It has been so painful sitting in TC watching our tired and slow defense of STAR DEFENDERS not defend against the likes of Toronto, watch Luther throw pass after pass away, dunk twice a season and then hit 3's in a streaky pattern. Battier is a really great average player. Juwan and Deke have run out of gas. Rafer plays great 50% of the time. How in God's green earth could Snyder, Vspan or Novak play any worse than some of these other guys. In the 2nd half Rafer actually finally got mad and started defending and staying in front of his man - for the first time this season. His best defensive move all season - grabbing from behind as his man blows past him to the rim. FOUL! How anyone posting here cannot see that in limited minutes Vspan is a better defender than R & L is beyond me. Remember JVG giving V major props on guarding Arenas? I was there - he did a great job taking him out of his game. Every time a team's guards are lighting us up I just sit there and stew about JVG letting Vspan rot. Even 5 minutes to mess with the opponents heads and stop their momentum - but no - Coach Sunshine is smarter than us. Our offense looked grade school vs. the Raptors offense. We do not move very well. We are not crisp. Our opponents have learned our tendencies and wait for our limited movement and passes now and throw our offense off kilter. Right now we suck, we need to get angry and the players need to make some strong recommendations to Gundy to put some spark into this team. ALso when your team is exhausted you play a bigger rotation. Phil plays a larger rotation. He must know something. It makes sense for a team that is not very young or athletic esp. on a back to back or playing a younger more athletic team. I've watched Coach Sunshine the entire time he has been here. He has shortcomings. Come playoff time we will see if he is good enough to keep his job. That's fair.
I agree about V-Span, it's time. It's clear Rafer doesn't cut it, I hope JVG gives the kid the chance to play. V-span might be our only hope left.
like is said in a previous post it too late this season for vspan. he should have gotten minutes and experience from the start. with 20 something games to playoffs it too much to ask for him to develop. Rafer has to stand up and battle it out and vspan has to get major minutes next year from game 1.
I'd be for taking Lucas' minutes away and giving them to VSpan. I just don't see Lucas helping us too much in the long run. Too limited a player. JVG seems insistent on seeing where this Head-as-PG experiment will lead, so split the backup PG time between Head and VSpan instead of Head and Lucas. That may mean 5 to 10 consistent minutes per game. That's a start.
Well, all I've got to say is JVG keeps saying you earn your minutes. If that is really so, then last night VSpan earned some more minutes and Luther and JLIII earned some more bench time from the point guard spot.
I think its gotten too personal with JVG and Vspan. Give Vspan a break, they all laughed at him , ridiculed him and he has paid his dues. Even JVG laughed at him for suggesting he could be rookie of the year. I think many comments attributed to Vspan are not true, there was that parody on radio they made of Vspan and many people think it was actually him. At this point in the season is when dividends pay off for developing a deep bench. It has started paying off for the raptors with their rookies contributing. I hope we can resolve this problem before Yao returns, because if Yao returns early it will again deflect attention from the fact that we still have this nagging problem that remains unresolved at the PG spot. Also, for all the flaws in Vspan's game, lack of heart and passion isn't one of them.
Yeah, if JVG is really looking for players that play with effort, heart, and passion, he's not going to be able to keep bypassing VSpan very much longer.
You actually take Van GUndy at his word! Surprise, surprise, Van Gundy is a liar and a manipulator. Vspan will never get off the bench this season.
If the Rockets make a second round exit, and V-SPAN stays on the bench, then it's time to let JVG go.
Maybe, maybe he will start playing more and earn some experience this year... I don't know... He has lately cut down on his TOs and seems more coordinated... Let's see..
Yes, I do. VSpan is slowly but surely playing his way out of the basement. A couple more games like last night and his shooting percentage may actually surpass Lucas and Rafer. If that happens, what choice is JVG going to have? Do you realize that if VSpan hits 6 of his next 8 shots he will surpass Rafer's shooting percentage? Do you realize that if he hits his next 2 three ball shots that he will surpass Lucas' 3 point shooting percentages? Do you realize that if he goes turnoverless over his next 20 minutes of play that his turnovers per 40 minutes will be lower than Rafer's? Do you realize that VSpan's points per shot right now is sitting at 1.08 and climbing, while JLIII's points per shot is at 0.99 and falling, and Rafer's points per shot is at 1.05 and falling? I will take JVG at his word and if VSpan keeps putting in good minutes when he is in there, and he statistically starts to meet and surpass Rafer, JLIII, and Luther, then I will expect his minutes to increase. I still haven't given up on VSpan becoming part of the rotation this season.
i don't know how anyone can take van gundy's word as truth after what he said about bonzi "not in game shape" versus yao "if he can practice he can play." maybe he was just trying to diffuse the situation with bonzi, but at the very least it shows van gundy doesn't always say what he really believes.
To be fair, when things seemed bad between JVG and Bonzi earlier in the season, JVG said something to the effect that "If I say anymore, it's not going to help the situation, so I won't."
I love hearing "well this team plays their euro players and look how good they are. or dallas plays their bench more and look at them". If your european players are good they will help you out. just because they are from europe doesn't mean they will magically turn into a good player. Dallas plays their bench more because they have an increibly deep bench made up of players who are better then the great V-Span.
I disagree. Even with a deep bench it would be useless if the coaching strategy is to have a rigid 8 man rotation. It is a matter of tactics and coaching that decides the approach a team will take. And there is no denying the bias against Europeans that seems to pervade some NBA coaches. Even that guy Macijauskas who was a certified star in the World Championships was benched in NOK.
well it's a lot harder to have a rigid 8 man rotation when your bench is deeper then that. Huh?????? Macijaukas was not good enough to be a good nba player. He scored 13 a game in the World Championships. That is a different brand of basketball then the NBA. The guy isn't an nba caliber player. He might be a decent end of the bench player at best.
Maybe if Rafer wears a beret while on the court he will start shooting better. But seriously, I would love to replace at least 4 dudes on our current roster with European players.
You are all just arrogant NBA fans who think that everybody else in the world just found out what basketball is. 1. Kill Bill killed the US team in the Summer, along with other players that are never going to be part of the NBA. (oh i forgot, he just had one good game,it was lady luck or something. just wach all of Greece's games fool, or better watch the European championship's games or watch any game of Panathinaikos when he was part of that team) 2. Anyone who says that Bill doesnt has penetration, ball handling skills, high basketball IQ has probably only seen him the 2 minutes he play with the Rockets once a month, and is part-blind. The most correct thing ive read in this thread is this "I believe that if V-Span were in the last year's draft he would have been a first round pick...yes." So my suggestion is this: let Bill go back home where he is appreciated and he can help the team dominate Euroleague where real basketball is played.
