"Built for the playoffs"

Sammy, my friend....

The Rockets with a healthy Yao and McGrady are a WC playoff team. They are THAT good. The current Rockets personnel...which VG has assembled, approved of, played or didn't play...is a bad, bad basketball team.

Starting Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes and Rafer Alston is a 1st round exit waiting to happen. Whether the regular season is 52..60..or 62...It's a flawed team built on a flawed concept of one-dimensional spotup shooters. Works against the dregs of the EC...Not such a great concept vs the WC elites. IMHO, that's an already proven fact.

 

I agree that the rockets personnel outside of the big two is kind of ass. I think you oversubscribe to the JVG assembly rationale (though he had a lot to do with it no doubt) and think that's more of a shared burden. Had the Rox gotten their hands on Brandon Roy and Mike James, as they had initially intended, I doubt we're even having this conversation.

Well yeah - it works when they hit their shots, when they don't it doesn't. I've said this before but I'll repeat it, neither T-mac nor Yao was effective enough against Utah to force the double on a consistent basis (Tmac pullling up and launching an ill advised three while Utah was in the penalty at a CRITICAL point in game 6, on 3 or more possessions, rather than driving, will be ETCHED in my memory of him even when he goes to springfield...).

Likewise, when they actually did draw a double and kick out for an open jumper our role players dropped the ball - I mean take Luther and his nightmarish series. The guy was the freaking #4 3 point shooter in the entire LEAGUE during the regular season, with around a 44% average - AND he had very good (the best?) numbers in the 4th period/clutch time. WHo would have predicted him going into a shell in the playoffs? Certainly not me.

Anyway, I've said many times that I think the NBA is a players league and our players didn't make plays, starting with the big 2. That actually concerns me a lot more than who the guy calling the time outs or running the practices.

 

Who has Phil Jackson developed in his latest stint with the Lakers. Andrew Bynum cant even take Kwame Brown's minutes. Jordan Farmar spent as much time in the D-league as he did on the Lakers. Of course there is the great Sasha Vujacic. If only Phil Jackson knew how to coach, these three would be all world.

You blame JVG for not developing Vspan? Who was the first player to get minutes when Snyder went down. It was Vspan. He was terrible. He lost his spot. Did he deserve another chance? Maybe, if he earned it in practice. People act like Vspan was killing Tmac every day and JVG refused to play him. If he was the best option, he would have played. Novak can shoot but clearly was not ready for the other aspects of the NBA. Plus he really didnt even shoot that well when he did play this year.

Also at the start of last year, did anyone think that Head would be one of the top five three point shooters in the league. Did anyone think Hayes would be a major rotation player. Of course these are two young guys, whose games have improved under JVG, but he must have had no role in their improvement.

 

Excellent post!
But I still have doubt that JVG has problem how to use our bench layers,such as Bozi, Snyder, Span.

 

My opinion hasn't wavered since the first utterance by Ric Bucher during the draft that Gay was traded for Battier...it is totally a VG move...and the wrong one. While we could debate his participation/endorsement till dawn...it was Van Gundy's narrow focus of playing veterans in meaningless games that cost the Rockets a shot at Brandon Roy.

Further, it's hard for me to imagine adding low-keyed Battier to this squad, not getting the Grizz #24, losing the potential upside of Gay and NOT giving a fire-breathing bulldog like Mike James a $950k trade kicker. Is it VG...don't know. But it's among many reasons I NEVER, EVER saw this as a 60 win team.

SamFisher...
You watch enough games to know that better teams...elite WC teams...have quick, tall athletes. Athletes close out quicker and present taller obstacles for standstill shooters like Head and Alston who can't get their own shot to save their lives.

Instead of buying into the +/- stats, or reveling in Head, Alston and Battier at the arc...I observed that each and every one of them struggled mightily against elite (ie, quicker, taller) teams. The closeouts bothered them and they were powerless to take it to the rack and finish strong. Losing to the Jazz didn't surprise me at all.

