Clutch it has nothing to do with our trades... It has to do with the fact we DID NOT DEVELOP... If we play novak and Vspan all year, get them to become DECENT backups, we would have had a shooter and a guy that can give rafer some rest. Honestly Rafer for 30 minutes a game and he is solid. If only Vspan could play productively for 20 min (too bad we don't know...), Novak wouldve been PERFECT... shooting 30% from 3 give me a F***ING break why the F*** did JVG NOT SEE THIS..... I was thinking this all year, Tmac can create, why the hell would you not set him up with shooters. Great we have Head and Battier, but why not develop another shooter, it worked all year, but damn i wouldve been nice to have a guy with "the prettiest shot" tmac has ever seen.... Oh well hopefully next year. I say bring in Adelman (offensive minded) we have Defense already stuck in our head from 3 years of JVG, bring in the O.
It's a new season. If the Rockets should trade for MJ I don't think having 30+yo PG is such a good idea when they got blown away by youth.
i respect JVG...his approach to the game is correct and I definitely think he will showck critics and prove those people wrong as the rockets WOULD'VE beaten golden state. too bad we can't secure a damn rebound in the end.
We lost a game 7 by 40 with Mike James. We lost a game 7 by 4 without him. It seems to me that that in itself is improvement. Besides if James was able to help someone, then he wouldn't have lost his starting job to a rookie in Minnesota. Lets face it, James plays his best in contract years. This year was the 1st of a 3 or 4 year deal. I guess he didn't deem it necessary to play well this year.
We won an elimination game with Mike James. We did not win one without him. We won road playoff games with Mike James. We did not win one without him. See how this nonsense works?
Oh Clutch, you have a way with words. I'm only defending Skip in light of the way the rest of the team played. Skip sucked too.
I agree with Clutch 100%. You can go back to the Mike James / Rafer trade thread and you will see how upset I was. And then, once we learned about how bad of a mistake that was, we still had another chance to get James back. I can't get over it.
Skip doesn't belong in the NBA, much less starting for and playing big minutes for an NBA team. Tmac should be known as the greatest player in NBA history to bring a team to the 4th best record in the western conference with Rafter Alston being the starting point guard for that team.
The Rafer hate is not fair. We didn't lose the series because of him and I think he played fairly well considering the circumstances: 1) Matched up against a better, stronger All-Star caliber level talent and 2) Did this while while forced to log well over 40 minutes a night. Imagine being at work then being told that the job of two men rests solely on your back. Imagine dealing with that problem for an entire season while management is too stubborn to make any gutsy moves to make an improvement. Is Rafer our ideal starter? Helllllll no. Could Mike James have made an impact and possibly been the difference in the series? Yes. Is Rafer a good player that can help us and potentially make a great back up? Absolutely. Are any of these management blunders Rafer's fault? Does he really warrant such strong hate? You fill in the blank here.
We really need to get over MJ. He is yesterday's news. Look what he has become on the Timberwolves? Would you rather be stuck with a cancer like him for the next 4 years as he continually declines, or would you rather find younger players to surround T-mac and Yao. I know I would personally go for the latter, plus, we really did not have a shot at the championship with or without Mike James this year. I am not willing to mortgage the future of the franchise for one year to get past the first round for possible championships.
Certainly not because of Alston. Battier, Hayes, Howard (hell, ANY power forward), Head and an improved Yao may have had something to do with that ... if it's even true. I know this much -- I enjoyed watching the Rockets play in 04-05 much more than I did this season. I've had many fans say the same to me. I definitely think you're in the minority. I'm sure JVG is gone, but I prefer keeping Van Gundy and getting better (watchable) offensive players.
