you know, i saw some crap you posted in garm last night about how gundy was responsible for the loss because he played his starters too long and it wore them out. (wrong) but now you're just going too damn far. Our bench is not strong enough to play against the better teams! When tmac went out in the first half last night, we couldn't produce on either end of the court! It's really quite simple, you play the players that can get you a victory. If your bench creates a deficit that is insurmountable, then you roll with the starters as long as you can. As far as Bonzi (the ******,not in shape, tub of lard, who thinks he's entitled to preferential treatment after he screwed the pooch and thought he was better than the rest of the league did), you saw what happened when Jeff played him and he wasn't ready. If anything, you should agree with the coach more than ever, given the fact that playing an out of shape player created an injury. A selfish injury that is hurting the team now that Yao is legitimately down. This team is overproducing right now. It's freakin beautiful. Without Yao, Snyder and Wells, we hung in with the Mav's for 3qtrs plus. At full strength, the team should scare the league. In large part, this is due to Van Gundy. The coach who inspired an injury plagued franchise to not feel sorry for themselves. A coach who makes his players earn their playing time. A coach who preaches repeatable actions against quick fix solutions. About last night, you can say that we had the Mav's beaten until Avery "finally" found a combination that exploited our roster deficiencies. However, you can not blame Van Gundy for not being able to counter back. He doesn't have a bench filled with Stackhouse, Dampier, Harris, and George (all accomplished nba players to some degree). When healthy, we will be able to, yet for now, just enjoy the ride and instead of worrying about a coach who is doing a great job, take care of buying yourself a new tv. Hell, maybe that's why you couldn't see the game properly.
JVG is playing for a new contract and he is overworking his team which leads to injuries... You can call it what you want, but it is NOT a recipe for winning it all, it is a recipe for a tired team. DD
so so right i am really getting tired of jvg being so stubborn he is going to cause us to get put out the playoffs in the first round this is getting so old. bonzi and snyder need to play head shot 2 for 10 and rafer well he was rafer TMAC HAS NO HELP WITHOUT BONZI AND SNYDER NOT PLAYING his back will not make it through all of this it just won't **** we need to trade the coach first then talk about making trades. what is so sad i used to be on jvg's side now i watch **** like last night and wonder what the hell was i thinking? bonzi has always played heavy so play his ass. this is turning into parcells and owens situation and u see where it got the cowboys one and done i don't won't to be anything like that so we must stop the madness right now cd you need to make this happen before it is to late
I agree with you, the major problem this team has is no real backup PG or starting PG for that matter. Alston is getting way to many minutes as he did last night with the most at 41. He can hit the 3 ball every once in a while and that's about it. This team needs a knife fighter like Bonzi against teams like the Mavericks, Suns and Spurs. Bottom line is JVG needs to find a way to get Bonzi some heavy minutes or this team won't be able to counter against players like Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse and Deavan George. Bonzi is capable of getting all those guys in foul trouble and they all wouldn't be able to focus on T-Mac exclusively.
We did wear the starters down playing last night - it was clear to see. but if Head and the others besides Juwan and Tracy had been hitting anything close to the net last night we would have been right there until the end. Head was way too tentative on his shot, Rafer still can't make a layup, and Hayes still can't make a freethrow. An in-shape, peaking Bonzi would have helped last night but we don't have that yet. Yao would have been a huge factor in the game. Dampier would have been stomped-on non-factor as usual with Yao in the game. One thing I see is that Tracy needs the ball in his hands at the start of every game. If Yao had been there last night it would have been no contest. He could have picked up the scoring slack when Tracy became tired in the third quarter, and saved Tracy for the fourth. He definitely had nothing left in the tank.
I think you kind of hit it on the head there. We play more bench guys against weaker teams b/c *sometimes* the game is in hand and he can rest our starters more, knowing when we face a very good team they will most likely put in more minutes. If that is what he's doing, makes sense to me. If not, hell if I know... You play your best against the best, and against weaker opponents, rest em when you can. As posted elsewhere, I would have thrown Bonzi and/or Kirk in there somewhere, but not for TMac last night, he was outstanding. Or at least just for part of the time to give Tracy a minute or two on the bench (floor) to recharge a little, look at what's going on out there on the floor. I don't think he wouldn't have left early last night if the game was still winnable. Man I ramble on a lot, it probably doesn't end up making much sense.
from vg's tone, he doesn't care that much about bonzi i mean whoever is willing to show VG heart or whatever it may be, then he wins the position. I doubt bonzi is going to try and prove anything to VG. so why in the hell did the rockets sign him? VG should haveknown these things about bonzi, and something becomes a sticking point? I wonder if VG is going to put him in at all in the next 3 games????????? how is he going to earn anything if he isn't going to play?????? STUPID, not only is Bonzi worthless as a teammate this year, he has no freaking value for a trade.
I'd like it if Bonzi took his turn before Snyder for the simple reason that we want to show other teams that he's healthy and in shape to play before the Feb 22 trade deadline. Snyder can play after 2/22.
