Is Rudy off the hook?

No.

I can't believe they were so dumb not to trade in the offseason. They had to let Jeffy try to do something with this crap talent. Now the whole league knows what losers and cancers these morons are.

The Rockets are a big steaming pile. Be Big. Rudy earned the axe. Now start swinging at the other dead meat. Set up the guillotine, there's lots of heads still to roll. Make the bloody R a symbol to be feared. All traces of the Rudy abomination must be destroyed. Kill them all, and then burn the house down.

 

Is this a necessary thread? It seems to me you've just created another opportunity for all of the Rudy bashers to bash Rudy some more. Of course everyone is going to say he is not off the hook. Why would you expect the responses to be any different from a bunch of Rudy haters?

JVG has a better team than Rudy had last year with a much improved Yao and leaner healthier Mot and a much improved Cato and great additions of Piat and Jim Jackson and much improved Boki. This team is better than last year and yet after sixteen games we still have the same record. Remember Les's comments that this is one of the best NBA teams of all times. While that statement was pure lunacy the present Rocket team is even better than last years team and yet their record is no better than last years team after 16 games. I don't blame JVG for this. He is doing a fine job. The fact is we are still a work in progress. Even then Rudy would have done better.

So Rudy with a lesser team had the same record after 16 games which makes it difficult for Rudy bashers to justify their bashes of his coaching so they must turn to his decision making. This is pure stupidity. Rudy and CD should be commended for managing to acquire enough of a team that has been on the brink of contending again. Not to say the have been perfect but compared to the rest of the league they certainly performed better than most. This a Rocket team that is rebuilding. With rare exception (Lakers who acquired Shaq and Kobe made it back pretty quick but still took 5 years) going from championship to lottery and then back to championship contender takes years . Look at Boston or Chicago, Detroit.

Whether you believe it or not most of the NBA teams are trying to build a championship team and some of them are in better markets or have more money to spend than others. So when you win a champion and then have to start the rebuilding cycle all over again you are behind the pack of teams who have been rebuilding for years before you. And considering the Rockets are not in New York or LA where sometimes players will choose to play just for the glory they have managed to put together a decent enough team that is on the brink of breaking out. And if Rudy had stayed on they would have already done better than they are now.

If Rudy had not gone in the hospital they would have made the playoffs last year. But noone on here would admit that as even a possibility because Rudy is just a lousy coach in their eyes. And now that the team looks just as stagnant as ever offensively in spite of the improved Yao and the new aquisitions they must turn to Rudy's decisionmaking. The fact is Rudy is a better coach than JVG and he has the championships to back it up. But since many narrowminded posters on this board can not see that and must blame someone when their team is not winning, Rudy gets bashed. So bash Rudy it doesn't change the fact that he is a winner and the Rockets where headed for greatness again with his leadership and while they may still get there the road has been thwarted somewhat by his departure.

 

Well, people who want to bag all the Rockets problems together and throw them out with Rudy will never be convinced otherwise.

However, saying Rudy T/CD were oblivious of roster changes that needed to be made to emphasize Yao and if Rudy were here that we'd still be banging our heads against the wall with the same team w/out picking up key role players is... not quite ignorant but shows a significant lack of insight.

I like certain changes JVG has made, but I would venture to say that Yao Ming in particular would have been much more productive in the early part of this season under Rudy. Offensively, Yao played with much more confidence under Rudy than he has shown this season, even less 15 lbs and the knowledge of a full NBA season. Now, Yao will surely reach that same level of trust and comfort with JVG given time, but there is little doubt in my mind that Yao and the Rockets would be more in sync offensively to this point with Rudy in charge.

 

I still blame Jim Boylen

 

Steve Francis and Jeff Van Gundy for Carlos Arroyo and Jerry Sloan.

 

Deal!

 

I thought we needed a change of direction so I was for Rudy leaving.

I was wrong....it was not Rudy at all, but the players.

Of course Rudy drafted the players......

DD

 

I'm not a Rudy basher. Rudy was a great coach back in the no-zone days. But ever since the zone was legalized, Rudy's game strategies went down the tubes.

