Give me a break! Don't insult my intelligence. You don't take stands any more than anyone else. It's your jumping around like a yoyo and reactionary posting during the season that sets people off. You said you didn't dislike JVG personally, yet your signature a couple of days ago was a personal shout out to "Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya". I understand nuance very well but you morph nuance into contradiction. Or maybe your definition of nuance is different from everyone else's. I'm not trying to be mean and I usually ignore you, but I couldn't lay off this time. I've learned through life that people who think they are misunderstood on a regular basis are usually poor communicators. Anyway, Go Rockets. Hopefully things will improve because if they don't, it will get uuuuuuugly.
But they played great defense, didn't they? Great defense wins championships, haven't you heard? Actually, my biggest gripe about JVG has always been roster construction. His idea of building a team is like: get players whom he thought would help; discard them if he couldn't coach them. Next year, same old cycle again.
Watch the Cavs offense against the Pistons (or just remember what happened in last year's series). Mike Brown is hard core about defense because it's the ONLY thing he knows. Worst offensive coach I can remember. Without LeBron, this guy would have been fired and run out of town from any team he took over by now. Nobody who's seen 10-15 Cavs games this year can convince me Brown is better at coaching offense than JVG. JVG is bad, Brown is horrible.
The Rockets in this season is not a good defensive team at all, especially in play off time. At the very beginning, we can somewhat shut down like AK47, Okur even Boozer. But our defense is way too predictable and the Jazz's offese improved in every single game in that 7-game series.
You might be true about Mike Brown, since I don't follow the Cavs. The point was our offense under JVG just plain sucks, the guy just didn't know how to coach an offense. I don't understand why people use the players as the excuse for him. The guy has coached the Knicks many years, and the Rockets for 4 years, all of those teams have one common problem, couldn't score enough points. If you still cannot see this, then you really have a problem.
JVG is not a good offensive coach, but the main reason our offense was sorry is lack of talent. So maybe you have the problem if you cannot see this. JVG the pathetic GM (who was "fired" when Morey was hired) is another discussion.
I don't think it was Jeff's "Defense First" attitude that got him the axe. I think we have some talented people on our team that are being utilized very well... maybe they can't play defense worth a crap... OK. So we go ten minutes in a game where our defense sucks but we'll have 10+ guys we can really depend on... and potential sparks off the bench. Our championship teams had some deep benches. Plus its not like our players are just gonna stop playing defense cuz Jeff isn't their coach. I'm sure that a lot of that attitude will remain with the players.
even if there's one exception..the Bad Boys...it proves the point that you can. that's my point. i've SEEN that happen. that team didn't have one player who averaged 20 ppg (Isiah was at 19). they won entirely on defense. the Heat last year showed that a commitment to defense can get it done over a team that's more talented. i've seen that happen before...i've haven't seen a team play "Phoenix-like" basketball and win a championship in the past 20 years. as for the rockets...i'm fine with improving the offense. i'm not saying they shouldn't. except i'd define that as bringing in a legit 3rd scoring option. i think if they had that...with the same commitment to defense...we wouldn't be talking about Adelman right now.
You mean it was not JVG, but the "pathetic GM" went out to bring Spoon, Mark Jackson, Charlie Wood, Mutombo, even Ewing to the Rockets? That's a news to me. Didn't JVG repeatedly said that there is so little difference between the talent level among teams in this league, it's the effort and execution separate them? Didn't the Knicks have 20+ scorers in Allan Houston, Sprewell, Ewing over those years, but still struggled to score enough points to win? BTw, when I say "you", I meant it in a general way, not you A_3PO in particular.
Many don't agree with this, but I separate JVG the obviously sorry GM from JVG the coach. My hope with bringing Morey on board (without any input from JVG) was that final word on personnel decisions would be taken out of his hands. Take Mike Holmgren of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks as an example. When he first went there, he had total control of both operations, personnel and coaching. The problem was he wasn't good at personnel decisions and it almost got him fired. The Hawks reduced him to just being the coach and they made the Super Bowl a couple of years later. My hope was a good GM could create a talent-laden roster that JVG the coach take all the way. I didn't pay much attention to the Knicks when JVG was there. As I remember it, he only had one roster that was very good and the brawl suspensions in Miami cost them the series in the 2nd round. (They probably would have lost to the Bulls anyway). I don't think they had a problem scoring but you can check the stats. JVG's rambling blather about "little difference between the talent level among teams" is just that, rambling blather.
did we lack so much talent that we couldnt break 20 pts in a Q? Maybe you dont thingk too highly of tmac, yao and battier. I think you are open-minded enough to at least say they are better than decent players. Gundy's offense stunk! this was the main reason. uglier than the jazz series (wanna watch that again?). Uglier than game seven of the mavs series? lol.
Not true at all. Do you understand what off and def efficiency means? It's basis is pts per 100 possessions. Les and many fans here want a more uptempo offense. PPG incorporates this attribute, but pts per 100 possessions does not. Similarly on the defensive side, PPG Allowed incorporates both defensive efficiency and speed of your own team's offense (since the other squad either has more or less total possessions to score). When it comes right down to it, the point differential is about that best stat to indicate a winning team and PPG and Allowed are all that is needed to calculate it, whereas efficiency is lost in the equation.
I think these stats show that offense matter as well. Its about balance. Defense alone does not win championships http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=129814
From my standpoint, Tracy let the team down on offense with his shot selection. Yao did too by not destroying single coverage. (Yao may have his toe injury as a valid excuse). Luther, Juwan and Rafer were complete garbage the entire series. None of that is JVG's fault except for Tracy's shot selection. I've criticized JVG's offense more times than I can count, but the breakdown in the Jazz series wasn't totally his fault. A lot of it was the lack of talent and character of the players. What I mean by ugly is 52-30 was a very good regular season record considering the injuries. Les fired the coach responsible. Next season if the Rockets struggle during the regular season, lose in the 1st round again or miss the playoffs (injuries or not), it will be uuuuugly. MUCH more than it is now.
The problem is that if Utah was coached by JVG and Houston was coached by Sloan the result would likely have been the same. Their roster is better top to bottom. Yao < Boozer TMac > Fisher Rafer < Willams Hayes < Okur Battier > AK47 (vs the Rockets, against GS he picked it up considerably) Howard < Milsap Head < Harpring Lucas < Giricek Mutumbo = Collins Utah's core bench rotation would start for us. I mean sure we all want better defense AND offense, but that is usually a function of better players not better coaching, particularly on the offensive end. Put D'Antoni or Nelson as our coach and it isn't going to make Luther Head make the wide open 3's he missed. It isn't going to turn Alson into Nash or Baron Davis. It isn't going to turn Yao in Amare Stoudamire. Or make Juwaun Howard make the wide open shots he was missing for most of the series. In the end it comes down to the players making shots to have a good offense and regardless of who coaches we have ONE rotation player in TMac who can create his own shot. With roster improvements we will improve, without them it won't matter who the coach is.
