I said when JVG was fired that it was more the players than the coach responsible for our failures, and nothing has really happened to change that opinion. That being said there is zero chance that Adelman will be fired before the end of the year, nor should he be. If we look this bad at the end of the year then we'll talk.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap;_ylt=Au_yF.UvUKrMpZYMWnu8ajW8vLYF?gid=2007121020 Anyone here think JVG would overlook a team trying to win in "the long run"
that's a depressing f#$king post in it's truthfulness. i have confidence in adelman's ability to get this thing fixed, but it should be crystal clear what jvg's intensity and commitment to detail was worth to this team. like him or not, the people who continually preached that he wasn't worth squat as a coach look twice as dumb now as they did for the last 3 years. old man rock spent a year crying that jvg was too hard and mean on the players. i mean how even more ridiculous does that sound now. this team needs a solid gameplan, an identity, and a kick in the ass, all of which are at the top of van gundy's attributes. adelman's track record says that he's one heck of a coach, and i still don't doubt that, but it remains to be seen whether he's the right guy for this group.
Same here. Funny reading through these posts, one of the thing that anti JVG people droned on was that JVG pushed his teams to hard to win every game. Those people said a handful of losses during the regular season wouldn't matter as long as we can see a larger rotation. funny.
oh c'mon! whether it happens or not, this is your chance to say why you think this team can still turn it around. ...if you still think so.
excellent post. i can see you being dead on. RA empowers his players and this team is struggling with the responsibility. maybe they will pull through this funk and be better players? ... somehow i am hoping for that because nights like last night were FREAKING HORRIBLE
Thats true, too bad most still think JVG was the problem. Adelman isnt necessarily the problem either. However, I don't think you can have a "laid-back" type of coach, coach "laid-back" type of players. This team has more talent and depth than it has in a LOONNGGG time. and it is depressing to see them give up and have no fire.
It's not all Adelman's fault. The players have to show some leadership out there. It can't all come from the coach. And as we've seen this season, T-Mac is a quitter. Yao is soft. Shane is passive. Rafer can't shoot. Bonzi, Mike James, and Steve looked washed up. Luther Head looks lost. Granted, Chuck and Luis are all heart, but no one's gonna elect them team captain anytime soon. Would this team be playing better under Van Gundy if he were still here? Absolutely. But in the end, they're only gonna go as far as their best players take them, and we've seen that T-Mac and Yao don't have willpower to get it done. And BTW, I disagree about Van Gundy never coming back here. Les would have to eat a sh-tload of crow and offer up about 7-8 mil a year, but he'd come back to the Rockets. Phil Jackson went back to the Lakers after he and Kobe had a major falling out(yes, the Jeannie Buss factor helped, but still). As far as we know, Van Gundy never had issues with the players, just management.
What I remember about Jeff Van Gundy- 1. He loved the city of Houston 2. He connected with his players 3. He was honest and held players accountable 4. He had a great sense of humor 5. He worked tirelessly 6. He started the Red Rowdies because he cared about the Rockets. 7. He stood up for Yao and said what needed to be said and it cost him $100,000.00 8. He got Tracy to play defense and utilized his passing skills 9. He made the team mentally tough not accepting injuries as an excuse 10. He planted Yao in the low post and helped him become a strong dominant post player Plodding offense???? Not when Bob Sura, Jon Barry and David Wesley were running the backcourt Hard headed????? Yes about winning and earning your spot Dog House????? Yep, if you dogged it or you tried to disrupt the chemistry and locker room you had the choice of the family room or the dog house I know Grumpy had faults, but he never had the talent to sustain the 7 game series run and with a couple of breaks we could have taken both those series He needed another 1-2 yrs. But I am concerned about our current slump. I want Adelman to make it work because I think it will be disasterous if he can't get it done this season. I am really pulling for Adelman but I deeply regret losing Van Gundy.
You can't bring Jeff back, no matter what. That bridge has been burned. Still, I was concerned over the summer, because JVG was the only leadership this team had - god knows it doesn't come from Tracy. Yao's giving more, but I don't see him going up to anyone in the locker room and chewing them out either. If Adelman relies on internal leadership (like Rudy did), this team is going nowhere because there is none. Two choices - bring in a Phil Jackson, or blow this team up and bring in character guys and leaders. Evan
Assistant coach had his chance, and he blew it. Some of you guys sound like the children of Israel. take us back to egypt moses. we wanna go back to running 3 plays again. we wanna be play defense and shoot spot up 3's every game. Give it a break.
Where is the option to have both Jeff and Rick as coaches at the same time? I wouldn't care which one was the head coach and who was the assistant. But it seems to be the only way to get what we need from both of them.
i wouldn't have fired jvg in the first place. he wasn't the problem. we just didn't have enough fire power last year. the offensive struggle with tmac handling the ball too much was not a system failure. it was a roster failure. what was jvg blamed for last season? stagnant and predictable offense: mostly caused by the lack of talent on the roster. when our role players produced we looked pretty good offensively. just like we did when we had the white boy power squad and they where bombing the threes. (oh god, how i miss that team...) the battier trade: that was the right trade at this time. battier was a perfect addition for jvg. rudy gay will be good one day but that needs time. we needed a role player and a team player. a glue guy. something that rudy gay is not. on the other hand we should have gotten lowry in this deal especially with that thin backcourt last year. bonzi wells' no show: he handled the situation right. bonzi was out of shape and had to earn minutes and trust. he just didn't. even when he was not injured and in average shape he played awfull. jvg did the right thing and didn't make bonzi the 3rd option on this team playing 30 minutes just because he's bonzi wells. not playing v-span and novak: v-span was a little whiny b****. he had to work his way up. he even got his chances. and he blew them. he should have worked on his shot and his turnovers. he didn't. and failed. novak was a different story. he never complained or anything. he just wasn't ready physically. he probably never will. playing rafer and allowing him to shoot so much: even today with a different system you see how valuable a real pg is. a guy like rafer has his weaknesses but he also has his strengths. he can push the ball. he can pass the ball. he doesn't make too many tos. he plays solid defense most of the time. besides that, we didn't have anyone else. luther as a pg is just a very, very bad idea. and john lucas never got his act together. boozer destroying yao: the nba is a matchup league. especially in the playoffs. the rockets had a huge matchup disadvantage against the jazz in rafer vs. williams and yao vs. boozer. you can't blame that on the coach. you just can't. it's not his fault that yao has physical limitations. it's just how it is. and neither could anyone else on our roster stop boozer. that's why i always wanted an athletic pf off the bench. every negative thing was sometimes completely blamed on jvg. which was pretty ridiculous even back then. now a lot of those people get a much needed dose of reality.