Also, reason #2... I remember countless games where rudy changed the lineup and I thought "Why is he putting those guys in?!?!? Why is he putting his hot-hands player on the bench?!?!?".... then later, after we've surrendered the lead, and it's too late, Rudy would send the good players back in. Remember those days??? Not once have I felt that way with JVG. Against Seattle, I was wondernig why he had Yao, Steve and Cat on the bench soon after the half. But it was soon evident that Jeff had just given up already. I at least understand Jeff's lineups.

-- droxford

 

Actually, I think this is the first negative post -- with mine being the second -- of the thread. OMR gave a pretty good argument, imo, for why Rudy was never on the hook in the first place.

 

Happy belated birthday Rudy T.

 

It was as much Rudy as the players. When you see a spoiled kid at the supermarket, who do you blame, the kid or his parents? Rudy turned the team over to Francis and Cat 4 years ago. Four years of bad habits are hard to break in 14 games or so.

Old Man Rock will tell you that Rudy was trying to get Steve and Cat to play right, but Rudy was like their momma. When I was a kid, momma would say basically the same thing that daddy did, but it pretty much went in one ear and out the other. But if daddy told you to do something or quit doing something, you better not even look like you disagreed, or you'd be picking yourself up off the floor.

We know that Steve and Cat have always done pretty much whatever they wanted to on the court. No need to worry about what momma Rudy said. No consequences, no worries.

No big personnel moves were made for Van Gundy. Up until this point, he is trying to salvage the core personnel. It's a difficult task to reign in a couple of dunder heads and get them to play smart in just a few games.

I've got to think that there is some time limit on Cat and especially Steve to start playing smarter. It's mostly on Steve, because he dominates the ball so much. Cat doesn't touch the ball nearly as much as Steve. He may not can pass worth a crap, but at least he doesn't start most posessions.

 

You love Rudy and that is cool but to judge that Rudy is better than Jeff and claim people are narrow-minded to say otherwise is not cool.

Have you ever thought that the players' improvement are directly attributed to Jeff?
MoT, Mooch, Cato, Rice ... came to camp ~10, 20 lbs lighter and in the best shape of their career. You think they would have done that for Rudy? Boki still looked pathetic in pre-season (pre Van GUndy). He is becoming a decent NBA player. It's more than just natural improvement with time. Instead of Rice, T Morris, Hawk, Posey, we have Pike, JJ, A.G., Ford, Amaechi. If Rudy had a lesser team, it was his own doing.

You forgot to mention that most every team also improved their rosters.

All speculations.

If you can speculate, then how about this speculation:
A better coach could have won more championships or at least performed better for ~10 yrs with HOF Hakeem or at least in those years with Barkley, Clyde ...

 

Can't tell. Some kids are spoiled. Some kids are just bad no matter who the parents are. I've seen enough kids to know that.

 

Rudy messed up with such picks as EG, signing Moochie and MT to a contract they don't deserve, and the list can get really big.

Carol Dawson should be gone too!

 

Uh oh, AB opening up a can o' cyber whup-ass.

 

Is Carroll Dawson off the hook?

I really don't know who had the last say, he or Rudy, on these things:

- Cato's huge contract after one great pre-season game
- Taylor's contract
- Moochie's contract
- Maloney's contract
- Picking Bryce Drew
- Picking Mirsad Turkcan
- Not picking Rashard Lewis even though we had supposedly promised it and had three first round draft picks, at least one of which went on a total project in Turkcan
- (if the rumor is true) Not trading Eddie Griffin in some way for Rashard Lewis
- Trading Najera away for Langhi
- Drafting Eddie Griffin, trading away three first-round draft picks for him (I will admit that, on this one, we were almost all enthusiastic, and obviously, hindsight is 20/20 - so somewhat discount this one)

Please feel free to add if there are some more. I know some good decisions have also been made (the trade for Francis, still, and getting Mobley in the draft with pick 41), but in my opinion, the bad outweighs the good, given the luck we have had in drafts, etc.

Is he the GM or not? Who makes these decisions, the coach or the GM?

Where would we be now if we had not had the immense luck of landing the No. 1 pick in the draft which gave us at least some hope for greatness in Yao Ming?

This would probably deserve its own thread, but might as well post it in here, since Rudy basically lost his job based on the effects of these decisions. What happened with Dawson? He got an extension.

I don't know the man, not even really from interviews, except a few, so I think I am looking at this rather objectively, purely based on comparing decisions that had a positive effect with those that had a negative effect.

 

Rudy's team Scored more

Rocket River