So cutting to the bottomline...52 or 62...they are not going anywhere with the current talent that surrounds Yao and TMac. It's only a certified 60 win team if they shed the likes of Battier, Hayes and Alston. Otherwise, history repeats itself.

 

My point was twofold:

1. You picked a bunch of crappy players to try to prove JVG was a bad coach by not using them well so there is a problem in using those guys.

2. In some cases said crappy players were better under JVG than their recent (to him coaching them) previous or post-JVG history had/has shown so there is a problem in using those guys to prove JVG ruined them.

 

Hindsight is 20/20. Too many JVG worshipers went to the playoffs thinking this team could win the championship. There was still myopic fans who have that wishful thinking of we could win a ring this year after sound a$$ beating by the Jazz after 6 games.

I didn't hear about lack of talent causing the Rockets to fail before the playoffs from the delusional JVG lovers. All the JVG worshipers do is credit JVG with the low quality regular season wins, and discredit the players when team fails, which is pretty inconsistent.

JVG is a regular season coach. His team outworks the lazy teams and prey on the weak teams to pad wins, at the sacrifice of the playoffs, as that success formula doesn't work in the post season. When the Rockets couldn't win against the better teams in the regular season, you should know JVG is a regular season coach who doesn't have much chance in the playoffs.

It's not about personel but rather how they were used. JVG does not use half of the personel that were given to him. Out of the other half he actually uses, he fails to install a system to bring offensive flow, variety, and bread and butter, save the day kind of play to the team. That's not on the players, it's on the coach. The Rockets have not mastered any kind of team play under his coaching. His defense is overrated that didn't show up in two game 7s against the Mavs and the Jazz.

Regardless of the Rockets personel, the Rockets are a glass team in front of their opponents. No matter what player is on board, the opponents know what the Rockets are gonna do. JVG makes the opponents feel easier to stop the Rockets, it's like playing chess and know what your opponent is gonna do next.

A coach is the alchemist of the team. When a team has no chemistry, it's the alchemist who has to bear the brunt of blame. Learn what is accountability and stop b****ing about the players. They don't decide how to play, who to play and when to play. The problem of JVG is his mind goes blank in high pressure games. He doesn't know how to play, who to play and when to play. His last 10 seconds no call will remain a laughing stick among the real NBA coaches.

Everyone has to share the blame on a team for a failure, especially the coach. JVG has not prepared the team in the regular season for the playoffs,
has not a good system, has not developed chemistry among teammates.
Don't give me all that players missing shots crap, players miss shots all the time. The coach knows players miss shots, why doesn't he prepare for it with a deeper bench? All he does is sit the marksman Novak on the bench. Why doesn't he prepare the team to go inside when player misses shots? Lack the personel? well, then go out and find them in the FREAKING regular season! Stop that childish mug slinging contest with Bonzi Well, play him some and trade his a$$ when he has trade value. It's just typical JVG. Always getting stuck and fail to see the big picture. Out of so many years of worst offense in the league he doesn't hire a quality offensive assistant coach, unlike many other coaches do. JVG dug his own grave with his lack of confidence and security, he doesn't seek help when he needs help.

It's a misconception to equate Being articulate as Basetball IQ. JVG should be what he does best, a color commentator, not a head coach.

No excuses, JVG sucks.

 

JVG has demanded that management upgrade the team, specifically at PG and PF. Many knowldegable fans seem to see the same glaring defeciencies (V-Span or no V-span).

People here seem to think the reason we don't upgrade the team is because JVG is in love with his players... that simply isn't the case. Whoever the new coach is will likely want upgraded players as well.

The bottom line is that several teams are in the position where they are capped out... yet they find inventive ways to acquire talent. One source will be the draft... where our first round picks were as rare as diamonds after Rudy/CD/Les traded them all away.

 

A great deal of a players success depends on the system. Harpring earns his money running through screens and working the paint made possible by an active offense. Diaw only excelled in Phoenix where they have an active offense and he can make great passes to slashing players. No one was checking for Diaw when he was in Atlanta. You put them in our 2-play offense and you end up with dramatically less effective players.

