I totally agree with DollarBill regarding JVG and his questionable willingness/ability to adapt... I had similar questions about Rudy, but even moreso with JVG... He was easily fourth on my list of those coaches available to the Rox when they let Rudy go... I strongly preferred Brown (no wonder he wanted Detroit...), or Dunleavy or Silas (respectively) instead... Defense may win you championships, but if you have no frickin clue about "O", then it won't matter if you have the best "D" in the league!!! I hope to God the don't extend JVG beyond his current contract!! "Kerry-Edwards - Give American's a reason to raise their heads in pride rather than shame!!! - Bush/Cheney - worse than Nixon or Coolidge!!!"
I've always wondered about JVG's offensive game plan. Was it because he didn't adjust to Francis, or was there too big a difference between offense around Yao and offense around Steve? It seems strange that JVG would have a hard time adjusting to Francis/Mobley considering he had a perimeter-oriented team with Houston/Spree back in NY. I think JVG made up his mind that everything was going to evolve around Yao. It obviously helped Yao tremendously, who made solid improvement from his first year. But it was terrible for Steve, who's used to dominating the ball and initiating the offense rather than being part of the group. I mean, the guy looks terrible whenever he catches a pass on the perimeter. He looks like he doesn't know what to do with it. If there's something that JVG can be blamed on, it's his ability to develop a hybrid offense that can use both Yao and Steve.
Couldn't agree more ! We just traded away 3/5 of our starting line-up and added 1 starter. Our bench was pretty thin last year and hasn't improved one bit. We are definitely light in the front court. Maybe the coaches are hoping Badman Badiane can help. If he can play, he is the perfect type of back-up C/F we need, an Atheletic, Fast, and Defense oriented Energy guy who is a lot of fun to watch. If you recall, management did this same thing to us last year. They waited and scraped the bottom of the barrel, finally. They signed an ACE in JJ, but Pike didn't give us much. It was frustrating then too! On a positive note I believe Boki may have a break-out year this season at SF. I think he is over being awe-struck and TMac ought to make him a better player. He may become our slasher, since that is his game. I hope he comes through because I like to watch him. Teams are going to have a fit double teaming Yao and TMac both. That's going to leave a lot of shooters open, but if they don't double those two will eat them alive. That is the same delimma everyone had playing the Lakers until Detroit beat them by not doubling. Most teams can't do that though. It ought to be a great season, and a fun team to watch. If we can find a PG to get the ball over the line without dropping it, we will give teams match-up nightmares. By-the-way has anyone else noticed that in the recent pictures of Yao he seems to have a fierce scowl on his face. Is it possible that as he is growing up and maturing, he is getting a little mean. Maybe he is tired of being pushed around by the Western Conference big men.
As a fan you always want to believe but we have to be realistic here. We have 2 soft PF's and 1 tough minded one but unfortunately too old, too fat and too slow. Also, we have no Backup Center, please don't say Juwanaman Howard is good enough to play Center in the west. The guy is a slightly better version of Mo-T. We have no PG, Lue is ok, but not going to lead us to a title, Wilkes hasn't had much PT so we don't know, and M. Jackson is too old, he would serve better as an assistant coach. I am telling you, we are going to be in BIG trouble if we can't get some decent players to fill these roles. T-Mac and Yao is a great foundation but you need competent role players, right now we just don't have that and are nowhere near the Pistons.
I like hearing Goukas on television. He has a good voice and personality for his job. But, his writing style leaves something to be desired. It seems like every sentence he writes is its own paragraph. It is as if each one has nothing to do with the previous sentence or the following one. This sort of choppiness makes for hard reading. But, he's a color guy, not a journalist. There's no reason I should expect him to be a good writer.
Well said...McGrady will have NO problem changing his game a bit. Plus, he'll be able to DO IT effectively (not just try).
I love how everyone acts like T-Mac has been the epitome of professionalism. Oh sure, we all know T-Mac has never had any problems with other teamates or coaches, besides running off from one team and getting a coach fired. Why should anyone be concerned?
Tmac made Houston his 1st (and really only) option when he asked for a trade, and that should tell Matt G. and the rest of the world exactly how well he will fit in with this team. I actually see him guarding the SF on D, with JJ taking the 2 or the 1, because he is closer in height to most SF's, meaning he won't have to spend as much energy getting into a crouch and chasing smaller guards around. In any case, I think most agree that this team is not being built in a 'win-now' fashion. The Rockets are going to take their time in building a team around Yao and Tmac that will have a solid 4-5 year window of competing for a championship. We should all be very happy that this is the strategy. The only thing that could have put a damper on the offseason for me is if we trapped ourselves into one of these huge salaries that are being handed out, thereby crippling ourselves tremendously down the road. Patience is the key, and Guokas obviously has overlooked that. When he says we aren't one of the elite teams for NEXT year, I say Hallelujah... See you in the Finals in 2007.
