Yes.....but not when it comes to down physical capabilities, natural raw athleticism or quickness for example. In Reggie Bush's case, most scouts saw a major red herring in his lack of in-between tackle running, which turned out to be true. But he's still productive in other areas (punt returning for example) because he's such an amazing athlete and has good hands. What I'm saying is that he has the TOOLS, but it obviously the speed of the pro game (I'm specifically referring to the mental side of it) is so much more quicker. But he has the physical abilities, he just needs to work on his defensive awareness and techniques (ie Tmac)
How about you provide support for your suspicions instead of just throwing them out there and asking people to find evidence for you? Here, by the way, is game log of Rockets games this season. You tell me how well the Rockets have done against good teams. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3599/gamelog;_ylt=AjTmJacI.s2TsPlLcg31xb6kvLYF Here is last year's game log: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3599/gamelog;_ylt=Aud6d4.KOdvjyVC5wpdrVvGkvLYF?year=2006 You can do the math and tell me how well the offense has been working against various types of teams.
I stated my point with our playoffs performance against a good team's defense. Yao shot like 40%, Alston 33%, there's a game in which we had only 4 players scored and no bench scoring at all, that IMO, is getting owned. My suspicion that we padded scoring average against average or bad teams isn't unfounded. It's Carl who raised the perspective of winning games against good teams proving JVG offense' effectiveness, which I don't agree as being the right perspective against my point, and I explained why.
This would be of relevance if this site was clutchknicks.com. Last I remembered this is a Rockets forum. Not sure how him taking Knicks in a weak Eastern conference helped the Rockets considering they failed to get out of first round in 4 years under his reign?! I guess being a dick on TV counts as one to Gundy fans?
The Rockets were a few minutes away from actually winning that series. Mcgrady getting "tired" in the 4th hurt the team badly. Anyhow, we will do playoff comparison when we get there. So far, little evidence suggests we are doing better offensively or overall against the top team. This despite better talent. We will see if it changes in the remainder of the season.
ZING! Besides, what's with the hate on JVG. Judging by the GARM, Gay would be one of the most hated players ever, as Gay is essantialy Mac x 0.5 and seeing how Mac gets hated on...well every game... And, I'd lol at the Rockets team defense with Mac and Gay on the floor. Atrocious. As in Larry Hughes-goes-for-50 atrocious. ...The offensive side of the equation is a bit more tempting though...I will concede that. Not by as much as you think though...among the many things holding Gay back, his passing is atrocious; 1.8 AST on 2.2 TO?
LOL. Why cares? Go ahead and put me on your ignore. I speak not to the weak minded labeling game players like you. I take the same stance as Les and Morey. JVG failed. Les fired him. We Rockets fans criticize him. I'm going with the trend you are stuck in ...cough cough...JVG's glorious.. past. Excuse me for not developing a crush on JVG's boring and predictable offense, I didn't know that an appetite for fun baskteball game is an offense to your Godfather that should be banished into oblivion. Sorry, I shall exit in shameful humbleness.
Even Durant is trying harder defensively than Gay, and PJ is actually having him guard players like Nash and Kobe. Seattle is not aiming for greatness this year. Gay's a good player, but he can't even keep Battier in front of him. Do you know how bad you have to be defensively to have Battier beat you off the dribble consistently? Shane has no handles. And Ivaroni's not the only coach Gay's had, he couldn't play d last year either. Gay's a new product. If he doesn't learn to play defense soon I don't expect to pick it up ever.
The key word here is dedication. And for all the knocks Mac gets on his laziness on defense, you look at his first several years with the Raptors, he was an outstanding defender. You don't see that with Gay. Everytime the Rockets play the Grizz, he gets burnt by not just Mac, but Battier. Shane Battier can't drive past 80% of SFs in the league but all of a sudden he turns into a complete player on both ends of the court when matched up with Gay. That tells you something ain't it? He has the tools, but like you said, if he doesn't have the drive, he can never learn. And trust me, anybody can tell he doesn't want to play defense.
I saw him at UConn. Other than the fact that he was shut down by good players relatively easily, I thought he was good. That being said, I don't care what the scouting report says, his lateral quickness is bad for an NBA Small Forward. You can deny that all you want, but watch the Grizzlies occasionally, observing will convince you of that. If he puts on a lot of strength, he can be a good PF, but that has to be his development path at this point. Otherwise, he's going to be extremely one-dimensional.
So just because you have a bad team you shouldn't play defense? Last time I checked, players get paid millions to do things like playing defense. If those guys have pride, they would play to win and not get their butts kicked. There is no pride in tanking.
Bad for a small forward? Are you kidding me? A good PF? Are you kidding me? Its not just me, every stinking scoutin report out there says he's extremely athletic and quick for his size. But like I said, physical gifts will be useless if you don't know how to position yourself on defense or if you don't play with a good defensive stance (which in that case that means you don't care much about defense (*cough Tmac)) I can't but help that you have something against Rudy because unless you are blind, you should be able to spot his amazing athleticism from a mile away. Again, JVG referred to his stance, not his lack foot quickness. I think he has Tmac-like potential, if he can have some dedication put in.
