Yes, Van Gundy caused him to be so good in the post. But, he still needs to develop the high post game more for when teams pack it down on him. He needs to be able to come out high, can the jumper, and hit cutters back door. It's basketball man. When they take something away, go do something else well. He's a 90% FT shooter. We should have some high post offensive plays. It would make us even more potent.
That's a bunch of crock. Quit trolling. Yao was force fed in the post by JVG. Even when he was getting abused down low and didn't know how to establish position, JVG stuck with him. Why? Because Yao has shown talent, a willingness to learn, and respect for his coach. He didn't go to some foreign newspaper and whine about how he's TMac and this is not how he should be used. Think about how much Yao's game was changed from the way he used to play. Did he cry a river when he had to bulk up and bang like big man down low? Nah. He stood up and adapted for the team. Yeah, the real fans don't have to turn to bs answers like the one you gave above just because they hate the coach. lol.
Dr. of Dunk, Would you agree that we could still use Yao in the high post? Especially when teams are zoning down on him?
Do I think you're probably right? Sure. Yao out top may be a good answer. But I think a center like Yao is best suited down low because he will be option 1a or option 1b in this offense on any given play. And when he gets the ball, the chances are about 98% that the person guarding him cannot defend him. Plain and simple - I want those odds down low. I don't care who's a great cutter, slasher, etc. I want the odds that Yao will dominate down low. I thought JVG was nuts for trying to convert this scrawny kid into something he had never been, until I saw the light after watching season after season. The potential for Yao to be a beast is only being reached now. That being said, yeah, I'd like to see Yao maybe pop some jumpers out top to keep the defense honest and let the Battiers and TMacs of the world have wide open lanes to drive/cut. But give me Yao down in the post 95-98% of the time and I'm content because you either get a bucket or a foul many of those times. I'm not saying JVG is the sole reason Yao is as good as he is, but JVG was the catalyst and the force. Yao provided the fuel and energy to do as he was asked. He is to be commended for that. He is being rewarded.
i agree with you.people should recognise the fact that as soon as jeff van gundy came to houston,he saw the potential,he saw the damage that yao could do in the post.also i agree with the fact that yao has respect for his coach,and if he is told that he is doing something wrong he would work harder to be better .yao is always regarded as one of the players who works the hardest during practice by his coach and teammate maybe that is why the coach stick with him because he showed the willingness to improve and to be great instead of b****ing
Sometimes I read stuff here and it literally angers me. Some of the stupidity and lack of common sense in these replies just angers me. Jeff Van Gundy is a good coach with a lot of common sense. He's doing what most of you would be doing in his position. He establishes himself as the coach, and he's running the organization with the integrity that we, as Rockets fans and the city of Houston, deserve. Maybe in the Van Gundy era we'll never make it to the Western Conference finals. You know what? The Jailblazers of five years back did. I'd still rather be us. At some point it's not just about winning, it's about winning with class or not winning at all. Use Phil Jackson as an anti-JVG example all some of you want, but Phil Jackson demanded as much respect as a coach as JVG, Larry Brown, and any other hardlined coach ever did. When a coach demands respect, he gets the respect out of his superstar players. THAT'S WHAT'S IMPORTANT. If JVG gave in to whiners like Spanulious and Snyder and Bonzi, something much worse happens: He loses the respect and discipline of Yao and Tracy. And like they say, " if gold should rust what becomes of bronze? "
Yao is probably the hardest worker in the history of the game. His dedication to make himself better is the main reason he became better and he would have done that himself no matter who his coach was.
Sorry, but you don't know that he would have been this great no matter who the coach was. Many coaches probably would've planted his butt out at 18 feet popping jumpers and being a lighthouse. Without JVG and his coaching staff, and trainers telling Yao how to get better, Yao would've still been a finesse player trying to hang onto the ball. It was a 2-part process - Yao got the training he needed to be a force, Yao took the training and became a force. You can't dismiss JVG force-feeding him in the post, just as you can't dismiss Yao devouring everything thrown at him by the coaching staff/Rockets organization.
Don't be so sure. No matter how talented the student is, in the end, it's about having a good teacher. Do you think Yao would have been this good if, say, he was drafted back then by Golden State and taught by Mike Montgomery? Yao's a big part of his own success, true, but Van Gundy's staff is the reason he is who he is. At the very least, they gave him some spine.
