!













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The thread title made me want to kill JVG...


opaaaa

 

Man, your flag looks like somebody climbed up the flag pole bareback and used it to wipe with.

 

wow, fantastic post. seems so simple to understand yet it seems few do.

 

We could easily be 4-8; our regular 4th quarter collapses are already the talk of the NBA. We are 8-4 thanks to a ton of luck, but someday our luck could run out. This is what is worrying the people who look ahead farther than the next game.

When San Antonio recruits a new player, he almost always fits right in. When we do it (Stro Swift, Derek Anderson) it's hit and miss, mostly miss. Does anyone doubt that Ward, Oakley, Strickland, and Mark Jackson were JVG's selections? Our genius coach and masterful talent evaluator strikes out a lot, doesn't he? This is why we never seem to have a stable roster.

Actually, now is the best time to grow young talent. We are almost certainly not championship material this year, so we may as well invest wisely for the future.

I notice you are no longer trying to justify JVG's prolonged benching of VSpan anymore. Focus on Novak, that's the ticket!

 

The back and forth bickering in this thread is laughable. I can understand if JVG wanted to limit Spanoulis' minutes to start off with, but in the games where the Rockets absolutely collapsed I don't understand why JVG couldn't have put him to see see if he could have helped plug the dam.

In those situations you need a high energy player to help spark the team, which he showed Spanoulis was in the preseason. Of course JVG knows his team way better than I do and has forgotten more about basketball than I'll ever know, but watching huge leads fall apart in the 4th quarter when he has other impact players he could turn to like Kill Bill and Bonzi Wells or a dead eye sharp shooter in Novak on the bench is shortsighted and extremely questionable to me. Sure, he was turnover prone, but you've got to try something.

JVG's problem, in my opinion, is that he looks at his lesser experienced players as liabilities rather than assets until they prove themselves to him in regular season games, and therefore won't play players until they do. How's a player going to prove his worth though if he never see playing time? Yao got playing time by being a #1 draft pick. Head and now Spanoulis have gotten playing time due to injuries. I'll be surprised if Novak gets off the bench this year and if we see Bonzi at all.

I like JVG, but his asset utilization is questionable to me.

 

I agree with most of that paragraph, but comparing the Rockets to San Antonio over the last couple of offseasons isn't really fair. San Antonio is a veteran team that normally brings in a veteran or two over the offseason. We're a young team that over the last couple of years has regularly gotten blown up and rebuilt offseason to offseason, and the FA's we bring in are young rather than vets and for the most part haven't been up to the quality of SA's.

 

damn, I am really glad I opened the thread and read the first post... dude the title is misleading.. when I first read it, I almost started a new thread titled "fire Van r****d, he said Billy wasn't good"...

btw, that's really cool from JVG.. I am really happy with the fact that he actually appreciates our players (well, some of them, not Novak) and he finally realized why we need Span..

I wasn't expecting Vspan to score any points.. I just wanted him in to lock down Arenas... and he did.. I mean, did y'all see the midrange airball from Arenas?

 

you are right Van Gundier, but terse didn't mention the 4-8 on random basis like the 10-2 or the 0-12.. 4-8 IS actually what our record is supposed to look like.. but as terse said, thanks to our luck... which wont always be on our side...

now I am not trying to mess up the recent wins and start b****ing about the 4th quarter collapses, I am just saying that we need to address this problem immedietly and take care of it... like Worrell said, a team that's going to the finals and even the playoffs should be able to close out games and maintain a large lead... because we are not gonna always play a team that stays 4 minutes without scoring a single point...

 

I'm not buying that. You could just as easily say that thanks to our bad luck, we're not 10-2. Our point differential is third best in the entire league (Spurs are #1, Utah is #2). We're 8th in the league in offensive efficiency, and 6th in defensive efficiency. The Spurs are the only other team in the top 10 in both offense and defense. We've been legitimately playing at a 55-win pace, despite not having our full complement of players and despite playing a relatively tough schedule.