Spanoulis Blog: I have a contract with the Rockets

The only people that hate V-Span are dirty Turks

 

lol

stop caling out the turks! my ancestors are turkish

I know you guys have a long ongoing hate history, but don't put it out here

 

No need for a poll. Just read my sig.

 

i agree wholeheartedly that jvg did everything HE could have done for this team. but some people seem incapable of seeing that there is a difference between blaming the coach and wanting improvement. i dont blame jvg for anything that has happened here. but at the same time, i believe another coach, especially one with the credentials that adelman, is CAPABLE of doing more with exactly what van gundy had. it doesnt mean i think jvg was a crapfest. jvg instilled discipline into an organization that was way too soft (and in some ways still is). but my appreciation for what he DID does not mitigate my desire for something MORE. the fact that i wanted adelman to take over does not make me an ungrateful jvg basher.

for some reason all these discussions devolve into a mudthrowing battle between people who appear to blame/hate jvg for the rockets' failure to advance, and those who appear to find jvg infallible, with both sides claiming to have superior basketball intelligence compared to their stupid adversaries. the truth is you're all stupid because it isn't about jvg, its about the rockets. and whatever is best for the rockets is what i support. surely even the boldest of jvg supporters can't possibly argue that there was NO room for improvement. and certainly even the blindest jvg hater can't deny that the man delivered the rockets out of perennial lottery purgatory. everyone needs to just recognize that the rockets need change from top to bottom, and just because thus far only change thats been made is the coaching position, doesnt mean that its going to solve all our problems, or that the rockets organization thought that jvg was the only one who fell short.

 

what credentials does adelman have the jvg didnt have...i think the season rests on morey being able to do more than cd did in the drafts and in the trades.

 

coaching isnt going to make this team better. Players will. bottom line.

 

adelman doesnt blow jvg out of the water with sheer numbers (though he does have one more finals appearance and significantly higher winning percentages in both post and regular season), but he is definitely more accomplished than jvg overall and is known for being able to coach both ends of the floor. jvg, even including the offensive explosion this team experienced in the 2nd half of the 04-05 season, has always been known as a defensive specialist, whether rightly or wrongly. jvg was, in my eyes, without a doubt the best coach available when we got him (assuming phil jackson was unattainable). i cant stand larry brown. but right now, jvg is not the best coach out there. he's one of them, and now that adelman is gone, jvg is probably the best one currently unemployed, but i still consider adelman a superior coach to jvg. and thats not a knock on jvg, but a compliment to adelman.

 

just because you say so, makes it so? are you saying coaching has no impact on basketball? or that no coach can possibly do better than jvg? do you really think you can say anything that would rationally support either assertion? and are you also saying that it is impossible that both a roster change AND a coaching change might be necessary for this team to go anywhere, and that the two aren't mutually exclusive? and if so, what is it like living in that tunnel?

 

I think Vspan will play more and I hope he "gets it" because I think he can help...Just be patient and know your role and the role of others...

 

Sorry to the posters who did not see the humor in the Span poll and the dirty Turk joke.

I'm Greek and want Span to suceed but I'm a Rockets fan first and if he does not play well I will be the first to jump all over him.

Go Span and Go Rockets!

 

im saying that this team did about as well as it could do last year, given that the rockets were outmatched at 3 positions and overwhelmed by a superior bench. not to mention yao didnt take over like he could and should have and tmac vanished when it mattered most. Given all of that, the rockets were still up in the closing minutes but all of a sudden couldnt rebound, couldnt defend and couldnt make a shot.

im saying that without some better players or significant improvements from current ones, any given coach wouldnt be able to do much more than jvg did.

 

fair enough. i also dont feel that adelman could have taken the 06-07 team to the nba finals. the dearth of talent, especially at point, is obvious. but the one thing, really the only thing, that jvg could have done better, is think long-term. jvg's intense desire to win, and focus on winning every game, led him to run the same stuff constantly until we got good at it, which in turn led to an inability to adapt because his system was 'set' and as long as it was winning more often than not, he would not deviate from it. the rockets 'sudden' inability to rebound or make a shot wasn't all that sudden. it was apparent even from our regular season matchups with the jazz. and you can blame the players for missing shots or not running the sets properly, and you should, but you can't absolve jvg of any wrong when the problems with the team were obvious, and NO adjustments were made at any point in the playoffs. 7 games is a long time to watch the same failures over and over and not make any changes.

