Kenny made a great point on "Inside the NBA" tonight

We lost to the mofo'ing BOBCATS! Twice in a week!!!

Case Closed! Fire Gundy!

 

In your attempt to exxonerate Jeff Van Dummy you have only succeeded in giving another reason to fire him. He can't even decide on a starting lineup. The lineup has changed so frequently players don't know if they'll be bench, placed on the injured list or traded to another team, He is the one who determines who will start and who will not. As far as competence goes it's not basketball IQ that is under question (although he has less than you think but he is not an idiot) it's about getting the most out of the players you have it's about motivating them to believe and want to play for their coach.

JVG has no people skills and has failed to get the most out of his players which makes him incompetent for this team. Everyone blamed Rudy for only being able to coach a veteran team. But it is JVG who cannot coach a young team it's JVG who has the inability to teach young players. It is why he trades youth for old vets. He is looking for players who he hopes aready get his system and he doesn't have to teach them because he doesn't have the competence and desire to do it himself..

He was fortunate in New York because Riley did all the grunt work for him and all he had to do is continue the process. Now he has to really build the team and he has shown he sucks and is despised by his own players as well. JVG is the wrong coach for this team and unless you reincarnate his old Knicks team, he will never be the right coach for this team. Thus JVG is an incompetent coach for this team.

 

Good post Old Man.

Seriously, does anyone really think Van r****d can motivate any players? Ummm...no. Probably depresses them right before the start of every game.

 

you can't make the argument that a team needs to play together for a long time to play well because teams like the heat and the magic are doing very well without having much experience together.
the frustration of fans who want van gundy fired has to do with the total lack of flexibilty to his players individual talents. if the players do not fit his style of basketball he dismisses them as incompetant...hence the departure of francis mobley and nachbar. all of these guys could have thrived in houston if we had a coach who gets the best at of his players.
if the team was winning there would be more acceptance to this boring style of basketball but the fact is we are underachieving for a team with so much talent. it can be argued that our role players are not very talented but i think their poor play has more to do with van gundys coaching ability than the players ability.
its not just the first 30 games that has us fans wanting van gundy gone but the slow development of yao and lack of entertaining basketball. the reason we all became fans of basketball is for entertainment (although some people say they dont care if we play slow as long as we win). the truth is if we just care about wins there would be no point in watching. van gundy basketball is not entertaining and unsuccessful, so whats the point in keeping him around.

 

I'm glad it was him, instead of Mr. Pie Hole Barkley.

 

Before the trade to get Barry, I thought we were about one player- a rebounding power forward away from being a team that could finish 4 games over 500 and miss the playoffs...

After these trades that lost us Jim Jackson I think we are regressing- there is no clear direction now.....

Can we be a .500 team consistently now?? We are entering a tough part of the schedule and I would argue that we will struggle and be unable to maintain a .500 pace....

I was on the fence before VAn Gundy elected to dump Jackson, now I am sliding off in the "give up on Van Gundy side"

Charles BArkley said about 3 weeks ago on one of the halftiem features that a coaches job is to structure the team to his players strengths, and not force the players into a mold - pre-conceived by the coach..... I agree we are not playing to Yao or Tracy's strengths..

Give Yao a banger to help him under the boards please!!!!

 

I believe 8-5 in December is the indicator. We'll be fine. You cannot simply show up and win games in the nba. So 8-5 is legitimate. We should still finish around 7-10 games over the virtual line of mediocrity.

 

How about the fact that 9 of those 13 games were against sub-0.500 teams? Or that we had a stretch of 25 days with 15 days off?

Truth is, we were 8-5 over the course of the easiest month schedule I've ever seen. We played 5 games against the absolute cellar of the league, and only managed to go 3-2 in those games.

This team, as it stands, is going to struggle to stay at 0.500 over the course of the season. It's uphill from now until April.

Evan

 

agree totally with old man rock. Young players do well this year and get benched and put on the IL when they are healthy (JVG's own words about AB!!!).

tired, frustrated, bored, angry, tired, frustrated......

In other news Carroll Dawson announces that in light of the Rockets drive to make the team older and increase the experience base that provisional offers have been made to the following ex-NBA stars:

John Stockton
Karla Malone
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordon
Larry Bird (split time between playing and being team President)
Kevin McHale (split time playing and co-GM)
Oscar Robertson
Hakeem Olajuwon
Bob Cousey
Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith (who will still be permitted to do commentary at halftimes)


Also, a legal team has been enlisted to see what can be done to get Vernon Maxwell paroled. And several voodoo doctors have been contacted seeking help in raising Wilt Chamberlin from the dead.

"Our theory is if we throw enough mud against the wall, eventually some of it is bound to stick" said Dawson.

 

I don't think people understand the real reasons we want JVG gone. It doesn't have anything to do with the players gelling, or the tough schedule, those are things that any coach would have a problem doing because it's not up to them and he can't coach time.

The things he can coach is what he is doing a bad job on. He's never gave our young players a true chance (Barret only when lue was injured, Nachbar only in 2 or 3 minute spurts once a week then placed on the IL). Both of these players have done things that helped win ball games.

Barret ran the uptempo offense almost perfectly and dished it with good accuracy, he has hit the open 3 and jumpers and even drove to the lane a few times. His weakness was his defensive fouls, not his defense! Yea fouling is bad defense but staying in front of your man, disrupting easy passes and paths to the basket are not. Besides, how many of our starters have the same problem as AB?

Nachbar is in the same boat as AB on the defensive side, but I think his and ABs problems could be improved with more game experience. When I played for leagues it took me a few games to get used to not fouling, I was so used to street ball defense or just a lack of referees. After a few games I learned what they are calling foul on and what they aren't and my fouling problem have never happend again. JVG never gave Boki consistant minutes to let him work the officials logic to foul calling. On offense he has a high percentage (based on this year) 3pt shot, can slash to the hoop and seems to have a lot of energy. He's also what 6'9"?

JVG just never tries to experiment with potential. He does the same thing to our team as a whole. A team with T-mac and Yao and a career 17ppg forward should NOT be the worst offensive team in the league. Everyone says "JVG didn't make them miss open shots or not get rebounds". Well JVG obviously isn't helping them either! Add more shooting drills in the practice, change a offensive set that adds more rebounding potential since we are shooting poorly, don't just stick to the same old plays that have been bricking and turning the ball over on so many occasions.

We don't want JVG gone for the players mistakes, we want JVG gone for his lack of correction and motivation. I thought he was getting better once he let T-mac be T-mac and now we have been scoring a lot more points and more entertaining, but then he goes in the papers saying he's "changed enough" and that he's not going to change anymore, . So please stop saying that JVG shouldn't be fired because of our tough schedule, lack of gelling, missing open shots, turnovers, etc. We want someone with more flexibility and will experiment with potential, not throw it in the garbage (IL or the Hornets )

 

8-5 in what is one of the easiest months for any team in the NBA. They should've won at least 10-11 games. Feigen, whose month-by-month predictions are uncannily accurate, predicted 11 wins in December. They are 4 of his predicted pace (49 wins).