Enough with the hating on Jim Jackson! Look, this team has 2 star players in Yao and Tmac. After that who is the next best player? Probably JJ. In reality JJ probably should be a 6th or 7th man but is FORCED into the role of the 3rd best player on the team. JJ has stepped up to be the vocal leader on the floor. What more do you want out of the guy. The guy give 100% every night. Somet nights are bad and some nights are good. In the Detroit game when everyone "quit" who was the one guy that still put up the numbers? JJ. JJ is a solid role player. I dont think HE thinks he is anymore than that. But he knows that the team expects MORE from him than just role player numbers because we just dont have the talent right now. I dont see JJ as some selfish guy just putting up shots so he can get his own. The guy always feeds Yao the ball and does a good job moving the ball around the perimeter. He takes the jumper when he is open as is expected. The only time I see JJ force shots is when Yao or Tmac are on the bench and he is again FORCED into the role of a team scorer. In reality it is expecting too much from him. But he does his best. Us getting mad at JJ for being forced into a role of the 3rd best player on the team is ridiculous. Everyone should appreciate his efforts, his work ethic and his willingness to be a team leader and a voice on the court. JJ is this team's Mario. But when we had Mario we also had Cassell, Drexler and Olajuwon. Mario was then perhaps the 4th best player on the team (maybe 5th behind Horry). If the Rockets could add another solid scorer to the team and JJ was relegated to the 4th best player, I think you would see even better production from JJ. JJ is the LEAST of our problems! 1) Better PF play 2) Better PG play 3) Yao playing more aggressive I would say those 3 things are EASILY more indentifiable problems than JJ's play. /end rant
Totally agree, I mean come on! Jim Jackson's shot are usually the best shots and he takes them. JJ leave it all on the floor. Of course I wish he didn't have to play as many mins. but that just the hand he's dealt and he deals with it an plays like a professional. His numbers will even out as the season progresses.
I want him to take those open shots, if he misses they usually result in long rebounds and additional possesions (well they should ) DD
First reality is JJ loses a little each season as time passes, he is an average on the ball defender. He has lost a step. And he is average with the open 3. He can create a little, but not enough to be a third option guy. He is a good sub, good guy to have on the bench and in the locker room. He makes too many mistakes for the amount of time he handles the ball. His passing and decision making is fair but not good. Give him credit though I think he gives it all, he is a tireless worker, he is consistant, you know what you get each night and he definately has the right attitude. He wants to win and he gives a winning effort every night. The guy does not take off. He would be a good bench player, and that is where he would fit on 90% of the teams in the league. I would prefer Boki starting and JJ coming off the bench. Boki at the three gives us more quickness and hustle at the start of games and someone who can slash.
- - Look, I'm not hating on Jim Jackson because of what he leaves out on the floor. I understand that he gives it his all every night in every game but that still doesn't change the fact that he can't hit the open 3 with any consistency. I'm sorry but anybody here that does believe he's doing a good job this year has their vision blurred from what he did last year. This team is slower than last year so we weren't exposed to JJ's lost of quickness on defense. Here are some recent stats: Date Team FG 3PT TO Points 12/02 DAL 7-18 3-10 4 17 11/30 DET 7-11 5-7 3 21 11/27 DEN 5-18 2-9 1 13 11/26 UTH 6-15 5-10 1 18 11/23 SAC 4-8 2-6 4 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 29-70 17-42 13 16 PPG - All i'm asking is for some change. This team isn't doing any better so why not shake the lineup? I honestly believe that if boki was given the oppurtunity, he would would be more efficient. What aggravates me the most is that JJ's shots are WIDE OPEN. If he would hit them more with consistency, then I wouldn't be complaining.
After McGrady, Jackson is probably playing better than everyone else on the team. I don't know why posters single him out. He can shoot outside, he can take it inside, he gets a couple of rebounds, plays good defense. His shooting is a little down now and his TOs are higher than they should be... and yet, he still does better than most everyone else on the team. And, why do people keep suggesting Nachbar? It's doubtful whether he deserves any minutes at all, and you want to make him a starter?
playing better? better how? If you think bricking open jump shots, and letting your man drive past you better than everybody else than I wholeheartedly agree. People are suggesing nachbar because he has shown he can hit the open 3. He's shooting 10-21 from behind the arc and that's what we need from this offense. The reason why he's not getting any minutes is because of our head coach and his loyalty to certain players.
