It appears that Deke and Juwan are running on fumes. Juwan jumper has been off and Deke has been unable to recover. Both of them are no more than 25 min players. I will not mention Bonzi, who for the occassional rip is a definite defensive iability on the floor with Luther and Rafer. Where is Kirk? Is this JVG's fault, he has to accept blame, the two of them cannot stay with spot up shooting or quick big men. Check the game tape, both jog up the floor on defense. I don't get hyped by losing, however, the manner in which the Rockets are losing is troublesome. Please check the hussle or lack thereof by Juwan, Bonzi, and Deke. These 3 cats have run out of gas, rebounds are droping 2 feet away from them and they cannot get there. Also, teams are killing the Rockets on drives to the bucket and all Juwan, Deke, Bonzi, and Rafer (please stop hacking a guy with 2 seconds on the shot clock) can do is hack. JVG needs to act quicker when a team is onto a 40 point quarter and come with hack a chuck and Kirk snyder. I like the energy Jake has shown, plus his hands are 10 times better than Dekes!!! Deke couldn't catch a hot air baloon .
A lot of us knew this was going to happen. There was no way Juwan and Deke could continue to play those minutes until Yao got back. We should be grateful their legs lasted as long as they did. Our problems right now aren't limited to just Deke and Juwan. The whole team isn't putting out the effort on defense and since our margin without Yao is thin, we are losing to bad and mediocre teams. If Wade hadn't got hurt, the Heat would have beaten us too.
Well Juwan should be a 25 minute player nowadays and Deke a 12 minute player. But you can't really fault that on JVG. Yao went out, we didn't have another C and despite some fans worship and praise of Hayes he's nothing more than a 15 minute to 20 minute player. So that forced big time minutes on Deke and Howard. Deke has been done for awhile and now Howard is going. But the Rockets got Tsakalidis which should help, then Yao will come back. Tsakalidis can backup for Yao and let Mutombo rest for the playoffs. As for the PF spot though Howard probably will have to get a rest, when Yao comes back, which means playing Hayes more. Yeah Hayes started before, blah blah blah from all the Hayes fans but he fouls out if he plays over 20 minutes it's just how he plays. So no matter what that's still not giving Juwan much rest to recover and he is very tired now. Bad because he was playing well.
aging.....tsk.....they are who they are They've been playing extremely well before this slump and now they aren't, these guys are both older players and to expect them to keep up the same level of production is just silly. Yes they are playing poorly right now but so is the rest of the team
I'm not bashing JVG, he is what he is. However, as the coach he has to see that our 4 and 5 spots are definitely slowing down and having a hard time rebounding. They are unable to get to loose rebounds. I love Chucks hussle, however, he fouls so rapidly that he's not a force. Also, between Chuck and Deke, the Rockets blow 10 to 12 points a game on missed layups and tip in. Is JVG made a Snyder, he can't do any worse than the crew he's currently giving minutes to. What happen with Shane playing the 4 spot and moving Kirk to the 3 spot. Love this lineup Jake or Deke Battier - Juwan (provide lost post scoring along w/Bonzi Snyder - Bonzi Tmac - Luther (horrible point guard, has always been a shooting guard) Rafer - Lucas
Same problem the Rockets have always had. Remember game 7 against the Mav's two years ago? Avery adjusted. JVG just lay there and took it.
Well when Yao comes back Deke is still the backup but if he looks slow like he did last night you can bring Jake in and not lose much. As far as Howard goes we need him to bring it off the bench as soon as Hayes is back in the starting rotation.
We need Kirk at the 3 in the starting lineup along with Battier at the 4. * Battier will take the other 4 out of the lane and reduces the ability to double Yao (Yes, we will have mismatch with Duncan and Garnett but that's about it) * Kirk is a better defender on the 3 or 2 from the other team and gives Shane a rest * Teams will play into our hands by posting up Shane, which keeps Yao close to block shots from the weakside * Improves our perimeter defense immediately * Kirk gets to long rebounds along with Shane * Shane can at least get 1 or 2 charging calls on a 4 * Match up well against Dallas and/or Phoenix
Anyone else noticing that Shane seems to be losing a little steam as well? He is still a great player but he just doesn't seem to be coming up the defensive stops like he used. I agree about Deke and Juwan. Both guys did one hell of a job when Yao went out but they both seem to be running out of gas, especially Mutombo who looked as bad as I've ever seen him last night. It's starting to look like the Tsakalidas deal was a much better one than originally thought.
Lol this is so true. He a defensive genius, but he has to be one of the most stubborn coaches in the game. I have no idea what is his problem with adjusting this dude just don't learn form mistakes at all. Anybody notice when where up by three with the game closing we always end up getting burn by a 3 pointer? That’s where coaching come in at and for some reason this dude never learns.
Deke is understandable, but am I the only one that thinks that at 34, Juwan should still be able to give over 25 minutes a game?
Juwan is shot, having played a tremendous number of minutes to try to justify being a $100 mln player. It is paniful watching him and Deke try to run back on defense. It's also painful to hear Juwan complain at the beginning of the season about riding the pine, get playing time (score), and the flame out at the end of the season when he's needed by Tmac. Also no body on the team drives to the bucket with authority.
I've always liked this lineup and don't see the harm in using it. I know most people will say that Battier is too small to play PF, but in reality he's only an inch smaller than Howard and it's not like Howard isn't a mismatch against Duncan/Garnett anyways. Anyways, I agree with that you said about Shane drawing the 4's out to the 3pt. line. I think that would open the lane up more and his shooting would keep them honest. If anything you add defense to your lineup and offense to your bench, which is something we could use right now. Snyder is atheletic enough to d-up SF up and his physical strength could give offensive players trouble. This would also allow us to clear up that glut at the 2 spot, and then you still have the option of bringing in Chuck for energy/hustle when Howard is dragging like last night. It is not a horrid suggestion or crazy. I think Snyder would benefit from playing with McGrady, and the rebounding issue wouldn't be so bad b/c of the atheleticism on the court. Of course it will never happen, but I agree with your suggestion.
Two things: 1) Juwan's past salary has no bearing on judging the quality of his current play. 2) Juwan hardly "complained" about playing time to start the season. He said he was not happy to be out of the rotation, but that he would continue to work hard and wait for his chance. He then proceeded to play so well that Van Gundy had to give him more time.
Isn't that what VSpan did as well? Why are many VSpan haters here so hard on VSpan then? I smell double standard.
