LOL! I'm a rockets fan first, and JVG hater second. I think JVG sucks but pray before every rockets game that I'm wrong. If JVG shows that he can adapt to his players, then I might start to like him as a coach.
We'll see what happens. I'm not going to get all happy and excited just yet, I've had too many disspointments with this team to do so. We have been playing a whole lot better lately, hopefully we can keep it up.
Maybe because they started scoring? Something they didn't do all last year and most of this year. Something none of his previous teams did. Maybe he was feeling some heat after all the underachieving and became desperate. Or maybe he hasn't changed- maybe McGrady is just ignoring him by iso-ing and jacking up shots early in the shotclock while being closely guarded (this IS happening). McGrady said it himself - he's no longer looking over his shoulder. He was uncomfortable before - was he just imagining things? Did he just not know what the coach wanted him to do before? Another possibility is that the offense has been simplified due to all the new additions/trades. Also, Van Gundy waiving his arms doesn't necessarily mean he wants the team to run or score quickly.
I'm still stunned at this statistic: Over the last ten games we're averaging 97.8 points on 46.1% shooting. This is including three or four losses- it's not just a few games, this is ten games. Wow. We really are scoring points now. And before the last ten games we averaged 86.6 points on 41.9% shooting. That's over 11 points in difference! It's hard to believe, considering our play last year, but maybe JVG really does want to push the ball- just under control; smart. Francis just couldn't do it. If he pushes, if he plays 'his game' (like he is in ORL now,) he can't play controlled, smart, low-mistake basketball. So he stopped pushing, tried to play the role of the old school PG, and his game suffered. Tmac's shot isn't perfect right now, but when he's free, not 'looking over his shoulder', playing his game, he still plays smooth, smart, in control, seeing the floor and involving his teammates. Tmac is more than a superior scorer to Francis; he's fundamentally different in his mental approach to the game.
i will give JVG props for his turn around. i know he has allways wanted to push the ball more since he has been here. the more up tempo style isn't the turn around i am talking about. he has changed the type of players he likes. he still loves defense and hustle (why we signed bowen), but now he loves guys who can shoot and pass. that is something that he has never really looked for since his days with the knicks. he has turned the corner so to speak. he realized that if he can't come up with a great offense then he needs guys that can score. they don't need to be great defenders...he can take care of that.
Uhm.....yeah like the two championship Houston Rockets teams used to do.....I said this a while back and got roasted by some of the finger pointing nay sayers on this board who obviously are so blinded by thier hatred they either can't see the truth or are to stubborn to admit they jumped to conclusions without having all the facts.....
I have the same position as you do, except I will never be able to like the guy. I will root for him as long as he is the coach of the Rockets, but that's it.
Yes, we have played well in the last couple weeks against the cellar dweller teams. I'll give JVG credit for that. But I think he is lying if he claims that this is the way he really wanted to play when the season started. And show me what they can do against the better teams in this conference. Show me that we are going to play this style of ball the entire season, not for a 2 week stretch against league fodder. Then I'll give JVG even more credit.
League fodder, come on, regardless you have to given him some credit. Cavs game the Roxs were handling them fairly easily in the first half with Lebron. The Cavs shot a better percentage in the 2nd half. We could have easily had another blow out after the Bucks game but we didn't. The new years bucks game. The bucks had just beat the Magic and were playing fairly good basketball, including our butt kicking a few days earlier. We beat them soundly. I'm not saying the Roxs are done but come on you have to admit that they have improved their style of game and that VG has had his team up for the games. We'll see exactaly where we are when we play the Suns tomorrow.
Man, some of you are tough on Van Gundy and the Rockets. Without being precipitant on the trades or how we will do for the season, I'll take any three-win streak thank you. Yes the wins were against lackluster teams, but what would your opinions be if we lost the last three? I'm seeing the Rockets use those games to fine-tune their overall game for the better competition when it comes along (like Phoenix tomorrow). I would be content this year if the Rockets only beat-up the mediocre teams. At least they would have established consistency.
