Are the Rockets better than they supposed to be? e.g., is JVG making bigger impact?

I think it's you who is mistaken. Easy was trying to see that each player on JVG's roster is a better player than Rudy had last year. I was simply proving him wrong. And Francis is a prime example -- FG% has nothing to do with the coach, Francis is just having a horrible year. It's in the equation.

 

Do you think Rudy would've prevented him from shooting at his ex-girlfriend? What would Rudy have done when he skipped the team's flight and practices, then failed to show up when they asked him to so he can work his way back into the rotation?

Your love for RT is blinding you from the situation. EG is nobody's fault but his own.

 

u got to be kidding me; u think EG went crazy because of JVG, i dont think so.

 

yeah EG definetely loves to shoot...at people

 

Didn't the shooting thing happen before camp started? And EG not showing up for practice, it was the very first one he missed before he eevn got to meet JVG in person. Maybe he's just f-ed up in the head regardless of who is coaching him. Spree was one of JVG's favorite players, I don't think JVG was lacking in that department.

 

obviously you have every right to make this comment. (quitting is one way to say it, preventing a nervous breakdown might be another.) i really thought jvg would have more success here but i don't think rudy or anyone else could have done better with this group.

 

Yeah, Cuttino's FG% has faltered due to his adjustment too.

Oh.

Wait.

All i'm saying comparing last year's Francis to this year's and saying they are equal is ridiculous. I guess you don't disagree with the other corrections I made to his list?

 

I think you have to look at who has flourished compared to who has faultered.

+:
Cat
Cato
Mo

-:
Francis

Positives outweigh the negatives - I do not fault JVG for Francis's decline. He's just not an all-star, he's a street baller. I'm excited to see what we will get in return for him.

 

LongTimeFan,

daoshi is right about my intent. The whole premise of this thread is whether the coach has positive impact to the team. It's the coach's job to get players to play better, isn't it? I am not saying that it's always the coach's fault when a player plays poorly. But in the context of this thread, we are talking about the players performances under this particular coach.

That's why each player should be equal to himself. The only exceptions are rookies (especially rookies from a far away country with very different culture and competition) and players whose performance declines due to old age. Francis is neither. So we can only say that JVG has negative impact (again, not putting all the blame on the coach, just talking within the context of this thread) on his performance.

You may disagree with other comparisons such as

Spoon vs. EG
AG vs. Hawkins
JJ vs. Posey

I admit that these can be debatable. To me (and I'm sure many posters here agree with me) JJ is a better player than Posey in most facets of the game except athleticism and speed.

AG is probably about the same as Hawkins in terms of talent. But AG is more experienced in the NBA and is slightly better offensively.

The Spoon and EG comparison is difficult because they are very different. EG is clearly more talented and taller. Spoon is stronger and is a better man defender and better rebounder. EG is a better blocker, and has better range. But Spoon's midrange shot is more reliable. He works harder on the floor, and in general doesn't mess up his assignments as much as EG.

Even if you don't agree with these, it is still pretty obvious that we have better players than last year. The improvement of Yao alone should give us at least 4 or 5 more wins.

 

Easy,

I don't understand what you're trying to get across. First you say that a player = himself from last year. Then later you factor in JVG's influence? Read my last post on the + and -'s of the Rockets players from last year. Only Francis, IMO, is a -. Cato, Mobley, and MoT have all done exceptionally well under JVG.

So by that account, job well done JVG.

HOW is it obvious?!?! You just admitted to me that all our new additions are debatable when comparing them to the players we had last season. By you saying we have a better roster, you're admitting that JVG has had a + influence on the players that are still here and has made them better.

If it weren't for SF having the worst year of his young career, 4 or 5 should've been a minimum.

 

Cato didn't do exceptionally well compared to last year. He started playing well under Rudy, not JVG. Mobley and Taylor seems to play better, but I don't think you can say "exceptionally" better. Even if we grant that these individuals play better, are they playing better collectively? That's the coach's job. That's the question of the thread. You don't seem to understand my point. JVG inherit these players (Francis, Cato, Mobley, Taylor). They have the same talent. Do they play better under JVG as a team?

No the only debatable ones are Spoon, JJ, and AG. What about MJ vs. Moochie, and Padgett vs. Collier? What about second year Yao vs. first year Yao? Isn't it obvious that JVG has better players than Rudy?

Did Francis naturally lose his talent this year? On the other hand, Yao has naturally improvement due to his familiarizing the NBA game and the added upper body strength.

