I think Jeff Van Grumpy woke up and looked in the mirror years ago. As a head coach he has a .580 winning rate. As a head coach he has been to the postseason 8 of his 9 years As a head coach he has made the second round of the playoffs or further in 5 of those 8 playoff appearances. There is a reason why he has had such success - it's because his teams always play great defense. This years Rockets team would have to rank as one of the most talented lineups that Van Gundy has ever coached - call me mad, but I predict at least second round of the playoffs this year.
I'm glad we have Swift under contract for a long time at a reasonable rate. Plenty of time to work on the flaws, and many highlights to watch. But just imagine a team that would have thrown 10M a year at him, they would be dead meat.
As a long term fan I support the Swift signing. He is quick, has long reach, can jump, and can run the floor. His signing did not break the bank. After watching bone - headed plays by Kelvin Cato and Kevin Willis in previous campaigns, I have a great deal of patience with Swift and low expectations. Regardless of basketball IQ, Swift will contribute more than Vin Baker, Moochie, or Charlie Ward did. Certainly more than Taylor could warming the bench. Swift cost less than Mo Taylor and will certainly be a better rebounder and shot blocker.
Ohh I forgot to give props to Ryan Bowen for the cheap contract and hustle plays. I also wish other players would work as hard as Bowen to utilize their greater talent. Bowen is no scoring threat to opponents defense. They need not fear him. If I hear JVG sing Bowen's praises again on "hustle" I'm sure you'll hear me screaming my head off in my happy place.
A .580 winning percentage is nice but it's not great. As far as the playoff go, well this is the NBA where just about everybody makes the playoffs. My point is that I don't think Jeff is the right couch for this team. In order for a team to ultimately be successful they have to have a good offensive flow and be good on offense. Detroit, San Antonio, Indiana etc. These are all good offensive teams. Jeff's teams are usually bad offensively. Plus he needs to stop dogging his players out in public.
There's something about JVG using the press to talk to his team that is really lame. Just coach the team dude. If a guy isn't cuttin it, stand on a chair and say it to his face.
Going to the media means you've failed at your job and have to resort to embarrassing someone in an effort to get results. When a player goes to the media, he's roasted for it; when a coach does it, he's "telling it like it is", and it's cool.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT My point is you are an ignorant buffooooooon!!! In terms of your offensive claims - may I present a small rebuttal?? Houston Rockets, 04-05 scored 95.1 ppg San Antonio Spurs, 04-05 scored 96.2 Detroit Pistons, 04-05 scored 93.3 Indiana Pacers, 04-05 scored 93.0 In order for a team to ultimately be successul they have to have a good defense As is proven by the top defensive teams of last year, in order for you: 1) San Antonio 2) Detroit 3) Houston 4) Memphis Any coincedence that the top defensive teams tend to contest the NBA title? Ask any succesful coach and they will tell you, 'no'
I know stats dont give u the full picture, but if u want to put Swift into the doghouse, please first consider Howard's +/- on and off the court. As always, we are getting killed in the PF position.
JVG praises the qualities that Bowen exibits, in HOPE that the others will want some of that praise, and put forth some effort to be better. JVG would really like to be able to leave Ryan on the bench, but he's forced to use him, since the other players aren't giving the effort. As for Swift, he gives up way too much defensively. He fouls, he allows penetration, he's not in the right spots for help defense, and even on offense. Ryan might not give you much of a scoring threat, but he'll play better defense, and get some steals. If Swift had a better offensive game, then that might offset his defense somewhat, but for now, he doesn't, so welcome to the bench.
Swift played only 12 mins last night. Coincidence? He made the most of his time, though: 4 fouls, 5 points, 1 rebound. Evan
Stro is the man most hurt by Tracy missing so much time. Stro needs the game time and the practice time interacting with Tracy and Yoa, to refine his role. I don't expect ever to be happy with him as a go to center or focal point of the offense. I do think he will do fine as a complimentary part, cutting to the basket, putting back rebounds. On defense, Stro will need time and reps. I expected it to take a few months for Stro to become a proud, important part of the helping, JVG, team defense. I still think he will make it. I enjoy the slow motion replay function on my Tivo to analyse the defensive breakdowns. The problems are often easily identifyable, the solutions will come with reps.
if stro played with the intensity of bowen he'd be freaking amare stoudamire. i don't think that will ever happen but i do think he's alot better than he's shown.
I, for one, never quite understood why JVG wanted this guy so much durring the offseason. It seems to me that he's exactly the type of player JVG cannot tolerate. He makes incredibley stupid decisions. He lacks focus and intensity, and he has no court awareness. Keep in mind that Hubie and Mike Furtello are not bad coaches; Jerry West is not a bad GM. None of them wanted him, and he was a franchise draft pick. This is exactly how he was in Memphis, and exactly why they gave up on him. The guy is young, so I'm not saying he can't get better, but the fact that he doesn't seem to get it, after all the good coaching is definately a concern. Intesity and focus are really hard to teach. You can't teach his talent either, but my experience watching the NBA for all these years has taught me that the guys who are focused and passionate about getting better, are usually the guys that do. The guys that don't, don't. See Kwame Brown, Eddie Curry, Tim Thomas, etc. for details.
Who is the one who called out Jeff Van Grumpy in his first post? I called you an ignorant buffoon because you made claims about the neccessity for offense, and went further to boldly state that certain teams were 'slick' offensively in comparison to the Rockets. You presented no facts, just an emotive outburst were you ridiculed our coach about something that is not even true. I was not name calling - if I was I may have labelled you a turd-burgurlar or something - I didn't, I simply called you ignorant, because that is what you were being. It takes all of 5 seconds to Google the winning %, defensive standings etc - why not do so before making ridiculous claims that make you look silly??? I certainly didn't mean to hurt your feelings - which is why I wasn't so crass as to call you a jerk who'll never have class --> and may I say that in all this you've shown yourself to be highly classy.
Weak dude, real weak... The guy made a comment about the coach which is acceptable in these parts. You made it personal with your comments.
