wow. I knew he didn't really play rookies that often (except for Hayes and Head), but that does explain a lot.
this offensive thing is off based...rockets averaged 97 points and san antonio averaged what 98. 52 wins in the west without yao for over 30 and tmac for over 10...how many do you expect to win next year and do you expect homecourt again.
You forgot the other part that Mav-Hater was wrong or lying about: HEad was a member of the 05-06 rotation even when the team was fully healthy, injury had nothing to do with his being in the rotation.
So i guess that makes the other Jack-a$$ a lier as well because he left out Boki on his list who now plays significant minutes for a team that did make it out of the first round. Head was a member of the rotation but was playing what 8 minutes a game before the injuries. You got nothing else to do....bash me. I don't care. I could give a crap if you listen to a thing I say. That is why I don't have 18000 posts because I only post if I have something to contribute. I Havent averaged 12 posts a day for 4 years just to run my mouth. You guys won't even believe this stuff even though all of it comes from JVG himself. Listen to what the man says in his interviews and stop bashing the people who are simply pointing out that the man does exactly what he says and always has.
No, it just means that you forgot that Rudy T (who wouldn't play him either) was the coach when he was drafted. No, his very first 7-8 games he played anywhere between 13-29 minutes. HIs 29 minute game (game 5) came with a fully healthy backcourt rotation. Check the gamelogs and box scores. I'm not bashing you - just you arguing off of bad facts. This is bashing you. SamFisher KO Mav_Hater (Facts, 2nd Post)
I don't expect more regular season wins next year, because that's exactly what Van Gundy maximized. He shortened the rotation and minimized risk-taking and mistakes, thereby efficiently beating the Eastern Conference teams and non-playoff Western Conference teams. We went 42-14 against those teams, 7 games better than Utah did. But what was the payoff? Home court? The Utah series was an experiment between a team that maximized wins against lesser competition (us) to get home court, and a team that was less efficient at beating lesser competition but developed a deeper rotation and played better (16-10 vs. 10-16) against the WC playoff teams. It was our home court and low-mistakes efficiency vs. their deeper rotation. And we lost. To me, regular-season wins, without a payoff in the playoffs, are worthless. All you get is a year older and lower in the draft order.
Would you say the same for Mike D'Antoni? Because he did the same, to an even greater degree (with respect to rotation size and wins). Hell even the Jazz, with their comparatively deep rotation was essentially 1 man deeper. (9 man vs. 8 man) I think that you either have players to make a deep rotation or you don't - I don't believe the Rockets ever had the horses to make one this year. THe only position where they had excess capacity/depth (the 2-3 slot) is precisely the area where they needed depth the least, with Luther, Shane, and Tracy hzandling 66-75% or so of the available minutes, which leaves too thin slice of a slice of pie for Balloonzi Wells or Snyder - (though I think JVG erred in not jsut choosing one of the two and sticking with them, rather than changing his mind a few times in mid stream and then settling on none of the above in the playffs).
Boki was drafted by Rudy T, who played him in a whopping 17 games the entire season. Boki played poorly for JVG and his numbers were no better when he was traded to Charlotte. It took him 5 seasons to develop (though I am glad that he did...he was the nicest athlete that I have ever met).
Bottom line is that our rotation was "short" because the players on our team suck. Guys, we lost to the Celtics AT HOME when Tmac and Yao sat out. This was WITH Bonzi going off offensively. Imagine how bad we would have been without Bonzi. Yes, that's how bad we are. Is it JVG's fault that we suck in the first place? Partially. Is it JVG's fault that we didn't win with our personnel? Not at all. In fact he did a terrific job. So JVG= Great coach, bad GM
JVG was not the GM. In fact, it's fairly common knowledge that he and the GM (and Les Alexander and Dennis Lindsey) had some differing opinions about multiple players. This is not to say that JVG, given complete control, would have done great... most likely, he would not. Most of the time, even good coaches given too much control of personnel tend to make mistakes. (See Pat Riley, his one championship in Miami was after a few seasons of being just the personnell guy rather than coach/GM combo). Coaches have to focus on each game, GMs have to take a longer view. And no, the Rocket's problem is not choosing between "win now" and "win later," it's that they made some moves that were not ideal for either purpose and have done so for years.
thanks Sam, assumed I had lost my brain, and thought high scoring poor defending teams regularly win the title with the way JVG style has been decimated and Adelman is the lord around here
The same GM (CD) acquired dramatically different types of players under Rudy and under JVG. We don't know how much "control" the coach has in terms of getting specific individual players. One thing for certain, the GM takes A LOT of consideration in what kind of players the coach prefers to coach. JVG apologists keep on saying that he did not have enough talent on his roster, never acknowledging that he has a role in shaping the roster.
I agree, JVG did have a role, but he was one of several voices rather than the determining one. They probably considered who JVG liked to coach, but it would be hard to imagine that JVG, being good friends with Fratello, would not know enough about former Grizzlies and think "Man, I'd love to coach Swift and Wells!" Nor is it likely that JVG would choose not to give Mike James a $800,000 trade kicker (What does it matter to the coach? It's more of a long term plan GM thing). Those players acquired under Rudy, especially in the last part of the Rudy era, were often worse than those during the last 4 years. The major change between the eras may be attributed to the fact that Les finally got tired of spending money on Catos and Taylors. The Rockets have been significantly more money conscious over the last few years, which can be both good and bad.
...Bullard, Langhi, Nachbar, Padgett, Novak... Yeah it looks like a real dramatic change in philosophy there....
Name one rookie that JVG didn't play that turned into a good player once they left the Rockets??? I mean - JVG coached teams to win rings, he was never given a decent rookie like a Rudy Gay to coach. It's pure invention to say what you just wrote.
Let's see, JVG basically said he'd rather have Gay over Battier and he got Battier. Swift and Wells are definitely NOT JVG type of players. He can't stand drama queens but wants guys who work hard and buy into a team concept. VSPAN was locked up before JVG got here. Novack was a poor defender - again a JVG no-no. About Francis-Cato-Mobley for Howard and T-mac? JVG had much to do with that? We all know the answer is no. So what about all those ex-Knicks? You mean like ROd Strickland getting a 10-day contract? Hmmm I guess JVG was fired for that - that's what you are saying right????
He said that? I only recall JVG said many times that if you have issues with Battier, you have issues.
Again... he was rookie under Rudy, not Van Gundy. And Boki isn't that good, just your run-of-the-mill 15-20 mpg bench player.
