some folks want him gone, i kinds liked that chicago article, but do you guys think jeff is at all considering tweaking the offense,blaming himself,or blaming his players?
No, our defense sucks. Yao's rotation is slow. JJ should shot more. TMac should put him as the last option when he has the ball.
he is blaming the players already. we have read all of the quotes. and we sure as hell remember the one about "changing the guys who play or changing the guys who are here" quote. well recently we have seem him change the guys who play. if we continue to lose, then a trade will come.
He is totally blaming the players. He tries to make a comment or two about the "coaching" but his system is killing us.
here is an intersting trade braught up by a friend of mine who lives in boston: mo + lue for raef + McCarty why the heck would boston do it? it seems they are trying to free up cap space for 2006 or 2007. and rumors around the city say that they are trying to clear as many contracts as possible including pierce (of course they want something good in return for him). lue is off the books by this summer, and mo has only 2 years left on his contract. for us: raef is aveaging 10 and 7 in 24 minutes. that helps our rebounding alot. also, he adds shot blocking and can hit the 3 consistantly. a seemingly perfect fit at the 4 for us. walter is a big SF, a good 3pt shooter, and also a decent rebounder.
Is his coaching system causing the lack of rebounding? Is his coaching system causing Yao to miss dunks, get the ball stripped when he is in the low post, and get in early foul trouble? Is his system causing our guys to miss open shots? Our coach IS NOT the problem. I don't love JVG, but he is not causing our problems. Players will win and lose more games then coach will and that's the bottom line. Some players on our team are not playing well right now, period.
jvg always thinks that the players are to blame, not himself or his "system". i've read too many reports saying that jvg regards his system as the best way to win in this league, and he has no doubt about that. Oh man... he S-U-C-K-S.
Not bad. But, if the Rockets are going to take on another long contract, I would rather it be Kurt Thomas. Raef is not a bad option, but his injury problems scare me coupled with the contract.
No, his system is not causing those things. But those things are not the only problems. You can't say the coach is not the problem. It's not the only problem, but it is one of the problems.
Wrong, he has placed blame on the players and himself. He does know the way to win in this league - rebound, defense, and limit turnovers. That is what he believes wins in this league and he is 100% right. Check the boxscores of games in the paper, you will find that more often than not the team that gets the most rebounds wins. The team with the fewest turnovers wins. If you were curious about the importance of defense in winning, ask the Pistons about that. Is JVG the greatest coach in the world probably not, but he is not our problem right now.
Those are by far are primary problems. We rebound like S**T, we turn the ball over too much, and we miss OPEN shots. Those are the major problems we are having, and they are not related to the coach. Again, I do not think JVG is the end all be all, but our current slump is on the players. If Lue, Ward, MoT, Howard, and other were knocking down the open shots that the double teams on Yao and T-mac were creating we would probably have 12 wins by now. That doesn't even take into consideration the rebounding defficiency and turnover problems. When you are consistently getting outrebounded by 10 or more boards a game, you are giving the opposition more chances to score while decreasing your chance. The same goes for turnovers. THis is not coaching. We don't have a good mix of players right now, and I believe this will be rectified soon.
Ditto, Kurt is probably the perfect 4 for our team (outside of Brand). Raef could be very effective with his range and shot blocking, but his injury history is a tad scary.
Less possessions = less shots = less rebounds. Having everyone sprint back on defense after a shot goes up = less offensive rebounds.
I actually think that the help defense does affect the rebounding. Yao has to step out to help and is pulled further and further away from the basket. This type of defense actually helps the other team do what they want with Yao on the defensive end. The further he is from the basket, the better it is for them. It also allows for bad matchups (Yao on the opposing PG), IMO
More turnovers=less possessions=less shots. He does have the guards get back on D, but I am not sure that Yao and the 4s get back so quickly. The bottom line Yao is averaging less then 10 boards per game, and none of our 4s are not good rebounders either. You know you lakc rebounders when people are clamoring for Padgett to get in the game to improve our rebounding. This combined with the large number turnovers is one of the issuses that leads to us having fewer possessions.
You may have a point here, but if you watch Yao during the games, I see guys out quicking him for rebounding position. I also see him get his hands on the ball only to have knocked away. Additionally, Yao is only part of the equation. All of 4s are poor rebounders. I personally am OK with Yao getting 8-10 boards a game, IF we can somehow find a 4 to put next to him that can pull down 10 or more a game. With all the attention tha Yao draws inside, a decent rebounding 4 should be able to accomplish this easily.
I often hear questions like, "What's the best zone defense?" If there was a correct answer to that question, most teams would be running the "right" defense and a few oddballs would be running something different. When you look at teams across the country, or even across your own league, you find a myriad of defensive solutions that all work with some measure of success. You can't really say one defensive pattern is better than another until you take an analytical look at your team. Key criteria are physical makeup (fast, slow, tall or short), experience, emotional level and in the short term, game situation. At the risk of stereotyping, if your team physically advantaged and operates at a high-charged emotional level, man to man coverage can be very effective. Even a team that isn't particularly blessed with speed or strength can sometimes smother an opponent using sheer determination. Or, if you're facing a hesitant, inexperienced team, chances are they won't cope with well with an aggressive man to man defense. Zones defenses can be very effective when your team is compromised in some way. Perhaps certain players are in foul trouble and need some protection. Perhaps some of your players are inexperienced and get easily beaten in 1:1 confrontations. Staying close to home, forcing the offense to shoot long and then concentrating on blocking out for rebound can pay big dividends at a fairly low risk. http://www.akcoach.com/index.htm
i feel the same way. my friend told me that he thought raef was gonna have another injuy plagued year this season, but instead raef has actually been improving his conditioning and mobility each game, according to my firends observations. i think the secret is limited PT. when he averages 30-40 minutes per game for a season he wears down. as good as he is teams must deal with the fact that he can only play 24. this is fine for us because howard, or spoon, or padgett can fill in the rest of the time. basically, same minutes as mo, better production, better fit. the problem with getting kurt is that we have nothing the knicks want. they either want to move kurt for a center straight up, or package him with tim thomas and bag an allstar 3.
I hate to read guys always missing wide-open 3s. This team will never be consistent if they live and die with open 3s. We have no good shooters and try to be a good jumpshooting team. How many 3s we shoot in a game this season? What a joke. Yao's problems are in himself, however, the coach should understand his limitations and get him comfortable shots. Why planting him down low all the time, or setting stupid picks on 3pt line and getting offensive fouls? If Yao is dumb, then Van Gundy is dumber.
