Anyone who thinks Rudy wouldn't have traded for TMac because "he was too loyal to his players" was just mindless.
Boy do I hate when people pick posts apart in small sentences to comment at... The overall meaning of the post is always lost and it always becomes a case of your opinion sucks because I intentionally misunderstand what you are trying to say with this statement... When you pick a post apart you can basically get any meaning out of it whatsoever... try to keep sight of what the original poster actually mean instead of trying to counter every sentence just to seem smart please Well please
Will, in general I agree. But I think we also can both agree that JVG's hand picked PG in Ward....disaster!
Agree, Deuce. Somebody on this board (maybe several) predicted JVG would sign Ward (and that it would be a mistake) because creaky old Knicks are JVG's soft spot. You guys were right. Now let's apply that lesson to Rudy. Rudy was MORE loyal to creaky old (and crazy middle-aged) players. He signed Moochie to a contract that was -- remind me how many times Ward's contract, in dollars? It's hilarious to see people arguing in this thread that 1) Rudy was more absolutely loyal to his players (true) and 2) Rudy would therefore be better. Uh, isn't blind loyalty exactly the problem? I also love this stuff about how we need Rudy because JVG doesn't develop young players. Remind me again how many MPG Rudy gave Yao Ming in his first season? And remind me what Rudy did to get Yao involved in the offense when he was on the court? Look, I'm always willing to forgive people for thinking the grass must be greener on the other side of the hill. That's just human nature. But when you tell yourself and us that the grass must be greener on the side of the hill you already saw -- and left, because the grass was yellow and dying -- come on. Rudy T will always be a hero in my book. He did a great job for us. He was the perfect coach for a group of guys who had high self-confidence and a deep will to win. That isn't the group of guys we have now.
krosfyah, You are wasting your time. You just don't get it. JVG has to have a beer in his hand and smile for the camera to be a good coach!! People like Will and others who believe in patience and giving the guy time to succeed exist in a vacuum. They play NBA Live and build championship teams in about 3 days after reading the players manual or finding the cheat codes. People who argue with you hate JVG and blindly follow Rudy T like people who followed David Koresh. Til the end, baby!! Gundy has to be fired. No doubt. If you don't build a championship in 18 months, what kind of coach are you? Funny how there are very, very little FIRE DAWSON threads and he is the one that signed Moochie and Cato to such great contracts and passed up on Richard Jefferson and Rashad Lewis. Nice. krosfyah, You are wasting your CPU cycles and RAM reserves on a lost cause.
Thank you Will. This is precisely what I've been saying. Rudy had his chance with Yao and I don't see how having Rudy here today would have resulted in Yao playing dramitically different than his is right now. Yao is Yao. Rudy and JVG both did/doing the best they can. Unfortunately, their best doesn't seem to be good enough but that is a different topic. Rudy is definately a hero in my book as well. It was sad to see him go because he accomplished so much. But everybody knows this is a 'what have you done for me lately' league and Rudy wasn't getting it done. So I'll say again, it is senseless to say Rudy would be a better coach for this current team. That is an empty statement. Just say you aren't happy with JVG and leave it at that.
Actually no. That is not okay. That is lazy posting...not efficient posting...if you pull quotes, attribute the first one to me, and don't attribute any of the remaining quotes to anybody else. Any reasonable person would deduce that you are quoting me each time. Case in point...Old Man Rock's response is direct evidence of this as he assumed your post was a direct rebuttal to my posts. Please take more care when quoting in the future. BTW, I agree with STRA that anytime a poster does a line-by-line pick-apart, that only results in a flame war. People generally make statements as generalities to support their initial point. Picking apart line-by-line only serves to distract from the actual point. Again, my point is that it is senseless to make a statement that Rudy would be a better coach of this squad than JVG. Who cares?!?
Fire Dawson! Promote a scout that's more familiar with a new generation and a new ethnic base of players. Dawson is too old school.
Come on Will. Rudy gave Yao as many minutes as his lungs and legs could handle. Yao in his rookie season also was worse at holding his position than he is now. Rudy had worse team that year than JVG had last year and he would had at least as many wins as JVG if not for the cancer. Rudy has developed many players including Cat, Cassell, Horry, Chucky Brown, and Elie. He also made Matt Maloney, Moochie, Bryce Drew, Hawkins, Chuckie Brown, Matt Bullard look better than they had a right to. Can anyone say something similar about JVG? He makes everyone look and play worse and he's never developed a player.
You're missing the point. Somebody suggested Rudy is a better coach for Yao than JVG. The answer to that is clearly 'NO.' Rudy previously coached Yao and I don't see how his coaching style is clearly better for Yao than JVG's. In fact, you said it yourself, that Yao is at least holding his position down low now better than ever. (He still isn't making his shots but he is posting up better.) So to say Rudy is better for Yao than JVG is a pretty bold statement since we have direct evidence that indicates the differences between the coaches are a wash...at best.
I like the way Rudy T and CD developed Hakeem into a future HOFer. I'm not sure teh relaxed locker room feel that Rudy T brings with him would be best for a younger team. But look at the Rockets now. They ain't all that young. So given the current make-up of the team, I'd say yeah, Rudy T would kick ass with what we have. Yao seems like he's very willing & eager to learn from coaches. I think Rudy T & co have lots they could teach him. I dunno if Rudy T coulda pieced this team together like it is, but given the parts we have, I'd much prefer him guiding the ship than JVG. But since it ain't gonna happen, I'm rooting for JVG to get us pointed in the right direction.
Bull****, it was not neer unanimous, c'mon, Rudy was suppposed to be a Rocket for life, Houston F-ed up, not Rudy.
Rudy T did a great job with Hakeem. But Hakeem's talent was 99% of the factor of his success. I'm not about to say TMac is playing so well this year because of JVG, its all about the talent. I would rather have RudyT's optimistic- players coach mentality right now like most others, but back when Steve and Cuttino were ruling the roost, that same mindset was allowing the team to reach lottery mediocrity. Put Hakeem in his prime on this team right now and we would all be praising the coaching of JVG. Believe me, coaching is very important, but talent is far more important. Larry Brown became a much better coach last season once they traded for Rasheed Wallace. In fact they took off on a run and won the championship. Add Rasheed Wallace to the Rockets tomorrow and JVG would become a better coach over night.
I thought he did a good job with Kelvin Cato. I thought Cato looked a lot better playing under JVG than he did Rudy.
Yao was a rookie that had NEVER played an american style of basketball. Throwing Yao into the NBA and having him play 35-40mpg would have hurt Yao a lot more than it would have helped. Don't forget that Yao was completely winded after 4-6 minutes of play his rookie year. You don't throw in a guy like Yao right into the mix of things, not only was he a rookie, but he had never played a physical type of game in his entire life. The only player I can really recall JVG developing is Camby, JVG held onto Ewing/LJ/Oakley/Jackson as long as he could. Rudy was able to get the most out of young players like Cassell, Horry, Francis, Mobley, Dickerson (before injury), and the list could go on.
I agree that JVG's style doesn't match with Yao and T-mac...Having said that, not sure if anything will be done by the end of the season...
