Read this interesting interview of Caroll Dawson in sina.com. http://sports.sina.com.cn/s/2005-01-02/0559458491s.shtml What do you guys think ? Do you agree with Caroll Dawson's assessment of the Rockets ??
IMHO, I saw 2 messages here. Firstly: He said: "I am not saying I am not satisfied with JVG's coaching" Why did he had to qualify his words like that ? In essence, is he saying I am not satisfied with JVG's coaching ?? Secondly: He rated the team 60 points when they only achieved 50% winning ratio. He could only be saving the 50 points slot for himself. If he rates the team at 50%, then he could be with 40 points which is a F grade !!!
Here's mine: Yao Ming + Tracy McGrady: 60 Jeff Van Gundy: 5 Guards: 30 Power Forwards: 0 Rockets: 20 CD: 5
In school, that grade deserves a big fat F as in FAILED. In business, that grade deserves a big fat F as in FIRED. If Dawson truly believes his score is a 50, he should be giving himself the pink slip.
Points? Out of how many? Is this a percentage of 100? Or is this Who's Line Is It, Anyway? The points don't matter, but we know who sucks.
Power Forwards: 65 points??? This team has $73MM invested in its power forwards (Taylor, Howard, Weatherspoon, and Padgett). Surely, they must be better than a '65' or else maybe CD's score was a bit too high...
I agree with his assessments for the most part, however Yao and T-Mac should be graded separately. T-Mac - 93% T-Mac was brought in expected to play more of a team oriented game. He came in and did just that and the team's play suffered because he was on a proverbial leash. JVG has seemed to have unhooked that leash and encouraged T-Mac to play his game, but stay within the boundaries of his yard to protect the home. T-Mac appears to be doing everything asked of him and the results have been good, but not great because of no fault of his own. It's his teammates that haven't been pulling their weight. Yao - 75% Yao has upped his scoring slightly which is good. He rebounding has remained consistent, but in my eyes has been below the level of where it should be since he came into the league. Yao must become a more aggressive rebounder if he is ever going to put his stamp on the game. 7'6" players should not get outrebounded by 6'8-6'10" guys on a regular basis. He needs to come strong on the glass and on the basket. Yao is arguably the biggest man in the NBA. He needs to start playing like it. Additionally he is turning the ball over too often trying to create for himself. He needs to let his teammates do that by getting him the ball deeper and in higher percentage scoring positions. It's not entirely his fault, but he does have some control over it. JVG - 72% JVG deservedly takes alot of heat for the way this team plays, which at times is probably as painful as having someone slowly pull out each of your finger and toenails with a pair of pliers! Assuming he has at least a fair say in who his personnel are, a couple of the offseason deals are questionable. Ward for 2 years + 1 team option when the likes of Damon Jones and Mike James were available immediately comes to mind. Still, he is a fiery competitor, great defensive mind and is known for running a tight ship. He's known for being an a-hole, but has also shown that he has a light side too. I think he takes losing very personally which comes through in the media and with how he handles his players. I don't agree that it's the most effective coaching method, but he is who he is and these highly paid professionals need to deal with it the right way. I know I wouldn't want players that need to be coddled, so I don't have much of a problem with JVG. I just wish he could run a more exciting offensive scheme. Considering the turnover in players and recent trades, I'm reluctantly satisfied to be at .500. Guards - 63% before trades(73% and climbing after trades) Our guards have always been the Rockets pinata. We bash them until....well, until we get a new one. No single guard stood out much except for Sura, who can really impress you or make you cover your eyes. Sura is and always will be a momentum player. When he's on, he's fun to watch on offense and on defense. When he's off, look out for bricks and turnovers. He's been very active on the court rebounding, passing and creating turnovers. Lue, who wasn't doing much, was traded for Jon Barry who should bolster the Rockets 3 point shooting. JJ(bench player in a starters role) and Nachbar(garbage man who I still respect for flooring Karl Malone) are gone for David Wesley, who I feel will really help the Rockets backcourt play a consistent brand of old-school basketball where guys work as a team in the halfcourt set and can get out and run when necessary. Power Forwards - 58% These guys are softer than Lindsey Lohan's unaltered breasts. They're all average defenders and rebounders at best. To make matters worse, they are all 15'-22' shooters, rather than post up players willing to make their defender work in the low post. This creates alot of long rebounds with opposing teams eat up and push for easy baskets. At this point, the power forward spot is the Rockets weakest point other than not having a true, dedicated small forward. Rockets Overall - 62% I give them this score because of the improvements I feel they have made with their personnel over the past few weeks. I probably would have scored them higher because of the expectations we all had for them going into the season, but the record explains itself. IMO, on paper they are a better team than they were going into the season. They still have alot of room for improvement and I feel that we will see a better performing team in the weeks and months to come. CD - 55% I'll give CD a little more credit than he probably deserves here. CD made the deal to get arguable the most talented scorer in the league, but may have taken on too much dead weight(salary wise) in the process. Dealing Lue for a bigger shooter helped alleviate some of the lack of scoring from the backcourt, but the dead weight is still there and likely will be for a long time. The trade for Dikembe Mutombo may have been the second most important aquisition in the offseason. It provided a legitimate backup for Yao Ming and got the Rockets off the hook for Erik Piatkowski's final year as Mutombo's contract ends after this season. The biggest blunder of the offseason was settling on Charlie Ward while younger and equally or more talented players like Damon Jones and Mike Wilks signed elsewhere without the Rockets brass flinching. The Rockets then added Bob Sura as a possible starting point guard and backup to T-Mac. The controversial trade of Jim Jackson and Bostjan Nachbar for David Wesley has yet to play out. It leaves a hole at the small forward spot, but if T-Mac can slide into that role, while Wesley, Sura and the rest of the guards hold down the backcourt, it could prove beneficial.
I concur. Im excited about this team's prospects. I think Barry/Sura/Wesley give us a dynamic 3 guard rotation that, most importantly, will always play hard and give max effort. So far, T-Mac is flourishing as a 3. The X-Factors for this team are Howard, Mo and Yao IMO. If Yao can consistently give 20/10 or even 18/9, if Howard can solidify himself as the starting 4 and if Mo can continue to nail down his jump shoot, then this team will be in good shape. Go Rockets!
