[CHRON]Van Gundy says he's not ready to mix up rotation

Gee and I was hoping the choice was between you and DD!!!

Good discussion on Snyder. I would also like to see his driving to the hoop. But he may not be playing yet because of continued hand healing. Plus his 3P shooting was terrible before the injury .178% a % that is not real inducive to JVG playing him. But hey, in another system he could step in and either pop a 2 like other players/teams do, or continue driving and go to the rack, or pass off to someone else as he is moving.

As far as trades - who do we get who satisifies Morey's moneyball requirements and is not ancient like Stoudemire?

I've been looking at 82games.com "by position" and no surprises - PG and PF are where we are leaking - but over 41 games we are not leaking that much on average. The problem with "on average" is that in the playoffs we do not play a team called "on average" we play the other top teams with top PG's and PF's. It is in these individual matchups that things get much worse. PG and PF make their numbers look better vs some of the weak sisters.

Average PER at PG and PF for the league is 15, ours are 13.2 and 12.8. I will spend some time seeing how we match up there vs. other teams.

I think DD needs to coach the Toros first - maybe he can then coach Vspan. When he proves himself then we can move him up to the big leagues. Got that Les?

 

I'm not a JVG lover or hater, but the only legit excuse for not playing Snyder now is the hand injury. Snyder got 20mpg before he got hurt and played decent. The small backcourt is killing the Rockets. For the love of rebounds, defense, and good basketball, please stop the small backcourts!!! Shane Battier is a good a shooter again. T-Mac is coming around with his 3's again. There's no need for Rafer and Head to be playing together anymore. There's definitely no need for JL3 to be paired with Rafer or Head at all.

 

van gundy is not ready to mix up the rotation because, he feels the players on the bench are not ready all the time, and inconsistent. but ****!! they gotta get experience somehow???? !!!!!

 

yeah i dont know what happened to snyder, he was shooting the 3 at like 50% early on and then just went ice cold. but still, there are more ways to score than just shooting the 3, and players can help the team in other ways. i dont blame jvg for not playing snyder right now, i think his hand is still healing. if snyder is indeed healthy, then there's a problem.

 

i actually enjoyed watching kirk snyder play. dude had hops.

 

Those wern't harder questions, just really dumb ones which was why JVG would smack them down everytime. I swear, reporters ask the worst questions. I'd think the coaches and players would probably have a better time with a Q&A with the fans instead of the media.

 

I agree with pretty much everything you said. But is there room for McGrady, Battier, Snyder, AND Bonzi in the same rotation? And I'm assuming you think Alston and Luther should essentially split the minutes at PG.

 

I think Clutch is right when he says that the Rockets need to explore a trade. Having depth is postive, but it seems as though the coaching staff is having problems finding playing time for several members of their backcourt.

We know that McGrady, Alston, and Battier will start, but as you pointed out in your post, where does that leave Head, Wells, Snyder, and the rest of the group. Wells and Head are the obvious choices to lead the second unit, particularly during those instances when McGrady is not on the floor, but JVG continues "flip-flop" on Wells. It's ironic that he says the Rockets aren't going to change their rotation, because I'm not sure I know what their normal rotation is. If you think about it, we haven't actually seen it.

 

There are just as many cries for a backup C who can play PF as there are for a PG. You have to have read all the Mutombo cant keep this up, Chuck is too small to play C, Yao gets injured too much, Mutombo will retire soon, we need an athletic PF, we need a PF with range posts that number almost the same as trade rafer, rafer sucks, we can not win with Rafer posts. Adding another big man is as important as adding a PG in my opinion.

 

There are 240 total minutes in a regulation time game for all the players of a team. I'm going to use an example of a competitive close game, because blowouts screw up the minutes. We also have to keep in mind that minutes are fluid, not strict, and can go up and down depending on matchups and game situations.

Yao averages 35mpg, but if you look at his game log closely, it's really like 38mpg and only lower because of blowouts, foul trouble, and the injury game. In close wins and losses, Yao's up there in minutes, and this was even with a healthy T-Mac. T-Mac is in the same boat as Yao. His official mpg is 36, but he's really at 38mpg and higher in a competitive game with Yao. Battier is at 38mpg too...man, we got 3 big minute players already, and Rafer's probably up there too. Yup, Rafer is at 37mpg, but not if I were coach. I'd never have Rafer and Luther play at the same time, so I'd have Rafer average 28mpg and Luther 20mpg.

In the 4 and 5 spot there are 96 total minutes - 38 from Yao - 7 from Batt (who plays the 4 spot usually 7mpg) = 51 minutes left for JHo, Chuck, and Deke. I'd give 20.5 to Jho, 20.5 to Chuck (unless he fouls out first), and 10 to Deke.

That leaves 96 minutes for the 2/3 - 31 from Batt, 38 from T-Mac = 27 minutes for Bonzi and Snyder. That's not very many minutes in a close game, but I'll take it. Bonzi's too out of shape to hit 27mpg as of now. Maybe Bonzi might steal a couple of minutes from the 4 spot if we go small.