You bring either one of the ppl you mentioned to the team and I believe we are still exactly where we at with JVG. A PG that can attack the basket, score and dish would work but only because that gives us a 3rd option to not fall back into a jump shooting only team. But you would be hard pressed to find a star PG, SG and C on any team unless one of those positions was filled by a young player who the coach/team developed.

 

I think Jeff and Les don't fit well with each other.

Jeff wants proven good players who typically cost more than undiscovered and unproven talents, however, unlike Cuban, Les is a boss who counts pennies.

My conclusion: Les is not going to get a proven third option for Rockets, and with Jeff, there will be no surprised takent discovered on Rocket team. So Rockets are not going to be elite team, and hence first round playoff exit is not a surprise.

 

i'd say it is highly questionable whether we would have the same regular season success with a different coach, especially with Yao out 2 months. I agree that regardless of the coach we need upgraded talent, but all of the "gamblers" out there seem to go with the assumption that gambling is going to result in better results rather than worse. Fact is it's called gambling for a reason and losing is more common than winning.

I do think that the roster moves have the most to do with where we are, and only the front office really knows how much influence JVG has. Jon Barry reported that he talked to Jeff last summer and JVG was unhappy with his lack of input on personnel moves, which could be a reason he would not return. It isn't like Jeff was in a position like Phil Jackson when he took over Kobe and Shaq for a title, or Larry Brown who took over a Piston's team that lost in the eastern conference finals the year before. Keep in mind that Adelman has zero titles and his Kings and Blazers were considerably more talented than the Rockets are now.

Bottom line is we need Battier to be the 5th or 6th best player to be contenders and right now he is our 3rd best option.

 

didn't you write sumpin using a Monty Python analogy of how TMac was different when Yao was out.

point is: the Yao injury effected (or is it "affected") this team noticeably. You've made that point before.

this is a different team without the injury. enough so, that I cannot make in conclusion about next year, because e v e r y t h i n g rides on how Yao responds to a blah playoff performances. imo, no other analysis matters except for what Yao does.

 

We aren't good enough.

 

I think we should reserve judgment until the end of the regular season, since we did go through a nasty funk where we lost a lot of games. During that period nobody even expected the Rockets to be in the playoffs. That said tomorrow's game is going to be big

 

Yeah it's true. The win streak is nice but we need to beat the great teams of the league.

It is likely that we will lose tomorrow and that is going to cause massive chain reaction across the board. Since they are (a) a division rival and (b) a team we'd probably meet in the playoffs and (c) a team we have trouble against often.

If we lose tomorrow it will have complications any loss would (allowing teams to catch up on us, losing ground to higher seeds) but it would also mean we are not ready to play with the big boys.

The only problem is, after a 10 game win streak on a back-to-back, something has to give.

 

1.we didn't have scola starting
2. tmac or yao was out
3. new system
4. terrible play of the vets
5. CHUCK WAGON STARTING


shut all that mess about cutting through the hype... because all we got now is the "hype" 10-0 when scola starts at PF

 

True. Good memory. But then you expect them to drop some games against sub-par competition. It would be nice to beat everybody.

Can we get some similar stats for the 2 championship seasons? Or other recent champions. I think it might be more important to be playing your best (subjective) bball when it matters. How about them 07-07 Mavs or those late 90s Jazz/early 90s Sonics?

 

As a Pats fan, I have to site the Giants beating us when it mattered. Doesn;t make them the better team in a technical sense. They beat us that given Sunday to coin a phrase.

The 95 Rockets were the 6th seed. It seems like they should have beaten the best teams. They sucked.

 

I think we have to look at the record since our offense has changed and T-mac and Yao have been healthy Also have to consider the additions of Scola, Brooks, and Landry as contributors - something that wasn't happening during those loses to Dallas and GS earlier. If you take that into consideration, the only top team we've played in the Spurs - who we beat.

We also beat the Warriors without T-mac.

So it's hard to judge right now. I think it won't be possible to judge this team because it's still evolving and growing. It's just hard to pin down.

It's certainly a better team than last year's team, but everyone else has upgraded too.