Forget about JVG. I need to be fired as a Rockets fan. Someone put me out of my misery... puulllllleeeeeeeeass!
Key injuries- Bob Sura- heart of last year's team- tough defender, good rebounder - inspired team. Tracy McGrady- The Team- chemistry built around Tracy scoring and he was last season's best defender. Yao Ming- Starting to come into his own- lost best shot blocker and low post scoring- opened the court for TMac and provided balanced inside out and pick and roll. Jon Barry- Best 3 point shooter off the bench. Big chemistry player with Sura. Derek Anderson- Whatever boost he was going to provide is missing Key disappointments- Deke- has lost energy blocking shots and scoring. Hasn't been able to bring the defensive intensity he provided last season. Stromile Swift- While he started to improve prior to his eye injury, he has a long way to go as far as the mental side of the game- very low BB IQ. 'Snowball effects'- With all the injuries and incorporating new players the rotation has been a disaster. There is no way any coach could develop a consistent rotation with this kind of roster misadventure. Chemistry is destroyed from day one since the rotation is jumbled up by injuries. Results- Without Sura the team was going to have to find a different chemistry this season. That in itself would have taken 10 games or so. Without TMac the team was going to have to scratch and claw to replace the scoring burden- about 25 pts per game net would have to be made up. The offense was definately built AROUND TMac. Without Yao the team has zero low post offense and defense. Or at least next to zero. Results- Obviously we need another scorer. Obviously we need another low post player. Obviously this team is terrible without TMac and Yao. There is no coach in the world who could take this season's circumstances and re-tool the roster and the chemistry and the scoring enough to reach the playoffs. Take a long hard look at Larry Brown in Detroit and Larry Brown in New York. Take a long hard look at Pat Riley's record after Stan VG Take a long hard look at how Flip Saunders looked at Minn. and how he looks at Detroit Until Van Gundy loses the players he is the man.
I've been one to defend JVG in the past. It jsut doesn't seem like this thing is going to get turned around. I know the injuries have played a huge part in it. It just seems like the team is completely lost. I do believe that JVG is a very good basketball coach. I'm starting to wonder if his style isn't more suited for the college game. This season is pretty much lost. I don't know if it will help or not to fire the staff now. Clearly, though, JVG has taken them about as far as he can.
This is not JVG's first season coaching the Rockets. Nor did LB get to hand pick all the components of the NYK. It's not every day that a coach and his team fit so well together. Furthermore, the Pistons were a title contender before FS got there. I kno may poeple loves to suck JVG's ****, and they let his balls get in the way of seeing the thruth. The truth is, JVG's simply not a good fit for the Rockets. His offense is hideous (too often masked by TMac's great talents), and he doesn't help his players grow (more than they would on their own). And the whole "Old Knicks' Retirement Plan" is both selfish and unfair to the Rockets organization.
Last time I checked we have 1 former Knick, Deke I don't count moochie because we sent him there and brought him back
Don't forget Ewing. Maybe Ewing is preventing Yao from realizing his potential. I don't know. Well, maybe it's just frustration in me talking.
I know, don't worry, they'll go on a nice winning streak over the course of the next couple games and we'll all be back to talking about our 1st round match up in the playoffs.
My point was not that Van Gundy walks on water... It is the mess of the Rockets this season, the injuries primarily have derailed the whole process. We've seen Van Gundy take the Francise team to the playoffs and the TMac team to the playoffs. This year I think Yao was really going to be a 20- 10 factor and it would have been nice to see how this team would do in the playoffs. Injuries killed all that. Period. Don't play the Van Gundy line that losing TMac and Yao hasn't been the problem. It is. All that "he doesn't help his players grow stuff" is ridiculous. TMac became a much better all around player last season, his passing and defense rose to the level of his offense. TMac became a leader last season. Yao has progressed very nicely under JVG- Yao started out this season showing much better court awareness- avoiding those really stupid fouls and he also was better positioned to rebound and block shots. Yao's technique looked much improved those first few games. I think the coaching is fine. Give me a starting lineup of Sura, Wesley, Yao, TMac and Howard, give me a bench of Barry, Deke, Anderson, Hayes, Alston and Swift- all healthy, then give me JVG as coach and I know we would be a high playoff seed. Things happen. Wait til next season, be patient- if we avoid injuries and make a good draft pick we will contend for the ring.
I am fed up with JVG. Did you notice how hesitate Yao was last night when he got the ball in highpost (near ft line), he did not know what to do and evantually threw a brick. I have not seen Yao took mid to long range jumper for ages. He used to really good at those. I guess JVG just let him stay in the paint, get closer and closer and closer and closer to basket... Do you guys seriously think Yao improved these 2 years under JVG? I see only his physical condition improved, and that's absolutely not JVG's credit...
If everyone is healthy,do you guys really think JVG can bring a championship to H-town? I really cant see him capable of doing it even with the RIGHT players. He is a good coach especially on defense but his offense plan really needs some major changes which I dont see it will happen. Finally TMac plays with a big man,but his shooting percentage is LOWER here than he was in Orlando. When Yao gets OPEN spot on the high post to shoot the ball, he looks like Ryan Bowen: hesitated for a couple seconds and the ball barely touched the rim. Before Yao becomes a monster in the low-post, he already lose the "weapon" he used to have. Give JVG another months and see if he can do something with the full roster. If he cant do anything, go find another coach. Let the new coach build a new system for the next season.
Points and rebound have gone up each year but I guess that's not progress. Yao could end up somewhere around 20pt 10 rb this year. If he look a bit lost last nite maybe it had to do more with the fact that he was out 21 games
I blame CD for this mess. He had his hand in the picks we have made since the championship years and we haven't done anything since then. He got lucky last year in getting T-Mac for Francis and in bringing in Wes and Barry and Motumbo but all his other picks have just plained sucked. I know that you guys want to spill all the blame on Jeff Van Gundy but lets be serious here.....you can't make Chicken Soup out of Chicken Sh*t!!! Outside of Yao and T-Mac we don't have any athletism, our shooting percentage is second to last in the leage (29th) as a team, and we have guys like DA is has been hurt the whole year and couldn't shoot to save his life before that. Our players are missting WIDE OPEN jump shots. STro can't seem to hold onto the ball on either offense or defense....talk about a bust, and as JVG put it "what good is athletism if it doesn't translate to anything on the floor". This board used to be pretty constructive but now all we seem to get are threads like this from people who want to take the easy road and blame the coach without passing any blame along to the players. And ironically these are the same people who jump on the winning bandwagon when times are good.....hmmmmm pretty sad