Of course, this all depends on matchups and needs at the time, and are just averages. Some games, Jho will play 25 and Chuck 15. But in a close game, it seems pretty consistent that JVG has gone with Yao, T-Mac, Batt, and Rafer for big minutes. I would only differ by cutting down on Rafer a little, but more importantly, never having a small backcourt.

 

But for now, since we don't have Yao's 38mpg, those minutes should be split up between Bonzi and Snyder (Bonzi more 4 time, and Jho and Hayes more 5 time). And of course Deke is playing 25mpg nowadays, so that's only like 13mpg more that Bonzi and Snyder get to share.

 

Classic!!!!

 

Oh please, JVG, please don't go back to your old "just work harder and everything will be alright" self.

 

1) Snyder needs to play

2) Trading Bonzi Wells would be a huge mistake for a guy like Brent Barry/Antonio McDyess. If he was dealt, it would need to be for a guy like maggette.

3) If I was the rockets gm, i'd be on the phone with philly right now. I'd offer them my number 1 pick, spanoulis(or alston if they wish), and whatever expiring contracts needed for andre miller. I know they say the right things about keeping him, but that team is a long way from contention. If that won't work the TE for a guy like chucky atkins. Or see if seattle wants to deal one of ridnour or watson.

 

I think they've already got a deal agreed upon for Chucky Atkins at the deadline for the TE if nothing else comes up.


Enter Stevie Franchise stage left???

 

Not true, simply because fans aren't objective and are clearly biased. The Chronicle's NBA writers are fine, for the most part. Blinebury can go nutso at times, but Feigen is always on point and works hard. TV and radio media ask HORRIBLE questions. It's the print guys who usually ask the introspective, quality questions.

 

I have to doubt JVG's IQ! Can he score more than 70?

 

We do have a rather puzzling situation with our current squad and props to Kim for breaking down the rotation and giving a rough estimate of who gets what minutes in any normal competitive game.

It's kind of strange since going into the season everybody just assumed Battier was going to primarily play at PF while leaving T-Mac at SF and plugging in whoever (Bonzi, Snyder, Head) at SG to start alongside Alston. Clearly the plug was pulled on that experiment. Now, we're left with a bit of a logjam at our swingman positions. Obviously, T-Mac and Battier need to be playing the most SG/SF minutes out of anybody since one guy is your best perimeter player and the other guy is your extremely efficient, all intangibles and all effort defensive stopper. With T-Mac and Battier playing 35-40 minutes a game that really doesn't leave much time for Bonzi or Snyder. It also creates the conflict of interest in that who is going to be the first swingman off the bench? For right now, the choice would probably have to be Bonzi since despite his baggage he's still much more ready to be a difference maker than a player like Snyder is. The problem with that is Bonzi is as good as gone once the season is over and you could probably make the argument that we don't even need Bonzi anyways so why take away developmental time from Snyder? Snyder would have to be best choice for that role in the long haul since he's the gifted young player we just acquired and can provide for you a Maggette-like dynamic of having an athletic slasher that isn't afraid to attack the basket and get to the line. The problem with Snyder is clearly his hand, so what do you do?

My next question: what do you do with Head? My best guess would be to make him our new default backup PG despite his lack of an adequete handle. His lights-out shooting is simply too important for us to underestimate. I can't stand watching "John John" play and i've about had it with V-Span so i'd probably be willing to take my chances with making Luther more of a "point guard". The problem then is with Skip to My Brick, JLIII, V-Span, Sura and now Luther is we're then technically carrying five PG's -- what gives?

Also, our PF play has kind of been a mystery with the up & down play of Chuck Hayes and Satan's off season acquisition of Juwan Howard's soul in exchange for a few more years of quality play. We're still lacking on the defensive end since Howard has never been a good defender and Hayes can't stay out of foul trouble but I think i'm willing to roll the dice with standing pat at PF. As you all know, in the playoffs last year the big trend was to play small ball. In that case we have plenty of versatile swingman that can slide over to the four, if needed.

 

Per Clutch:

"It isn't time to mix up the rotation ... it's time for a trade"

I've got to think the Rockets are exploring what is available. I really cannot think of a PG or backup C or mobile PF that we could make work with available fodder we have.

I do not want to part with Bonzi. He really made an impact in the Denver game for a few minutes. Keep Bonzi Wells!

The availability is player-market driven-we have until Feb 20 til trading deadline?-I wonder what it would take to get Nazr Mohamed-if really available?? He would help us for 2 or 3 more years left on his contract in place? Atkins could help. I really do not think Steve gets bought out by the trade deadline- but I hope I am wrong. I would love to have Steve Francis as a finisher in our back court.

We really need a big man worse though to relieve Dikembe Mutombo. That settles it for me then - Nazr Mohamed or another mobile big man if Daryl Morey can make the numbers work.

 

OK, fine. But a simple question: where is it written that a true 1 must be on the court? With TMac as point forward' why not another 10+ minutes a game for the 2/3s?