Watching JVG only play 7 guys while Bonzi, Synder, V-Span and Novak sat on the bench without a sniff was maddening. I know JVG was doing what he thought was right to win last nights game, but he is going to kill this team playing the starters that much. Tmac NEEDS to rest, he can not go 40+ minutes a night......I know the offense crumbles without Tmac in there, which is why I have been CLAMORING for JVG to take a longer approach and develop some of the younger guys. That way, when Tmac's back goes out, which it inevitably will, you will have some guys that are at least COMFORTABLE out on the court. Also, playing the starters that much causes fatigue and can lead to injuries..... How can JVG not be playing Bonzi? At least him? Sure, he is out of shape etc....but his primary abilities....low post scoring and rebounding....were in short supply last night. This team needs another person who can create off the dribble and set his teamates up.....when Tmac gets tired....the offense dies....Yes, Billy is turnover prone...but dang it....get him some minutes at the backup PG spot....JL3...is nice, but is too small to be a significant contributor. JVG - PLEASE...PLEASE....develop your bench......your short sighted myopic approach will doom this team to fail. DD
The last two minutes of last night's game was a total waste. Our bench is not going to develop when you have JLIII running the point with them. He just dominates the ball and goes one on five. All anybody else can do is sit a pick and go to the glass for the boards, then run back and attempt to D up...................while JLIII plays the passing lanes. He was very selfish last night. You can't develop the rest of the players like that.
The Rockets lack dept as it is especially against the really deep teams which happen to be the best of the west like Dallas, Spurs, and the Suns. I agree we need to develop these young guys and Bonzi's fat rear has to play if the Rockets are going to have an ice cubes chance in hell of beating the above teams. Even with Yao we are going to need a third scorer. JVG is playing to get his contract extended and most of us would do the same thing in his shoes. The next coach will have time to develop our young guys if JVG is not around.
while i think last night's game was more a problem of execution (namely, failure to rebound), i agree with you in the long-run. last night's game was playoff intensity, and our star was worn down by the end. i know tmac steps up his game in the playoffs, but expecting him to do so and carry the team through potentially a 7 game series is asking too much of him and his back. this team needs to find contributions from the other guys, and that means giving some players the opportunity to struggle. devin harris for the mavericks is a great example. he was nothing special the last 2 years, but avery still gave him 15 mpg. if you watched him, he was turnover prone and not a great shooter, but he showed quickness and the ability to get to the basket. sound like anyone on our team? vspan needs to play, even if only sparingly. give him 10 minutes. let him run out there with lucas or head when rafer and tmac need to rest. speaking of which, rafer is still logging way too many minutes to be as effective as he can. he needs to be around 30-35. i know he's our best ballhandler, but running him ragged till the end of the game is hurting our team. i know for a fact that vspan and lucas are good enough not to lose the ball randomly, and vspan's turnovers are usually just the result of people not being ready for his passes.
Lucas was smart. He uses every opportunity to pad his stats. I want JVG to give VSpan another try. It won't hurt much if you use him at the end of first QT or beginning of the second. It could pay big dividends. I hope he knows that if he continues to use this short bench and short rotation, eventually it will backfire in the playoffs. The starters gonna wire out.
all I can say is I seen AJ, switch out players soon as they didnt work, seem like most his bench played the first quarter, he went from harris, to burner, to stack, to george, the thing with JVG is , he will wait till the other team comes all the way back or take lead, to call a timeout, or do a sub, but the sub will not be some unknown waiting off the bench, its chuck freaking i cant shoot or do anything anymore hayes
I posted this in response to one of the hundred different places you spewed this garbage, and then found that you felt the need to create a thread on the thought, so i just copied it over......... you know, i saw some crap you posted in garm last night about how gundy was responsible for the loss because he played his starters too long and it wore them out. (wrong) but now you're just going too damn far. Our bench is not strong enough to play against the better teams! When tmac went out in the first half last night, we couldn't produce on either end of the court! It's really quite simple, you play the players that can get you a victory. If your bench creates a deficit that is insurmountable, then you roll with the starters as long as you can. As far as Bonzi (the ******,not in shape, tub of lard, who thinks he's entitled to preferential treatment after he screwed the pooch and thought he was better than the rest of the league did), you saw what happened when Jeff played him and he wasn't ready. If anything, you should agree with the coach more than ever, given the fact that playing an out of shape player created an injury. A selfish injury that is hurting the team now that Yao is legitimately down. This team is overproducing right now. It's freakin beautiful. Without Yao, Snyder and Wells, we hung in with the Mav's for 3qtrs plus. At full strength, the team should scare the league. In large part, this is due to Van Gundy. The coach who inspired an injury plagued franchise to not feel sorry for themselves. A coach who makes his players earn their playing time. A coach who preaches repeatable actions against quick fix solutions. About last night, you can say that we had the Mav's beaten until Avery "finally" found a combination that exploited our roster deficiencies. However, you can not blame Van Gundy for not being able to counter back. He doesn't have a bench filled with Stackhouse, Dampier, Harris, and George (all accomplished nba players to some degree). When healthy, we will be able to, yet for now, just enjoy the ride and instead of worrying about a coach who is doing a great job, take care of buying yourself a new tv. Hell, maybe that's why you couldn't see the game properly.
