You're on point.....^5 As much as others (and myself) included, we have criticized JVG until days' end. But here is one area, we should be given him praise for. I think he was one of the main reasons that Yao and even T-Mac improved their game a bit. I think Yao went from a reactive, wing-center who somewhat shyed away from the basket. With Van-Gundy, his numbers steadily improved over a few seasons, as JVG had him take control of the paint (offensively/defensively). ANd he has consistenly been (18.5 ppg - 26 ppg) with about (9.0 rebs - 10 rebs a game). On the other hand, T-Mac became more of "passing type" foward....while this might've happened in reaction to the lack of legitimate point guards....it was an option JVG elected to choose. And, it for the most part worked. Even as T-Mac is still quite capable of being 26 ppg to 31 ppg a night scorer, he pretty much showed the league that he's one of the better passing scorers in the league. I don't think it's the end of the world for T-Mac and Yao...there are alot of stars and great players who have never made it to playoffs once in their career or didn't win championship or go deep into playoffs until about their 7th or 10th season in league. You're team can't just wake up and win a championship, you have to have the right pieces for everything to work. Look at Shaq in L.A. for the first 4 years...on paper...the Lakers had the best team like every year....Jones, Van Exel, Campbell, Threatt, Fox, Fisher, and Kobe....later on it was Kobe, Fisher, Fox, Rice, and Rodman. But they seem to run into teams, like Jazz and Spurs that beat them fairly easily.
Thats the point though. If we had been beaten fairly easily in the series it would have been less painful or easier to admit that we were beaten because of the patently deficient or disparity in talent in our lineup. But to stretch the game to seven (7) games on both series shows that the teams are more evenly matched and would tend to point to the coaching and tactics that won the series. Had we been swept in the series against the Jazz, it would be fairly obvious that they were the superior team.. but we were not... we stretched it or they managed to stretch it to seven games and we had homecourt advantage to boot. We were the better team in the regular season. Basketball is game of momentum, swings, breaks , and situational circumstances... the coach who makes the right adjustment , or the team that gets the lucky break could win in the playoffs. for example, a lucky break that could have propelled us was to the second round was if rafer suddenly or miraculously shot well in that seventh game. Sadly, reality bites ... he shot miserably in that seventh game. Whether that was the right strategy to begin with is another matter that points directly to the coach. But had it happened , we would probably be patting JVG on the back.
Bonzi Wells. Looking forward to the resurgence of Bonzi Wells and for Adelman to let him loose on Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs for us. Bonzi is the Spurs killer! <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uca66cK-WrA"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uca66cK-WrA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> and ya..I'm a glass half full kinda dude. Forget last year. It was an abberation on Bonzi's career with JVG. It's a new day.
this was what i didn't understand with bonzi. i don't care how out of shape he is. i don't care how fat he was to start the season. i really don't care. as a coach and as anyone who understands the game of basketball, our depth of on the perimeter after tracy mcgrady was basically pathetic (in terms of creating their own shot). he could have used bonzi 5-10 mins to get him into game shape, then increase it gradually. i mean, the season ain't 30 games, it ain't 50 games, it ain't 60 games, it's FREAKING 82 games. we needed bonzi in the playoffs to provide us w/ scoring off the bench. JVG was too stubborn. bonzi def. had his faults and it wasn't all on JVG. but as a coach for a team and knowing the team's weakness on the perimeter, i would def. would have pushed bonzi out there and let him do what he did. i mean, bonzi would have negated harpring. if bonzi can play 70% of what he did w/ the kings, we're gonna be thankful.
btw, bonzi in that clip showed his post play (which is amazing for a perimeter player btw) and how he can score basically garbage points (via broken plays or offensive rebounds). he hustles/rebounds... all the intangibles are there. whatever, i'm praying for a rejuvenated bonzi and a coach who's willing to play him.
Every year I always start out optomistic about the Rockets chances to become NBA champions. Last year I was very excited to see how much we would own the west, but every positive note we had high hopes for didn't work out well . This year however, we have 2 of our favorite point guards back, a new coach, we basically stole Scola from S.A., and more importantly I know T-Mac wants to go out and prove that he can make it out of the 1st round, after what he'd said before the series was over. we have a very good chance this year.
Yeah,but really honest we all expected more from Bonzi last season so there isn't so big ecxuse for being in that type of "shape".JVG's fault it is but Bonzi could try harder.Remember he left the team!!
we are def better this year and I think we can compete against the elite in the west this year....we have a nice team..can't wait
Yes he left the team. He left us stuck out there high and dry without our third scoring option. On the other hand, why would he act this way? Who leaves a team on the verge of the playoffs? What player in his right mind doesn't want to compete for a chance to win a ring? What possible motive could Bonzi have for leaving us just before the playoffs? I'm not buyin the I am a detriment to the chemistry of the team BS.
i think he left the team b/c during the absence of either tracy or yao during the season, which was the PERFECT time to give bonzi enough minutes to get himself REALLY into shape, JVG still was not giving him enough minutes. bonzi knew he was not gonna get minutes and an opportunity (after getting off on a wrong side w/ JVG) so he just ask for a leave of the team not to disrupt the chemistry of the team.
im not confident we can beat the spurs or suns yet. we still lack their depth at perimeter shooting. the only reliable perimeter shooters we have are luther head and mike james, and who knows how many minutes head will get. its not good when your best 3 point shooter is mike james.
i forgot battier hes probably our best 3 point shooter but once hes guarded he's nullified since he cant create his shot.
What Chemistry? If Bonzi can contribut for 5-10 minutes as a ****** he can contribute. If not, then just sit him on the bench next to Vspan and Big Jake. No harm no Foul. Like I said before, I don't buy this disrupt the chemistry of the team nonsense.
that's why he quit. if he kept staying and pouting over the lack of minutes he THINKS he should be getting, there would be internal problems. he left before it started. that's WHY he left.
Like Yao said : " talk less, do more, do more great stuff" We want to see what Yao going to do this year
What we lack in shooting we make up in depth in post play and slashing. We also have the athletes to cover the perimeter in defense, which is a huge improvement from last year when we had to rely on alston/head (horrific defense)
We beat the Spurs pretty badly during the regular season. More than twenty points on different occasions. Manu said in an interview they were very happy the Jazz beat us because they didn't want to meet us in the playoffs. We beat them in spite of some poor shooting and offensive system... what more with better shooters and an all-star caliber coach. you forgot to mention brooks, who is a champion in the college 3 point shootout and can flat out shoot. We don't have to rely exclusively on three point shooting to open up the lane because Adleman's motion offense is versatile enough to open the lane for cutters and slashers.
