just my $0.02 i think if we still had jvg, bonzi would be gone and we woudn't have gotten steve, but our record with the addition of scola and possibly james would have led us to something like 22-10 right about now. i think if we still had jvg, our playoff run would end with us in the 1st, or 2nd round at the most. i think because of adelman this team really hit the bottom due from all the change. i think all the hoopla about "it's time" and thinking about a championship etc was just added pressure that the players didn't need while they were about to be taken apart and rebuilt. i think this whole thing has been a necessary step during the process of change. it's like the heart of what this team has been for so long has been ripped out and tossed in the garbage. they were left with a whole new structure which they didn't understand. I think with the new system and coach, they will be able to play at much higher levels with more consistency as they learn the system, gain experience from it, and grow with it. i think another reason we hit the ground so hard, is because our two stars are well into their prime, and they've been asked to suddenly change the way they've been playing for so long. Younger players would be much faster to adapt, but our 4 most-played players (tracy/yao/battier/alston) are far from being on that rookie-level where they're still eager to learn the game. i'm glad to see the team as it is now. yao has confidence in this team finally and has taken a big role. he is realizing that it's on him and his team to win a game, not the head coach. i have watched every minute of every game this season, as well as the past 6+ years, and i'm seeing things in this team that i've never seen before. they seem to finally have a backbone lately. there's fight in them now and they don't give up mentally, they stick it out. i think thats the first and most important aspect in the way a team meeds to play; to keep playing hard even when things are going downhill. i think Rick will be able to do amazing things with this team, but just like he said at the very beginning of the season; "sometimes you have to hit the bottom before change can be made." Since then, i think he's been letting the players just play their game, and when they fall apart, they see their weekness', which leads them to want the change. then adalman began to ween the players from jvg's nipples, and is showing them how to be men. To me, this new "backbone" they seem to have right now, has been the only thing they have been lacking for all these years under jvg.
You mean watching Dallas's backcourt slice apart Jon Berry, Sura, and Wesley? Oh yeah, Mike James was on that team too wasn't he? A lot of good he did then. That wasn't a great team.
Everyone loves to hate the rockets......I hope the team laminates a copy of this, especially Tmac. They can read it before every game for the rest of the season. If that does not motivate you, I don't know what will
Hmmm, for some reason this thread reminds me of edc...whatever happened to him? Did he decide to stop posting because he merely lived to hate JVG? The dude clearly isn't a rockets fan because he hasn't been able to say one thing about this team since the JVG departure...pathetic. Of course with a name like 'edc' it's not like he wanted to be known for anything except for his posts (hate for Gundy).
LOL thats funny Hey we are currently the number 3 defense in the league its our offense that stinks... we might have dropped lower tho
I've got to admit I've started to doubt T-Mac's heart and whether it would be best to just trade him. But all this bashing he and this team is getting from the media and on this board these days is starting to get me rooting for the underdog, for him and the team to get it together and prove all these naysayers wrong. I'm hoping he'll come back in a few weeks with a BIG ASS chip on his shoulder and make this team work like we imagined they could.
Its good that someone finally puts all this down for us to acknowledge and agree that this is where we have to start. Last years team made the playoffs but they could not get out of the first round. That is the limitations of a defensive minded team. Some things that have become painfully clear. The Rockrets have players that should be playing for no other reason that they need to develop to their potential. We need talent we dont have a lot of it. Tmac needs to go. When he plays the team can only be as good as he is that day. His style of play prevents others from doing anything but stand around and watch. Yeo will improve the issue is building a team around him. Play the five players that can win for you in the future! accept a lower finish this year and get a good position in the draft. Look at the Texans as an example. There are teams right now that will trade good draft choices for tmac lets do it. Wayne
At least we were being able to hang with an elite team that had more depth/talent. This team couldn't even sniff that right now... they're NOT going to make the playoffs at this rate. Your orignal response was "this was the most fun you've had watching them in the last 10 years". I guess, you have fun watching a team that had big expectations, but is now falling flat. I'd rather watch a team gel and play great comptetive basketball (which actually leads to some wins)... which is what the 04-05 team was doing. Sure, there's still time for this team to turn it around in a similiar fashion, but I'm not banking on it.
Really fun to read. Is this Van Gundy's best friend who wrote this? All these media guys stick together.
I think the article is right that the Rockets are the most disappointing team in the league so far this season. However, I don't think he's right that this is somehow an undertalented, fractious team that needed JVG's strong hand to keep together. The chemistry has gone to **** with the coaching change, that's all. Maybe it's Adelman's fault or maybe he just needs more time to pul it together. I don't see it as a structural problem. We have a very talented roster; we just need to get them working together well. Btw, they should have just stopped the list after Houston and Chicago, the only real disappointments in the league. Who ever though Milwaukee, New York and Miami would be any good? Maybe Miami is slightly disappointing because there was some small chance O'Neal would have a resurgence and make the team respectable, but they weren't so lucky.
I think this guy has man love for JVG, or he is an silent agent for him and gets a percentage of his next contract. While JVG was not a bad coach, he was not a championship coach to me because he tried to live with only one side of the ball, defense. A championship coach would realize that you have to have both. If that were JVG, he would have brought in someone offensive minded to help him. Truly great leaders know that they are only as good as the people that surround them and help them. He had a great defensive assistant, but no great offensive assistant, which was his weakess link as well. It is clear that the Rockets are worse this year with supposedly more talent. But no one expected them to be as good defensively anyway. We all knew that JVG was a great defensive coach and he wasn't let go for that. We knew that bringing in a new coach would make the team not as good defensively because few do it better than Jeff. But the real problem, is that we brought in a coach, RICK ADELMAN, that was supposed to have a system and be a genius on the offensive end. He was supposed to be able to take the talent on our team, which he should have already evaluated before accepting the job, and use his system to fit their abilities to make them better offensively; enough to make up for the defensive loss. So the REAL PROBLEM is that RA has sucked at his job! You can blame the players for playing bad cause it is true. But the bottom line is that EVERYONE HAS PLAYED WORSE! Not just some of the guys, but everyone has played worse. When that happens, you have to look at the coach, no matter how much you consider him a genius. It's HIS JOB to get the most out of the players he has. Rick has not done that for ANY PLAYER on this team! No player is playing above their expectations, and every player including Yao is playing below their expectations. So the article should have been about how Rick is doing a terrible job, not how we lost so much from JVG. By the way, I never thought or heard that Les expected this team to play like the SUNS. To have more offensive flow and to play more up tempo yes, but I never heard him say or expected this team to turn into Phoenix. That was just exaggerating by the author.
sad but very accurate article. i went probably 10+ seasons with never missing a game. this year i have already missed probably half of the games after the slide following the quick start. the rox are in big trouble. we will be lucky to be back in the mix next year. our entire roster is filled with one dimensional players.
you don't know what you got until it's gone. let this be a lesson for the haters. this thread and article sum it up perfectly. JVG did more with less and this current team has ZERO identity now. way to go guys, you got your wish: we are mediocre at best. and yet there are still those this season that think the JVG apologists are cleverly disguised Knicks fans, or that JVG himself brought the Houston Franchise down with his ties to the Knicks. it had nothing to do with that. it had to with Van Gundy being a tough, scrappy, defensive minded coach who took no crap from no one and demanded the best out of his players... great job Les Alexander, great job Daryl Morey, WONDERFUL JOB THIS SEASON Mister Adelman
