[Chron]Rockets' lack of intensity angers Van Gundy

Everybody praises Ryan Bowen!

 

Someone should write an article about JVG and his rotations angering fans.

I mean, how can he let obvious performers like Chuck Hayes languish on the bench?

How is it that the Rockets guards are starting to wave off Tmac, and Yao?

This team has an identitiy crisis, and that is in no small part to JVG.....

DD

 

Too bad McGrady says Van Gundy is his favorite coach and that as long as VG is coaching he will remain happy as a Rocket.

 

JVG won't dare say it, or call him out, but TMAC is just as guilty, if not moreso, as anyone else on this roster about playing without passion.
Tmac won't be criticized in public by the Rox, but why do you think it is that JVG is riding Iverson's jock? Hint, hint, Mr. Mac.

 

Of course that is who he is talking too...Tmac is as good as he wants to be.

He could be averaging 40 ppg with the new rules, but he settles for 25.....

Maddening.

DD

 

I'll say it even though I fear the insane backlash...

the guy is talking about BOTH his leaders. Yao may be playing great of late, but the passion and intensity and diving for loose balls and playing hard on defense stuff is something we don't see from either T Mac OR Yao.

I love them both, but neither will win the award for intensity or passion on the floor and that does count for something.

 

Players aren't intense enough, quickness disadvantage, etc. = it's not MY fault, must be someone else's.

 

I agree with you completely Jeff, but I give Yao a little bit more slack due to his adjusting to a new culture. And, I see improvement in Yao, whereas I do not see improvement in Tmac.

DD

 

JVG is angered by lack of intensity??? I AM SHOCKED !

 

You guys can hate on JVG all you want, but at the end of the day he IS right.

do they really look like a team desperately playing to make the playoffs? No

we have had a good record but the teams we played werent amazing, this month is critical and a good measuring stick

i hate his rotation too, but hes right, no intensity and as a fan who believes in them so much, it makes it tough to watch some games, especially with the urgency i know they should be playing with

 

What other decent coaches has McGrady played for though? Butch Carter and Doc Rivers? If Les does replace JVG, you can bet it'll be a top tier coach.

 

Jeff, do you think Yao is not giving his all out there? Please answer that question.


While I do agree we need at least one tiger on the floor, somebody who will yell and scream and lay a lick on the opponent when they bully us around, I do not think every player has to play that way to play with passion or to be "inspirational". I'm sorry, but when I see Yao busting his tail up the floor after he's obviously bent his ankle, in a hopeless hapless game, that we don't have a prayer of winning, with 5 minutes left and us down by 17, that tells me all I need to know about Yao's passion and his DEDICATION to his craft. It makes me smile and dream of the future, even though the present is terrible.

To me, the inspiration and what makes me want to watch these guys is when I know how hard they are working to get better and leaving it all on the floor. I don't know how anybody cannot be inspired by watching Yao. I don't know how anybody could not be inspired watching TMac come out when he was hurt and play an entire game in pain, including having to take the whole first half just to get loose enough to be effective, and drive us to a W. That is inspirational to me.

When we are in the heat of battle, in a close game, and we need every point that we can muster to beat a team, because they have an unstoppable force like Iverson on it, and I see Bowen show up, it is anything but inspirational at this point. Sure, he's a great hustle player. But there's a time for that and there's not a time for that. When you are in a 6 point ballgame, and you need all your offense because you are going against one of the greatest scorers and closers in the history of the NBA, inspire me by opening up the offense and encouraging your guys to go outscore the opponent because while that scorer is awesome, he is a liabiliy defensively. DO NOT BRING IN A DUDE THAT ESSENTIALLY MAKES US PLAY 4 ON 5 ON THE OFFENSIVE END!!!!! Everybody and their brother could see it coming a mile off. Like the Sixers don't know Bowen can't shoot????? Like they don't have scouts or read scouting reports??? Here we go, double team the post, force the ball to Bowen for the clang job.

Gee willakers.

And we've also got 4 new players on this team. ONe of them (Bogans) is playing significant minutes for us as the 1st or 2nd option off the bench. Do you think he actually knows the whole system and knows what he's supposed to be doing at every given moment? Do you think that might be a small factor?

BTW, this is JVG's 3rd year. He's flipped the entire roster over and then some. When is he gonna get his little bulldog player that INSPIRES the whole team, since he can't seem to do it?????

I'm just sick of hearing that excuse. I look on the floor and I see Wesley, Yao, Bogans, Hayes, all playing their you know whats off. What I see is strategies that don't work effectively enough because a very good coach is not flexible enough. He needs to flex his mind and realize that some nights you actually gotta outscore the opponent. Some games are gonna be shootouts. You gotta pile the points on the board. Some nights you are gonna run into an Iverson or a Kobe and they are gonna be unstoppable, uncontrollable. Your defense cannot shut down everybody. We ain't the 72-10 Bulls. We ain't that good, nor do we have that trememdous combination of perimeter quickness or size. So, you gotta coach the talent that is in front of you............to their strengths and put Ws on the board because you are a GREAT COACH THAT IS FLEXIBLE AND CAN TAKE YOURS AND BEAT THEIRS AND TAKE THEIRS AND BEAT YOURS!

