I would say more likely the management does not know how to draft. Now by drafting poorly and overpaying FAs, they put themselves in a situation where they have no choice but to pay low money to attract below-average talent. It is due to JVG for the past 4 years, that Rox overachieved and gave a false impression that Rox is close to the championship, however, they are not really that good.
Man, it'd be crazy to have Billups, but how in the world could we pull that off? I do agree that Yao and Tmac aren't really leaders. They're good members of the team, though. Varejao and the other guy he mentioned, Mikki Moore. Those 2 aren't even that good, but I think they'd be nice to have..they might help us. Actually, almost any decent player could help us. I believe the Rockets will make some changes and be better next season!
Clutch - I recently spent 30 minutes with Fran. He has access to JVG at home. He speaks with Morey as often as he wants. He's got more inside information than many give him credit for.
then why does he never break any news, and why do his columns kind of stink? Does he just hang out with these guys for kicks? If he can't put it to professional use then its beyond useless.
This is on the money- I have thought that Van Gundy was the de facto GM - or at least the endorser for deals. I have come full circle and am concerned we will not get a better coach at this time- i would like to keep him one more year- but have mixed feelings about it. We were so close to winning twice against Utah -to give us the series- and could not get it done. Would one little pep talk at half time have helped???? What does Van Gundy say to the players in the locker room-in the big game????- it did not inspire them.... We could be looking at the verge of the Western finals...So close.... A better 4 and a back up point....
I personally think that we should feel better the way that Utah is destroying Golden state, WITH Deron Williams turning it over an insane amount. I mean I'm of the opinion that in this series there wasn't much we could do. The strength build up on our whole season was defence. With Boozer playing like he is its hard to fault Yao. When your biggest card is taken from you its hard to blame everything on the coach.
Not really. We would probably have abused Golden State just as much. If the only things we do this offseason are tweaks, I can 3 guarantee things: -we will be a number 5 seed -we will win ~50 games in regular season -we will flame out in the first round. The suns, mavs and spurs are going to be just as good next year. utah will be much better. As will the lakers and probably GSW if Nelly does his thing.
Steve Nash will be 34 next spring. The Suns will be good, but Nash can't keep playing at this level forever. Duncan will be 32, and his numbers are already starting to fall (along with his minutes, of course). I think the Lakers and Warriors will be improved, however, along with the Jazz.
duncan's has been dominating in the playoffs. he doesn't look like he's slowing down. maybe he takes it easier in the regular season, but duncan is playing out of his mind right now.
DD For example just line the Rockets players up with the Utah Jazz players and compare. They have six scorers and we have two. IMHO we need four tweaks.......
Carl if this was true how come that he couldn't develop specialist three point shooter named Steve Novac?
its really simple. rockets arent good enough and dont have much in terms of up and coming players that we are fairly sure can be contributors for the future. Whether it was the 7 years of crap drafts or a win now philosophy is irrelevant, imo, recognizing the lack of talent (younger or older) and getting better players is whats important.
Am I missing something here, didn't JVG endorse Alston all year long and did not see a reason behind getting or playing another PG, didn't he also refuse to trade JHoward during the all star break becsue he did not want to mess with the chemistry. So how the hell did JVG thought that he needed major upgrades at both point guard and power forward??
1) rafer wasnt the reason the rockets lost. he did a solid job considering the circumstances 2) we dont know what the trade was and even if it would have helped. If you think it could have you have to also accept the same possibility that it wouldnt have helped. Also, from hearing interviews during that time and after, it seemed like it was a mutual decision to not mess up chemistry. I dont think you can put it all on jvg...unless you have something concrete. 3) the biggest problem with the pg position is that there isnt anyone that competent after alston. Alston is good enough to win with as a starter but you have to have someone behind him that doesnt stiffle the offense. PF situation does need improvement. everyone will agree with that. Unfortunately, its tough to get those good type of players when you dont have much tradable assets, get extremely fortunate in the draft and dont have much money to spend.
In any single game that you lose, you can point to more than one thing as the reason we lost. As a result, you can also say Reason A is not the reason we lost because look at Reason B. Rebounding is one big thing. Scoring from other positions. T-Mac's poor shooting. The gentle giant picking daisies. Luther Head and Juwan Howard pulling a disappearing act. JVG's decision-making. All of those "problems" could be used to look past Rafer Alston. But if you think a guy who can't penetrate and shoots over 7 threes a night at around 30% shooting from anywhere on the floor isn't a reason the Rockets are where they are, then you're not being rational. A PG upgrade is a huge, huge need for this team. While they need a PF, the PG position is probably the one position that, if upgraded, could catapult the Rockets to being an elite team (in my opinion).
Which is precisely why people are pissed off that JVG did not even give V-Span a legitimate look at that position. DD
V-Span may have helped down the line with some time, but I don't think there was any way he was starting when he can't shoot and was as turnover-prone as he was. I'm not happy that JVG gave him virtually zero time to develop and yeah he's a better penetrator and pick-and-roll guy than Rafer, but it was fairly obvious early on he wasn't the answer this season in JVG's scheme.
