On the post game interview, JVG blamed the defense for not performing in the game. So lets give him another chance next year to tighten the defense even more, so maybe we can hold the Jazz to 80 points while we score a lower team record than the 67 points in the palyoffs. Defense is all what JVG is all about, and at the end of the biggest game this season, the players and JVG failed defensively and could not even foul a player and let the clock tun our with our season hopes on the line in game 7 agianst the Jazz. This proves that JVG not only is a bad coach, bad evaluator for talen, but a bad teacher as well. I thought after the 40 points blowout by Dallas in game 7, 2 years ago JVG would have taken care of the defense issues by now, and Les Alexander added another year on JVG contract then to tell him I trust you and here is more time to address the issues. I am not going to say anything no the offense becasue that is a lost battle anyways. But do we really need to give JVG more time?
another coach thread? lets talk more about the people who actually folded on the court...like yao/tmac/etc
when a player folds, you must replace him with a bench player at least for a while, OH........my bad what bench
JVG is a defensive specialist . . it is his claim to fame If his defense fails .. . what have you left? QUESTION: this is serious . . .why was our defense so much worse than it was in the regular season? Easy to say the Jazz were just more talented but I don't recall that being the case in the regular season. Rocket River
Even in the regular season, it would be insanely difficult to hold opponents under 90 points for 7 straight games, and there will always be one game when the Rockets would slip up defensively. The playoffs exposed and emphasaized that.
He needs to let someone who knows something about offense run the offense.!!!!! He might be a genius at defense, but he fails miserably at the offensive end. He's predictable, stubborn and unimaginative. If he were able to let someone else (someone with a good offensive scheme ala Tex Winter) run the offense, then I would have no problem with him staying head coach. He has the respect of his players which is worth something. Imagine having a coach like Karl running this team. The horror, the horror!!!! The offense, or lack of, is what hurt the most. See game 3. I really believe if we had a better run offense, instead of relying on 3's and set plays that eat up 15 to 18 seconds of the clock, we would have had a better chance of winning the series. Of course hitting our open shots would have helped. It was just a snowball effect. The more we missed open shots, the more we fell behind, the more we had to had to shoot 3's that we weren't hitting in the first place. The offense needs to be totally reworked. Especially running plays for Yao where he doesn't have to fight for position every play to get an open shot or any shot. He looked lost in this series....on both ends. The defense wasn't bad, especially when you compared it to the offense.
During regular season, teams play almost every other day, there is no time to made much adjustment for different teams; in playoff, teams got more time to dissect every single strength and weakness of an opponent, and design plays to count it, hence it's more about how good your game plan, and how good your team execute that plan. Of course, the ability to make the adjustment during the game is very important as well, but those should be covered already during the game preparation.
The Rockets held the Jazz to 75, 90, 81, 98, 92, 94, and 103. Their season average is 90.4 ppg. I don't see how our defense in the playoffs failed us, no matter how much JVG repeats it. Our defense was fine. In fact, more than fine. It was good. What failed us was the offense. I respect JVG a lot, but I can swear he undervalues offense as part of a team's success.
Well you kinda contradicted your own argument there. We gave up 96.8 points a game to the Jazz in the last 4 games of the series. We only won one of those games(Game 5) and we barely pulled that one out. Mehmet Okur hits that 3-pointer in the last minute, and it's over in Utah in Game 6. In fact, he DID hit that 3-pointer in Game 7 and that was the difference. So the defense did in fact fail the Rockets as the series progressed. The easiest explanation for this was that Utah figured out how to attack on offense(namely the pick and roll and Boozer against Yao) and we never made any adjustments. This culminated in the disasterous Game 7 showing where the Rockets surrendered 53 points and 58% shooting at the half and 103 points and 50% shooting overall. Van Gundy's a brilliant defensive coach and a mediocre offensive one. In the Jazz series, he never made any adjustments to get the Rockets players easier shots. And when Utah started having more offensive success against us, he never changed anything on the defensive end to counter Jerry Sloan. He shares just as much blame as anyone else for what happened in the postseason.
I agree. We lost because our defense disappeared. Our offense wasn't all that bad, especially the last 4 games of the series.
Well, you can break down the ppg given up anyway you want, but at the end we gave up exactly what we're expected to given the regular season. Sure, we got worse of the series, but that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. All games are weighted the same. If we managed to even be mediocre in game 3 on offense, this series would be over in 5 games, and we'd all be discussing the GSW games right now.
JVG is a dillhole, look at Utah in GS series. They are going to town on Utah. WE NEED OFFENSE. JVG should be fired, or demoted to defensive coordinator.
I mean GS, Utah is just ripping them a new one, hell, we held Okur from shooting threes until game 6!
I agree with the original post...of course defense is important especially in the playoffs. But when you put too much pressure on one end of the court to perform you will not succeed. You need to have a balanced offense and defense. That is why Detroit and San Antonio are perenially great playoff teams. It is also imperative that you develop some offensive schemes other than have tmac penetrating for his life and trying to create for others. He is slowing down and this mileage that is accruing is not going to make him a better offensive player in the future. This is analagous to the Astros in the world series. Pitching was their greatest asset but when you try to win on the grand stage with all defense and no offense youre gonna get shut out and lose by a run or two. That is what will keep happening to the Rockets if we don't balance our game plan. JVG was seriously outcoached in this series and his lack of depth was exposed. Who knows if he'll attempt to develop v-span and Novak next year. If this is the best that JVG can do then we need a change of leadership.
