I definitely think of myself as a moderate in my posting style, with a heavy lean towards optimism. I try not to get caught up in overreactionary, and emotional thread. I rarely start threads, because most topics are tackled from every single angle and I don't usually have anything particularly "fresh" to present. With that said, I'm starting to have a real crisis of faith when it comes to JVG. I'm not basing this so much on the fact that we lost these last two heartbreakers, but on some of JVG's decisions that I totally disagree with. 1. Sitting BOTH Yao and T-mac at any given time outside of garbage. I really cannont fathom why JVG would ever choose to do this. Outside of Yao and T-Mac, this team is probably below ordinary. When they were sitting at the beginning of the 4th, the knicks made up 9 pts in a couple of minutes. The rox just couldn't get the ball in the hole, and we got 50% of our scoring and probably 90% of our shot creators sitting on the bench. The same thing happened in the Detroit game on openning night. While Yao and T-mac were sitting on the bench, the Pistons started to pull away and we couldn't catch up. I hate bringing up Phil Jackson because I think he gets way to much attention from posters and isn't the be-all and end all of NBS coaches, but he would never do this. When Shaq was on the bench, Kobe was always on the floor and vice versa. Same thing with MJ and Pippen. I know they need rests, but just juggle the rotation so that we have one of our stars on the floor at every given moment. As is, we still go into offensive droughts even if Yao and/or Tmac is in the game, so I don't know why we should handicap it even more by taking them off the court. 2. This whole "post Yao up one time, but instead of feeding him the ball, you swing it to the other side where Yao can post again and finally get the ball" is absolutely innane. I think Yao has really shown that when he gets the ball in the post, that he is nearly unstoppable. So why make him fight for position twice in each possession. I guess the argument is that it slows down the game so that Yao won't get tired as easily from running up and down the court. But I don't buy it. Isn't he going to get tired from fighting for position twice each possession anyway. Seems to me that it would be kind of a wash in terms of effort expended. And in terms of the slow down offense as a strategy, Jeff has already started a thread that explains the pros and CONS in more detail than I can muster: http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87008 3. I really don't think that JVG has made any good adjustments regarding the fronting Yao situation. I'm not trying to be a Yao apologist here (Yao definitely could do better in combatting fronts, and really needs to improve in this area if he's going to be an elite player) but JVG still has to make some adjustments of his own to help Yao out. I mean isn't that the job of a coach, to put his players in the best position to succeed. I disagree with posters that think Yao can't be a monster in the block and should just be a high post big man. I mean, when he's actually gotten the ball in the post, he's been going crazy down there. But with that said, I can definitely see the positives is putting Yao in the high post occasionally, especially if he's having a hard time with overplaying defenses. Ideally, you'd want Yao to have skills in the high post and the low post so it makes him that much more dangerous to defend. But beyond that, where are the other plays to free Yao up on the block? Why not have him fake a screen and then dive into the block before the defender can get position. Or have him start on the weak side, and then have him flash into the middle of the paint. Basically any kind of motion that keeps Yao's defender off balanced would be good. Why stick with the same strategy of planting Yao in the post and having him wrestle against smaller quicker guys. Like I said, Yao needs to improve his "sealing" technique, but JVG has not been quick to make adjustments that would make it easier for his bread and butter player. 4. I hate this move of starting Mo Taylor. This guy is instant offense and we have absolutely nobody else that can do that off the bench. Yet another reason that we struggled to score at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Mo was on the bench with foul trouble. I don't have a tinmanesque hatred of Juwon, but Mo just totally outclasses him as an offensive player. How many times last year did Mo come in with the second unit and put up 3 or 4 baskets in a row. I mean if you're going to be silly enough to sit both Yao and T-Mac at times, then at least have Mo in the game who's the only guy that even close to on par with Y + T in terms of creating his own shot. And if you don't think that Juwon can cut it as a starting PF, then I'd even go so far as making Padge the starter over Mo. We need Mo's offense off the bench. And Padge can give us an interesting look with his range. Or hell, since we've been getting killed on the boards, and Spoon can actually make an open 15 footer, maybe even he should start. I mean when we already have Yao and T-mac starting the game, we don't need more of Mo's offense in the starting lineup. 5. And I think JVG's poor use of timeouts have been thoroughly examined. I just hate it when we get to the end of games, and we only have 1 timeout left in 2 possession games. That happened way too much last year. It's just terrible management that I'd expect better of from an NBA head coach. All of these things are creeping up, and I'm really starting to wonder if JVG is a good enough to lead this team to the promised land. I'm really starting to hate how JVG's dealt with my #1 and #2 points. I've hated #5 for a while, but #3 and #4 are closer to judgement calls. But it's more about that adjustments (or lack thereof) that JVG is making. It's one thing to make mistakes. But it's another thing to continue to make those same mistakes. I mean isn't that what we pinned on Steve and Cat on their way out the door. So are there any other guys that would normally be optomistic or reserve judgement, who are starting to have doubts about JVG. I mean, I know that it's really early in the season, and this team can still be good if some things turn out right (chemistry picks up, Sura comes back strong etc). But I think some of my concerns are fundamental mistakes in JVG's strategy, and they might never be fixed. Boy, that's enough spouting for me. I've spent way too long composing this rambling message. I am glad to get that off my chest. But it's not exactly cool to make new threads just to get up on a soapbox, but I hope you'll indulge me this once. Anyway, I think I'll take a break from the GARM for a couple of days. It will not be good times tomorrow when everybody logs on.
i totally agree with you. we need mo taylor to come off the bench. he can give more offense to our bench than j. howard. our defense is just terrible at the end. i am happy that all of this is happening in the start of the season where a team can get a little experience on how to finish games, but this could also turn players into losing mentality. we can blow teams away if we play defense for whole 4 qtrs.
i agree with everything you just sadi except #2. i think that for the most part when we have trouble getting yao the ball on one side of the court it helps for him to run to the other side to re-post. i think that has worked fairly well the past 2 games. however, you might be right in that he spends even more of his energy doing this. One thing that is really starting to worry me about this team is the fact that they are becoming a below average free throw shooting team. in close games (like the past 2) this can be the difference between a win and a loss. hopefully JVG will get it together and realize that T-Mac needs to be out in the open and we have to run atleast a little bit to get easy scores/trips to the free throw line.