My thoughts: I think it's inaccurate to attribute the refusal to give in on the trade kicker to JVG's stubbornness - IIRC, this was a Rockets standing policy, and a CD call. The GM negotiates the contracts, not JVG. I do not believe the trade kicker issue was as B & W as it seemed. I fully believe Mike James never fully got over the sting of being trade and wanted to spurn the Rockets back. I think this was more about him (subconsciously?) sabotaging the deal than the Rockets. Who's to say Mike James' season here would have been any better than his season in Minny? It was his arguably worst year, especially when you account for mpg, with numbers below his career avg across the board (including shooting percentages, so this wasn't a matter of not getting enough PT). Wolves management sent a jab his way, saying they made a mistake going after a guy without looking at him beyond the numbers (shot at his character and leadership). Who does he take time from? Alston? Rafer had a better season, despite the toxic dumping he took on this board. Breaking News: Alston did not lose the 1st round series for us in spite of the season long predictions. He may not have been a hero, but he was far from a goat. Rafer: 13 ppg, 2.61 A/T James: 10 ppg, 2.30 A/T For all the lumps he endured, Rafer deserves FAR more appreciation for his ability to protect the ball and was severely underrated in his ability to deliver the ball to Yao in the post. James was accused quite a bit of ignoring Yao in his short time here. Do we play him instead of Luther? Head: 10.9 ppg, 44.1% 3pt James: 10.1 ppg, 37.2% 3pt Maybe we swing him between the two spots and just take time away from JL3 and Snyder. I won't argue that he would be a big boost there, but at $5 million and $18 mill over the next 3 years? His deal is out of whack with what he does. The Mike James debate is overblown. This isn't on par with David Carr killing the Texans last offseason. He'd help, but so would having a legit answer to Carlos Boozer. He'd help, but so would have V-Span had he not looked like a overwhelmed 16 year old every time he got PT. What's done is done. Time to move on. And that better not mean trading for MJ and absorbing his kicker. Evan
The rockets lost because they couldn't get a rebound in the last three minutes of the game. that's not mike james' calling card. The Rockets lost because yao was a defensive liability and he does not rebound enough. They lost because they didn't fix the one team problem they had also season, closing out games in the fourth quarter. I think james would have helped, but there are far more issues the rockets need to address. I'm a hayes fan, but they need a legitimate pf with size to play next to yao. they need more bench help in general.
You might be right, wnes. BUT -- I've always felt the 04-05 team was a model for offensive success under JVG -- they just needed to bolster some of their weaker areas (PF and a wing who could play both ways were two holes that come to mind). If you study that season, I think we started out 6-11 or something crazy... can't remember. The offense was terrible, JVG had no idea how to use McGrady and fans were calling for his head. But they got back Sura, traded for Wesley, Barry and James and they took off. Finished 45-20. Rafer was never a good fit for that style -- not ever. He isn't the primary playmaker and is relegated to shooting open threes. He is Bobby Sura, only with no guts, no penetrating skills and an undying love for his three-point shot. Rafer may be a sure-handed point guard (when he's not falling on his ass trying to take Deron Williams late in Game 7s), but if you don't have to penetrate to score and you don't have to create open shots for your teammates in the halfcourt -- is low turnovers that unique? Who's to say it would be the same? Take a look at just about any significant Rocket three-point shooter in the past 2-3 years when playing with McGrady and T-Mac. Sura, Wesley, Barry, Padgett, Battier, Luther Head and even Rafer (when you consider their %s in the injury-plagued season). Their three-point shooting accuracy all improved from the year before or hit their career highs. You can't get many better three-point looks than wide open three-point looks, and those are in abundance here. Mike James is not a good fit in Minnesota. This past season, under Van Gundy and with T-Mac/Yao, James could have been here. For Rafer, who can't shoot, I'm supposed to look at his point per game average when he played 1.5 times the minutes that Mike James did, but for Luther, who can't handle the ball or pass, it's 3-point percentage? Let's say Mike James did everything Rafer did this season, put up the same shots, etc. I know that's not realistic since they have different styles, I'm just saying if the shots were the same. This season, which most admit was a bad year for James, he shot 42.2% from the floor, 37.2% from three and 83.7% from the line. The year before, which most admit was a very good year for James, he hit 46.9% from the floor, 44.2% from three and 83.7% from the line. That puts his range between 14.7 ppg and 16.3 ppg. Same shots.
I find it funny that many here are using James' numbers from this season when he was on the Timberwolves' team as a litmus test of how he plays. I'm not saying he's always the player he was during that one season in Toronto but he's also not as bad as he is in Minny. If you can pull yourself away from the stat sheet and look at the Minnesota team as a whole, you'd understand why James' numbers are bad in the first place.
I've been defending JVG for 2 years based on the way that team played offensively under him. It went against all the JVG stereotypes. It was fun to watch and regularly scored over 100 points a night. But I think this year, we reverted back to the boring half court set JVG has always been known for and we just weren't as fun to watch, which is odd considering we were (arguably) a better team this year than in 04-05. I don't know if that's because of JVG or the players, or maybe a little of both. I'm not saying we should turn into Phoenix or Golden State (as if that's even possible) but I do think we need to implement some sort of offense that relies less on guys standing around the perimeter waiting for the outlet pass to jack up 3-pointers. This team is just so soft. Doesn't seem like anyone wants to drive to the basket. Is it because of the players or JVG's system?