That is what great coaches do.

 

Told you I feared the YOF backlash.

 

Wrong, no YOF here. I'm a ROF. No answer??

 

Dont know though Jeff, I think JVG is a man yelling into an empty forest.

He's wrong this time.

Seems to think Bowen and Juwan have the goods.

Maybe he should get rid of Wesley for waiving off Tmac just like Mike James did

 

Personally, I think it is the job of EVERY player to fly around on the court, dive for loose balls, throw hard screens, box out hard...that is just their job.

This is particularly true of the main guys on your team because they set the example.

Now, they may be able to substitute that kind of scrappy play for absolute on-the-court leadership (Olajuwon wasn't a vocal leader and didn't dive all over the floor, but he demaned the ball and came through in the clutch), but to be the real leader on a team, you have to do it by example and scoring well isn't enough.

Yao has been playing tremendous lately. T-Mac has not. But, that doesn't excuse either of them from getting in the face of teammates for waving them off or demanding the ball and then coming through when they are counted on to do so.

If you want to be the superstar, you have to expect to be held to a much higher level. Period. If you weren't, no one would really care that much about you either way. To achieve the greatest success, you have to be open to facing the greatest amount of criticism. It comes with the territory.

 

I'll say it again. It is very funny how all the same people who praise JVG for being honest and straight forward about his players when it was Steve, Cat, Mo T and that bunch are now crying and whinning when it is being said about T-Mac, Yao and others.

The negativity sucks but see how frustrated we as fans get by the lackluster performance? We are just fans. Imagine how painstaking it is for him, who works his A$$ off 24-7 to make this team a great team, only see it continue to accept mediocrity. No one seems upset or outraged at their home performance. Maybe this team has too many nice guys and everyone is scared to step up and call one another out. I swear if M. Elie was on this team, he would have called a players only team meeting by now ironed out issues and gotten them to step it up. There's only so much the coach can do. The players must take it upon themselves to WANT to become champions. T-mac, Yao & Wesley need to remember that 40 point blowout in game 7 against dallas, remember the bitterness, remember the press conference where they vowed to be back determined to move past the first round. Get off your asses, stop feeling bad for yourselves and get it done dammit! 20-4 will get us in the playoff!!! The Griz, Hornets and Fakers are all slumping. They can do it!

 

You haven't watched enough games if you haven't seen Yao on the floor going after balls.

Personally, I think Van Gundy is doing what he thinks is best to try and motivate one McGrady who is playing mediocre as of late. I just think he's way off in what he is saying here though, basically calling out the whole team, and saying only Juwan and Ryan are bringing it. And I think McGrady should be cut a lot of slack for this season. He's been physically injured through probably 80% of it, even though he did gut out a bunch of games, came back early to play and help us win. He's still not all there physically.

McGrady had plenty of fire last year, especially when we got to the playoffs.

I really do like Van Gundy. I think he is a very, very good coach with a great mind.

I think his weakness is he is too inflexible and he coaches every game like it's the 7th game of the Finals and there is no tomorrow and consequently all his teams crap out around the 50-60 game mark. Go back and look at his history. Every team he's coached has been racked with injuries and spitting and sputtering at some or many points during the season with always major dings going into the playoffs. Of course, if he can using his coaching skill to get them through a series or two, he looks great because he overachieved. He coaches like the season is 40-50 games long instead of 82. The NBA is an 82 game REGULAR season, then if you are good, another 15-20 games in the playoffs. That's tough man. That's 3 times as many games as college boys play with more minutes per game. You can't run ba...s to the wall for 48 minutes a game for 82 games, flying back and forth all over the continent, without consequences. There's gonna be some jet lag. There's gonna be some butt lag. There's gonna be some injuries. There's gonna be times when guys are mentally fried and you gotta bring them back from the beaches of Florida. A great NBA coach has to manage time and effort and attitude accordingly.

I never played in the pros. But I played enough in high school and college and have been around enough coaches to know that some coaches can just pile drive you into the floor with their style of play and their practices and you do not have enough recovery time to play effectively the next game. And they can do that in a 20 or 30 game season. How much more 82 games played at this level?

 

If you preach "effort" at the beginning of the season, that's fine.

If you have to preach "effort" occasionally after some lapse in the middle of the season, that's fine.

If you have to preach "effort" almost every single game lost near the tail end of the season -- I see some problem there.

Not to say JVG wasn't right, not to say Rockets as a group were giving enough intensity, however, if you can't get a group of players play intensely night in and night out toward the last strech run of the season, the coach is as much to blame as the players.

Also, nobody is going to convince me Yao was not playing hard:
He plods up and down gassed.
He's playing hard after twisting his ankle/almost got a cramp.
He's the only one who chasing those guards trying to get a foul.

I see it with my own eyes.

 

" I know what you mean INTENSITY and I know I suck but not on Bowen's level, coach"