 

Cato's performance this year compared to last is a big improvement. It's no secret. You can even go back to preseason and read Cato's comments about JVG making him drop the weight. Don't try to praise Rudy for Cato's turnaround. He did not play near as well as he is now. In a nutshell, Cato played and was the cause of our losing streak last year. This year, he's the cause of our losing streak because he went on IR. There's more than a minimal difference.

You're comparing players who see 5-10 minutes a game to players who never got off the bench. Replace the two and there's not a big difference. Second year Yao IS better than the first year Yao. HOWEVER, back to my point, SF is considerably worst than last year. More so, his differential outweights Yao's improvement IMHO.

No, Francis weaknesses were just exposed. He can't play in a system, and he can't be a point guard in an inside-out game plan. Simple enough.

 

Cato is averaging one more rebound this year in eight more minutes a game. His FG percentage is the worst it's ever been since he's been in Houston.

His best year by far was '01-'02; the minutes were nearly identical to this year:

'01-'02
6.6 pts, 7.0 rebs, 58% fg

'03-'04
6.1 pts, 6.9 rebs, 45% fg

You also mentioned Cuttino as having flourished this year. Let's take a look at his FG percentage numbers by year:

'98-'99: .425
'99-'00: .430
'00-'01: .434
'01-'02: .438
'02-'03: .434
'03-'04: .424

So you have both Francis and Mobley having career-low shooting years. But as usual, I'm sure you and others will give JVG all the credit for improving the defense, and blame the players for their offensive woes.

You mentioned Mo as having flourished. I didn't hear anything about him missing the entire '01-'02 season due to injury, however. Might that have something to do with his 'improvement' this year? His rebounding, scoring, and shooting percentage were all better in '00-'01 than they are this year.

Some people already knew this. Rudy T. probably being one of them. Yet he didn't try to turn Francis into something he wasn't. It's called playing to the strengths of your players. Is Van Gundy doing this?

 

Yes. To Yao Ming's.

Would you rather him play to Francis' like Rudy did?

JVG is going to the playoffs.
Rudy is at home.

I loved the guy, but he's gone. Let it go Freak, let it go.

 

You just don't get it, do you? This is exactly what we are talking about. Francis's weaknesses are exposed. Is the coach's job hiding or exposing the player's weaknesses?

As for Cato, please don't tell me his turnaround happened this season. Everybody on this board knows his turnaround happened early last season when Yao became the starting center. He changed from the punching bag of this board to someone who got praises. BTW, both his rebounds per minute and his fg% are down this year.

 

well bravo to his coach for making sure to expose his weaknesses. God forbid we go for francis playing well.


Yes. To Yao Ming's.

Would you rather him play to Francis' like Rudy did?

francis was the best player on the team last year, it was necessary, but ming was getting more integrated the more the year went on and would've been a big, most certainly the biggest, focal point of the offense this year. like rudy didn't like going to the post or something. it helps when the guy actually becomes good instead of putting up 7 and 5 every third game.

JVG is going to the playoffs.
Rudy is at home.


lol, jvg gets a much improved yao (much improved) by virtue of going from year 1 to 2, gets a better sf position, only marginally loses out on the pf position, gets a better backup pg and a healthier mo and he's trying to maybe squeak out one or two more wins. yeah, he really showed rudy how it's done. just because the other teams managed to slightly disimprove to allow virtually the same win total in the playoffs doesn't really mean much.

 

Why does it have to be either/or?

Francis was the best player on the team last year. Yao Ming is this year. ALL coaches feature their best player. The only way a coach would NOT feature his best player would be if that coach wasn't interested in winning.

HOWEVER, that doesn't mean you can't utilize what Francis brings at the same time.

No, the ROCKETS, with an improved Yao Ming and more vets, are going to the playoffs in a weaker conference. JVG is along for the ride.

 

Interesting question.

Yes, coaches do "play to the strengths" of their players. That's true. Rudy did it. He let Francis play "free-style." Free-style (ISO) was Francis's strength. The problem was that the "weaknesses" in Francis *other parts of his game* were so lacking that it didn't matter what Rudy did. Francis's strong points didn't compensate enough. Rudy had a player that didn't improve as the years went by. He wasn't a high scoring (small) SG like Iverson...and at the same time he wasn't a efficient PG like Nash. And he certainly wasn't a hybrid like Payton, Isiah or Cassell.

Big problem....

Now, JVG comes in...knows all about this...and basically grounds Francis. Why? Because the good things Francis would bring to this team (if he was to be let loose) would also come with the baggage of "not getting others involved." This equates to achieving a scoring average of 21ppg. Which by itself really isn't that much. It's not worth it. Not with the baggage that it would bring.

Thus, the offense has switched to Yao.