When the company prez gets in my ass for coming in 2 minutes late, I can always come to these types of post to remind me that there are dumber people out there.
The Bobcats played Okafor too much. Brevin Knight too. Bickerstaff should have tanked. What was he thinking ? Oh, now I know, fight fight, never say die. BERNIE BICKERSTAFF IS THE MAN! What a great coach. Teacher's pet stat line : 0-5, 3, 0. There's that "energy". JL3 - even though showing some spark - 9 minutes. JVG and Riley run short benches and have injury-prone seasons. True in NY, Miami, here. Wear and tear take a toll. The defensive strategy is additionally wearing. It is harder to play on your heels than it is to attack. It is hard to grind the clock down on offense. That kind of ball is inefficient - it's like driving a car with the brakes on. Both parts wear out, and soon your are out of control, even when you have a great engine. Basketball should flow, not grind. It didn't work for Ewing and Oakley, it didn't work for Mourning and Hardeway, and it won't work for Yao and Tracy, here, ever. Houston will never have the kind of depth to run a grinder game, as implemented by superior coaches in San Antonio and Detroit. The truth is, our stars are both finesse players and we will be better off with a different coach. Oh, btw, JVG, Riley, and now SVG are all quitters.
Expectations for those seasons were not nearly as high then. You are talking about a Hakeem at the end of his career who was a 10pt player and Barkley who was in his late 30's at the end of the line. These our two different situations. That team wasn't expected to do great things, it was easy to let go then. I certainly would never blame Rudy, as a matter of fact that season was one of the more enjoyable losing seasons I remember watching. Around here Clutch started that Lottery Generator and everyone got into it and understood and it was cool. But the present day with this team, we have two young superstars and we're on the rise and expected to contend so it's a different struggle from the begining and a heavier burden on the coach when it's all slipping away with injuries to your superstart player then main rotation guys and then other superstar player from the very begininng to the very day. You know I do remember the days when Rudy T had to pull the Sam Macks and Eldridge Recasners out of the CBA and rely on them and I think that's when he was at his best. Lucas draining that three reminded me a bit of those days. But it just seems to me that the expectations people had for this years team make the burden much heavier for the coach to endure.
I'm critical of JVG but I will give some props to him. I will give more props to Juwan Howard though. Lets hope this time having to carry the load will give the role players some valuable experience and they will keep on stepping it up when T-mac and Yao come back.
...and should the Rockets miss the playoffs this season (a definite possibility), with Mr. Van Gundy still in place, you won't be able to say that anymore.
I agree with most of pasox's post. JVG focuses so much on slowing down the tempo and forcing jumpers that lots of other aspects of the game suffer. We turn the ball over way too much and don't force nearly enough turnovers. Our offense is pretty much the worst in the league. I can't really blame this horrible start to the season on coaching, though. Maybe I'd have a different opinion of Rocketball this season if we'd played more than 1 or 2 games with both our superstars on the court together.
We overplayed T-Mac?? Um, unless I'm mistaken, the man WANTS to play and win so badly, he'll play at less than 100%. T-Mac's injuries are not JVG's fault. They are a reoccuring problem he's had. He has wear and tear on his body from years in Orlando too. On topic: JVG is doing the best he can with the personnel. I commend him for that. Anyone hating on JVG this year is stupid. He didn't cause all the injuries.
Could it be possible to criticize aspects of the Rockets coaching without getting juvenile responses in reply? I've been called moronic and now stupid for making a valid criticism. I don't care if you disagree, but if you do, you might look at R2K's reply in this thread for the way to do it. How coaches, and their staff, handle players coming back from injuries is a huge part of their job. With millions invested in these players, and far more than that depending on them being on the floor and getting fans in the seats for the franchise, how that is handled is, in my opinion, one of their biggest responsiblities. Hey... our staff is better than most. Okafor was coming off an ankle injury and had missed 8 games. He reinjured it in one of the overtimes. They showed them taking off his shoe on the court, and his ankle wasn't taped! Gross incompetence by the Bobcats' staff. I don't think for a moment that our people would be that idiotic. Okafor, their best player, will no doubt miss more games. This is a current bug-a-boo with me. I don't care if people disagree, but there's no reason not to be civil about it. We all want Tracy on the court, and Yao, and Anderson, and Barry, and whoever else I'm forgetting, but regardless of how short-handed we are, you don't risk the health of your best player. If it's the end of the season, and we're fighting for a spot in the playoffs, or by some damned good fortune we're in the playoffs, you wouldn't hear me say a word about it. And if you reply that it's now that we need to risk his health unnecessarily by playing him more minutes than is prudent, I'll make this reply... there is a hell of a lot of games left in the season. We are not out of it, yet. Oh, and I've never said I hate Van Gundy.
