When is Paxson or what their GM's name is going to fire himself for trading away a first round pick to the Cs for Gordan 'freaking' Giricec [??]. Like the GM formerly known as logo said the other day maybe it time some GM starting looking in mirror.
I thought Silas did a very good to excellent job in Charlotte. He had a terrible owner in George Shinn-worse than Donald Sterling I think. Jamal Mashburn had devestating injuries during one playoff run, and during the regular season. Baroin Davis had crippling injuries. I thought Silas did a very good job especially with what he had to work with. I wanted Silas as coach of the Rockets, but I do not believe he was seriously considered-the owner of the Rockets already wanted Van Gundy. -OK I can accept that-It is his money. I still think Silas would have done a good job here. This is unfortunate. I do not know if Silas is crazy as has been suggested, but he is one fine coach......Paxon and their new owner may hire Saunders which would be good, but no better than Silas in my opinion. Too many things can go wrong at this level of complexity-many many variables- you do not add more variables......
Illgauskas is shooting 46 percent from the field and hasn't shot 50 percent in 6 years. A 7'3" guy playing in the East with Lebron James on his team is shooting 46 percent. He and Yao aren't really that close at all.
What is the difference between 55% and 46% when you take 13 shots per game? Slightly more than 1 FG attempt. Playing in the East vs. the West doesn't make that much difference as far as the Center position, especially now that Shaq is in Miami. Shaq and Ben Wallace play in the East, Yao and Brad Miller in the West. Duncan, Garnett, Dirk, Stoudemire, Brand, Randolph, Gasol - none of them guard Yao and vice a versa (except for sporadic stretches). The Western Conference has much better Power Forwards but their centers are just as bad if not worse.
And what is the difference between 55% and 36%? 'Slightly' more than 2 FG attempts. Are you really going to say that 9 percentage points isn't significant? What gives Yao the most trouble are smaller, quicker defenders and zone defenses, so your listing of individual players doesn't necessarily say that much. The best teams in the league are in the West, it's a better conference. Do you think teams gear more towards stopping Yao, or Illgauskas? Do you really think the two have an EQUAL impact on a game?
It isn't significant when you factor in the rest of their statistics. Yao scores a little more. Ilgauskas has a slight edge in rebounds, ft %, blocks, assists. So the statistical difference really is about 1 extra FG per game Yao has more upside than Ilgauskus and gets the nod because of the attention he commands. However to say they aren't "even close" is stupid. Yao may be better but he's not in a different class. As far as the East vs West comparisons, teams play Yao the same way in both conferences. Substitute Jason Collins for Jerome James and what's the difference? Not much. The fact Western Conference teams are better is irrelevant when you're comparing Yao as an individual. As far as the Rockets vs Cavaliers. The Rockets are built to win this year or next. Within 3 years, they'll have to replace 3 starters. I doubt a 37 year old David Wesley or a 35 year old Bobby Sura will be starting. And if they do, we'll be in big trouble. The Cavaliers are set for awhile assuming they can resign Ilgauskus. They are loaded with young talent and just needs to cme together as a team.
Gooden is the better NBA 4 today. There's no need to look at last season-look at today. Gooden is shooting 50%, gets about a steal and a block a game, and puts up better than 14-9 in under 31 mpg. Howard shoots 45%, doesn't get steals or blocks, and puts up less than 10-6 in under 27 mpg. Howard may be a better fit for us because his midrange J is more consistent and isn't as inconsistent as Gooden, but then again, we haven't seen what this team would like with someone able to rebound like Gooden at the 4. Gooden's better than Howard at this point, and it's not really that close. The guy not being talked about on the Cavs is Luke Jackson- their lotto pick this year. I think he's the first guy they've picked up that fits well with LeBron. Of course, he's been out all year (back problem iirc?), but he's a good open court player with a good basketball IQ, and a lights out shot. The question is if he adjusts to the NBA game well and gets healthy.
Perhaps Gooden is better, but perhaps if you switched teams and styles the difference would not be so great. When they were on the same team, just last year, JH was more productive. Perhaps Gooden has grown as a player, perhaps the up and down style and the fact Cleve has no other 4 options worth a darn made the difference. The premise here is whether Silas deserved to be fired. Certainly having Jackson being injured should not hurt his cause. If anything he kept his team in the middle of the home court race with injuries and unexpected personel moves (losing Boozer). This from a team who has not made the playoffs in quite a while. That just it. When Ira Newble has to start for you, and Robert Traylor is your 6th man, your parts flat stink. I think it was personal, it can't possibly be for not meeting expectations for a young team with a lot of changes who has not been to the playoffs in recent years and who is fighting for home court in round 1.
