i don't understand his thinking sometimes when it comes to his player substitution pattern. why did tmac end up playing 42 mintues last night when it was a blow out after the third quarter?? he leads the league in minutes so let him sit out the fourth. you can put yao back in if you don't want a bunch of scrubs out there. why did he put sura back in the game in the fourth quarter when we were already waxing them?? the guy is already a walking medical report, let him get his rest in a blow out. this is probably not worth starting a new thread over but im doing it anyways b/c it's not just these two incidents, i've had questions about his sub pattern the whole season. before people start going crazy, i'm not bashing jvg!!
I had the same thought with Tmac and Sura Yao had a good start, but his teammates really took off, so he got a well deserved night off (he played well Sun and Mon ) Tmac and Sura were out there with 3 mins to go - one with a bad back and the other with bad knee - I am not bashing JVG... I just want someone to ask the question (I heard he will be on the radio tongiht)
I have been wondering the same thing, especially with last night's game. The whole Sura subtitution was weird all together. Not only with what you mentioned, but then he decided to bring in Barret with less than a minute to play. What's the point by then? 45 seconds of extra rest isn't going to cure his knee or his hand.
Yeah, I was practically screaming at the TV for Van Gundy to take Sura and T-Mac out. I'm glad Yao got some rest(dude only played 26 minutes last night), but other guys need it too.
maybe it's sura and TMac's decision not want to be taken out? We should definitely put the bench guys in to get some sweat.
Good question(s). I voiced the same myself. (This was after JVG bemoaned about TMc's minutes and acknowledged Sura's pain threshold.)
As far as TMac's minutes go, he is still in the race for leading scorer. If he could catch up to Iverson, it would be a miracle, given the talent level in Houston. I remember he said last year that he had to take it up a notch to protect his reputation. He takes his stats seriously. If that's what motivates the guy, go for it. As long as he can stay healthy, give him the minutes.
leaving TMAC in there was ok. but with all the injuries that sura has, it would have been best if he had been taken out.
The only reason I can believe that JVG left them in there is because the player, T-mac and Sura, requested they stay in or be put into the game. Personally, I wish they would have rested. I think T-mac wanted a few more points and Sura I can just assume asked to be put back in. Oh well, at least no one got hurt because if they would have I would have been pissed but no harm no foul.
JVG often makes these decisions based on who is playing well. If someone makes a mistake or two, they come out immediately. It doesn't look like it's done for any other reason than to punish the player. I didn't watch last night's game, but did the bench guys play well enough to keep from pi$$ing off JVG?
Thought the same thing. With Minni and LA coming up, I thought JVG definitely should have taken TMac/Sura out with 5 minutes left. Iverson was already out of there, they're not going to score 20+ points, especially w/o AI. And plus, we had the Silencer out there, he's not going to let us down.
Maybe to pad some stats, I do that in NCAA Football 2005 all the time, that way your team doesn't lose respect. Street cred is all we got in this world. Peace.
LOL, he is a NBA coach, not a high school coach. He got 4 assistant coaches to remind him stuffs like that.
This is a pretty good point. We haven't had a blowout in a while. They're good for morale. Maybe Jeff wanted to let our starters rub it in a little, so that the feeling of overwhelming dominance can carry over into the rest of the schedule.
Actually he has stated the stats don't matter. He's said a couple of times that he's already won scoring titles, so if his scoring dips, it's no big deal... he just wants to win championships. The reputation he was trying to protect was so he wouldn't be accused of being a loser/slacker.
You're damned if you do and you're damned if you dont.. If JVG takes most of our starters out and the 6ers some how (IT IS THE NBA) make a run and make it close and win the game, he would get 10x the heat for doing something dumb... on the other hand, he keeps T-mac and Bob in and durring the blowout and he still gets heat for not resting them.. I will take the win anyday...
This is probably the only reasonable answer. I remember a few times in the past, we had big lead, 15, 20 pts mid way thru the 4th ... and let the subs played and blew the lead. One time, Jeff had to put the starters back in but the tide has already been turned, even the starters looked bad trying to protect the lead. We did win those games but we had no aura of dominance. It does well for morale to sometimes blow out people. Having said that, I'd still like to see TMac and Sura rest some with the kind of injuries they have had. Hate to see them going into the play-offs with empty tanks.
