Prediction : Lakers will have better year than the Rockets

He is revered in our city for his lifetime affiliation with this organization. I am a big fan of Rudy T, but you are comparing him, in your qoute, with 4 hall of famers, 2 of which are former MVPs. I'll agree he was a top 5 rocket, but I wouldn't go so far as to classify him a Houston Legend based on what he did on the court.

As far as the championships, I'll agree that Rudy played a large role in those, but Hakeem carried us both years, especially the second one. He is a true "NBA" legend.

 

Larry Smith's record: 8-9
JVG last 17 games: 6-11

 

Uh, er, okay, so Smith had a better record in the last 17 games of 2003 than Van Gundy did in 2004. Okay. Is this quote supoposed to point out anything else?

 

By that I mean, I hope you are not insinuating that Smith is anywhere near the coach that Van Gundy is.

 

I recall a winning record. Is 45-37 with a better team 'managing to win' and 43-39 not?

 

More or less the same team, more or less the same number of home/road games, the major difference being that Van Grumpy had been the head man for the entire season. While those records cannot be used to generalize, they ARE a direct comparison of Larry Smith (or second-hand RT smoke) and JVG coaching "when it mattered" down the stretch in an NBA season.

 

i read this over and over. How is last year's team better than 02-03? This was last year's starters:

Francis
Mobely
Jackson
Cato
Yao

and this was the 02-03 season's starters:

Francis
Mobely
Posey
E.Griffin
Yao

That's bull if you think we had a better team last year. IMO the 02-03 team would have done the same if not better than 45-37 had rudy not left to tend to his health. JVG did what he was supposed to do for his first year and get us into the playoffs with the talent we had. If we don't go any further than first round next season, i'd be worrying if was van gundy.

 

that was in 2000

 

Ok, that's not going to fly. Larry Smith went 8-9 in the last 17 games and we missed the playoffs by one game. That's a far cry from JVG going 6-11 when we weren't going to catch Memphis and only needed to win one or two of our last ten games to fend off Denver and Utah. No comparison. Period.

As for Rudy, yeah, if he was forced out like so many people believe, then that was pretty shabby treatment for a Houston sports LEGEND. Yes, legend. Besides a brilliant pro career, he has been with the Rockets forever and brought home our only two pro championships. However, I have a hard time believing that was the case. If his health concerns were bad enough to sideline him for the homestretch of the season, then he didn't need to be coaching.

As for JVG, I don't see how anyone still dislikes the guy. AND HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU QUESTION HIS HEART!?! The guy lives and dies with every game (and from the looks of him, mostly dies). Besides, how can you not love a coach that can watch his team win by 30 and then go in the locker room and tell them they can be better?

The man is a defensive mastermind. The only coach I would have preferred over him when we hired him was Larry Brown and it seems like we never really had a shot at him anyway. JVG brings to the table a championship caliber defence (and don't tell me anyone believes you win championships with anything else). Without either terrible luck or another major shakeup (like TMac demanding another trade or Yao going to GS, as extremely unlikely as those are), we will be in the finals again in the next 4 years. I'll stake my reputation on it

And as for the Lakers, they won't be last year's Magic but they certainly ain't last years Lakers either. We'll be close to them this year. The difference is we're improving...

 

I'm sorry, I've gotten so forgetful. But remind me again, which one of those teams made the playoffs?

 

this is quite amazing. who i still cant believe someone called rudy t CREATIVE. i remember watching the rockets lakers game a couple yrs back and the tv commentators drew out the play we were going to run and...we did run. of course phil jackson being the smart man that he is, knew about rudy's very CREATIVE play and defended it to the end. everyone might remember our clutch playbook of 1 play...yao gets the inbound pass, passes it to stevie and sets the screen.

our players needed a coach. not a best friend. just because he doesnt tuck our players in at night, he made us a hell of a better defensive team. that is the difference between rudy's rockets and jvg's rockets. i dont care how boring we are, as long as we win that is all that matters.

 

lol how did this thread get two stars? ROCKETS BABY!

 

yeah, JVG first 65 games¡G39-26

 

To compare Larry smith with JVG is laughable. Players hate Larry Smith, particularly Yao. Smith is the main reason why we didn't make the playoff that year. Rockets coundn't wait to get rid of that clown.

 

the improved play of yao alone made the team better. then when you consider JJ replaced 1/2 a year of rice, and 1/2 a year of posey being pretty bad (he was not the same guy who showed up in memphis), i'd say the SF position was improved. cato/mo t at pf was basically the same as mo t/eg except mo t wasn't recovering 1/2 the season from an achilles injury this year. i don't see anyway this wasn't an improved team. but hey, we won two extra games, maybe we'll win two more this year and everyone will be thrilled.

he was comparing jvg's 45 with better talent to rudy's 43 the year before.

you mean the play that worked at least 4 times (i think 5). you mean the play that got us a 3 against those very lakers to force overtime even though they apparently defended it to the end (considering no one was in steve's face after the pick they must've not defended it too well).

 

Actually someone named Larry Brown has called him an offensive genius.

 

Damn, Freak, you are STILL bitter?

 

I feel that the Rockets will be at least the 4 or 5 seed, and compete for the 3 seed. I don't want peoples expectations to drown out a hopefully well improved season if we do only get say the 5th seed. But one thing I don't get is why everyone still has Sacramento so high on their lists. Webber still isnt the player he should be, with all the finger pointing and an unhappy Peja I don't think Mike Bibby and Brad Miller can do enough to anchor this team. There is a big article on ESPN talking about the demise of the Kings, sorry I don't have the link though. Also with Rudy's love for the iso, I feel any matchup with them we will be able to dominate them with our trapping defense.

Seedings for WestRecord Wise)
1. San Antonio
2. Minnesota
3. Denver or Houston
4. Same as 3
5. Sacramento
6. Utah
7. Lakers
8. Dallas

 

According to your seedings Mikezamir the Rockets would be at least a four seed because the Pacific division frontrunner has to be at least a one or two seed, depending on who was the better record between them and the midwest division leader. That being said, no way do I think Minnesota will be better than us this year. They have NO center. Michael Olowokandi is softer than my toilet paper and lethargic. To beat San Antonio this year may be a stretch, but our games will be much closer this year than in years past. I'll say we get a three seed this year, especially if we pick up Dikembe.

 

Seedings by "record" is more important than seedings by "division winners", because the former determines who has home court. Thus how Mikezamir presents it is most important IMO.

I don't know why anyone would write off Minny. Despite injuries and lots of new players they were better than San Antonio last year. Ervin Johnson/ Kandi are servicable, not much different than Rasha/Rose.