 

This may come as big shock to those who like to think that JVG was both head coach and GM but JVG is not the one responsible for the current personnel mess. It's true he was consulted for his input on potential player moves but the responsibility for those rested with Dawson, Les and the infamous "committee" (I call them the "stooges") especially the drafts.

Take the Tmac trade as an example. Here, the Rockets gave up their starting 1,2 & 4 for Tmac, Reece Gaines, Tyrone Lue & the much hated Juwann Howard. At that time CD was confident that (1) Lue could replace Francis at the point (he couldn't - too small) (2) Gaines could be the SG with size they needed to compete in the West (a bust at Orlando, a bust here, sent to Milwaukee in Mike James trade, was a bust there. Currently somewhere in Italy) (3) A 6-9 Howard could make them competitive in the Western Conference (we all know how well that has worked out...). By my reckoning, in 3 years since that trade, the Rockets have yet to find suitable replacements for the 3 positions they gave up to get Tmac. That's on Rockets' management, not the head coach. Oh, and if you want to point out that they didn't have a lot of cap room to make the kind of moves they needed to make, don't forget to look at how they got into that situation in the first place. Could it be all of those bad contracts given out not by JVG but by CD in the years BEFORE JVG? No, let's blame JVG instead - after all isn't that what Les did?

Don't be silly - all teams miss on draft choices from time to time. That is the nature of the beast. Remember that 2003 lotto pick we ended up giving Memphis in the Francis trade? They used it on Marcus Banks (Who? Oh yeah, at Phoenix now..somewhere). Have you looked at the Spurs' draft history since 2000? It's uglier than the Rockets and that's saying something because the Rockets were drafting much higher than the Spurs who consistently drafted in the lower 20's. Yet somehow, they still managed to find Tony Parker, Leandro Barbosa & Beno Ulrich.

Let's see now, the Spurs picking at the END of the draft can find good players while during the same time period, the Rockets picking in the NBA lottery 4 times manage to come up with...Yao Ming. You can blame JVG until your face turns Rockets red but the facts are that for the past 7 years, the Rockets only have Yao, Head, Novack & Spanoulis to show for all of their drafts. Only Yao & Head are what you'd call rotation players. That's 2 players in 7 years which is OK I suppose if you have a core of good players to begin with (they didn't) or if you've been successful in free agency (they weren't). But Les, Morley & CD would all have you believe that the major problem was the head coach so they fired him and hired Adelman. Problem is now solved - we are true contenders. Yeah, right...

 

It does. Lends me to think that we won't make a change or push for a new PG. So Adelman better reform Rafer or VSpan better kick ass.

So then I would expect a big push through the MLE or a trade for a PF who is worth half a damn...

Man, if Rashard signed here for the MLE it would help. Won't happen, but would soooo help.

Bonzi coming back dedicated and in shape would help tremendously. Don't see that happening though.

 

Ya buy how many of you JVG-haters keep crying that VSPAN would be awesome if he had 15 minutes more a game (translated into about 20 hours of experience), and yet no one every mentions that great players didn't get better in the game but by working on their game on their own.

But everyone knows how to make a player better apparently. You don't learn how to protect the ball in the game - you learn it by working on it out of the game. You don't learn to shoot by shooting in the game.

Unless VSPAN gets off his lazy butt this summer and works on his game, he'll be a non-factor next year.

 

C'mon Amel, Yao fell into CD's lap.

Charlie Casserly himself couldn't have ****ed that one up.

 

Well, you better get used to it dude, b/c he and Rafer will probably be our PG duo next year.

That alone merits plenty of discussion.

 

Span is staying. Panathinaikos offered him a contract, but he wants to stay, and the Rockets want him to also.

 

Just for fun, you guys that went to this thing last year and JVG was talking about 2 players he would like to have, that was kept a big secret............

who were those players?



By the way, I think it's great that VSpan is going to get a fair shot. That's all I have been an advocate. He deserves a fair shot. He didn't get one with JVG.



So, remembering my fellow JJ Redick/VSPAN supporter who sees talent and production much the way I do...........................................................

What have you to say now Sam Fisher?!?!?!?!


Bring back the Double D.

 

That too