Bonzi is merely biding his time waiting for next season's free agency period to begin. I don't think he ever planned to play much here and those folks who continue to hold out hope that Bonzi will ever contribute something on the court are setting themselves up for a big letdown.
I wonder if TMac is beyond the annoyed stage and has gone to "highly pissed" stage with Rafer Alston and his terrible shooting. Trading Mike James for Alston will go down as one of the WORST trades the Rockets have ever done.
I'm not getting into a rotational argument for last night. Personally, I don't think it was the starters being worn out as much as Avery adjusted to T-Mac and JVG couldn't readjust. That was the offensive problem. More specifically, in the first half, T-Mac would come free off the doubled pick on the wing for a catch and shoot, but in the 2nd half, the defender guarding the last screener would switch over to T-Mac so that play got screwed. The play got screwed and we kept running it like dumbasses and ended up with terrible shots over and over again. I blamed JVG for that in chat, and NIKEstrad brought up a good point that JVG is working on the fly trying to change and inside outside offense. Still, Avery Johnson totally outcoached JVG last night (Again). Offensively, the Rockets got shut down in the 2nd half not just because they were tired (which is debatable) but mainly because their plays were getting blown up by the D and they couldn't get off quality shots. Now my main beef was with the defensive rebounding and pace last night. I play-by-played the 1st half in chat, and by half time, it wasn't that apparent yet, but I clearly stated it as problem number 1: we're too small and getting outrebounded. The defense wasn't bad, but the 2nd chance points were killing us. In the pregame thread and on the dallas-mavs board, I pointed out my keys to the game, which was Deke controlling Dampier on the boards. I thought that would be very important when thinking about past games and how each team succeeds against eachother. Obviously Dampier is just too big for Deke to box out sucessfully. Yao's size will really help out there when he gets back. As for pace, I've done extensive analysis on transition defense already http://bbs.clutchfans.com/showthread.php?t=121391 concluding that while the Rockets are great in the half court, their transition D is just average. But the thing is Dallas' transition D is their weakness too. Maybe that's JVG wanted to run (I hope to God that JVG and Morey had logical reasons for it, because they should know that the Rockets transition D is statistically weak). By the way, Phoenix has a really good transition offense AND defense, so they love to run. But back to the main point. If Snyder AND Bonzi are healthy they BOTH MUST PLAY. JVG wasn't talking about lack of practice. He was talking about "we're doing okay now, so let's see where these guys fit in and they'll have to wait". That is what I disagree with. The short bench argument is a side issue. Being tired is a side issue. I specifically disagree with the small back court. In my opinion, the disadvantages of a small back court (Rafer and Head or Rafer and JL3 or JL3 and Head) totally outweigh the advantages. I strongly disagree with this move by JVG, because he's saying Snyder is ready. Tonight, Phoenix will go small backcourt sometimes with Nash and Barbosa. JVG might force the issue with Head and Rafer. Either way, I will be pulling my hair out in chat. Now that Snyder is healthy, we must not go small backcourt. The size and length disadvantage hurts our team rebounding, hurts our defense, screws our matchups on switches...it's just bad especially when there are better options.
Head cannot stick Barbosa. This is the game that exposes how thin we are. Look at the frontcourt. Deke and Juwan vs. Amare and Marion???? Sure hope we got some extra backboards cuz them guys is gonna tear the rims off.
Deke can box out the Suns if we stay in the half court. Totally slow it down, don't fast break unless it's a wide open layup. Our problem is going to be when we miss open 3's and can't get back. Battier's gonna have to be superman tonight. He needs transition help in Snyder (Head and Rafer cannot stop Phoenix's guards on transition).
we have no chance to win this game with our lineup of PG: Alston (worst shooter in league history) SG: Head (one dimensional, cant create offense) SF: Battier(hustle player, but wont be able to score much) PF: Howard (needs to have a career game) C: Dike(needs to lose about 10 years)
LOL yeah.. just in time.. Tmac goes down and the Bonz has a perfect chance to prove himself.. I am really going crazy with Tmac's injury, but maybe it's just a blessing in disguise to get Bonzi some PT and show JVG what he can do so we can get Tmac back very soon and we can put the Bonz in the starting lineup, that would really help.. oh btw, Bonzi gotta start 2nite.. I dont care if he is 300 pounds and he cant run half a mile, he gotta start. there's no point in starting Luther Head because he will be a mismatch in favor of the Suns. actually, our whole team without Tmac is a mismatch in favor of the Suns except a fat Bonzi who can post up Raja. they have no answer for an extremely fat Bouncy Whales. if Bonzi doesn't start, I dont see us losing by less than 50 points, no kidding..
I am not sure how well Kirk has healed, but he and Bonzi should be able to contribute 20-25 points and atleast 10 boards between them. Unless of course JVG still is not interested in Bonzi being a part of the effort. I dont think we will win against Phoenix but I dont think we will be obliterated either. I expect Shane to step up his mid- range shooting.
Bonzi Wells is the missing piece that they need. This season has made people forget how good he has been in portland, memphis and sacto. Is he a star? no. But he's a great third option if he's healthy/in shape, and would have given howard/harris/terry fits on the low block last night.