I've been very pleased and I love watching the ROckets now. There was a period of time when I felt watching it was boring and a struggle and a pain, but now it's not boring. It's good to watch..especially when we win. Like the Bobcatsl osses were horrible. JVG has done a good job. I never really hated him...but we need to beat some good teams first...and well get that PF.
So what you are saying is that the "normal JVG" that you *know and hate* would have stubbornly stayed the same, even in the face of losing, and continued to say the same, even while losing and contiutned to stay the same.... Hmmm, interesting. Then why did he not keep with the plan, huh? Could it have been that losing is what caused it? Losing that you claim that he was ignoring? Don't you see that after losing, again and again is the cause of the change in the first place? Yes, evolution. Or more simply put. Using your brain. So, there's no "if he didn't change" about it. The change is due TO THE LOSING. Cause and effect. If you put your hand in the fire and it hurts. Take your hand out. That's smart, don't ya think?
If JVG did not say in his own words that he's "Changed enough" and also say in other ways that he is sticking to what he knows works, I would never even come up with the idea that JVG is stubborn. We were losing and JVG insisted he wasn't going to change. --"If you put your hand in the fire and it hurts. Take your hand out."-- Thats what I was telling JVG in my head! He said one thing but did another thing. The "JVG I know and hate" (whom I've never hated, I just didn't feel like the right coach for the Rockets, I admitted he was a good coach but not for this team at the beginning of the season.) That JVG was the JVG he portrayed through the media and by his quotes. I will admit I am wrong for being a sheep of the media, if they want JVG to look a certain way or have a certain personality, they can easily do that and have. The only JVG I know is what I see on the court and read in the papers. He portayed himself as someone who's strict and will stick to his own plan no matter what players were on the court. It's now easy to realise he was experimenting with different things, but he or the media made it seem like he was ressistant to change.
I think what you are trying to say is that you didn't like the time it took JVG to make trades and then adjust from those trades; JVG -- thinking instead -- that Yao could take on more of the load. This is fair. But....I see the trades as the catalyst that make the changes possible. Kinda like when Sura when down. We know that JVG has been winning lately. But it didn't really matter once Sura got hurt. If we don't make the necessary trades that help TMac/Yao. Well, we'd still be hurting. I'm mean, I hope you aren't thinking that we went back to the *old* JVG ways, by losing the last two games, when it was clear that we were strugging at the PG postion (Strickland). Perception is a tricky thing. Much of JVG's philosophy is still in place. It's just that we *need* the player to do it.
The only point I was trying to make about what I disliked about JVG was that he portrayed himself as a person who would not push the tempo, let t-mac take shots outside of a set play, let Yao out of the post to score, and a few other things. When we were sucking at the beginning of the season, we were playing stereotypical "JVG ball". Almost everyone wanted T-mac to have more freedom and also numerous other things within the offense. Game after game of losing while playing stereotypical JVG ball, I came to the conclusion that JVG will not take the logical step and change his offensive strategy. I was wrong. I haven't thought we were playing "old" JVG ways since the Dallas game when t-mac went for 48 I'm long past the thought of slow-it-down turtuga ball, I know that's not our style. It may have never been our style but that was probably the safest route when you have a rotation of Ward and Lue. But who thinks about these things when we are losing so much... I sure didn't.. I know a few who did.. Fegwu comes to mind. This sums up the season and JVG. JVG couldn't use his desired philosophy at the beginning of the season because Ward and Lue would NOT run it efficiently. I'm sure he tried out this exact same offense we run now in practice and just saw that Ward and Lue were not the right players for it to work. JVG is a great coach and I defend him many times these days. I don't think I'm a "flip flopper" or "bandwagoner" because my reasons for wanting him gone never changed. I wanted him gone because he portrayed himself as someone who will not change no matter the case.. "If you don't want to play that way, you'll just get traded like me." That quote applies to Lue and JJ as well, but rather than not wanting to it's not able to
