If the Rockets play 0.622 ball the rest of the way (equalling last year), they win 45 or 46 games. If the Nuggets play 0.598 ball the rest of the way (equalling last year), they win 46 or 47 games.
Wow, this is some writing right there. pasox2 let your pen take it over, beautiful. Not sure Wu Wei is a right approcah towards life though, it's a little too passive, dont you think?
i don't take much stock in an article based on one game and the idea that players aren't having fun under jvg. this is the same coach whose best player on down(i don't know about the new guys) have raved him as the best coach they've ever played for. are people completely blanking out last year when the rockets were a near offensive juggernaut? i believe van gundy was the coach then. it's funny how since the david wesley trade last year through the offseason, jvg was considered a genius, now people can't wait to get rid of him. i'm still of the opinion this start has more to do with t-mac being hurt than anything else.
When's the last time Eddie Johnson's had anything good to say about the Rockets? I swear somebody stole his underwear from his locker or something when he played here.
i have been backing up jvg since we started this terrible start, but i gotta say that EJ makes great points and it is ridiculous to not win one game without t-mac. i also agree that its probably hard to play ball when everytime you make a mistake your coach cringes and criticizes. The best part about these athletes is their creativity and i am starting to see that jvg takes away from that... i have been backing him up, but now i think that he might not be the way to go. i know its not gonna happen and it does sound ridiculous when people say that rudy should coach us, but i think he would actually be a good fit...
for the record. . . if they said anything but .. . folx around here would CRUFICY them they are older players who know how to play the PR game Rocket River The lil General don't bar much 'defiance'
This whole angle of today's game being so different is vastly, vastly overstated. You see this in many sports IMO where the league trumpets some new rule changes which have very little actual impact because they just aren't enforced. To those who think you couldn't double team the post before you got the ball in the hakeem era, look at a rockets-sonics game. To those who think hand-checking isn't allowed on perimeter players watch Bruce Bowen or Ron Artest or Raja Bell. The NBA is always going to be a league where the dominant big man is the foundation of championship teams The 2 teams to win titles in this era besides DET have Duncan and O'Neal, who are about as Olajuwonesque as you can get in terms of being pure post players. Duncan plays a little high post with his bank shots and face up game but about 75-80% of the time he's a post up player and the way SA plays nowadays is not much different, if at all, than Houston's title teams in the mid 90's. Duncan's effectiveness obviously hasn't been affected and the slight decline in Shaq's game coincides with his age and he's still a big time beast. Whiile teams tried some zone when the rule changes were first made, most teams play the same man to man D the vast majority of the time. You just can't play a zone in the NBA because the shooting is better than at the collegiate level. The increased prevalence of the 3 point shot is a major deterrent from doubling (without the ball) post guys for anything other than isolated instances in a game. It's too easy most times for a team to swing the ball to the high post then out to the perimter or back inside to the big man who now has the position advantage once the double teamer is forced out. And I do agree the Rockets do lack in the ability of executing against this scheme as the way most teams do. Hell, the Defensive 3 second violations are usually called in the exact situations where Illegal D was called pre-rules changes, quite often when you see a team try to double a post player without the ball. I do agree that in the Rockets case this year it's a little easier to have one man in front of Yao and one man behind him because the team is so poor in the areas of outside shooting and swinging the ball to get easier looks when this Defense is employed. But let's be honest: Yao's problems have much more to do with deficiencies in his game than anything else. In the Hakeem era, teams would just front Yao because he is simply so slow and has such weak hands that it's very easy for the weak side defender to rotate to Yao and knock the ball out of his hands or block/alter his shot. Yao doesn't have the hands that a Duncan/ONeal/Olajuwon do which is why it's so freakin hard to get him the ball. As some have noted, he exhibits really poor fundamentals in this area. As a post player, it's your job to ward off the defender behind you so he can't reach in and disrupt the pass and your job to secure the ball when a guard/forward makes the pass. Hakeem was excellent at this as is Duncan and especially O'Neal for obvious reasons (strength). As one person noted, Yao sometimes actually retreats and starts backing down the defender right as the post entry pass is being attempted, which oh too often results in turnovers or play disruption. He's weak fundamentally. Yao also falls well short in the stamina category compared to Hakeem, Duncan, and even O'Neal. Hakeem and Duncan are so much more active than Ming on both sides of the court and even when forced to play 42-45 minutes, you didnt see declines in their effectiveness. With Yao, fast starts and very slow finishes are the norm. His productivity declines dramatically in games where he has to log heavy minutes. Hell, last year we saw in the Mavs series time after time McGrady deliver awesome passes to Yao in great scoring position to go right through his hands. His problems, namely bad hands, inability to brace off defending bigs, and inability to consistently be physical and fight for good position, would be problematic for him in any era of basketball. Many times if a defender is physical with Yao fighting for position, instead of fighting Yao will swing to the other side of the court or come set the pick for a guard. You didn't see this too often with Hakeem. There's zero doubt in my mind that Yao would be less effective in the Hakeem era because the level of talent, especially at the Center position, was so much better than it is now. Yao having to go heads up with super quick big men of that time like Hakeem, Zo, DRob or bang against the likes of Rodman and Karl Malone or Anthony Mason or Charles Oakley would not be pretty. Also, Yao's quickness is just not on par with NBA players. I don't think the thought that he's regressing is so far fetched. The decline in his FG% this yr has been dramatic and this is one of the biggest stats out there. In my opinion, it's moreso a case of him being exposed as a guy who's just not that great. In retrospect, the visions of what Yao could become were overstated. This is a game where not many at Yao's height have been able to excel. He's just too slow and soft to be a truly great NBA player.