JJ is good for the team, he just doesn't have his shot from last year...Give it time...It'll all come together at the right time... however, I would like to see Boki play more...
I'm not sure where this "shot from last year" stuff is from. He was #15 in the league last year with 40% 3-point shooting, which is pretty good. This year, he's at 38.4%. If he makes his next three-pointer, he'll be 39/100 this year. 1% is not a lost shot. He's a good player, probably better off the bench if we were loaded with talent, but he's still a guy who we want shooting all those open shots.
My biggest complaint about Jackson is his turnovers. His passing is fair at best. Even if his passes don't result in a turnover, I've noticed many times his passes kill the opportunity for whomever receives the ball, because they have to reach for the pass, allowing the defender to close. There is no excuse for throwing the ball to someone's ankles. Van Gundy made a comment last year that he was surprised with number of turnovers coming from Jackson. Want to know who does the best job of getting the ball quickly to Yao? Boki. That's one reason I can think of for him to get more minutes. I think Boki's biggest problem is confidence. When he has played this year, he is more often than not guarding the opponents' leading scorer. He gets burned a few times and then gets pulled from the game. It will be interesting to see if JVG "develops" Barrett or not. He immediately got yanked last night when the offense stalled on the perimeter. Okay, he made a mistake. I don't know what that did for his confidence. I know that people react differently. However, I do know that with this roster, the Rockets really need good minutes from Barrett.
What the hell! Jimmy Jam is the freaking only player we have that shows up to play every night. He is a role player and he is at the end of his career. For him to be playing like he does is awesome especially for what we signed him for. hell Snackbar gets more love from some of you folks and that guy hasn't done squat for us.
If we're talking last night, Jackson shot a poor 39%. Yao shot 27%. Sura shot 33%. Howard shot a solid 50%, but then he only took 4 shots. Barrett shot 29%. Taylor shot 17%. The rest of the guys took fewer than 3 shots. So, I don't know why you'd single out Jackson, unfortunately our best shooter on the floor after McGrady. Over the season so far, of guys who see significant floor time, Yao is our best shooter at 50.2%. Howard is second at 45.3%. Taylor is third at 42.9%. McGrady is fourth at 42.3%. And Jackson is fifth at 41.7%; not bad, imo, for a guard on this team, and only a half point behind McGrady. Nachbar, btw, is shooting 34.9%. What about our bombers? Nachbar is leading with 47.6% after 21 shots. I would hazard to guess that he wouldn't keep it that high all season. Taylor is second but doesn't count because he's only shot 7. Padgett is 4-10. Jackson is fourth with a solid 38.4% on 99 shots. That's in line with his career average and will probably and hopefully stay at that level. Now, my favorite, points per shot. I like it because it takes into account how well you can get to the line, and keeps three-pointers in perspective. I calculated only the principal players. Yao is first at 1.34, McGrady second at 1.22, and Jackson third at 1.16. So, it would seem to me if your desire is scoring, you would want to leave the best scorer after your Top-Two out on the floor. Nachbar, btw, acquits himself nicely at fourth, 1.14, on the strength of the 3-point shooting. Howard and Taylor are both sucking at 1.04 and 1.01, respectively. Nachbar has shot well so far in the early season from the 3-point line. However, consider that he has not shot well on 3-pointers in games in his first two seasons. Nor in preseason. He is not now shooting well from inside the arc. He also cannot create for himself (or others -- he's second in assists after McGrady on this team) the offense that JJ can. Nachbar suffers from some kind of severe stage fright or something. JJ is a vet, he's smart, he doesn't get easily rattled. And, that doesn't even touch on the things we can quibble about, like how much better a defender he is. Unless Sura comes to knock him off his perch, or Mo Taylor has a sudden resurgence, Jim Jackson is the #3 man on this team and one of the last places I would look when casting blame.
Everyone wants Nachbar to succeed. I do too. I want Nachbar to get minutes every night. But I dont think Nachbar can play JJ minutes right now and be successful. I still feel like he is a pretty big liability on defense and that's probably why JVG doesnt play him much. Still, he should get some minutes. I am not convinced that Nachbar being in there and then being asked to do everything JJ is asked to do will put Nachbar in a successful situation. Are you ready to ask Nachbar to be the #3 option on the team? Handle the ball, play defense against some of the best swingmen on other teams? That's what Nachbar would have to do. Nachbar would be more successful if we had a better PG and PF where the small forward position was the 4th or 5th option on the team. Then Nachbar's skills would be utilized better as a shooter and slasher. But in OUR current makeup JJ is being asked to do a lot more and I dont think Nachbar can handle what is being required right now.