No, of course not. Thats why we have the stupid JVG replies. And the "sky is falling replies". And the "lets tank replies". We don't see rationale that much around here anymore. Basically, 70% of the BBS is now 9th grade analytics, fantasy GM's and NYC/JVG haters. Makes the fans in here seem smart and rational. How I long for the good ole days.
I think JVG did great considering we had the worst lineup in the NBA out on the floor last night. Props to the coach. I think it's absolutely hilarious that people are blaming the coach for players' injuries. He's 'overworking them', LOL. Funny, I don't remember anyone blaming Rudy when we had those injury plagued years. BTW, for anyone that thinks it's JVG's fault for overplaying Tmac why don't they call up Van Gundy and tell him when Tmac is going to have a spasm in a game, since it must be so obvious when he's going to have one. LOL, call him up ..."Yeah, Gundy, sit Tmac for 10 extra mintues tonight b/c he's going to have a back spasm tonight and be out for the next 2 games." ..."Uh, but we'll lose if we sit him that much, BTW, how do you know that? Who is this?" ..."click" Hmmm, JVG sits Tmac extra mins and we absolutely lose or we 'overplay(which are tmac's usual mins. ever since Orlando)' Tmac, get some wins, and risk him having a freak back spasm. Either way Gundy is blamed.
I'm a little worried about walking right into the middle of a mud wrestling match, but as much as I hate Phil Jackson, he has always seemed to have a great ability for having a fresh team when he needs it. The NBA season is a marathon, not a sprint, and with the increased number of foreign players and increased priority of off-season international play, the NBA season looks more and more oppressive. If I were an NBA star, I would go to sleep the day my team was eliminated from the playoffs and hibernate until 1 month before the season starts. I wouldn't even consider placing my multi-million dollar contract and NBA career in jeopardy by playing a bunch of tournaments in the summer. How many games would someone play if they won the NBA championship, and played in the Olympics in the same year? It is ridiculous! That said, JVG's philosophy is to not leave anything in the tank during the regular season. He also coaches a style that doesn't get a lot of easy baskets, forces his players to exert a lot of effort, and SUCEEDS in the playoffs. But, we bombed out in the playoffs last year partially due to the fact that we just ran out of gas. Can you imagine if went 2 more series? We would have had nothing left at all. FACT: The NBA regular season means nothing if you are a 1-3 seed, means some if you are a 4-6 seed, and means a lot if you are a 7-8 seed..... and of course it means absolutely nothing if you don't make the playoffs, or the SECOND SEASON as everyone calls it. I wish JVG's philosophy was more in line with the marathon concept of the NBA season, but if he can make it to the playoffs with a healthy and rested team, his style of play tends to do well in a 7 game series. I really wish the regular season was shorter instead.
it's real smart to blame injuries on a coach. There are alot of coaches in the leauge that are way harder on thier players. The Rockets play a slow down type basketball because he knows his team can't run all night. JVG is a way better coach than you think. You will realize if he leaves.
Doctor Robert, I guess you don't remember Jordan icing those knees during the playoffs? Or Ron Harper always hurt? Or tendinitis in Pippens knees? Lets remember that one of the great coaches of the last 30 years (Riley) uses a short bench during the whole year. The difference is that his players were healthy enough to win 60 games every year.
Bro, my comments were not directed at any single person. I mainly speak in general. I don't get on these boards, or any for that matter to bicker. So, I *do* apologize if it came off that way. I believe we are actually saying the same thing. I am one of the optimists on these boards. That just comes along with being a "true fan," however one defines that. Criticism of the coach is all fine and dandy. I often have my gripes. My comment in my post says nothing more than, "a person is stupid, if he thinks that all the injuries this season, which are a huge factor to the current record, are the fault of Van Gundy." It's just silly to think that. I guess people calling for his firing, and simply just putting the bad season on him, is just unfair. He just doesn't have a healthy squad. Maybe it's just the frustrations of so many idiodic posts coming in floods lately. With that said, yeah, I can't disagree that the coach, will ask if a player is good to go, b/c you need them. We'd also be naive to believe that a player who seems so motivated this season to succeed (T-Mac) wouldn't push for the staff to clear him to play, insisting he is ok. I just think this season is just a huge and unbelieveable run of bad luck...sucks.
If people want to give JVG props for whatever, that's fine with me. But what does really bug me about this guy is comments like he made yesterday: "This team aged overnight, over the course of a summer". Yeah, right. Our starting backcourt was on it's last legs after our late season push last year in a far-fetched attempt to catch the Mav's for the 4th seed. The Mav's series was a red flag that most of the team needed an overhaul. But we aged "overnight"? For a "no excuses" guy JVG talks out of both sides of his mouth as much as any coach I've ever seen. No, I don't think he can be directly blamed for the ridiculous amount of injuries, but at the same time he is consistent in his over-expectations in what his players can physically do. I'm not anti-JVG, but I don't see any reason to praise the guy about anything this season. LOL, did Wesley really play 56 mins. last night?