Exactly, Dr. of Dunk! You're exactly right on. Yao would have been Rik Smits under most mediocre coaches.
I agree with everything you said there Dr. of Dunk. But you have to see that Van Gundy is a little narrow minded as far as his vision of players and their roles. He has been unwilling up to this point to exploit Yao's skills up high. It's the same story with other players as well. I'm talking about this from the standpoint of the coach now, not the player. You've got the dynamic of the player being lazy, or fat, or unwilling to work hard, or having a big mouth spouting off, etc. But the other dynamic is the coach being unwilling to put players in the position where they are skilled and have success. Yao was kind of an exception as he is 7'6" tall. He could not become great without becoming a force in the interior. So, that had to happen. Not to mention, he was the #1 pick in the draft, so he had better be good at just about everything. It's a little bit different when you are talking about the regular player. Kinda like Shane Battier. He's not a back to the basket post up force. Oh, he can post up a smaller guy once in a while. But he's not a back to the basket player. Van Gundy hasn't tried to make him one. But Van Gundy does this sort of thing with the youngsters. He'll take a rookie Shane Battier and want him to post up and defend against Jermaine O'Neill and then criticize him because he is deficient as a power post player. This is what Van Gundy did with SF3. He tried to make a pass first point guard out of Franchise. That's not Franchise. But Van Gundy had this little mold he wanted to put Francis in. It didn't work because it didn't play to Francis' strength, which is to say, getting to the rim, drawing fouls, finishing, and then dishing secondarily off the offense that he created. So, now we basically have a point guard (TMac) whose game it is to get to the rim, finish, and dish, in that order. Yeah, he's a lot better than Francis. THat's not the point. The point is putting players in positions to succeed and play their best, to their strengths. And don't forget that we don't even get where we are today without Van Gundy and McGrady having a meeting of the minds and Van Gundy yielding to loosening up the offense and letting McGrady fire up some of those heat checks. McGrady was able to change the coach and move him off his closed mindedness simply because Van Gundy thought enough of him as a player. Same thing with VSpan. Now, VSpan is young, and he could possibly improve his 3 point shooting. But, he is not a spot up shooter. And he ain't going to improve his shooting during the season. That's offseason skills stuff. Why try to make him a spot up shooter now in the middle of his rookie season? Same thing with Luther. He can improve his ball handling a little bit, but he ain't ever gonna be a point guard. It just ain't happening. So, why go there? Leave him as a spot up shooter, and have VSpan run the offense from the top. Otherwise, sit both of them down. Don't ask Luther to run the point and VSpan to spot up in the corner. It is counterproductive. Really, the same thing is true for Novak too. It's pretty obvious to me that Van Gundy is wasting time with this kid trying to make him a power forward in this league. He will never be strong enough to be a power forward. He's a gunslinger. If you are going to play Novak, play him against a slower small forward and let him line up BBs out there and defend a slower small forward. Is it really realistic to think that Novak will be able to bulk up enough to bang with power forwards and defend in the paint? Van Gundy should be able to see that this is not going to happen. Novak needs to be developing on the perimeter, where his game is. He needs to be spending time defending on the perimeter and finding ways to overcome his speed deficiency out there so that he can become an adequate defender from the perimeter when he is in the game. He is never going to be able to bang in the post. He should be playing against weak post up power forwards who like to hang out on the perimeter, like him. Or else he should be playing against slower small forwards. And this is what happened with Boki. And Boki finally grew frustrated with it. And popped off about it. Hey, he's not the first. It's happened many times before with other players, other coaches. And right now, Boki is providing evidence with his play that JVG really does have deficiencies in developing players. In my opinion, the way to develop young players is to put them in positions IN GAMES that emphasize what they do well and deemphasize what they do not do well. You give them confidence by letting Novak shoot the 3 ball, let VSpan play from the top, let JLIII put up some shots and not have to worry about distribution. And then you work on their weaknesses in practice and put them in the tough spots in practice, where their weaknesses are exposed to them up close and personal. In my opinion, what you do not do is put them in positions IN GAMES that emphasize their weaknesses. And far too often, it seems that this is what Van Gundy does. That's why you see VSpan standing around in the corner, and you see Novak bouncing around like a pinball