I'd be willing to bet just about anything that there will be changes in the lineup and the rotation tomorrow night. The starting lineup is just not working. They are just not a cohesive unit. Mo Taylor will not start against the Nuggets. Charlie Ward might not start either. My guess at the starting lineup? 1. Lue 2. T-Mac 3. Jackson 4. Padgett 5. Yao Nachbar first off of the bench to play increased minutes at the 2 and 3, Taylor and Howard splitting time backing up the 4 until one of them can be moved in a trade. It's time to make a move and Van Gundy knows it as much as anyone else.
I agree with you, but I'm not sure of the exact players. I think Yao, T-Mac and Jackson contiue to start. My money is on Lue and Barrett getting more time at the point and seeing more of Padgett and Boki. I'm just not sure who will be on the floor to start the game.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Completely and utterly disgusting play. Grade Cards for this one. 1. Yao---F an albatross in the middle..............a very slow albatross, got beat repeatedly by AK, Boozer, and Okur. Frankly, they abused him. 2. MoT---F Had his head up his rear the whole game. He should be drug tested after this one. And he should give his game check back and walk home. Absolutely horrid. Standing around after every posession instead of getting back. Totally disgusting. 3. JJ---B Played his typical game, all by himself, was too tired at the end to hit enough shots to keep us in it. 4. TMac---C No fire, scored a few points and kept us within striking distance in the first half, but nothing special for a man of his talent. If his play doesn't come up a notch or two, we are going nowhere. 5. Ward---F No need to say anymore. 6. Lue---D Not much better. He was getting burned by the quickness of the Jazz' PGs and when Lue is getting outquicked, he is not much good. 7. Juwon Howard---D- A non-factor. Totally non-existant. 8. Padgett---B Did hustle his butt, but he cannot play effectively much more than about 8 minutes. Was too tired to hit anything but the front of the rim after that. 9. Boki---B He did hustle too and hit some shots. We needed even more from him tonight, but didn't get enough minutes. Wasn't very effective defensively. 10. Deke---B He did what he could with his skill set. 11. Spoon-Incomplete 12. Barrett---A The player who made the biggest positive difference in this game. After 2 games, I hate to say it, but I think he needs to start, Ward needs to disappear to the IL, and Lue needs to backup. 13. Coach Van Gundy----F- What in the world was he thinking? The 2nd quarter and the 3rd quarter were absolutely horrible. And he has MoT and Lue just standing around out there. Finally, after we fall down by 18 or so and there is only about 5 minutes left in the third, he decides to make some changes. And then he sticks with these guys when it was obvious that they were wearing down. Once we got within 6, he should have went back in with TMac, Yao, and Boki, with JJ, and Barrett. Instead he waited too long, and then he kept Padgett in instead of Boki when Boki was hitting and Padgett wasn't. Left the starters in entirely too long, specifically Mo and Lue. He should have pulled Lue and Mo in the first half. They were doing absolutely nothing. And then he kept Padgett and Deke in way too long, wearing them down and wasting posessions because Padgett was out of gas. Disgusting Disgraceful Horrible Unacceptable
Well iam glad someone here is still staying optimistic. i do agree that we need to make changes both in the starting lineup and the roster in general but i dont know who we can get with our sorry supporting cast. With Sura coming back and Barrett playing well i think we need a PF more than a PG.
Tough loss tonight but if we made our shots down the stretch the outcome might have been different. Boki and Barret looked very good and increased playing for both of them could catalyze a Rocket's revitalization down the stretch. That said, this team has to get another power forward. Mo T was awful tonight- easily one of the worst rebounding power forwards in the game and a clueless defender. We have to get a good rebounding power forward because clearly Yao Ming will never be a great rebounding center.
I think some blame goes on CD as well for not trying to get another point guard. But yeah alot has to with Van Grumpy trying to make us into the Knicks and the bad coaching job he has done so far this year.
Seems to work everytime. I have to say that Yao does get hammered on one end with no calls and he touches someone on the other end and its foul. Its just fustrating to watch; I can't imagine how Yao feels. To hear people say to just play through it (like the commentators); yeah, whatever. Its hard to shoot with your elbow being held onto or hit. Its BS, the refs suck. No respect.
We'd end up getting killed if we do that. He's fast and can penetrate into the lane allright but at 5' 10" he's too small to get off his shot when playing against the bigger guards in the West. Plus, he's a huge liability on the defensive end but you're right about his being a spark plug. For now, I'd like to see a few more games with him playing instead of Lue.
How in the world could he be any worse defensively than what we have been putting out there? They ain't stopping nuthin!
That's just T-Mac. I saw him play the same way last season for Orlando. At the time I attributed it to his not wanting to play on a losing team. Now I'm not so sure as to what to think.
Our offense is to painful to watch now. If we are going to run slow pace few possesion half court games, let's get people who can make perimeter shots and let's control the board to make a really low possesion game. Right now, only we are playing low possesion games, the opponents get tons of offensive rebounds. EWING should be fired. He still has not got Yao to learn how to avoid cheap fouls. Yao, stop jumping into guys who are runing to the basket! That instinct is terrible.
I think he is guy you bring off the bench, not starting. Sortal like a Earl Boykins. He is for sure a keeper; a backup for Sura. He can really dish the ball. He doesn't look to score, which is exactly what we need (except for transition layups which he should get being as fast as he is). If he can consistently hit the open shot when needed, he can really be a spark plug. I love the guy. I'm intrested to see his entry pass to Yao, being a small guy and all. Of course, he is competing with Lue and Ward
Our defense was at times horrible but OK on the whole. We struggled to score the whole game. The problems on offense are mainly two fold. 1. The achilless heel is the lack of identity on offense. We have enough shooters IMO but we couldn't establish an offensive flow. That's why they go hot and cold, failing to make open shots in rows. Utah is different, their system flows and players get hot in turn. This team lacks an offensive pattern or identity. Look at the Lakers in the past, they have Shaq's play and Kobe's play, then they have the triangle to fall back on. The Rockets have no bread and butter plays that resemble a system. We only have Yao's play, T-Mac's play, then what? Useless movement and screens abundant. Yao still doesn't get the ball when the first time he establishes position. The other facet that makes it up is the two men play between Yao's and McGrady. That's nearly non existent in this game. If there's no structured play that helps our stars to feed off each other, it can be only worse for the role players. Take Nachbar for example, the guy is a slasher but he only showcases it once or twice a game. Take Yao for example, what is the system that he can fall back on when he racks up two early fouls in the paint? 2. We can make up for the lack of system with on the spot creation by the point guards, but unfortunately we don't have much of it either.Hopefully AB's development can alleviate the situation. By all signs AB is a natural point guard. Futhermore, JVG seemed to have tightened his reign over T-Mac's play. Remember the Grizzlies game in which T-Mac single handedly tear them apart? Is now T-Mac being forced into a maze of JVG sets with too many options and too little sharpness? Keep it simple JVG. I know you have yellowpage thick play books, but don't make executing a play like going through an auto repairing manual. Pound the basic plays into the team and build from it. Damn it.
Well his shooting was a bit off but what i saw in the game was that the Jazz were running alot of double teams at him. After van grumpy sat the starters out in the 4th quarter, T-mac couldnt get any kind of rhythm going when he came back in.
