I did NOT say that, I said that JVG got through to Tmac better than Rick Adelman. JVG was a champion motivator of Tmac, I think he knew what buttons to push. All my criticisms of JVG as a coach still stand. DD
I just finished watching game 2 of the WCF 1986 @ Lakers and boy that Ralph Sampson & Olajuwon. Both had amazing speed and could block any player on the court, they were a combined 12 blocks or something. Just picture Yao having the quickness of Ralph.... Also Ralph seems much bigger than Yao, mainly because he plays bigger than Yao. Seeing Ralph makes me realize even more that Yao's body is not built for this sport and though he tries so hard and is a great human being, he will always come short and I feel bad for him. The guy is not even blocking shots and rebounding like he used to. I think this is officially the year T-mac and Yao will decline and to the other guy who made the thread of Yao possible HOF - sadly no, same goes for T-mac.
Spot on.....You can tell T-Mac is babying his knee and we all know in sports, when you do that, your bound to get hurt. I dont see any desire as Ive always said. Theres something missing and Its called Heart. This team needs Rudy T and Olajuwon to give them a pep talk. Its the small things that matter. We are all waiting for T-Mac to help himself. Mentally.
The Rockets need to sign Rudy as a special assistant coach JUST to give motivational speeches to the team. Get him hammered and let him say whatever he wants at halftime.
There was one defensive possession that typified what this thread's about in the second half. Both of them were right under the basket, and neither was alert enough to secure an uncontested defensive board. I could only close my eyes and shake my head.
Nice blanket statement from the all knowing..... [ QUOTE=DaDakota]Yes, I get that, but when I went to the Spurs game, the lack of effort was staggering. NBA players do not play hard pretty much all game...until the last 10 minutes. TMac included. DD[/QUOTE]
The difference isn't as big as it would appear right now. You were watching two completely different players. The playoff TMac and regular season TMac...if you think he lost a step go back and watch the 2nd quarter of Game 2 against the Jazz last year (the game when he ran himself ragged early) he was flying all over the place. Not that it's any more acceptable, just the truth, that's what we're going to get from Tracy. With a couple of other scoring options like we have right now I'll take the guy who can be occasionally spectacular, yet still contribute to the offense(passing) while moving slow. Yao on the otherhand, is just moving slow, hopefully he gets back up to full speed quickly.
I would rather to see yao getting lower instead of slower. Yao may be too big to play basketball games that need speed and JUMPINGS. He may perhaps jump a little bit higher if he gets lower.
Well then don't take my word for it, take the Rockets players THEMSELVES....this is too easy. ---------------------------------------------------------- Link to article "The Rockets had a lot to learn from Friday's game. They put in a terrible effort and go away with it with a fine eight minutes. They were horrible in the first quarter for a third consecutive game, with the Thunder, Mavs and Wiz averaging 30 in the past three opening quarters. Even after they came all the way back from a 12-point deficit to a four-point third quarter lead, they were in trouble again, falling behind by nine with less than nine minutes left. They turned the game around and then blew it wide open by draining 3s, hitting 6 of 8 in the final eight minutes. They can't count on that. They can't count on giving only eight very solid, intense minutes and expecting to win. "We know we had a very good eight minutes in the fourth quarter," Yao Ming said. "That's how we came back. That should be the best quarter for us every game. We just woke up. I'm not happy about the first three quarters. But it is not too late to wake up in the fourth quarter. Sometimes it's too late, but not tonight." They know they got away with one. "Our energy level was down," Tracy McGrady said. "We understand we didn't play well, Ron Artest said. "We're not too happy with the way we played." ----------------------------------------------------------- Amazing isn't it? DD