in the paint and Lucas getting torched defensively and bringing the offense to a standstill with the dribbling out the clock and then shooting it. JVG too easily overlooks what young players are good at and he gets tunnel vision on their weaknesses. As long as a player is hustling in practice, then they should be given a few minutes in the right situations. Take last night for example. A blowout. We're up 30 early in the 4th quarter. Finally at the 5 minute mark JLIII checks in, then a few seconds later, we finally see Novak. Then a minute later we see VSpan. This game was practically secured at the beginning of the 4th quarter. It for sure was secured at the 10 minute mark. Yet, we don't see any of the youngsters until the 5 minutes mark. Then we've got VSPan and JLII in role reversal with VSpan standing in the corner. I don't think he even touched the ball for over 2 minutes as JLIII brought the ball up and shot it. Then you've got Novak knocking around in the paint like a pinball. While Rafer played more minutes than anybody, 40. I think we would have been best served to bring in JLIII at the beginning of the 4th or even the last 2-3 minutes of the 3rd quarter and let him get a few minutes with some of the rotation guys, see how he does running the offense out there with 111. We wouldn't have to worry about collapsing as a team. We are up 30. And if he stinks it up for a couple minutes, run Rafer back out there. But give him a chance to play with the rotation guys. Then bring in one of the other two, Novak, or Spanoulis. Let's say you bring in Novak. Let him play the 3 on the perimeter and keep two bigs in there, preferrably Yao and Hayes, since Yao needs the minutes and Hayes never wears out. Then bring in VSpan with about 6 minutes left and let him run the point and move JLIII over to the 2. Or take out JLIII and let VSpan run the point with Luther at the 2. Put players in positions to have success and minimize their deficiencies. Don't bring in Boki and tell him to guard Karl Malone. I don't care if he got a highlight reel off it, Boki can't guard Karl Malone, not in this lifetime. Why would you do that to a player?
Well JVG has had two of the better players in the NBA at least two of his years here, and has had plenty of time to tweak the roster and get role players to his liking. If the Rockets are remotely healthy based on talent they should do no worse than a tough semis WC loss. If they lose in the 1st round or if they get squashed in round 2--he should be gone, his record would be much less impressive than the collection of talent, and it is the coaches job to mold the collection of talent into the best team possible. Just being results oriented folks. And my own opinion is he needs solid contribution from another big 2--be it Bonzi or Snyder, to have a chance to beat the Mavs/Suns and go all the way. I haven't liked at all his approach with them. But I hope he proves me wrong, and does indeed have at least one of them well integrated for the playoffs and we make a serious championship run. Tracy isn't getting any younger, healthier or better, folks.
That's amazing that you get to go to practices and see the team. How do you do it? Oh wait...you don't and you just talk out of your *ss. "Bonzi will take this team to the top. He's always been out of shape" "VSpan is great, but JVG just hates him" Now you are talking about NOVAK?!?!?! Your posts are comical
Speaking "generally"; It is very convenient to criticize and discipline the players at the lower rung of an organization herein a sports team. Coaches can be very selective at times and they act like no one is noticing. TMAC has shown disciplinable actions (be it in some poor body language exhibited at times or shot selection) but the next time JVG purnishes him will be the first. Talking discipline is cheap. Should prior history matter when it comes to applying discipline? That is a dilemma you have to address on your own. I do not get fooled by talk of discipline. The first truly [in purity] disciplinarian coach you find out there will be the first. Like Desert S, said it is all about ballance. At least I speak from experience as a high school occer coach.
Explain Rafer oh braniac ! I do agree that JVG has to get some credit for Yao, but Yao is his type of player...the problem with JVG is that he doesn't know how to coach multiple types of personalities...ala Phil Jackson.... Which IMHO, causes us to get rid of players that might actually make the team better if managed correctly. DD
I think you are way off base. It's called bias, poor leadership, and playing favorites. And obviously you have been sheltered in your jobs if you think all employees are treated equally and all cannot mouth off to the boss. You have been watching too much "reality" television.
Yeah, look at his NYK roster before you talk about him and personalities. All those guys love him, BTW And Rafer plays because he is our only real option at PG. You know, someone here said it best one time...we could win the championship and most of you would b*tch about the parade route
Tell me who are "we" and who are "you", it looks like your feel you are a superior fans than others (e.g. DaDakota). LOL. Go back dream ok.
