I agree. If we don't have a player with real fire (like Sura) in the locker room to help set the tone, then we sure as he** need a coach that can help motivate. Can you IMAGINE what this team would have done with a healthy Bob Sura???
He wasn't ready for this system. No mid range shot to speak of and can't hit a 3 and he was totally turnover prone, though he showed occasional flashes of promise when he would drive to the hoop or make a good pass. Perhaps in a different offense, he would be better. But you can't change a system for a rookie backup guard
Who said anything about Rudy-T love, all I was asking was if you had replaced Rudy with JVG as coach of the 93-94 rockets team would Sam Cassell have gotten any playing time.
Who knows? Luther Head got play time as a rookie (granted due to injuries). John Lucas saw the floor on occasion in back up minutes. Spanoulis played very limited minutes and never did anything to earn more minutes. I'm not saying that he got a fair amount of game time to make a final evaluation by any means. We have to assume it was based on lack of production in practice. I'm pretty sure Sam would have played his way into play time. How much no one can say. That being said there are LOTS of well respected coaches who won't play rookies unless they clearly have no better option.
Simply put - He lost 7 game series to Dallas after he had 2-0 lead - and that too to Avery Johnson - look what happened to his team in thiw years playoffs- Then he lost the series to Utah after being up 2-0. - You can' t let teams win 4 out of 5 - JVG needs to be fired in a hurry and should be banned from the Toyota center forever! He made absolutely no changes in the defensive scheme after getting torched by 2nd string PF - Boozer. JVG is clueless - Fire him!
Yes...YES YOU DO !! You change and adapt your system for all players that make your club better. San Antonio adapted their system when they got an attacking PG with a suspect jumpshot. Then they adjusted their stysem when they got an attacking and passing wizard at the 2 guard. You adapt your system.......EVERY SINGLE time a new player is added to the rotation to take advantage of what they bring to the table. Well.....you adapt your system if you are a GOOD coach. DD
We don't know if Billy is ready or not because he's got little chance to get used to the NBA. We know for sure that if he's got potential, he has no way to be ready for the NBA under JVG though. The same goes for Boki Nachbar. Player development is like hens hatching eggs. An egg may be a bad egg that never has a chance, but if the hen doesn't put efforts hatching the egg, the blame for lack of progress is on the hen, not the egg. Nobody knows if an egg is a good egg without hatching it. By hatching I mean little amount of consistent minutes by keeping the "egg" warm, not JVG kind of five minutes on the court, then 5 games on the bench kind of approach. Even a good egg may be made into a bad egg in that way. Rick Adelman got Bonzi's 20+ points against the Spurs in the playoffs. That's all that matter. If Rick could do it, why can't Jeff? Also, if JVG doesn't like Bonzi, he could've played him 40 minutes a game, let him average 15 points then trade his a$$ away for some assets. He lowered Bonzi's trade value to hurt Bonzi in his personal feud against him, sacrificing the Rocket's interests to compensate his small and fragile ego. JVG has a stale offense that ignores athletic perimeter players. All the perimeter players need to do is stand and jacks up a three. As a result, the Rockets sacrificed athletic players along with their dynamic offense and the ability to play lock down defense. Athletic perimeter players are either shipped out or sit on the end of bench. JVG the regular season coach has dragged down the Rockets on both ends of the court in the playoffs, in more ways than we realized.
You lurk for FIVE years and your first post is RIGHT ON !!! Don't wait 5 more years to post again sir ! DD
A very good point......JVG is prepared but not a guy who is going to get the players excited. Man, I think Rudy would be PERFECT with this team. Dang.... DD
LOL, I love when Bonzi defenders come around - I don't even have to post anything substantive in response. As soon as I see "Well he only quit on his team when...." Sorry, game over, argument lost.
1. Fire Van Gundy get Rick Adelman 2. Trade Battier/Juwan/Sura/Alston/head for J.O./Tinsley 3. resign Bonzi and hayes 3. Starting lineup Yao/J.O./Tmac/Bonzi/Tinsley but our bench would suck.
I think the fundamental flaw, is that you are assuming these things were done for a contract. With the current situation, and JVG's expected retirement, that's hard to believe. He played the players he thought we could win with. That's a coach's job. ...and a mediocre player in Head, and a poor player in Lucas... I'll never understand the obsession with playing your fourth string point guard on a competitive team with only one currently NBA-worthy PG. It just doesn't make sense.
It makes sense if you realize that the team is not really competitive on a championship level. And to get to that championship level is going to take different players in the rotation. Could V-Span be a major bust....ABSOLUTLY ! But he has been great everywhere he has been, and since the Rockets have a VERY VERY VERY poor person in Rafer at the starting PG spot, it makes sooooo much sense to try V-span out there to see if he truly is the PG of the future for this team. Especially if you take a realistic approach and realize that this team is just not ready with the guys in the rotation today. DD
The whole title of this thread is amusing. So CD created this uber roster we have now? The one that has zero salary cap flexibility and no quality depth? The roster with ONE rotation player that can create his own shot? The one with an undrafted power forward who would be a sub on any other team? The one that would be upgraded by putting ANY of Utah's bench rotation into our starting line up? And JVG ignored it... He ignored it well enough to get home court in the first round despite Yao missing 2 months and TMac having some time out as well. Don't get me wrong I don't like the first round flame outs either. There is the chance a different coach gets us to the second round, but then again there is the chance that a different coach doesn't even make the playoffs. We all want to act like we know how Spanoulis or Bonzi would have performed, but the fact is we don't. We didn't see them in practice and neither did much in the games they played. I wish Jeff could have figured a way to get Bonzi more play time too... At the same time you risk alot of chemistry issues if you expect your stars in Yao and Tracy to buy in to your system, but let an out of shape 1 year minimum contract free agent with a history of being a malcontent do what he wants. At any rate I think improving our roster will have alot more to do with how far we go than changing our coach. I pretty much expect we WILL change coaches, but just remember the grass isn't always greener on the other side. No coaching change is going to fix the salary cap issues we have restricting what we can actually do to improve the roster and a rookie GM from the Celtics isn't exactly something to be jumping for joy over.. Too bad the rockets couldn't convince Jerry West to come here.
Quick Comparison: 5th Best Record in the NBA -- attained while missing a star for 40% of the season - vs - 4th String behind a "VERY VERY VERY poor" person at PG -- attained while shooting 32% from the floor, 17.2% from 3, and average a TO every 9 minutes Which one is realistically more "ready" to do what needs to be done? If you can't replace the "VERY VERY VERY poor" player's backup's backup, how close are you to making the rotation? I love Span's hustle, fire, and potential too... but by all measures, there is no "ready" in his game... and we had a better chance at winning then him becoming the player we want/need him to be
