Okay, I googled. He has only had one Top 10 choice before Gay -- he chose Frederick Weiss. Most of the picks under his coaching reign mysteriously were traded either before their drafts or shortly thereafter. As far as my personal negativity, you may be right. My apologies for that. However, I am still seething over this draft day manuever. Before that time, because I am pretty much a loyalist, I generally defended JVG as a coach, although I never liked the way he made snide remarks about players. I do not follow other teams -- just the Rockets. I may be the only one who wants to get rid of him, but the chances are I am not alone.
Crash this is not directly towards you, quoted as part of the JVG rookie discussion. In order to get see if there's any truth to the "JVG doesn't play rookie" urban legend, I went into the draft history and looked at any picks were made by the NYk when he was th head coach. Disclaimer: There may be errors in this. I am not familar with Knicks trasactions so I tried my best with what google gave me especially with all of the transactions. 1997 Knicks - 25th pick - John Thomas - Went to the Mavs by the Derek Harper trade made in 94. 1997 Knicks - 53rd pick - Paul Rogers - went to the Lakers in the Doug Cristie made trade in 94. 1998 Knicks - 16th pick - Bryce Drew - Went to the blazers in the John Wallace trade made in 97. 1998 Knicks - 38th pick (from Celtics) - Demarco Johnson 1999 Knicks - 15th pick - Frederic Weiss 1999 Knicks - 46th pick - J.R. Koch 2000 Knicks - 22nd pick - Donnell Harvey - Went to Mavs in the John wallace trade. 2000 Knicks - 39th pick (from Celtics) - Lavor Postel 2000 Knicks - 58th pick (from John Wallace trade) -Pete Mickeal 2001 Knicks - 18th pick - Jason collins - Went ? (4 team trade) in the Patric Ewing trade 2001 Knicks - 38th pick - Michael Wright 2001 Knicks - 42th pick - Eric Chenowith JVG didn't spend a full season with 2002 knicks. In summary Out of rookies JVG had on the team that weren't traded away in his tenure with the knicks. Demarco Johnson - Didn't play for the Knicks at all. Currently plays in Europe. Frederic Weiss - Searching on google didn't turn out much besdies bitter Knicks fans. Complete flop. JR Koch - ??? Google didn't have anything on his NBA career either. Complete flop. Lavor Postell - played for the Knicks for 3 seasons. Avged 2-3.5 pts a game for 6-8min per game. Currently in Europe. Pete Mickeal - Didn't play for Knicks at all. Floated around ABA, Philipines, and even signed and waived vby the rockets in 2002. Michael Wright - ??? Can't find anythign on google. Eric Chenowith - Never played a game in NBA. Waived by Denver in 2005. .... In SHORT: Best rookie JVG has had... drum roll... LAVOR POSTELL! There is not one rookie who suffocated under JVG and blossomed in other teams. JVG's reputation of not playing rookies probably came from the fact he didn't have any rookies worth playing!
if credibility were able to be destroyed by opinions or emotional fits, then no one on this board would be credible... you must be perfect..?
No way ... I'm not perfect. But what those cliches tell me is that a poster is just going with groupthink or has a predispositioned opinion, and therefore it's hard to take his/her statement as objective.
Back to the original topic, if Novak is our starting PF we are in trouble. Barring some miraculous transformation, his rebounding and overall defense are not good enough to warrant a starting position. He will probably just play the Bullard/Padgett role-- and that is good enough for me, as it is an important role to play.
I believe the thread topic was "PF of the future". Obviously nobody expects him to start now in his present shape.
You definitely aren't the only one who wants JVG gone. If we don't have a really good regular season with some playoff success, he is history. I'm just suggesting we forget the cliches and urban legend. JVG grew as a coach when he unleashed Tracy 2 years ago. Wanting a shooter at PF this summer shows me he's taken more steps to change his thinking. But his is his last chance.
If I remember correctly, Tom Chambers competed in the All-Star Weekend in both the 3-point contest and the dunk contest. I remember watching him adjust the net right before attempting a dunk.
I guess that kills the "Chambers wasn't a good athlete" argument. Of course anyone that played Lakers vs Celtics or NBA Live back in the day would know that argument wasn't valid.
TBS -- your observation makes sense. Crash5179, apologies for participating in the derailment of your original discussion point. Whether Novak plays PF or SF, I am excited about having a new, extra option to plug into our roster. I only hope that he actually gets plugged in.
The point of this thread is not if Novak going to be exactly like Chambers. Some one like Chambers just seems like the perfect fit for Yao Ming. Steve Novak IMO has a chance to bring us a lot of the same things that Chambers did. Will Novak ever average 27pts a game and be the Rockets first option? Highly unlikely for several reasons. Will he be the impact player that Chambers was? Once again not likely. But can he give us 6 to 7 rebounds a game? Can he make teams pay on a regular basis for leaving him alone at the 3 pt line? Can he force his man to come out of the paint and guard him on the perimeter? Obviously only time will tell but I think he has all of the tools needed to do all of those things. If he is willing to be coached and is smart then I think JVG can teach him to be an effective team defender. It's not as if the guy was selected with the 52nd pick, he was picked just a few spots behind where players such as Sam Cassell and Josh Howard were picked so the guy has ability that was almost a first round pick. I am not falling into the Boki trap (thanking he will develope into an allstar) with this guy but I am hopefull that he can fill a role and after that...who knows how good he can be.
Yetti don't jump into something you know nothing about. "White man can't Jump" is a movie and a cliche if you will. I only stated the facts and that is Novak has limited vertical leaping ability and is not that athletic. And I phrased it as to deliberately say the cliche is not a truth but in this case it applies. Now he directly responded to my post by saying the next person who says white men can't jump I will shoot. Shooting is not some thing I take lightly nor this board for that matter as proven when Eddie Griffen shot at someone and got nailed to the cross on this board. Now I know it is very doubtful he will shoot me but the real problem is he didn't even read my post but rather saw the statement "whitemen can't jump and went off with his statement I will shoot the next person. Even if I did mean white men can't jump (which I know is not true) there are many more tactful responses than I am going to shoot you. That would be like me saying next time you call me rude and uncouth I am going to blow your brains out. Only I would be more justified in say that because you unprovoked by me, attacked me. Whereas I didn't know this poster existed until he made his shooting threat. But because I have never had a problem with you I will overlook your comment, just don't call me rude again.
I thought Novak was 6'10"? Correct me if I am wrong. JHo is listed at 6'8" standing on a book.... Howard hits a high % of his close in shots. His mid range shot is flat and inaccurate. He has no outside shot whatsoever. If Howard is a better defender than Novak then we are screwed and there is no hope as JHo has worn out several matador capes here in Houston.
I know, but people have certain frames. No matter what happens, Bradley and Prince will be skinny, and guys like Ben Wallace and Dwayne Wade will be muscular. He can put on some muscle, but people dont transform into a different body-type. Well, without using illegal drugs...
Here is what I posted: Novak looks to be at least a year away from real playing time, especially if JVG is still coaching. However, Novak is only 10 pounds or so lighter than Howard and is the same height barefoot. Even though Howard is a good shot, there is no comparison with Novak. Howard is easily the better defender but only by way of experience. The lateral movement and leaping ability is about the same. In the draft profiles Novak measured 6'8.5" IIRC and he had decent lane agility. I underlined my qualifiers.