Gooden is a flat out better rebounder (when he wants to be) than Howard has ever been. In 6 fewer minutes, Gooden is averaging more than a rebound better than Juwan's career high (10+ years ago). Howard isn't going to create blocks or steals. Howard has never shot 49% in his career- Gooden's over 50%. You can make the supposition Howard would put up better than the 14+ ppg Gooden gets for the Cavs, but I don't think it's a strong one. Luke Jackson was a tangent, regarding the Cavs long term objectives/possibilities. As a fairly polished college prospect, he should have been expected to be a factor this year, and the loss of him hurt the Cavs bench. I've never thought Silas deserved the axe, certainly not 3/4 through the season with the Cavs still in solid positioning to be in the playoffs. He never got the chance to clear out leftover mistakes (Wagner, Diop).
Yes, he's better, not equal, as you stated earlier in this thread. I think most every coach/GM, or most other players for that matter, would agree.
It was a combination of all. Certainly there were personal issues. But, the team has played really bad lately, as well. Now, the CAVS aren't overloaded with talent at every position, but then, until the Mike James acquisition, the Rockets top player off the bench has been either Mutombo or Jon Barry. Historically better players than a tractor-Traylor, but part of the responsibility for getting the pieces to fit, and getting your role players to play their roles, has to fall on your coaches shoulders. And they play in the East. The team ahead of them in the standings is the Wizards. The team behind, the Bulls. Yes, both those teams have talent, too, but neither have Lebron and neither have an all-star center (Z isn't that great, but he is pretty darn good). Both teams have been able to find a style of play, though, that has been successful, despite role players such as Jared Jeffries (25+ mpg) or Antonio Davis and Othella Harrington (both over 16.5 mpg). I don't watch the Cavs religiously, but I try and follow them somewhat. They DO have talent. And they DO have players who could succeed in defined roles. But there seemed to have been no underlying style of play, no focused emphasis on defense, or run-n-gun, or...something. Of all the teams in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, you can easily make the argument that Silas was outcoached by all those coaches. Given some of the coaching names available, I'd probably look at firing Silas, too.
I can agree with this, if Gooden has grown into that player you describe (have to seen him much this year) bully for him. When he came into the draft I was pretty high on him, in fact I thought he was a Jawon Howard (fundamentally sound and could be effective in a lot of spots just not great at anything) with a tad more athleticsm--which would make a good NBA player. Still don't know where the Luke Jackson being injured fits in the Silas being fired discussion (unless Silas personally inured him), but I'll let it go. I don't know, I think you are understimating how shabby the supporting cast is, which is especially important as the season wears down on a young team. If you compare what Tmac-YM have to Lebron-Z, the Cavs supporting cast is very weak. Mike James, Deke and Job Barry--three bench guys for the Rockets, are better players than one of the starters for the Cavs (Newble). Before the Rockets starting getting these quality role players they were not much better than 500 either. In sum, I don't think you can argue performance at all--it is something personal with the players or staff. The only two teams in the East who the Cavs are not right with or significantly better than are Miami and Detriot. And if someone tells me the Cavs should have been as good as those two teams based on talent, I have a bridge in the desert to sell them. The Cavs having a chance at home court advantage in the 1st round should have been at the upper end of their expections.
Which is why everyone, myself included, was ready to roast JVG. Yes, the Rockets players have made a difference, but JVG HAS changed from the beginning of the year significantly, especially offensively. All true, except the Cavs have lost 9 of 12 during a pretty easy portion of their schedule (7 home games) with lossess most recently to Toronto, Philadelphia & Milwaukee. If the Cavs win 9 of 12, Silas doesn't get fired. I certainly understand your point, though.
You are contradicting yourself. Rox turned things around while Cleveland tanked. If JVG couldn't turn the things around, he would be fired as well. This just shows how good JVG is and how bad Silas is. At least JVG knows which kind of players he wants to get, and he got Wesley while most people on this board hated him. Without JVG, I doubt CD would know Wesley would fix the problem. For Silas, does he know what kind of players he wants and whether that player would help the team? When Silas coached Charlotte, the team always tanked even with talented players. You might argue he got bad luck with injuries, well then, why can't he push the GM to get rid of the injuried players and got new players? He never did and he got fired.
Maybe it's just me, but I do think these two look like a lot (if only I can find more pics of them to choose).
As for contradictoring myself, how is the fact JVG might have gotten fired if CD/front office didn't help him get better players to which to improve upon his team equate with Silas getting fired because his GM/front office surrounded him with crappy players. Sounds like you want the coach to be blamed for most of the responsibility for the GM. Did JVG all of a sudden become a better and different coach when we added Wesley, Barry and later James, and got Sura healthy (when we got much better than 500)? As for Charlotte/New Orleans--I think you will find Silas has been much more successful than any other coach that franchise has ever had. I am not a big proponent of Silas as a coach or person--I really don't know. But what is OBVIOUS is his performance has been much better than average among NBA coaches and he should have been exceeding the Cavs expectations from where anyone would have thought over last 2 years considering their youth, amount of bad players, and the fact they got jacked by their 2nd best player last offseason (Boozer). In sum he was fired for personal reasons, not results, anything said otherwise is a smoke screen. For Pete Sake he had one of the most pathetic franchises in the NBA the last decade with a winning record and in the running for a 1st round home series. Look at where Jerry Sloan's team is relative to expectations before the season--and I don't see a calling to get him fired.
