I agree, sort of... There were times watching the Rockets play, even when they won, that felt like being squashed in a meat grinder. So many close games, so many times with 4th quarter collapses, and the worst thing was that we won a grand total of ONE game all year where the team was trailing going into the 4th quarter, and that was in the Utah series. The team just could not come from behind EVER........ I would like to have a team that can get behind by 10 or so and still be a threat to come back...... DD
I enjoy shutting down the opponent. I hate it when the opponent shuts us down. Sometimes, I both enjoyed and hated the same game. Sometimes, I'd rather see the opponent having the ball. Weird kind of fandom.
Agree, I would love to see this team get down by 10 to 15pts and rally back to win. This is what concerned me the most about this years team.
1. I did enjoy watching the Rockets-- the teamwork, intensity, Battier stopping fastbreaks by himself, Chuck destoying the opposition with rebounds and key stops, the 3 point shooters, it's all good to me. But I tend to like these details in bball, not just the ESPN hilights. 2. Of course Rockets won more vs bad teams than vs good ones-- most teams do. That's why good teams win more than bad ones. It's called math. Many Americans, and I guess many Rockets fans, suck at it.
I never liked Jvg's coaching.... but you have to admit his defense was effective... the only things I didnt like about his defense... was 1) he had Yao up at the 3 point line defending against guards... 2) our defenders would take the easy way out and go under a screen/pick rather then go over it... 3) his defense was always attack the ball and he didnt play a more passive defense, or zone when play dictated he should... true his offense was boring to watch and irritating... but that the point to a plodding half court offense... the idea is to waer your opponent down... by playing methodically, at a slower pace than your opponent wants... therefore when they do get the ball... your trying to get them to play faster or more out of control then they want... if anything... Jvg didnt slow things down enough.....
I enjoyed it, immensely. BUT change is change Come November, I'll be rootin BUT Yao Ming I'm concerned about him and his stamina issues As it was, the plodding, the lets get into a set play, he was already limited because of his stamina/endurance and it was a MAJOR issue BUT I'm not going to be lured into acting like a troy barros punk wanna be tough guy again by certain posters, I know that much
enjoyment is relative. as it's been said before, if the rockets win, who cares what style? i will say that though the "phoenix-style" is fun to watch, it has yet to prove it wins more than in the regular season. and that has got to be so heart-breaking for those teams fans. for that i give JVG credit. jvg's STYLE of play, though not fun to watch, IS the methodical way to win a championship. no other team has yet to prove otherwise. this years playoffs is a perfect example: all the run n gun teams are out. our rudy T championship teams weren't much different than this year's team in regard to offense. it was much of the same really. the rudy T teams just had a little more puch offensively. we have the right recipe. we just need to be a little more potent offensively. and for the lack of offensive punch, jvg's head rolled. i don't think that was all his fault. but that's not the point of this thread. fun to watch? not really, but then again neither were the rockets 93-95 teams. but if it brings another trophy to houston, they could win every game 27-13 for all i care.
Boki. Mike. Swift. Bonzi. Vspan. Novac. etc. TMac and YM are semi-destroyed. (Back, leg, knees, toes, shoulder, fingers, etc.)
I'll be honest...I'm most entertained when my team is winning. It might sound weird, but I'm always entertained when: a.) my team is winning by a lot or b.) my team is in a close game, regardless of whether its' 110-109 or 80-78.
Had little to do with coaching. JVG's style did not change. We had a good strecth were we played average teams, Mutombo played like he was 20 years younger, and TMac stepped up. Again, none of these had anything to do with JVG.
I am a basketball fan. As long as the rockets were winning I was happy. I did get irritated when they could not score, but for the most part I was happy. I mean we scored 117 pts against phoenix and blew Dallas away on the 2nd game so I mean the team could score if they wanted too.
I think people here are too brought by sensationalism. Its a WELL known fact that all the star swingmen in the NBA are the highest jersey sellers well practically everywhere. The phenomenon is more acute in say somewhere like China where people would aspire to be more like swingmen then Yao. I think this translates down to style. People don't give credit for stops, they don't go wow what a great defensive rotation, or that the defence today was what won us the game. People go, wow T-mac and his 30 pts and 13 assists got us over the line, or Yao dominated on the OFFENSIVE end. At the end of the day we don't give credit to JVG enough. His defensive system had its flaws, but it worked, ESPECIALLY with the half court set offence. I just don't think people will appreciate it in the same way you would appreciate a dunk or a 9-0 run. Lets not mention first of all that on a 9-0 run you only remember the baskets ( which mind you could come from 3 seperate fast breaks) not the stops that started it. I think we are going to regret going away from JVG style if Adelman doesn't give them the same accountability that JVG did. All this INTERVIEW negativity IS to make players accountable for defence. His whole style is based on making them accountable. I suppose only T-mac is the only player exempt from this. Look at all the players who don't play D and are still superstars (*cough* Paul Pierce *cough*). Good EXECUTED half court offence is nice to watch, and HONESTLY it happened. You can't deny we had games where our offence clicked and was executed perfectly. T-mac Yao going for 30 pts each i remember one game. The only problem I had with our style was it was too rigid, you couldn't alter it very much according to the situation ( ie players in a shooting/form slump) I would have liked a bit more flexibility from JVG in terms of player and offensive set decisions. Its like he only has half a playbook and got told by God not to play the rest of his playbook.
Of course, the Suns did the same thing, destroying bad teams. Somehow people say they can't win a championship because they lost to the Spurs by losing in a crucial game at home without 2 key players.
people keep downtalking phoenix's style of play but seem to miss a glaring fact. it has consistently won more games than the boring jvg style. dallas won their 67 games the same way. avery made mistakes in his strategy against golden state. otherwise we'd be seeing dallas win the championship this year. and san antonio's offense is just as potent as phoenix's when they want it to be. there is no way the jvg offense gets you a championship no matter how good the d is.
the rest of the league didn't enjoy playing against it.....which translated into winning results....if thats not the idea behind coaching and winning, then what is? More offense will help but not at the sacrifice of defense.....remains to be seen what exactly even the JVG haters will miss about the man secretly behind their wet dreams.