Then, tell me what kind of a team we are? Are we an up and coming young team built towards future with foundation of Yao and TMac, or are we a team built to win now? If we are a team built to win now, then you don't make that big a trade in the summer. You just cannot expect a team to play as a cohesive unit after such a massive over haul. It usually will take at least a couple of years for a new team to build the chemistry. If we want to build around two 24/25 years old stars for the future, then we need to play more younger role players, hopefully, in a couple years, they will excel at their roles when Yao & TMas enter their prime. So why did we sign C. Ward, start J. Jackson? You don’t expect those two to be around in a couple of years, do you? It’s okay if those two only play a limited bench minutes, but why Ward played that much, and started Jackson with 40 minutes a game? C. Ward was on his way down started a few years ago, he couldn’t get off the Spurs bench last year; Jackson is a 38 years bench player who half of the teams in the league were not interested in him, the other half didn’t want him after got to know him. We are playing a guy 40 minutes who no one even wanted as a bench player. That pretty much explains why we are where we are!
The thing that Nachbar is that helps the team a lot is an above average rebounder. Nachbar gets boards at the SF postion at a pretty good clip. You guys watch, if Nachbar leaves, he will become a pretty good player in the NBA..ala Craig Ehlo, not great but good and multi talented. DD
i singled out jackson because he went 7-18. He took 18 shots last night and if you watched the game, most if not all of his 18 shots were wide open. You can't compare the shots that Yao takes to the shots that anybody else takes because their shots are contested. I repeatedly said that if Jackson hits those 3's than I wouldn't be complaining. And its just not this game either, he's had other bad nights where he can't hit anything. That's why I don't understand that when he is having a bad game, then why keep him in? Why don't you try someone else, they might hit that shot that is so open. And to comment on boki and the fact that he has stage fright and what not is just somewhat truthful but not totally. You gotta understand that this is JVG's system. If you watch when boki plays, he doesn't look for his shot. He swings the ball around to the open player and doesn't shoot unless he's open. I'm pretty sure that JVG had something to do with that gameplan. I'm pretty sure if JVG lets him be more flexible and loose, than boki would take it to the basket more often. To sum it up, Jim Jackson will always have that corner 3 wide open. If he doesn't hit it, then what good will he do? I'm fine with him starting, but when he doesn't hit his first 4-5 shots, why not take him out and try something new? That's all i'm saying.
tell me deuce, what is JJ asked to do? - Play defense on the best swingmen on the other team? That can easily be fixed, you switch t-mac on them and you let boki guard the 2 or vice versa. For instance, there was one game where we were playing against the clippers. Boki and Tmac are in the game together and Boki has the assignment of guarding Maggette. While Tmac is guarding Simmons. Why doesn't JVG just tell Boki and Tmac to switch off? Goodness, it doesn't take a brain scientist to put your best defender on their best offensive player. - Handle the ball? Are you kidding me? You think that JJ is not TO prone and what not. It doesn't take much for someone on JVG's team to bring up the ball, because more likely than not, your walking the ball upcourt and running a 24 second set anyways. - Being the #3 option? JJ is the #3 option because all his shots will be 3's or mostly 3's. Our system is designed so that the small forward will be open in the corner for a 3 pointer either by penetration or inside-outside. And you don't think boki can handle that? I don't know why this board is so high on this guy. He's bounced around the league for a reason. Look, I don't hate the guy like how some people here feel about howard and taylor but I don't think he's all that. He's a "capable" player that is struggling. That's why i'm all for change right now.
I like Jackson, who probably thinks he's died and gone to heaven with the minutes he's gotten from JVG, but I don't understand Nachbar playing one minute against Dallas. I'm not suggesting he start or anything, but why wasn't he put on Dirk, to see what he could do to slow him down? No one else could, and at least Boki has the length and quickness to bother Nitwitski, at least until he fouled out. I'm getting to where I don't understand Van Gundy at all. It used to be that I didn't understand him occasionally. (well, maybe more than occasionally, lol) JJ plays too many minutes, and isn't as effective because of it, illustrated as we saw towards the end of last season. The other players come off the bench without any rhyme or reason that I can see. Van Gundy's rotation is schizophrenic. He's driving me crazy. JJ isn't. He's just playing too much.
