It looks to me like they ARE trying to fire the whole team, with possibly 2 exceptions. And I can't say I blame them. As for Van Gundy's arrogance, I agree. But when your players don't play hard, is it really better to overlook or forgive it than to say it's unacceptable? Look, Van Gundy is not a "players' coach." We can all agree on that. But the more I see of this team, the more I think the last thing they need is a players' coach.
Well, I think we can all agree that this is the most discouraging development in recent memory. It was easy to accept rebuilding after the championship when Hakeem declined. There always seemed to be hope with Steve and Cuttino, who though error prone, never stopped trying. We could be proud of Rudy and that the Rockets seemed like a class organization with loyalty. Now we have only McGrady and Yao who are good but not inspiring and a cast of old role players, none of whom will be playing when Yao and T-Mac are still in their primes.
I hate to say it, but I think the best option right now is to have Phil Jackson here...I get tired of all the zen crap, but he wins and he usually goes to teams that have great players and potential, which is the situation now...The team has flat out given up on JVG and its evident...
1.) Who's going to pay his 10 million dollar a year salary? 2.) Why would he want to coach a team that can't rebound, can't hit open jumpshots and is pinned against the salary cap for the next 3 years?
To all fo the JVG apologists. True the team has quit playing for JVG but have you considered that part of the ongoing trades and retooling were to make a team that was willing to play hard for JVG unlike selfish ISO obsessed Francis and Mobley? So what do you want now. Trade the whole team until we can get a team that plays for JVG like the '99 Knicks? Obviously T-Mac and Yao aren't so lets get rid of them too. One of the main responsibilitis of an NBA Coach is to figure out how to motivate his team to play. Rudy T while not the best at making personel decisions and certainly not the best tactical genius out there still motivated his players and got them to play. JVG isn't simply some innocent being sucked down an awful team. The players on this team have talent and while they certainly need to step it up JVG also needs to figure out how to lead.
I agree JVG does need to figure out something... I am glad it is him and not me. No you are wrong the players on this team do NOT have enough talent. I personally don't care if Les fires JVG today, it won't change this into a good team. We might get better effort but not better talent. We are in a roster predicament. And there is no quick fix unless some team out there will blunder a trade with us. I don't like JVG's negative personality. My opinion it stinks. But looking at our line up, I don't blame him one bit for this non rebounding, sieve of a defensive mess. Who are the shooters on this team anyway? Michael Redd is a shooter. Who can shoot on this team? TMac that's it. Yao is a poor rebounder, but has potential, the rest are end of the bench subs
Not enough talent to make a championship run? Definately. Not enough talent to make it to the playoffs in the Western Conference? Probably. Not enough talent to avoid getting blown out by the Bucks and beaten twice by the Bobcats? I don't think so. At the start of this season I never expected them to go to the NBA finals but I never expected them to be stymied as a sub-500 team.
Where did you get these 2 guys are frustrated with their roles from? Your RT statement is wrong. They had solid players who were above average and in OT and Clyde were good-to-very good players. They all filled their roles, and that was the point. Hakeem was the core... people like Smith, Elie, etc. bombed away from the outside and kept him free.
Whoooa there. I thought one of the reasons we got rid of Rudy was because he had lost control of the team and couldn't motivate the players to buy into his system - that Francis and Mobley were doing whatever they wanted and not passing to Yao. So now we're saying that wasn't the problem?
not argueing for the sake of it... I thought they would be a 7 seed. I thought Boki would get good minutes in rotation and Yao would be consistent. I thought they would bring in a point guard. And I thought Howard would be servicable. I thought JJ was turnover prone and a poor passer I didn't expect Deke to play as well. TMac is as advertised- very good Sura looks injured (I guess), Tyrone Lue was nothing, Jon Barry and Wesley Person are not too bad off your bench. I now know we have no power forward, Yao still has some development needed. And we have no backcourt that should be starting except Tmac. Boki should have been given a chance to start at small forward. And we should have signed Damon Jones if possible. I wish we could have lucked into a PF Maybe JVG is the blame for Yao's development, but I tend to believe it will take another year or two for him to be a more consistent player.
thanks for the correction, sorry, frustration, frustration my knee jerk is fire somebody, trade somebody, glad I'm not in control of the franchise today
Speaking for myself I never thought we should've gotten rid of Rudy and I was dissapointed that we got JVG to replace him.
The season I was thinking about was the first year post-championship #2. That was before the Barkley deal. There was Hakeem, Cassell, and Horry. Clyde and Mario Elie were both injured a big chunk of that season. You had the likes of Charles Jones, Pete Chilcutt ("Chilly Pete"), Tim Breaux, Eldridge Recasner, and Chucky Brown playing significant minutes. That team had a decent regular season, played hard, and made it to the second round of the playoffs before they were overwhelmed by the Sonics.
I could not have put it any better myself. Outside of getting T-Mac, there was no plan for putting together a legitimate team roster. Now that the Rockets ship has sprung so many holes and the water is pouring in, people are FINALLY taking a long hard look at the actions of this organization and those who are running it into the ground.
Why didn't you want to get rid of Rudy? What shaped holes was he forcing players to play in that we couldn't get to the playoffs? Or did that not matter to you at the time?
Injury-shaped holes (think cartoons, where the silhouette falls through the floor) that kept players off the court.
To the Don't Fire JVG crowd : JVG was brought here for Steve Francis, because SF3 made Rudy his b****. That's the only reason we got a personality like his. It was a last ditch effort to get the most out of our investment in SF3. Well, we lucked into a great trade. Couldn't have seen that coming. No way you could have thought it was possible to turn SF3 into Tmac. Strange things happen sometimes. Now, our goal with the position - coach - has changed. The job of our coach is to get the most out of our investment in Tmac and Yao. JVG is not the right guy for that. Here's what we do need from our coach : maximize skills and status for Yao - happy star resigns, prospers maximize skills and status for Tmac - happy star is motivated, prospers make the supporting cast work with the stars. None of that is really dependant, absolutely, on the quality of the supporting cast. That's a plus, but not the x factor of the right personal coach for the personalities of the stars. Who will make them grow and prosper? Who can help them? Even if we don't have the talent to win, and win consistantly, we can be exciting and feel good about the progress of our stars, and have hope for the future - possibly a future with those stars leading to a title. SF3 is gone and JVG isn't needed anymore. Really, he's in the way. We need a better fit. We need someone who can teach, motivate, and bring pleasure to the job of playing games with not very talented teammates. We're going to be stuck with a sad roster for a while, so we may as well find a guy that can make the most of that situation. JVG is a negative guy, and he's a negative for the team. I don't hear any good arguements to keep him - not even one minute longer. No one is saying he's having success with our stars, that he's good for them. That isn't true. Really, there is no reason to put off firing him. It will put more responsibility on Yao and Tmac - knowing the rap will be they got him fired. They will be motivated to prove they are not bad eggs. They will play out the string better, so long as we just get a reasonably competent interim coach ( Van Chancellor) to play out the string, who won't screw things up by going crazy like Larry Smith did in singular display of idiocy. Spend time on getting a good fit with the next coach, but fire JVG now. He is poison, every second he lingers he makes things worse. If you like, you can put JVG out to pasture, and just forbid him from coaching. Assistant coach - assitant poison. Give him a public relations job - hmm...no. Have him visit sick children. Hmmm...scratch that. I guess there's really no place you can put him. So back to Mortal Kombat - he is standing there - bloodied and reeling - FINISH HIM.
