Mission Critical: Losing Every Game Left

You can take Minnesota off that list. They pulled as blatant a tank job as there's been since the pre-Duncan Spurs. They certainly weren't trying to win last night, and their coach admitted it.

 

100% accurate.

Even my Lose em all thread was more about playing young players and letting them develop.

I don't understand why we did not play Hayes, Lampje, Stro, etc..etc..etc... to find out if they are pieces to the puzzle, or pieces of crap.



DD

 

I agree with you 100%. I just hope if JVG stays another season that the rocket orginization doesn't give him as much say so on roster descisions.
Also would love to out draw the Warriors for the 8th pick and try and make some sort of deal using it, maybe swapping with the Hornets for their 12th and 15th picks or their 12th pick + J.R Smith. I would love to see Noah and McRoberts declare to really make this draft exciting. The rockets need as many young talented bodies as they can get.

 

The only thing I will say about the situation with Swift, Lampe, etc., is Van Gundy must already feel like he knows what he's got there. Kinda like John Amechi a couple years back. Van Gundy pretty much told him, "I know who you are and what you can do, no go sit over there in the corner and be quiet until I can get rid of you." Those aren't his exact words of course but as soon as the opportunity came around he flushed Amechi. I think Van Gundy has already made up his mind on players like Lampe and Stro. I think Lampe is turned loose and not re-signed and Stro is traded as soon as they can find what they consider "good value" for him.

 

If you were planning on moving Swift, wouldn't you showcase him with heavy minutes against scrubs? Where's the sense in not doing that? And it was like Van Gundy was showcasing Howard and Wesley for a trade. A stupid thing to do when it costs you a better draft position, which is a great trade commodity itself, and with that possibility for the improbable "luck of the draw," dramatically increased. (I'm not being melodramatic... it would have at least doubled, correct?) Just dumb.

One could certainly argue, based on the last part of last season, that he deserves another shot with a healthy team, but I wouldn't have sleepless nights if Jeff decided to "go in a different direction," and move on.

 

this makes me so mad..you bring in players and then... even tho we do not have a chance for the playoffs, you don't play 'em! I was waiting to see hayes, stro, lampe and frahm play more minutes..instead he brings in some guy named Charles Bronson...let's some old guys play for about 35 to 40min...you win two "meaningless" games, which obviously could help us a lot for the next season, that's just ridiculous

I was with you clutch, did not agree with everything he worked with during the season, some moves made me think, I still was supportive in some way, but this is just getting out of hand...I wish I could ask him few questions and expect to get some straight answers...

 

Maybe you should 'read carefully' my post, which says nothing remotely close, and even distances my opinion, from the subhead of the article you point out.

Then there's the last part of my post, which clearly states:

It would be nice if there were no rewards in the NBA for last place (does this not seem to be the core of the problem?), and instead perhaps a system to prevent teams from short-changing those that support the NBA, because it's good entertainment, just to gain some advantage later as set forth by the system itself. But, for parity's sake, this is the hand we're dealt. I understand it, I just wish there were a way to keep the parity and prevent the ... (starting to hate this generality) tanking.

My implication is, if you missed it, that the current system is not perfect, and it would be nice if there were one that was better at discouraging the tankjob. Do I have a solution? No, just voicing my opinion that the system is imperfect. Lotto is a good try over what used to occur, but not perfect. Is there a better solution? I don't know, could be, but if we can't talk about such things what does it matter?

And Hey Old Man Rock, how do you know I'm not locked up already?! Sometimes, when voicing opinions here to people that hear only the parts they want to hear in support of argument and criticism, it does feel rather confining.

 

Just playing devil's advocate. I would think that Van Gundy would answer you that he showcased Stro as much as possible and he didn't want to play Stro too many minutes and have everybody around the league realize how bad Stro was and then not be able to get anything for him. And he did showcase him...........last night, last game of the season, lasting impression positive.

Not saying I agree with any of that. Just saying what I think JVG is thinking. In my opinion, JVG wrote off Swift 2 or 3 months ago when we were losing so badly and he wouldn't try him for more than 2 or 3 minutes at a time and he kept letting Juwan get beat over and over.

