I caught the tail end of them talking about it on the radio. I think they said today in the firsthour of the Matt Jackson show....
Said Mike James will be a great player coming off the bench with his energy and shooting ability. Also said he does a great job of shooting the ball but he needs to get better defensively and learn to handle the ball better but they are happy to have him.
He also answered 4 trivia questions: Other than the the Bobcats, which team has had the lowest overall winning percentage? Who is the only NBA athlete to play alongside both Larry Bird and Bill Rusell? Who is second behind Reggie Miller in 3-points attempted? How many teams has Larry Brown taken to the playoffs? Answers appear upside down at the bottom of this page.
anyone catch anything else from the interview, that hasn't been posted yet? Good to hear Sura is back.
Has to be the Clippers or the Grizzlies Either Havlicek or Don Chaney Dale Ellis (dark horse = Vernon Maxwell) 7 - Denver, NJ, S.A., LAC, Indiana, Philly Detroit Answers appear upside down at the bottom of this page. [/QUOTE]
the main part of the callers question: what do you think are chances of on the road, or winning percentage, do we have a good chance of winning and what do you think Mike James has the same chance or potential of doing what Chauncey Billups did or Richard Hamilton did with Detroit last year? JVG: ok um well we go into every game, home or road, with the same mentality that we're going to have to play well to win and thats how it is in the nba the differences between teams is very very small and so much of this league is about your attitude and approach to the game and we're humble enough to know that anyone could beat us and we're confident enough that we know if we play well we can beat anybody anywhere anytime so uh we have great respect for everybody we play and yet we have great belief in ourselves. As far as Mike James uh he played off the bench in Detroit last year, I think he averaged like 13 minutes for 'em he did a good job and we're happy that he's here because he gives us a scoring punch uh that we think is going to be very valuable for us and we think he can continue to grow and improve here and uh whether he's as good as chauncey billups down the road or rip hamiliton.. I dont really get into too many comparisons about players I just want Mike to maximize the talents and abilities he has so that we can maximize our shared talents to get as many wins as we can. Callers comment and question: coach I just wanted to say great game just one of the comments I wanted to make is something that I really apperciated and I think a lot of the fans apperciated I'm sure you do it on a personal level but the public isn't able to see it as much is uh the way you were able to get in the game with the way your guys were playing against seattle, the way you were' enjoying the game, we have always known your a no nonsense coach and being able to see the way you encourage them and get into the game is another factor we really apperciate that goes along with it. Question 1: "how do you feel about the depth of the power forward postion is there something your looking on to improve in the future uh another type of player you might be looking to get later on? and uh my second question, we know looking into the playoffs the rockets have the ability to beat a team like the spurs and as far as a team like phoenix we know your a much better transition team now, what is your focus for your upcoming game? JVG: well I apperciate the nice comments. Our guys have I think uh really maximized what they have and given our team and our fans all they have and some nights its not good enough but i dont think the players ever cheat or come unprepared to play and thats a good feeling if you watch them and certainly if you coach them. As far as the power forward positon I think its like anyother postion. until you win a championship uh you have to constantly be looking for ways to improve. whether its developing your own players or looking for those players uh other players in the league that you feel can be a good fit for your team. I think the league in itself uh the pf position has changed as much as anyother postion in the league other than the point guard postion has become more of scoring mentality position. the pf in the western conference is now about speed and mobility as much as much as it is about actual power uh you still have to be able to rebound there but the prototypical four in the western conference is the shawm marion, a guy who can rebound, but is more of a rebounding three than he is a pure power forward so uh we're going to have to address that at some point to be able to match up with the quickness at the four a little bit better than we have.
another question about the suns game.. jvg: well we'll find out thats something thats hard to guess on I do think though that their speed just like seattles speed you know we've gotten behind in those games early, we were down 16 at seatlle, we were down big at home to phoenix early, i think their speed and quickness and the pace of the game was hard for us to adjust to so its going to be really important even after makes tomorrow that we run as hard as we can and balance the floor and get back because stoudamires quickness is that of a two guard and uh Yao obviously thats going to be a challange for him to get back and get matched up so its really up to our team to get back and give the support that we need to to stoudamire and marions running ability and then also be ready to defend the multidude of pick and rolls they send your way more on the way....
