In lieu of last nights game against the Laker, and keeping the preseason in mind (I know the preseason doesnt mean much), I think Van Gundy needs to play our bench more. I think the line up of Lucas, Head, Novak, Padgett, and Hayes doing what they did last night was not a fluke. They play with a lot of passion and the new rules allow them a lot of freedom. My real thinking though in this is that the Rockets play too much (especially with no Mcgrady) one style of basketball which is pound the ball into Yao. I think if Van Gundy lets that unit come out and just play (ie no real plays just run down spread the court and get the best shot up thats possible) it could really throw teams off. Then when you go back to Yao and the typical offense teams wont be able to adjust as easily to Yao. Anywayz let me know what you guys think, am i crazy or do i have a valid point?
i watched san antonio and 1 other team retake a game with their bench this season. the san antonio game was when they beat the rockets. if pop isn't afraid to trust his bench, then jvg ought to try it more often. if your starters don't have the energy then what do you have to lose? same thing jeff told his bench before they entered the game against the lakers.
except jeff waits until its pretty much too late barring anything short of a miracle. he doesnt really trust the bench, or believe they could have done as well as they did. you would think after all these years in the league he would realize that you have to mix it up on offense when things arent going well. and defense and offense are mutually exclusive. if you are constantly incapable of scoring, you will be completely demoralized on defense, no matter how hard you try. defense wins championships, but scoring wins games.
Or at least drive when he is open to force the defense to rotate which allows him to pass to someone else who is open. DD
Yes, but from what i've seen, he's dribble penetration is almost as mediacore as he's shooting ability.
i agree completely. rafer should have realized after missing his first couple 3s that he didnt have it going, and should have used his handles to break down the defense and try to create. he is an excellent ballhandler and great things happen when he drives in aggressively. the problem is that he didnt, and he kept playing the same way the entire game. now certainly we should blame rafer for his poor decision making, but what about the coach? for someone that we all assume is a 'my way or the highway' kind of guy, it seems unreasonable that rafer was out there crapping up the arena without van gundy's complete approval. do we really think rafer would have kept playing like that if van gundy had told him to stop? either van gundy didnt give rafer any specific adjustments to make, or he has zero control over his players. i dont know which is worse. all i know is, the onus is on the coach to control his players and guide them to play better. i didnt see any guidance last night.
You post on this forum so yes, you are crazy. And you do have something of a point - play the bench more. But come on, they will run some real plays. Lucas can set some picks to free up Novak for some 3's. (kidding)
I didn't get to see the game but what I am most impressed with is the appearance of a smothering defense from our bench. Did our bench really play defense this well or were they just playing against the fakers bench which happened to be shooting poorly?
The Laker's benched all their starters. Kobe actually had his knee on ice. That's the main reason our starter-less bench had success. Anyone who thinks we should play a starterless lineup of Lucas, Head, Novak, Padgett and Hayes in any situation other than a blowout is over thinking this. No coach would do that. go ahead, make the case that you would do that as an NBA coach. Reveal yourself ...
At least it seems that JVG has more options in the pg position (JL3,Spanoulis,Head), so their summer plans seem to work out a bit...
True, but that lineup has 4 legitimate 3 point threats. I think some of those players need to get some play with our starters. Players like V-Span and Novak and JL3 would benefit from playing with Tmac a lot. DD
ummm, are you for real? Hell, they all could benefit from playing with TMac a lot. So, you're saying that TMac should just play 48 mpg so that each guy gets to play some with him? Or are you talking about a bench rotation where all rookies come in together to play with TMac? Or are you talking about playing V-Span each game, but Novak on odd days and JL3 on even days with TMac, so TMac never really gets to build chemistry with his bench? btw: when does Head get minutes off the bench with TMac in your rotation of V-Span, Novak, JL3. Is it that 3 guard rotation with Novak playing center that we haven't seen, yet? Shouldn't we also be allowing Bonzi to finally start playing his way into shape? What about when Snyder comes back? The bench is Head, Snyder, Bonzi (or who we trade him for), and a center in Howard or Mutombo. You can add one more player to that...VSpan to make 10, but adding more for anything other than garbage minutes or due to injuries is not going to happen. Arguing otherwise is freaking boring as hell. meaningless boring ... Good thing you got a BBS with plenty other boring posters to make that 12 man rotation talk seem like the right thing to do.
I didn't have a chance to watch the game last night but from reading the recaps it sounds like the Rox went small and that small lineup hustled hard to get back in the game. The pound the ball into Yao is a good strategy especially when Yao is putting up the numbers that he is but the one thing I've liked about our bench players, particularly V-Span, is the energy they bring. I don't think JVG should be featuring an all bench lineup + Chuck Hayes but I think bringing in those guys and going small helps every now and then when the Rox look like they are bogging down.
Bingo. As for the bench, they played against the Lakers bench. No way does that lineup go on the court again except for more garbage time. But I think with their success last night they may have each earned a few more minutes of individual rotation time, especially w/ Tmac out.
The problem is JVG. I don't think our players are bad. But a coach has to find a way to put them together. And he has to adjust when things don't work out. That is JVG's weakness. He should use more weapons than the same plan for ever. No players can work well all the time. You need Kerr for Spurs and Brian Shaw for lakers. He should let the players grow up to be good for champion team. And don't let them down. Look at our guys. They are so depressed under this coach. Phil Jackson tried to let Horry shoot the clutch shot in regular season. And that paid them well in the playoff. Did you ever see our coach do that? Head was lucky to get minutes to grow only when we had no one to use last year. I don't think other young guys could have chance this year. So if our players make mistakes a lot, don't blame them. Blame coach. He is the head of the team. But anyway, I don't think we can fire JVG now and I still don't see the "Fire JVG" thread now. But if the coach doesn't learn from this game and still be his stubborn self for ever, we can see the end of his days in Rox after this season.
^ Well I'm not a big JVG fan but in general his stubborn system has worked. I agree that he doesn't seem to be able to think on the fly that much and it takes time for him to trust his players.
