Yes, no real information whatsoever. There was a thread a while back (can't remember the title) where someone talked about the degenerative nature of his back condition. Earlier in the year it wasn't structural, then it was... and all the while, we don't even really know what that truly means. I think this will forever be a topic that the fans are not let in on. Medical conditions are private anyway, so there is no reason we should be.... unfortunately I am very curious.
I think Tmac's back is fine. He fell before the first game and he was never right the rest of the year. Personally, I think they shut him down as a precaution, but he could have played. DD
interesting that he said they could use both rafer and MJ. this comes a few days after MJ says he wants to come back to houston. he said they are looking for some size in the backcourt. that could be addressed in the draft (roy/carney). he also said that they will take the best player left, regardless or position. and that the rookie will probably not start. however, i feel that the best player left will probably be roy or carney in which case they will start for us. JVG really wants a padgett type player. but i doubt that we will find one for next season. i think our best bet is to go small with our own players. yao, tmac, carney, james, alston. that would be a fast lineup that can also dump the ball into yao and have 4 shooters in case of a double. tmac can get an iso against the other teams PF.
Padgett a 39% 3 point shooter!! If this is the way JVG thinks don't expect much of an up grade as he holds scrubs like Bowen and Padgett as important contributors to our Team.JVG should be shooting for great players and then possibly we might settle on some really decent role players.
So don't expect the #8 pick in the draft to be a starter but a rotational player, eh? Geez Louise. So, if we draft Shelden then he won't start at the 4. Or if we get top 3 and draft Bargnani, Aldridge, or Ty Thomas they won't start. And if we draft Gay, Roy, Carney, or Brewer they won't start. And he doesn't want another short shooting guard. So much for Mike James at the 2 or bringing back DWes. Oh, but we need Mike James backing up Rafer or possibly starting and Rafer backing him up. So, using simple deduction, apparently barring trades we are looking at Juwan starting at the 4 and one of Bogans, Frahm, or RyBo starting at the 2 after we spend the MLE to get MJ and we draft a "rotational player" at #8. All I can say is we might as well just trade the pick. You can get rotational players through free agency and trades. And if we don't trade the pick we are stuck with the same guys we had last season or we are stuck with trying to trade those guys for other guys. What exactly can we get for RyBo, Juwan, Swift, Bogans, etc.? Starter upgrades??? Well, I suppose we can trade a future first rounder along with Juwan and get back an upgrade, especially since we don't plan on going back to the loser lottery for a very very long time? Yeah, that's going to happen. Some team out there is going to give us a solid starter for Juwan plus a late first rounder. LOL I like Van Gundy. We are drafting in the lottery. We have a top 10 pick on a team with the worst depth in the league with a dude starting at the 4 that would not start for any other team in the league. We now have NO starting shooting guard thanks to DWes's contract expiring. We have to pick through a pool of talent such as a re-signed Bogans or Frahm to even find a player to write on the scorecard at the 2 but we CANNOT expect that our lottery pick will start at either spot. All I can say is...............Wow. The one character trait I hate about Van Gundy is his stubbornness.
This was a good interview. Van Gundy strikes a balance between realism and hopeful season coming. He has not kept up with college talent- so he does not evaluate the draft --he will recommend NBA talent-i.e. our needs-and what is avaliable that will fit.
Add too that the signing of Bowen to a 2 year contract... I am glad that he sees that he needs someone like that (or Bullard-Type) to open things up. Right now, they have no one.
everyone says he's a great interview which is true, but I also thought rudy t was a good interview. both guys very honest and forthcoming. interesting, carrol dawson is all over v-span from an interview I recapped a couple of weeks ago. I also didn't think he was all that reassuring when talking about tracy.
I'm glad to hear that they intend to take the best player available. A number 8 player on this team should end up being a starter because we don't have the resources to get a quality player to help Yao and T-Mac. Getting Mike James with the MLE would be fine because it's highly unlikely that we could get anyone better.
Totally agree, JVG is as stubborn as they come. Can you imagine a speed a lineup of Alston, James, Carney or Roy, T-Mac and Swift. With JVG's stubborness you will probably never see any lineup like that. A lineup like that could get you a ton of points and solid defense against a team like the Sun's.
I guarantee if we get a rookie who can start and hit shots and defend HE WILL START. Don't be misled by JVG. He is no fool. He had the team running when they were healthy in 2004-2005. JVG will start the best players who provide the best chemistry. He recognized that Stro was no starter, he recognized that Deke was empty and he recognized that Yao was stepping up strong in the low post. When fans were crying for Yao to come out and play farther from the basket because he could shoot, JVG kept him down low in training. Now Yao is beginning to dominate in the low post. Expect the starters to be Yao, TMac, and the next three best players.
wow, calm the **** down. We don't even know how NBA ready the player we'll take will be. If the rockets truly are taking bpa, then the transition might be huge. And a player can come off the bench and still play big minutes. Drafting for need is stupid, esp when you are in the lotto and can't afford to blow the pick.
How did he recognize Stro was no starter when Stro never started next to Yao to begin with. The team struggled and Juwan stunk it up for a countless number of games and he never once experimented with a change. I see Greg Popavich experimenting with different lineups all the time. The idea in getting Stro was to play a freakish athlete along side Yao. JVG is just plain stubborn. Period.
39% is a very good 3-point percentage. It's equivalent to a 59% 2-point shooting percentage. Actually Padgett shot 43% and 40% on 3's in the two years he played for us. He may be a scrub as a starter, but he's not a scrub as a role player. On our current team he wouldn't even the consistent 2nd string guy. He would be a situational back-up. He was very successful in that role before. Even won a couple of games for us on last second shots.
Experimenting works great in practice too. What's there to say that JVG didn't give Stromile a try at practice with the first team? Stromile plays great when he's concentrating on the game. He also has the defensive lapses that allows the quicker PFs to get around him. Guess who's going to end up fouling those PFs?