In my opinion, Jeff has already gotten rid of Stro and Lampe for sure. And I would bet he would like to move Juwan's contract as well. Van Gundy is too smart and knows too much basketball to not be able to see the net negative effect that Juwan has on our lineup with Yao on the floor. I would guess Van Gundy is probably neutral on Bogans and Wesley. If we can bring them back for small contracts, he would probably take them, especially DWes in a backup role. He would probably like to see Bogans take a minimum type deal with some bonus incentives written in, say if he shoots 40% from 3 point land or something like that. But I don't think Van Gundy wants Bogans back for anything more than $1 million to $1.5 million. I would guess Van Gundy is cooling a little bit on Bowen because Bowen just did not help us this year, even with his energy.

Frahm??? We should re-sign him but I bet JVG lets him walk. Not quick enough defensively. Brunson-gone. Same problem as Frahm. Hayes-2 year contract. Head-primary backup SG/PG, sixth man. He isn't going anywhere unless it's a blockbuster.


I would bet we have a minimum of 4 and up to as high as 7 or 8 new faces on this club next year. I'm convinced that Lampe, Swift, Frahm, and Brunson are goners with Bowen close behind and Bogans, DWesley all possibilities to be gone as well.

 

Couldn't agree more Clutch ... with everything you said exept for the last part.

I would be upset to see Jeff go. I think he's one of the better coaches in the league. However; i am very frustrated by his decision to give heavy minutes to vets durring the last week of a lost season.

 

But I don't think you'd be upset if Houston played Howard 32 minutes and we lost. That's the point I'm trying to make.

 

I wouldn't be THAT upset if 'Houston played Howard 32 minutes and we lost'. Doing stupid thing is bad. Doing stupid thing which hurts is certainly worse.

 

If we lost that game, no one would even notice that Howard played 32 minutes. He could have played 40 an it wouldn't even be a topic of conversation. People are just looking for a reason to criticize the team. I just think it's silly to be angry at a team for winning a game.

 

JVG didn't fail as a game coach, he failed in surrounding T-mac and Yao with the proper role players. Derek Anderson was a questionable acquisition from the get go, and Swift never proved anything. He picked up vets long in the tooth in a league where athleticism rules.

Should he go or should he stay? I'm not sure, but it's certainly a topic that legitimately could be debated.

 

What's the point of these prolonged discussions? It should be obvious to see that JVG has been a fool in the end of the season. I'm not even talking about the consequences of dropping in the draft. I'm talking about the way it ended. The Rockets injury streak caused a disastrous season, the NBA has rules rewarding teams with a bad record called draft, we should squeeze every penny we can get from the draft to compensate for our injuries, we should be upset that JVG devalued the compensation we could get from T-Mac's back spasms, Yao battered foot and Alston's fractured bone. Instead for whatever stupid reason JVG refuses to take the injuries and next year into consideration.

It's the same mentality of "I don't care about player's physicality. They should be run into the ground to squeeze out a win even in meaningless games. I just wanna win now, the word tommorrow is not in my dictionary. If I have a chance I'd play the Rockets against the Austin Torros to get a win. Beating the Nuggets scrubs with our best lineup gives me meaning of life. Screw resting starters, screw developing rookies, screw giving young players chances, screw getting a higher draft pick, we need to develop winning culture and maintain my career winning percentage or whatever." It's the same short sighted mentality JVG has displayed throughout his career. I'm tired of his antics.

 

I don't want to call you out or get into a war with you - I'm just debating your statements, and have no desire to see that go into a personal direction.

I just am saying that the Rockets didn't do anything wrong with the way they handled the end of the season. That's been my position all along.

 

The what-ifs and speculation can go on and on in every direction.

Did Jho's 31 points cost us 30 Ping Pong Balls for a higher chance at the top 3? Were the Rox playing Juwan high minutes to showcase his trade value?

Personally, I would've much rather seen Hayes and Lampe and Head and Bogans and Swift out there non-stop. It wasn't about wins and losses to me necessarily, but as Clutch previously stated, seemingly, the end of this season should have been about gaining something positive for next year. If we lost, lotto status goes up. And if we won, the development of our young guns would be a positive at the least.

I don't know what the organization's plan is. Who among us really does? I can only hope JVG, Dawson, Les and Morey do in fact have a plan and that there was a method to the madness other than just trying to get worthless wins with veterans on the floor. For better worse, I've gotta believe this was all calculated. Hopefully, the offseason will explain away a lot of our questions, reservations, speculations, and confusion.

 

For as long as Jho has been in the league, nobody will be fooled.