Give me a break! These guys are professionals and deserve this criticism, especially after going out choking away established leads in each of the last three games. Many characteristics make up the heart of a team, a few of them being strength, fortitude and determination. The Rockets have showed none of these characteristics in the last three games. I think JVG was dead on in his criticism of his squad's play. He's probably as tired as I am of hearing excuses about "we just didn't get it done" and we got "outhustled" and called it like he sees it. I don't think he was deameaning or humiliating anyone. The team did a good enough job of embarassing themselves by playing well enough to have a lead at halftime in each of the last three games, only to quickly surrender those leads immediately in the 3rd quarter of 2 of those games and lose control of the other in the final 12 minutes of the other. I agree that a coach shouldn't motivate by humiliation, but also don't think that is what JVG is doing here. They deserve to be challenged and questioning this team's heart and how bad they want is down the stretch is not out of line IMO. What matters is how they respond. As it stands right now, we are in exactly the same position as last year record wise, but we have a tougher schedule ahead of us too. If this team's heart hasn't been put to the test, it definitely will over the final 2 1/2 months of the season.
I remember one of the insiders (forget who it was) last season made a post with some information on some of the partying habits of the players. Cato, Cat, and Eddie were all apparently big time partiers before games. While Yao and Steve would stay focused and not let partying distract them. To hear Steve go from that to staying out 3am before games is really disappointing. You can see a lot of nights this season Steve has just been unable to concentrate. I don’t know if Ewing is a bad influence, or Steve just isn’t inspired to play for Van Gundy or what, but I hope he turns things around soon and rededicates himself.
I can only imagine what their late night activities were this week with all the Super Bowl parties in town. Like I said in the game thread, I really hope they were distracted by the festivities and that explains their mediocre play in the last 3 games. If so, things should return to some semblance of normalcy next week. But even if that's the case, I hope Van Gundy has a talk with Patrick Eunuch. There's nothing wrong with going out and celebrating after a victory, but when you have a game the very next day and it's your 3rd in 4 nights and it's on the road, it might not kill you to put off the partying for at least 24 hours.
The loss should be JVG's fault. Why ROX's offense sucks with JVG's coaching. MOT 8+m; CATO 7+m; Spoon 5+m; These three guys amount about 20m. But ROX's PFs are so weak that they do almost zero contribution to ROX's offense. I like MOT's explosition for most of games. But CATO as PF is a totally blackhole at both offense and defense ends. If we check last three lost games, CATO did nothing for ROX. Spoon has proved to be useless for ROX. JVG may never know answer to question: ROX would collapse once YAO was frozen up.
The losing streak is just an example that this team is not good enough to go all the way. They are good enough to make the playoffs, eventually they might be good enough to get to the second round, but if the Kings or Mavs aren't good enough to even make it to the Finals, this Rocket's team now, or in 5 years, never will be either. That said, I think some of the capologists (mainly Gater) have adequately explained why the team is unlikely to see any major change until after the season, if then.
I don't mean that JVG is responsible for those contracts. I mean that ROX's PFs are so expensive. But JVG cannot run this team through these three guys. JVG cannot complain about team's lost heart. He should know what's wrong with this team. ROX's loss is not due to defense, but offense. We cannot expect to win all games from 70+pts.
Many teams have a simple solution to defeat ROX. To freeze YAO up means win. The solution tell us much more about ROX' weakness. I would like to see MOT could play with YAO from the start of the 3rd QT.
Does a coach have right to criticize those guys as a group who play poorly after those ugly losses, absolutely; is it right for a coach conduct the communication with his players as a shouting match especially through media rather than sitting down with them over the problem face to face and hammering out a strategy or solution? questionable. In most cases, the emotional volcano is driven by fear. What does a coach or a player has to be afraid of? Plenty...we can understand that feeling, but let's hope they can do it CONSTRUCTIVELY, they can sit down together and discuss it, they can resolve it and they can do it now ------------------ The problem mostly isn't "them" but "us" , a columnist(Hobart Rowan,The Washington Post) said
True, but the team could've been looking ahead to all the festivities instead of worrying about the game at hand. It's not out of character for the Rockets to overlook an inferior opponent and get their asses handed to them.
Um, but is Miami just about the hottest current team in the NBA? Uh, but wasn't the Sac - SA game almost a clone of the Sac - Rox game? Frank-ly, the Nets are 3-0 under their new coach. There is not a vaccuum out there (except in the 4th Q too often) in which our guys compete.
"We lost our heart!" "We lost our confidence!" Who lost it? It's JVG himself!!! All he can do after a loss is complaining his players incessantly like a pilgarlic.