callers question was about Barry and Mutumbo and their free agency status how he'd like to see them play here together for 2 or 3 years. JVG: They've played significant roles on our team. I would say theres about 2 to 3 years... 2 to 3 years some of our guys will be in the senior citizens home so i'm not sure it will be the same crew over the next two or three years but certainly we like the team we have, the changes to our team, uh lets face it we were a bad team that didn't fit well together over the first month and it got us into a tremendous hole being at 6-11 and its very very difficult to overcome getting yourself in that big a hole in the western conference and its a credit to our guys they fought their way out of that hole and i know that some people would assume that a playoff spot is there for us and thankfully our players understand that is not the case and that we have a lot of work ahead of us. same caller asked why Moochie is on the active roster and not Barret because Moochie has no potential? JVG: as far as the moochie/andre debate. we activated Bob, so Moochie's going to the injured list with Andre Barret so uh thats really a moot point. more on the way..
caller question: hey coach, how you doing? First of all as a native Houstonian i was kinda scared whenever we got you because I thought we might have the slow and you kno boring ball as we called it, the half courst stuff, but i think actually i really do think uh i want to commend you for building a very good team we've got a lot uh husky players it looks like they got a lot of talent and a lot of energy so I want to commend you on that. JVG: well thank you. Caller: the one thing that seems to be most prevalent is they seem to show you holding on to some players leg, what was that about. JVG: if im not mistaken there was a fight between larry johnson and alonzo mourning and I made a fool of myself by running out there and ended up draped on mournings leg. adam wexler: coach one thing he kinda mention is that the fans never seem to get it and its something that you pointed out all throughout your career as an assistant coach and head coach is its not boring if your winning is it? JVG: well you know what that makes me laugh about that quote, forget perception, is that the Rockets won two championships playing absolutley boring basketball. Come down, left side, drop into Olajuwon, spot up and play out of that the whole game. That was there thing. And I dont look at it like boring. I look at it as very intelligent play to your strenghts basketball. And then they went through the lottery years four years before I got here where people had the mindset that Mobley and Francis were running up and down the court - they weren't. I watched with my own two eyes as a I competed against them, as I did tv, and as i watched the games coming in. they played isolation basketball because thats what the rules dictated at that time and thats what their greatest strengths were so it wasnt like when we came in here we took over our team that was a running team and slowed it down. But again perception is hard to change and I dont worry about it too much I just want to have the perception and the reality that uh we maximize the talent we have on hand as best we can and that hopefully we can keep improving towards making strides to winning a championship. Matt Jackson: the 94 rockets and knicks were somewhat responsible for bringing down the image of the league a little bit. The 95 Rockets when the added Clyde were a little more fun to watch but you know what when you have one of the most gifted NBA players and atheletes of all time in Hakeem Olajuwon I guess you can be distraced by how simple and repetitve the offense is. JVG: Well again... the complaint before the Knicks or Rockets or whoever brought or the Pistons brought defense back in vogue was that no one played defense. So people are just going to try to find things to complain about. Whether it was they don't start playing till the fourth quarter or they dont play defense or theres too much defense and not enough offense uh you know sports fans thats just how it is they like to complain. You know its not easy to play a post up game like those 94 rockets played.. to win. Its a very hard game to play. It takes a great amount of time and dedication and disclipline to be able to get the post pass to where you want it, the post-catch where you want it, the spacing that you want, and the reaction out of whatever the defense does to try to counter-balance your post game so it wasnt simple, its hard, and uh the rockest did it extremely well and uh then they added Drexler the next year and could run more pick and rolls and Drexler obviously was great on pick-and-rolls going to his right-hand and I thought Rudy did a tremendous job in both of those years in maximizing his talent.
Thanks alot . . . Texas Stroke . . . I find it interesting, especially when JVG talks about the often fallacious assumptions or perceptions adopted by the fans or media.