Exactly! People have said that they hate Francis' ego, and that Francis isn't a leader, what do they think McGrady is!? There were times where Francis would criticize his teammates of course, but T-Mac actually insults and humiliates his teammates. If you look at McGrady's interviews, he'll just go on and on about how he's the man, and he can "give it to you any way he wants", but people complain when Francis says "I think I played a good game". Then there's the skipped practices, the falling asleep during tape replays, all the injury problems.....people are ignoring all this for one reason: Becasue Tracy McGrady proved he can score better than Francis. And btw, my prediction is that if the Magic don't make the playoffs this year, people will say that proves Francis isn't a good leader, but they will ignore the fact that T-Mac led the Magic to the WORST RECORD in the NBA last year. So as long as Steve doesn't finish dead last, IMO he did a better job.
Oh, yeah? Even when you forget to add Cato (defense), Mobley (offense/defense) and Dwight (prospect) to the equation? Oh, and what about McGrady's injury? Did you forget that too? And just squeaking by isn't what I call "a better job." That's a team of mediocrity. I hope you wont be happy with that if our team was to do that. And it's not just about McGrady scoring more than Francis. It's having the ability to score 30ppg in the first place. And also keep his turnovers low, and have a pretty good assists rate for a shooting guard. Add a few bonus points for better than average defense, and 6'8" size. And you have a LOT of reasons to like him better than Francis. I think a better measurement of McGrady success will be how far he can carry THIS TEAM WITH YAO! Francis already tried (w/Yao) and we still managed to be a mediocre team. Our team's success depends on the tandem of McGrady and Yao. Not just one player.
Hmmmm, sounds like you want McGrady to fail in order to defend Francis! Greatttt! Listen, the issue isn't past "problems" or "professionalism." It's about whether or not a player CAN LEARN and ultimately lead THIS team to a championship. Francis changed his game, and he matured a little bit over the year. But that didn't matter. He still could not improve where it matters most: on the court. McGrady has to prove himself to this team just like any other player. He has to earn the leadership position.
Well when you put it like that, we should be very worried once Yao Ming suffers a career threatening injury that keeps him out of play for the next 3 years and the Rockets begin jettisoning their talent (including up amd coming young guys) and draft picks while not making any moves to improve the team leaving Tmac with a bunch of scrubs. And we should really be concerned once we fire CD and the new GM begins talking about how Tmac isn't a real winner because he can't lead his team of CBA MVPs to a winning record. Its not like Tmac just up and went nuts one day for no reason. There were no complaints about Tmac until this last season. No pouting. No coach clashes. No quitting. Until that franchise publicly imploded with a 1-19 record, Tmac was considered a hard working, unselfish perimeter player who made himself better than Kobe. He was applauded for being so much more coachable than Kobe. This all changed when the kid had a very immature and unprofessional response to being in one of the worse (and worsening) club situations in the league. He watched a once up and coming team turn itself into the Clippers via injury, bad trades and dumb free agent decisions. Tmac screwed up big time but we've no reason to think he will do so again here until the Rockets begin running themselves into the ground, too.
If there is one thing I'd like to see change about this board, this is it. Too much favorite player fanboyism. No one can criticize player X without someone else pulling a Johnny Cohchran by pointing the finger at player Y. I am just waiting to see how lon it takes for posters to start the TOF vs YOF poo flinging as they did with the YOF vs FOF crap. This is an ROF site for goodness sakes!!!
Not sure if you are directing that post at me. But ALL ROX PLAYERS ARE FAIR GAME IN BY BOOK. Even precious Boki's time is running out (one more year we have to see substantial improment, or the axe will fall). I'm just suprised that SF still has apologist for five years for the same type of play. I'll defend Rox players as long as they show me some substantial improvement in their game and to the team. All this banter will end once McGrady plays his first game w/Yao. At least we'll be able to see with our own eyes, why we are way better off than before. This wont happen, IMO, if we play as a team! Because as Detroit proved, team play, ultimately brings success! Talent alone is not enough.
This bother me too. It's like some people can't admit a player or coach just didn't cut it when they had the chance. So they make it their mission to snipe other fan favorites just to point out how unfair they think people have been to their guy.
I highly doubt that T-Mac's game will be at odd's with the system JVG has in place. Since arriving in Houston, T-Mac has been hitting the gym getting back into shape. It's apparent he knows it's a blessing for him to be paired with a center like Yao and a coach like JVG. He's already had a bad experience having to carry a team on his back and him passing to Yao before shooting will not be a problem. He definitely isn't Kobe Bryant.
Also remember that Tmac had his team in the playoffs his first 3 years with the Magic before bottoming out last year. That's more playoff appearances than Francis can claim, and he was with his team longer. The Magic were entirely built around McGrady...they had no other players in the top 50 amongst all those in the NBA. The Rockets had at least 2 last year (maybe 3 with Mobley), so to say this situation is exactly like Orlando is ridiculous. And JeffB makes an excellent point about the Hill injury. The Magic were basically in limbo for McGrady's entire stay there, not knowing if (or when) their SECOND-BEST player would ever even play again. If Yao suffered a career-ending injury, and Francis still pulled out the playoffs in 3 out of 4 years with the Rockets, he would be a hero. But, in reality, Francis has been to the show once, which is why he is in Orlando and McGrady is in Houston. Best of luck to both of them.
1 Ha! I had the same reaction. Maybe he's trying to write in verse. He should really number 5 His lines, like in epic poetry.
You guys are the ones who keep bringing up Steve Francis. I just think its silly to not expect any problems with T-Mac like the guy has never had his maturity questioned. I'm just responding to the article.
