[Denver Post] Rockets Still interested in Wells...

Bonzi Wells reminds me of Jim Jackson 2.0.

He's a great talent that was always in demand but never found a home.

 

Yeah JVG is the kind of guy that would asks the Navy Seals to make their traing tougher. Even if they said it would kill half the guys in the program.

If you look at the play off series between the top teams such as the Mavs and Spurs they came down to the wire, so conditioning is a major factor. Guys have to be in shape, but at the same time if you can conserve energy you should.

Maybe JVG should try to do what Hubbie Brown did where he had, what was it, a 10 man rotation to keep guys fresh.

 

And He also brought plagues of locusts and frogs to the Egyptians.

Sometimes we might want to be vewwy careful what we wish for...

 

I'm actually a big fan of a 10 man rotation, but you have to have 10 talented players.

 

That's being unfair. He's not asking for the world here. Yes, he wants you to play tough defense. No, he's not asking you to score 100ppg; he just doesn't want to see any wasted opportunities. When you take ten seconds to get the ball up the court you're only hurting yourself. Last year in a chron article, JVG said that when his players push the ball they should look for open layups first, open jumpshots second, and if those fail they fall into a half court set. If you're an NBA calibur guard you should be able to do this. Not everytime, but when the opportunity presents itself.

Case in point: look at the spurs. They play hard defense. They're hardly an offensive dynamo, but Parker and Ginobli don't plod. They push the ball and look to score. If they can't, which is the vast majority of the time, then that's where Duncan's post ups and the rest of the half-court crew come in. On top of that, they have some of the best ball movement in a half-court set that I've ever seen, all season long. Cause if you can't produce it consistently during the season then you are screwed in the playoffs.

Remember, it's the intensity that changes in the playoffs...not the gameplan.

 

Not trying to be unfair to JVG. I'm just saying if you've played this game, you know that those types of defensive, slap the floor coaches that want you to cut off every dribble penetration with foot movement and positioning, switching, and chasing everything man on man the whole game, scrambling to double and then scrambling to get back ad nauseum, you know that coaching kills your legs. Even if you are in fantastic shape, there are going to be possessions that you take a breather on the offensive end because you are locked up from all that digging on the defensive end. It is much harder to explode to the offensive end after playing tha type of defense as opposed to a style that is designed to force the opponent into quicker shots by laying off the perimeter shooters a little bit and cutting down on the mid to interior spacing and getting in the passing lanes.

There was nobody in this league that wanted to run any more than Stevie and Cuttino but that first year under JVG both of those guys would walk the ball up after digging for a stop on defense. Why? It ain't because they didn't want to run. It was/is 2 things. 1. So you run it up and then he hollers because you take a quick shot. So, why run it up? Steve and Cat never did understand, I believe, that the purpose of running it up was to create pressure on the opponent and force them to give up easy baskets or have to run their own legs down by getting back in transition. Van Gundy was trying to control the tempo. 2. Even though it was their nature to break on offense, their explosing had been expended on the offensive end.

That explains why JVG has notoriously had poor shooting teams. You've got to have your legs under you to shoot.

I agree with you, it is the intensity that changes in the playoffs........for some teams, but not teams like the Spurs per se. They may bring more emotion but Pops won't stand for less intensity. Granted, not much can be said. THey've won 3 championships that way. But they've also had the best player on the court those 3 championships. And I am wondering if indeed Timmy's time hasn't passed. He's only 30 but the foot problems, they seem to be getting worse every year. I, for one, can't help but feel that all those hard seasons have probably aged his body to the point where he the equivalent of anybody else that is 35 or 36 because of so many more games, more playoffs, and the constant grind of Pop's style.

Frankly, I think JVG is even more intense and meticulous about how his team plays than even Pops. I think he cranks up the intensity a little too early in the season and consequently his teams are susceptible to injuries and fatigue as the season progresses becasue of it. I don't want him to change his intensity. I'd just like to see him take it a little easier on our vets, early in the season, and then crank up the choke down defensive play later in the season towards the playoffs. You can't turn it on and off. But you can start off easy and gradually crank up the hard grind defense later in the season and be in great shape come playoff time with players that aren't injured, fatigued, and wore out mentally from trying to remember ever little bitty assignment missed over an 82 game season. You can crank it up, but you can only crank it up for so long before you have a breakdown. It's a 500 mile race, not a quarter mile sprint.