players who played for jvg might not have much fun playing for him but they do believe in his system and thats what counts...it seems like his teams always had good chemistry and the players never disagreed with the way he coaches and always say they learned a lot about the game playin for him
If Tmac stays healthy and JVG doesn't alienate him or Yao then everyone's opinion's will change, especially after we win our 1st round series. If Tmac is injured any more then the Fire Van Gundy club will be the hottest ticket on the BBS. If it's not obvious we can't win with out Tmac I don't know what is? We don't have enough rebounders, defenders and players who can score on their own to make it without Tmac's leadership, points and defense. Tmac is our best scorer, our leader, our best defender and our best passer.
Sounds like EJ may be angling for a head coaching job... As far as this year's playoffs? We'll be there, EJ, when you're home watching on TV.
It does sound like Eddie has been sipping the D'Antoni cool aid a little bit. Of course, Eddie was never known as a good defender, preferring to run from 3 point line to 3 point line and spot up for the jumper on offense along with defending the opponent's spot up shooter and hope they don't take it to the hole on him.
Overall I think this article is a fair assessment but I don't think it is ALL on JVG. The shooter simply weren't making shots (even with T-Mac in the lineup) and it's tough to win when the ball's not going in. And they were getting good shots that they usually make, it's not like they were contested on every single occassion. One of the maing things that pisses me off about JVG this season is the fact that he doesn't use YAO on pick-n-rolls when other teams are fronting him and sending a second defender behind him to prevent the lob ala the Suns game. WHY not pick-n-roll between Head and Yao or Wesley and Yao. Yao can hit the outside shot. WHY waste Yao's energy by forcing him to battle for position and not get the ball? That is the main problem I have with JVG this season. He just sticks to the same thing even though Yao is being completely shut down.
As far as players saying JVG is their best coach, first of all what else are they gonna say about their current coach, and two, what other coaches have they had.
If that was the case, we'd hear nearly every single NBA player on a good team saying their coach was their best coach. The alternative to saying that doesn't have to be them coming out and saying he's not, but rather staying silent about it. That's a more valid question. I'm not going to sit here and blame Van Gundy for seven losses in a row without a top 3 player in the game, all to playoff teams that we took deep into the fourth quarter. Should we have won some of those games? Probably. Should we have been blown out in some of those games? Probably. The time and circumstances should prohibit any really deep questions and laying of blame regarding that streak. Let's see if T-Mac can stay healthy and re-evaluate in a few weeks.
We will not be fighting Denver for a playoff spot. Barring injury both clubs will be in the playoffs.
Umm, Jon Barry, Dikembe Mutombo, McGrady, and Sura have had multiple coaches throughout their careers. Second, many players are very non-commital when it comes to talking about their coaches; either that or they basically say, "Coach is doing what he has to do," "We've gotta listen to him more," not things like "JVG is the best coach I've had." Because some don't like his personality, they find it convenient to avoid any positives and seize on the negatives. Hell, the Bible is misinterpreted every day rather easily, so it doesn't surprise me to see the bias against coach.
ROCKETS LOVE THEIR COACH NAMED JVG Constanstly JVG is bashed for making the game not fun and constanstly breathing down his player's neck BUT if you listen to the player's comments about JVG, everyone agrees unamiously that they love JVG and they can't understand why he keeps getting dogged on. T-mac even said it for the team and himself: "We have the utmost respect for coach. ... It doesn't bother us when our coach calls us out. He's just doing his job." http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2243456
the only guy on that list who played for a really good coach was Dikembe, he played for Larry Brown. Umm, I know they played for multiple coaches, but I think everyone agrees JVG is one of the better coaches, but some of the coaches these guys played for were very average at best. did any of these guys play for Phil, riley, rudy, brown, karl, sloan, nelson, or did they just play for mediocre coaches. lastly, we don't know what other players say about their coach in other cities. I think most of the quotes from rocket players are from the chronicle. and a lot of it is hyperbole because they know that people question how players get along with JVG.