I'm starting to doubt, too. These last two games were tough to stomach. I take comfort in the fact that JVG has a lot of time to fix the things that are wrong, and that he will 100% definitely be fired before either of our stars is traded or gets unhappy. I KNOW Van Gundy is aware of this. TMac and Yao are the Rockets' priority, not him. If they're willing to dump Rudy, he HAS to know that they'd drop him without batting an eye. There is no way for JVG to get comfortable. He does not have a couple of years of slack for the stars to "gel." He has to win and win now, and he's smart enough to know it. I'm more concerned that the PLAYERS look too comfortable, honestly...
i agree with you on 1 and 2 whole-heartedly. concerning 1: i think that everyone on this board had a good idea of what the rotation was going to be going into the season. we all were pretty sure that at any point in the game, t-mac or yao was gonna be on the floor if not both at the same time...But to see our whole 2nd unit - JJ playing for 5-6 minutes is terrible. 2nd teams are what they are, back-ups that come in to hold the fort til the starters are ready to come back in. concerning 2: it really frustrates me whenever plays like this happen (which is almost everyplay). Usually what happens to start off a play is ward/lue dribbles to one side of the key and yao's getting position on the same side. Yao gets good position and it seems like ward/lue sees it but they just pass it back to the top of the key to the PF which then ensues to pass it to the left side of the key. All while yao is struggling to drag his body all the way to the other side just to repost himself the same way he was just 10 seconds ago!!! I just don't understand why this happens. Maybe if they're having a hard time feeding the post or yao is not getting good position but goodness, it just seems like they just stare right at him and then ignore his ass. if this is JVG's planned offense that he's an idiot. It just wears out yao twice as much.
I'll give it until next april. We just might be this years Heat and put everything together after the break...
Count me in. Some critical plays were done inexcusably bad. As a head coach, he shouldn't have let some of the mistakes happen--like TMac rushed the last shot, Crawford was wide open on the inbound pass and no one helped out on him.
i still have hope/faith. It is still early. but Houston should win of atlanta and the Knicks. the thing that concerns me the most is that in both games we gave up a double digit lead in the fourth.(haven't seen the games so do not know how it happened)
I am deeply saddened by the Atlanta & NY losses. These are awful teams we should sleepwalk through. I was trying to give JVG the benefit of the doubt, and hang in there, but we cannot lose games like this. We are in the toughest conference, and may have shot ourselves in the foot -with a near impossible recovery. JVG- we need to win these easy ones... We have no consistent offense, no point guard, and are wasting T-Mac's talent playing as a distributor of the ball instead of the creator of offense. This has got to be discouraging to him. This is really bad
Count me in, for the reason cited in Jeff's thread. If you ain't got personality as a coach, you'd better have good strategy. Otherwise, sayonara.
Look at the silver lining. Phil Jackson is going to be available. Every bad loss moves the Rockets closer to hiring PJ.
My main beef with Van Gundy right now is not so much his coaching decisions, but his personnel decisions. This roster is a mess. I don’t know what he was thinking. Either Howard or Taylor should have been traded prior to the season. Howard’s trade value has probably taken a huge nosedive by now and we're going to be stuck with his contract for the next 5 or 6 years. Charlie Ward should not have been signed. He was a 3rd stringer in SA and he’s a 3rd string caliber point guard here. Now we're stuck with him for the next 3 years. Mutombo has played decent. But we should have gone after a younger more athletic 5 like a Brandon Hunter or perhaps Keon Cark. I can’t believe we did not go after more athletic players. With Yao being so slow, we need fast athletic players to compensate for his lack of mobility. And with Mcgrady being so athletic, we need players that can run with him. These role players are just a terrible fit. I don't know what type of vision Van Gundy had in mind, but he put this team together and if they fail to deliver, he will be sent packing.
The thought of Phil Jackson as a Rockets coach is the only thing that I find more depressing than last night's loss. I think Van Gundy needs to adapt, and his offense is a bit of a problem, but I still don't think he is the main problem. The main problem is the lack of a floor, and team leader. Tmac, or Yao really has to lead, and take control. One of these guys has to put their individual stamp on the team and mold it in their image. Neither of these guys is doing that. I think they are partially being hampered in that endeavor by Van Gundy's offense, but it can still be done. Until one of these guys steps it up, and takes control, the rest of the team won't be able to settle into their roles. Right now it looks like a bunch of guys out there trying to run the right play, and not make a mistake. They are more concentrated on running the play correctly than they are on winning the game. Someone has to see the big picture rather than the little details of every play. Perhaps Jeff is so hard on the players when they make a mistake, that they are playing timid, and trying to do everything right. Someone on our team has to find the freedom and joy of the game enough to make it their own.
It seemed like Turnovers cost us the game down the stretch. Same old ****. That damn Francis! Oh, I'm sorry we don't have him to blame anymore. Who are people going to point the finger at now?
Why, we're going to point the finger at Grumpy, of course! Off with his head! wait.... I just had a terrrrrrrrrible thought. HEAD COACH - Patrick Ewing.