So, you think that JVG only playing 7 guys is a good thing? Or that him not developing the players on the bench is a good thing? What the heck ever !!!!!! JVG is a good coach, but he is slow to change, he DID over play his starters last night and they ran out of gas....and TMac's back acted up...probably due to fatigue. It is short sighted to not be playing the bench, and downright stupid. Yes, we are playing well against mediocre to marginal teams, but in order to beat Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio...we will need to run out more players...and they have to be comfortable in the rotation...... For example the Mavs played 9 players....EIGHT of them played more than 20 minutes. The Rockets only played 6 players more than 20 minutes.... Don't you think they ran out of gas because of this? Bonzi should be playing at least him..... And I don't support the coach...I support the team.....coaches come and go.....and it looks like JVG needs to do well in the playoffs to save his job.....otherwise Les would have him signed to a new contract already. DD
I was afraid to post anything against JVG on the win streak, cause it's not good to our "chemistry", even among fans. I was afraid to post anything against JVg after the loss the the Mavs, for the same reason above, and, not want to be labled a JVG hater. But thanks to DD that he finally posted something I agreed on!!! If you looked at the Laker-Mia game and look at the coaching of Phil Jackson, you know why he's won a lot of championships. Yes he had MJ and Pippen, Yes he had Kobe and Shaq, but he also gave time to guys like Kerr who can do only one thing, guys like George I forgot who the commentator was for that game, but i believe he said something that, Phil Jackson gave time to bench players and young players in the regular season, at critical moments (i think the last few minutes in the Laker-Heat game was pretty tied up, but he didn't call timeouts, didn't sub on Kobe very late) The trust and time he provided to the bench and role players in regular season will be paid off come in to playoff wars, where you can't rely on T-mac for 48 minutes a game in a 7-game series in our case. Now come back to Mr. JVG. I have to say he's one of the coach I like for his focus on defense and how he runs offense, and he's all about winning as well. Can't argue with that, we all know he had a chip on his shoulder after last season to at least do well in regular season and make the playoffs, but i also believe that as a team, from Management to Coach to players, and to fans, our goal is to win a champianship around Tmac and Yao. Can't he learn something from Phil Jackson, may I suggest? Luke Walton was no better than Steve Novak or VSpan when he came into the league, trust me, I'm an Arizona Wildcat and will always be I don't believe Jordan Farmar is that much greater point guard than Vspan, who kicked XX's ass. And seeing J. Farmar develop and watching Vspan on the end of the bench just hurts so bad!!!! He provide nothing but turnovers!!! So what, we as a team made a commitment to him and JVG has to develop him, and only in game situation, not the last 20 second of a blow out, will you develop a point guard Over Mingles
I agree! Even our second unit wasn't producing so we should just bring out the third unit? We woulda been blowing out!
Ugh - that is not what we are saying. You don't sub 5 guys out at once...whoever said that? Just insert a sub to play with the starters...let them get comfortable on the court...rotate in a Bonze, a Synder, a Novak, A V-Span...having one of them on the court is not going to KILL the team. And it gives the starters a rest and lets the young guys develop....Bonzi should be playing he says he is healthy...there is no reason to play Tmac 40 minutes a night...that is going to kill his balky back. Dumb dumb dumb. But, I also would like to see V-Span get some run, do you think Faramir in LA is better than V-Span? V-Span should be the backup PG...JL3 is too small. DD
Every time the Rockets loose. Look, we were beat by a deeper, healthier team. We held our own and fell short, but i guess someone has to take the blame huh? Couldn't be that they had our number last night. There were plenty mistakes out there....like Chuck Hayes messing up 2 consecutive high screen assignment on defense in the fourth quarter that lead to 6 Dirk points and pointless fouls. Or.....Deke not rotating in the 3rd that caused 11 3rd period points from George. So much played a part.....it's not just JVG's fault. I'm very sure that the mistakes that were made on the court, he wanted and designed for his players to do the exact opposite. I know people are upset, but I'm not down with finger pointing. We were beat by the 2nd best team in the league WITHOUT our best player. I'm sure Dallas and co knows that.
No doubt that the Mavs are better, all I am saying is that you can not play your starters so many minutes and expect them to have anything left in the tank at crunch time. JVG played 6 guys a total of 20 minutes....SIX.....you are not going to beat the elite teams that way. And, you are gonig to wear your guys out for the game the next night...it is a short sighted approach. JVG should be playing the bench a lot more...get them comfortable...yes they are going to make mistakes....but at the end of the season they will be making far fewere mistakes..... Don't you think that part of Tmac's back problem is overwork? DD
If the Rockets are at full strength and: 1) Nowitski is out 2) Stackhouse is out 3) Harris is coming off of a wrist injury well, we are not having this conversation. Jeff has this team playing with precision and passion and they've been extraordinarily successful by any measure, but moreso if you take the injuries into account. Lighten up, we were in it until the end with the best team in the league missing our best player.
DADA Absolutley agree with you- knowing how tenuous our fortunes are without Yao and Tmac- it makes sense that we increase the minutes of the bench. Frankly not playing Bonzi for even 15-20 minutes was a big mistake, especially when Luther was not his usual self yesterday. Looked like our guys ( except Battier and Deke) were awed by Tmac performance and were standing alone. I will take the loss but Something has to go to give. We need depth in the roster. And I hope we dont get vetrans on one foot.
It is short sighted to not be playing the bench. No doubt the team is hurting with injuries....well really only Yao is out..but still. All the more reason to have a deep bench to turn to...and not have guys that are like a deer in the headlights because they have not played a lick. JVG is a good coach, but he is wearing the guys out.....and Tmac's back is already balky...... DD
Yeah, we need to give Bonzi some PT. Could help offset resting T-Mac a bit more. That being said, I think JVG has done one helluva job this season and that people will inevitably overreact when we lose a game. I mean, we hung with a loaded Mavs squad on the road for 3 quarters without Yao. Not bad
