I like AJ too even though he is the coach of Mavs (he is the only one on that team that I don't hate), but I wouldn't give him that credit. If you play bridge, you know that you can make 7NT with a hand of 4 aces, 4 kings, 4 queens and a jack, no matter in what order you play them and what opening lead you get.
Tmac is playing well, but no better statistically than Dwayne Wade in Miami. And look at the difference in what happened when their big guy went down for injury and when our big guy went down. Miami can't win anything and our guys a winning at the same clip from before the injury. Cmon, dont try and tell me that you expected us to play better than we are right now when Yao went down.
Now days, a dominant center is not enough, dominant perimeter players are far more important to a team's success. With zones being allowed and the no hand checking on the perimeter changes....it is a guards and Small forwards game. Teams will still be able to double Tmac and limit Yao at the same time...because only one of them is capable of creating a shot for himself...Yao has to have someone pass it in to him. We need another penetrating/driving/finishing/passing player on the floor. DD
True, but the point stands. JVG is coaching out of his ass. Since Yao has been injured, we have been the best team with only 1 All-star/Superstar on the roster. All 4 teams that are ahead of us have atleast 2 All-stars. The only other reason other than the coach is that its the supporting cast, but outside of Battier we have no one special. Howard and Mutombo were bench players untill Yao got injured. Alston is in the bottom quarter of point gaurds. Its not like we have all this talent. So you can't sit there and tell me that the coach has been coaching poorly this year. Perhaps you can argue he's not at coach of the year status. But he's been doing a much better than average job.
I agree. My point is that losing Yao is not as bad as losing Tmac......both are devestating.....but Tmac can at least create for others. DD
Yea, I agree. Yao was easier to doubleteam, and he wasn't as good at passing. Tmac has become the main distributor on our team. Yao can't match that.
Snyder is hungry!!! Feed him some minutes!! I would prefer to see Snyder get Head's minutes at this point. Luther, much like Hayes, seems to do more with less. Once Head starts playing big minutes it seems like all of his shortcomings become very apparent. When the jumper isn't falling he needs to be yanked in favor of Snyder. The jury is still out on Bonzi. I wanted to see him moved in order to bring in another PG but that didn't happen so I say give him some minutes and let's see if he can become a 12/5 guy off the bench. I agree that Bonzi should get some of Battier's minutes. Shane needs some rest and it is starting to show in his play.
Watch the games plz =S If your gonna credit Bonzi for playing well against "one team", then at least, credit head for the games he had played well in..
Dallas so far has not been able to take Yao out of the game. They know Nowitzki can't even try to guard Yao. In pretty much every game they are forced to resort to Diop and Dampier to try to contain Yao, usually unsuccessfuly.
Man, its just a game aight ? No big deal. Every player has their up and down times, remember what tracy said at the beginning of the season of whinning about being the play maker rather than playing offence and stuff? Look what he's doing now. Besides, Head has been playing great since the absence of Yao. He's contributing consistently with his three point shooting and playing some defence as well. lRemeber the game versus the kings when Luther made the game-winning shot and the clutch defensive play? You just can't negate a players effort just because of an one game shooting slump. As for Bonzi, I think he's still not in a good shape. His free throw shooting is horrible (.518) and he's not contributing consistently. He needs to practice more! As for JVG, he ought to consider playing Billy or Synder when Luther and Bonzi or one of them is off. He is just too stubborn with playing players he trust. He needs to take some risk, discipline is important but you gotta take your chances.... when your team is not playing swarming defence and you can't find your way scoring... give your bench players a chance.
I agree JVG is a good coach considering the team's accomplishments without Yao. However, he seriously needs to examine his substitution patterns and one of his main weakness is his flexibility. And the question that will be on everyone's mind come playoff time is whether or not his coaching is good enough? I mean look at the Mavericks under Don Nelson. Don Nelson was a good coach and he had essentially the same line-up that Avery had to work with. But when Avery took over things just went off for the Mavs. Don Nelson took them to consecutive playoff appearances but they just couldn't advance further until Avery arrived. Rigidity has never been a virtue especially when things are not going according to plan. JVG can become a great coach if he could find a way to be more flexible and adapt as the circumstances warrant. Especially come playoff time , I hope JVG pulls through.
I really wish Bonzi was playing the way Jerry Stackhouse is for Dallas. If we had that kind of production off our bench like that would be awesome. Bonzi is doing ok rebounding wise. But he just isn't enough of a factor offensively. Unless Bonzi is "driving" to the basket (versus ANY kind of jump shooting) then he is a liability offensively. And even when he is driving, the chances for turnovers is highly there. Right now though, I think Bonzi has a higher ceiling for what we want to do than Snyder, so that's why JVG is playing him. I think JVG feels he is trying to get Bonzi into game shape by playing him.
I agree with everybody on Snyder getting into the mix, he is proven G/F comming off the bench and Jeff should definitely put him on rotation.
He will get his chance, I think, if Bonzi consistently stinks it up. Otherwise, my guess is JVG wants to get Bonzi enough minutes to prepare for the playoffs. Frankly, if you guys start paying attention to other teams as well as the Rockets, you'll see there is nothing exceptional about JVG's substitution pattern. D'Antoni just recently joked about wanting to use a 8-man rotation in the All Star Game. Pretty much all the other coaches are as "stubborn" as Van Gundy. Get League Pass and you'll see. The few exceptions are 1)Teams with good veteran depth, where the bench guys are known productive quantities (like Dallas, San Antonio)... but even these teams don't start breaking their rotations unless the regulars are really not giving the team a chance to win, not usually in close games and 2) bad teams that have no clue about their identity, so they experiment with all kind of stuff in search of an answer. Otherwise, pretty much every team sticks to a regular rotation to get guys comfortable playing with each other. As for DD's theory that you need to bench regulars to "send a message"... maybe if we are talking the Knicks... but guys like Mutombo, McGrady, Alston, Howard, Battier, Head, even Bonzi, are smart enough to get the message without being taken out as "punishiment. The scoreboard and the tape sessions are all they need to get the message. One thing I like about Van Gundy is that even when he gets angry at a mistake and maybe yell at a player, he'd have enough trust to put that guy right back on the court. When Snyder had his "I told you not to foul" game, he was put right back on the court after getting yelled at. His rotation adjustment (like putting Lucas back on the pine, etc) only happens when 1)there's been a trend of poor play with a certain lineup or 2)health issues changed a players availability. I think this generally works in the 82 game season. Playoffs, on the other hand, means matchups dictate what you do and you might not run with your regulars. JVG has generally done a decent job of these-- had his share of success beating higher seeded teams with the Knicks... Rockets went 1 and out vs Lakers and Mavs, but these teams just had more talent. For example, JVG tried with Rybo, tried with McGrady on Dirk, tried to matchup with the small Dallas lineup, there were adjustments made, but the Rockets just didn't have the size and atheleticism to make it work.
Not only the turnovers but he is a horrible FT shooter when he's fouled driving to the basket. I agree that JVG is playing Bonzi because of his past ability but if in another month Bonzi is still playing at this level he needs to give Snyder a shot.
I really like having Luther Head on our team he's a cold blooded spot up 3 pt shooter, but the problem i see with him is when he tries to create on his own its almost always bad news.
Didn’t Head play very well at the beginning of last year and struggle towards the last half of the season? For some reason Head starts out strong and then peters out.
