The only thing the writer is correct about is that the Rockets is the the type of team Phil Jackson would coach - a team on the verge of becoming great but not quite there. Jackson is to coaching what Chris Jent was to the Rockets' championship team. Just because the dude is there doesnt mean it's his greatness that put the team over the top. Well, ok, I'll give Jackson credit...he isnt a bad coach...just wont take on a project. The rest of that crap that guy wrote is way off. If anything, the Rcoekts were playing above their heads in this series. I dont think anyone considered this patchwork team "underachieving"...
Hey it's still a business. I don't care who is coach as long as Yao and Tmac are the foundation for many years.
I thought so, too, going in. But if that had proved true, we would have won the series. In fact, based on actual performance, it turned out we had only one of the five best players.
Agree and I want to add two more: 12) The pick and roll play between Yao and T-Mac will become one of the best plays in basketball by the end of next season. Just wait and see. 13) This guy argues that JVG tries to gain the attention away from his players but I don’t think I have ever seen JVG try to get more media attention in any form (other than the 100K incident). In fact when he came to Houston I was actually surprised at how low key he is. This writer is a complete idiot. I am not going to argue about weather or not PJ would be a better fit because frankly I don’t know. What I do know is that we already have a good coach here in Houston who I feel is moving this team in the right direction.
You would think Bill Walton was on Phil Jackson's payroll the way he is always campaigning for him as the next Rockets coach.
Yao's stats in the series: 21.4 pts (FG:65.5%), 7.7Rebs, 2.71Blks, Ast 0.7, TO: 2.7 Dirk's stats in the series: 21.3 pts (FG:35.2%), 8.9Rebs, 1.86Blks, Ast, 3.3, TO:2.4 If Yao is not one of the best 5 players in the series, I wonder if Dirk is. If Dirk is not, I wonder which 4 other Mavs were better than Dirk. Hatred makes one blind.
When you dismiss Dirk because he shot 35% you are dismissing the fact that the Rockets hounded him into shooting 35%. We do have 2 of the 3 best players in the series all other things being equal (although Yao at times was inconsistently one of the best players). The problem is that the rest of the team is inferior to the rest of their team. Sura wasn't playing like the Sura we saw during the season. No one else was consistently stepping up for us. No one else was a go-to guy. And in the most important game of the season, absolutely no one but our 2 best players did anything. For the Mavs we saw Jason Terry step up, Stackhouse step up, and hell, defensively even Armstrong step up. Much of what you said about what "we" thought heading in I disagreed with or at least doubted. I didn't think Avery's inexperience would be that huge because if it became a problem, they had a Dell Harris among other on that bench. It's not always the team with the better overall talent or studs that win. The Lakers got beaten by the Pistons. The Rockets beat an up and coming Magic team - they swept them in the Finals. The Pacers this year got by the Celtics with J. O'Neal and a bunch of scrubs and misfits. Speaking of which, where are the TWolves this year?
I don't like JVG's defending schema that forces Yao going to perimeter to guard the PnR all the time. I think that exposes Yao's weakness and gives opponents way too many easy oppotunities, espeically our PF position is so weak on defense and rebounding. But that could change if JVG is smart enough to adjust. And I trust him that he will make the adjustment.
You honestly think that Yao played worse than four Mavs in this series? I think that he did play better than Dirk. So I guess he must have been outplayed by Terry, Stackhouse, Howard, and Finley. And guess what? I don't think that he could have done a whole lot better. Calling him out during the series might motivate him a bit, but it's rather pointless to do it afterwards. You must accept Yao Ming for who he is, sooner or later. Back on the topic, the Rockets do have to consider the possibility that Jeff Van Gundy will be banned next year. If that happens, they have to consider Phil Jackson as a possible coaching candidate. If JVG is suspended without pay, the Rockets can afford to throw an 8-mil-dollar-per-year contract at Jackson. If Van Gundy is banned, that might be their best choice. Is Phil Jackson a better coach than Jeff Van Gundy? Hardly. However, Phil is good at one thing--turn a great team into a championship team. Give him a core of Tracy Mcgrady and Yao Ming and a solid supporting cast. He may just do it. On the other hand, does this team have enough talents for Phil Jackson's liking? That is the real question.
"Is Phil Jackson a better coach than Jeff Van Gundy? Hardly" Phil jackson is one of the best if not the best ever. JVG is a good coach but he's no Phil Jackson.
It's not even about the bench. They have more scorers off the bench, and they have a deeper starting five. Howard, as much as I hate him, played great for them. They have Daniels, who barely even played but would challenge to be the 3rd best player on our team.
I don't think this is JVG's fault, we don't have any power forwar so YAO HAS to do most of dirty job!!!! Hope we can get a good PF and see some change from the coach!
LOL! Maybe we should try to trade Yao + cash for one of those 4 or 5 better players on the Dallas team. I am not even sure whether TMac belongs to the honored top 5 list here.
Agreed! You have stated exactly how I feel. I posted numerous time here that the guard play of the Rockets would be the determining factor in this series and it most definitely was on both sides of the ball. In the 3 Rockets victories, the guards were stellar. In the 4 losses, they were MIA. On offense, they can't get Yao the ball with any consistency while playing hot and cold shooters. On defense, they consistently get beat off the dribble and fail to fight through picks and screens allowing their man to get inside forcing Yao to be the last line of defense. Now against Dallas, this inability was exacerbated by their collective age and lack of speed and athleticism but those weaknesses SHOULD have been obvious to JVG and the rest of the organization from the start of the season. If anything else, the results of this series and the way it ended should FINALLY drive home the point to JVG that this ain't the NBA East and that to win in the West, you had better have younger, athletic players. As for Yao, I can only hope that come fall, JVG will finally design an offense and defense that maximizes him to fuller advantage.
Guys, this article is bs. Yeah there are some points that we are debating in other threads, but you just can't dignify this overall piece of crap. DOD's right. Will, uh, man we're going to be ok.
Some of you guys probably don't know this guy much. Spent years as a Bulls fan in Chicago area, let me tell you something about Sam Smith, This guy is nothing but a drama queen/king. He has always tried to put something out to generate so-called "SHOCK" reaction. Just ignore him.
