After starting in the pho game, Navak got just just 1 minute in a blow out game against the Cavs. It's really hard for me to understand. I mean clearly this guy has the tools to be our great offensive weapon, a great asset to have on our center oriented team. I understand his main lacking is defense, or put it more precisely, the JVG style defense. But you have to put him in real games to gain that experience and understanding. The Spurs is a great defensive team, and they manage to use Brent Barry(who is not known for great defense) very effectively. Novak and Barry: 22 yr/6-10/220lbs vs. 34 yr/6-7/210lbs. Novak's shooting touch is just as good if not better, and he is gonna get much much better still. I really hope JVG starts to give him more time. Take the risk and invest now, it will pay off when it comes playoff time.
JVG is a defense first guy. You can suck it up on offense as long as you do your job on D and hustle. I don't think Novak sees anything past garbage time for a few weeks again.
Brent Barry is a point/2 guard who is still far more athletic than Novak. He won the damn dunk contest. Novak appears to be an unathletic, slow forward, without any muscle mass.
I don't think Novak was in the doghouse, he just never plays because the guys in front of him can bring more to the table than 3pt shooting.
I think there is more to it than "He doesn't play good defense". Take a look at a few of the plays that he is in for on offense and he looks lost. He's not sure where to go for a particular play, and there were a few times where T-Mac or other players were literally telling him where to move to on the court so that the play could be run, and these looked to be simple pick and rolls with him doing the pick and pop out. I'm not doubting his shooting ability, but I'm guessing that there is more that he needs to get better at than just "playing JVG defense" to be a solid contributor on the court.
Yes Novak looked lost on D in the pho game. But I think that's because he didn't know what to do rather than not willing to hustle. Now compared to Barry, Novak has 3 inches on him and is 12 years younger. Novak maybe less athletic than the young Barry, but I doubt he is less athletic NOW. I believe all that's needed is mental, and experience. JGV needs to invest in him a little bit more...
Between Hayes and the new Dennis Rodman-esque Juwan that debuted on Saturday, there's no minutes for Novak. I don't know if it's possible to overstate the tremendous ineptitude of Novak on Defense. His only other significant game, when he was 6th man against utah in the season opener, he got absolutely lit up, Utah went against him every time and scored every time. And his rebounding is nonexistent to where it makes Howard even look good - he has 3 boards - total, in 46 minutes this year.
See Luther Head from last year for example. He probably had even less potential than Steve Novak, but he's a big contributor this season because he got all those minutes last season due to injuries. Jeff needs to try to develop Steve Novak. At least put him ahead of Padgett.
Hayes, yes. But Howard? Come on, how many of us really think we've found a Dennis Rodman in him? Again, this is about long term vs. short term gains. Playing Howard now gives you more short term gain, but we know we will not be better than what we are now when it comes playoff time. If Novak develops it would open much more possibilities.
This should sum up Gundy's mind set when it comes to Novak: • My favorite quote of the NBA season so far is from Houston's Jeff Van Gundy to the Houston Chronicle: "Everybody gets excited about youth except the coach, because he knows youth means mistakes, mistakes mean losses, losses means you're fired." This is from Chris Ekstrand's Inside the NBA article on SI.com.... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/chris_ekstrand/12/04/most.improved.notes/1.html I personally think Novak should be some PT in at least blow outs, but coach's decision is final.
If he had less potential than Novak, why was he a first round pick while Novak was a second rounder? The problem with Novak is simple - he's got 1 dimension, and everything else he is absolutely TERRIBLE at to the point where he hurts the team on a net basis when he's out there. Head has/had his drawbacks too but was not nearly as non-functional in basic skills for his position as Novak is. A power forward who can't even be mediocre at rebounding or defending and can only be atrocious is a huge issue for this Rockets team. I would send him to D-league because he's simply not ready. Howard is terrible on defense and not a good rebounder - but he is several levels above Novak. That should tell you something.
haha that quote was on Sina awhile back that was posted here. Head's development was on a losing season where we have no one else to play. He developed while we lose games. Is this really what you want? Each year, there will be other rookies that could "use" playing time to develop. Do you just keep on losing? As for looking lost, Novak doesn't just look lost on defense. He looks lost on offense. I've seen him try to cut, take a turn during the cut, hands aren't up, and almost ran into Tmac by the 3-point line. He's lost in the offense too. Just being able to shoot isn't enough if he can't space himself out. Also, his shot, although terrific, is not a sure thing. And if he has to be at the corner every time just to space out, he can not get back on D. Sadly, even right now, Brent Barry is still much quicker and more athletic than Novak. Novak's just not athletic at all. His repertoire includes shooting jumpers with unbelievable accuracy when open. The other reason is matchups. JVG was on the second game of a back to back where the first was a close game and starters played heavy minutes. With Novak, he was hoping to play a zone game and hope that Phoenix misses their jumpers. Instead, they took it at him every time. They knew what Novak is on defense and guess what happened to Yao early in that game. One was an offensive foul and the other was an out of position foul (although questionable at best) against Amare trying to help out on defense. The thing about the NBA, is that the flow of both the offense and defense are critical to the success of the team. Having someone that doesn't know where to go on each play or just taking a long time to get the grasp of it is detrimental to the team. It all comes down to wins and losses and you do NOT sacrifice wins to develope one player when you have practices to improve that. No coach will allow 11 other active players to have a better chance of losing so that Novak gets playing time. Heck, Novak wouldn't want that either (at least I hope so). Everyone wants to play, and they'll get their due time once they learn the system.
There is such a thing as practice. Novak can improve his D and rebounding during scrimmages, and he should learn the playbook with the assistant coaches outside of games. He's not such a star that he can be productive without understanding the system. Even though Novak had a good preseason, that doesn't mean he understands the Rockets system yet. You don't get to run the regular plays in preseason that much because your stars don't play much and nobody is even in shape.
Like who? Padgett? Noone is asking for Novak to get big minutes. Just a spot in the flow of the rotation. When the team has leverage. T-mac can kick the ball out to him from drawing all of the attention. That SI article is what bugs me about Assistant coach Gundy. You shouldn't ever be excited about a draft because he wont play who the team picks anyhow. Don't tell me a veteran mistake is > than a rookie mistake. Who cares, he's made plenty of coaching mistakes in his acting head coach tenure. He's good at holding others to a standard he can't live up to though.
Sadly, yes. Even terrible Scott Padgett is less bad for the Rockets than Novak. He will at least grab the occasional rebound. Of course Padgett has racked up 3 straight DNP-CD's so, if you're arguing that Novak should get his minutes - he's getting them. You guys need to watch the games. Every time Novak is on the floor the defense goes at him without fail; I've almost never seen that before with any player. The guy is so inept at all aspects aside from shooting it isn't even funny.
so wait... on a team notorious for giving up huge leads late in a game, you want us to put in one of our biggest liabilities (both offensively and defensively) all for the sake of developing a secound rounder? really?