 

When is going to be the end of that 48-hour deadline?

 

Very interesting and it makes sense to me that JVG burns the players out too soon. I think the fact that JVG never played in the pros, just the limited schedule of l college might explain this lack of insight. JVG is has yet to show that he is a championship coach, though he did a decent job with the team Riley assembled in NY.

 

Really...Anything new?

 

IMy guess is that it will be between us and charlotte. Its either money or winning. We will see what Bonzi wants.

 

I think it comes down to either us, Charlotte, Denver, or Miami.

 

One set of powerball numbers I am playing tonight is 1-11-31-12-42....maybe that can help tell us if us signing Bonzi would be a jackpot move or not.

 

Being overly intense early may indeed tire players out. Pat Riley, for example, admitted this season that back in his earlier days his killer practices may well have worn his players down so that they choked during the playoffs. Van Gundy may do the same thing.

On the other hand, I don't think there is evidence that his players get more tired or injured than that of any other coach... I'd like to see some numbers on it (and Morey probably would have somebody working on that if the thought occurs to him). Offense and defense don't have hurt each other... hard D gives you more opportunity to run the ball off rebounds and turnovers (when you have a PG who can push the ball and guys who can finish).

As far as I remember, Cuttino and Steve really never run up and down the floor well. Even with other coaches (Rudy, Adelman, Davis, Jent, etc) these guys tend to walk the ball up the court and overdribble. When they do try and push it, they often end up turning it over. Some players don't play well fast... look at Marbury. He couldn't fit into D'Antoni's running attack and got shipped.

I also remember that the Knicks stepped up the pace when Ewing got hurt on their playoff drive to the Finals.

There is obviously a difference between Van Gundy and, say, Adelman, but I really think coaches are a lot more flexible than sports writers give them credit for. For example, people thought Adelman was strictly a Princeton offense guy, but he scrapped much of that with Bonzi and Artest around. Riley, even more obviously, has played totally different styles when his personnel dictates. Even Van Gundy opened his offense up more than he's given credit for with the 04/05 Rockets.

 

The pace of the transition to offense isn't determined by Van Gundy. It's determined by Alston (and Francis long ago). The team was so successful with Sura, Mike James, and a younger and healthier Wesley and Jon Barry because they forced tempo and could finish at the rim. My recollection is that Wells is a pretty decent transition player. Wells combined with JL3 or VSpan with TMac and Battier is probably a good transition team.

As down as my opinion is of Van Gundy these days, the transition pace is not his design. My complaint is that he'll be yanking players off the court too quickly for heat check shots in transition. The rooks can learn that watching film...let them play through the mistakes.

 

I am waiting on Clutch sticky "Bozi is Rocket" or "due to high traffic, clutchcity is open to contributing members at this moment"

 

Yeah, I agree with that totally. I hate the fast hooks. Even with Stro last year, he makes one bone head play and he's gonzo for the game. I think it would have maybe been best in some of those situations to leave him in. Obviously, after the play is over, he knows what a screwball play he made out of it. He's probably pretty motivated at that point to throw one down to get it back. It never materialized though. Instead, we kept plodding around with -10 Juwan Howard.

 

So am I.

 

I don't recall a 48-hour DEADLINE, I recall him saying he COULD sign with us within 48 hours. That's not a deadline. That means what it means: he could.

 

I've been feeling really positive about this, but now I am getting that bad feeling that I got right before the Mike James debacle.....I'm sensing Charlotte....

 

I live in charlotte and I dont hear much buzz about Bonzi. The Bobcats have been saving capspace to make a big splash in 2007 and have even sent the message to fans to put up with losing the past couple years cuz it will pay off then. I cant imagine them taking a huge cut into that capspace by signing bonzi. ticket sales are bad even in the new arena so if they dont sign a marquee player to go with morrison fans could bail on the team. I just dont think bonzi is that marquee player.

Course I could be wrong, but I think the Rox have a good shot at Bonzi but it has to be soon. I think the longer it goes from his visit, the less likely Bonzi is a rocket.