http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2984170 New Rocket unhappy riding bench with Hawks By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle DENVER - Given that Jon Barry thinks about basketball much of the time when he is not talking about it, studying it or watching it, he had to think about what could have been. He is such a hoops glutton that when he found the 1 a.m. rebroadcast of Friday night's Rockets game at the Los Angeles Lakers, he chose to suffer through the 111-104 loss again. And with all those hours stuck on the Hawks bench before getting traded to the Rockets on Dec. 23, Barry had to wonder how different things would have been had he stayed in Denver instead of signing with Atlanta, where he lives, during the offseason. The Nuggets were interested, though slow in coming with an offer considerably smaller than the $1.8 million the Hawks offered. By then, Barry's children, 6-year-old Tyler and 4-year-old Eli, were in school. Home sounded good. Barry signed with the Hawks. But once the season began, Barry was miserable without a role to play. The Nuggets lost Voshon Lenard in the first game and needed a shooting guard. What could have been seemed so much better than what was. "They tried to upgrade the position. I understood that," Barry, 35, said. "I made a decision to stay home with my family. We started school in early August. Nothing had been done. Atlanta came into the picture and offered more money. "But if we could have had something worked out earlier, I would have moved the family. I loved my time there. But that's the nature of the business." It is also the nature of the business that things often don't work as planned. The Nuggets, a playoff team last season, are off to a slow start at 14-18. And coach Jeff Bzdelik was replaced by Michael Cooper late last month. The Hawks sent Barry, a 6-5 guard, to the Rockets, who face the Nuggets tonight. And Barry is convinced the Rockets can and should be a playoff team. "When I was sitting there (in Atlanta), it was very difficult," said Barry, who didn't play in his last eight games before getting traded. "I wanted to be home. That's where I was. I was happy to be home. But I shut my basketball life down. I love to watch games. I look at the stats of every team, everybody. I watch the league pass. But I didn't watch one game. Basketball was so frustrating, so disappointing for the first time in 13 years, I left the court and put basketball away. It was a job. "I've been enthused, re-energized since the trade. It means something when you know this team is trying to make a push, trying to turn it around. I wanted to be a part of this." This has not gone as he would like. The Rockets are 4-3 in Barry's games since the trade, losing their past two. Barry is making just 34.1 percent of his shots and averaging 6.3 points. His frustration has not been with his shooting but his inability to drive the Rockets past their tendency toward dispassionate efforts such as Friday's first half. "That's something I have to do," Barry said. "I'm disappointed. Some nights I'm going to miss shots. But energy can always be 100 percent. Somebody needs to step up." Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said changing the personality of a team might be a bit much for Barry to expect of himself. "I don't think you can expect a guy that comes off the bench to radically change a team's personality," Van Gundy said. "He is what he is. He does what he can do. Hopefully, those positive traits will rub off a little bit." If nothing else, Van Gundy has found someone who shares his frustration. But after seven games, Barry is more at the perplexed stage. Van Gundy went through that stage long ago. "We have to be more focused, carry out game plans better," Barry said. "We've had slippage in that the last couple games, like double-teaming Kobe (Bryant) at the right time, being there on rotations, doing the little things we need to do. "It's difficult to put a finger on it. We feel we have one of the most talented teams in this league. I think sometimes you take it for granted that it will happen for us." Barry knows better than most that nothing can be taken for granted. But he has been encouraged enough to put off a decision about whether to retire to a broadcasting career (he said ESPN has approached him) or try to return to the Rockets. For now, he prefers to think only of this season. He apparently has had his fill of looking back at what might have been. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rockets summary Yao in foul mood When Yao Ming fouled out with 2:14 left in Friday's game at the Lakers, it was the fifth time he had fouled out of a game this season. That's as many as in his first (when he fouled out once) and second seasons combined. Yao has seemed to grow increasingly frustrated when he's called for a foul after trying to go straight up defensively with a player coming at him. "I think that was good defense," Yao said of Friday's officiating. "I don't think those calls they made were fouls, but they called them. There is nothing you can do but try to tell them and let them know (not to) call it next time. But it didn't work." Energy lacking again If the Rockets had a quality they believed they could rely on, it would have been their defense. But in the past two games, they have allowed an average of 109.5 points per game. The Suns made 45.9 percent of their shots but 44.1 percent of their 3-pointers. The Lakers made 54.1 percent of their shots and 45 percent of their 3s. Asked what was below par defensively Friday, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said: "Anything that you want to talk about defensively. It starts with transition, penetration, late help, slow close outs, anything else, whatever it is, that's pretty much it." But the cause of the trouble again was clear as the Rockets are unable to consistently match opponents' energy. For all the preparation work Van Gundy puts in, when he was asked about the Nuggets on Saturday, Van Gundy sounded frustrated to know that game plans could be made irrelevant. "I'm more concerned about getting our team to play hard," he said. "Until we do that, it doesn't matter what the other team is doing. "There's no easy solution when a group as a whole doesn't compete at a high level." The Rockets don't dispute the problem. But they would have seemed to have taken that first step long ago. "Recognizing the problem is important," Van Gundy said. "The willingness to do whatever it takes to correct it hasn't been there." ---------------------------------------- Yao needs to stop complaining and agreeing w/ the fouls and fight for the ball and basket. He's so weak when he's underneath. He tries to be more of a finesse player rather than an aggressive player.
The question is how you can get these guys to do so. Like JVG said, nothing else doesn't really matter if your guys aren't playing hard out there, and besides 3 or 4 games, they haven't been. It is kinda obvious that this group isn't having any fun out there, they don't have any kind of swagger in their game and it just seems like they are going out there just for the hell of it. How can we get these guys motivated to play? What will make these guys play hard and give it their all?
