The signing of Mo Taylor to his contract. The signing of Moochie Norris to his contract. We're still paying Matt Maloney, aren't we? We were forced to take Howard's contract to get TMac. We have so much crap from the previous regime, we can't do anything to get good pieces anymore - we're handcuffed for another 1-2 years it seems like. The only move I question JVG on was Charlie Ward. Still haven't figured that one out. So if you want to turn a blind eye toward the existing contract fiasco he inherited, that's fine, but I'm sure not.
Do you hate your job or love your job? If you love your job, then success is that much easier to achieve. If you hate your job, like Van Dummy is causing the players to because of his napoleonistic behavior, then it is hard to get motivated for success. FIRE HIM!!!
Nothing to be said about Juwon Howard. The price of doing business. Matt Maloney is a straw-man argument. It was a bad deal. C'est la Vie. It doesn't really handcuff anything though. Moochie Norris became Clarence Weatherspoon, absolutely, positively a JVG decision. Besides, the indications are the Norris deal was prompted by Les Alexander for non-basketball reasons ("fannies in seats") . Mo Taylor is probably overpaid, but he served his purpose under RT. It is JVG's fault that he cannot figure out a way to continue to get production from him.
Try two+. The other two consisted of a 45-win season (exactly the same as last year), and a 43-win season, which included a stint under an assistant.
If the whole SCRUBS are knowing they are going to be traded sooner or later, how can they focus on winning the basketball game? The better they play now, the more chance they are going to be traded because Rockets can bring more value back (i.e.JJ) How could they not quit on play for whoever the coach is? If changes are going to be made, it MUST happen sooner than later, the whole ship is sinking... They need to let the players knows you are wanted here and you are the future of OUR team.
I think Les is just giving JVG a chance to cover his butt this season and really do something with it. He has let him make the desicisions on personell and other things so it's all on his and CD's shoulders. This way Les can up to them at the end of the season and say " you knwo what? you did it your way and nothing came out of it." Time for change.
Yao needs to be a man and tell Les straight up that he's not going to sign the extension if JVG is still around when that comes up. It sucks working for a manager/boss like that, no matter whether you're flipping burgers for the minimum wage or earning millions playing basketball. But of course Yao is not going to do that, because he's a cream puff on all fronts. Actually, I think passive-aggressive is more like it. But he (and Les) needs to realize that he brings more value to this franchise than the $9M or $10M JVG has left on his contract after this season.
I don't know about shaped holes, well at least shaped holes on a basketball court. Under Rudy's last season I was frustrated a lot but I was seeing progress. Yao was in his first season and although he hit a wall in April was showing the dynamic promise that people expected from him. Francis, Mobley and Yao were getting along unlike the predictions that there would be big personality conflicts. The Rox looked motivated and getting towards playing a exciting successful basketball. Further we only finished one game out of the playoffs with the last third of the season played under a clearly inferior interim coach. I really believed that if Rudy could come back from bladder cancer he should've been given the chance to coach again. Its pure speculation but I firmly believe that if Rudy had coached last year we would've made the playoffs also and the team would've been a lot happier and more dynamic. I was worried about JVG because I didn't think he had the right mindset to coach a young dynamic team like the Rox, now I realize he doesn't have the right mindset to coach an aging slow team either, and since he gave up on a team before I felt he had too much negativity. One thing that I think all of us can agree on is that if not for life threatening illness Rudy T would never give up on his team.
May your days be long and healthy. Though I do agree with you, it is refreshing to hear a real adult speak.
The coach might not make the plays but he can definitely have an impact on the players the team can attract through free agency. If I was a star player I wouldn't want to play for a coach with a boring, methodical offense who has a machavellian personality. I bet Van Grumpy had his arm around the shoulder of JJ, telling him what a great job he was doing an hour before JJ got the knife in his back. The guy is a snake, I remember last year when the T-Mac trade got completed and I heard him say that he wasn't involved in personnel decisions, he looked like the cat that ate the canary. Yeah, so how did all these ex-Knicks get on the roster if he is not involved in personnel decisions. The JJ trade is a debacle, trading a guy that gave 110% for a guy that is not a definitive upgrade will not be well thought of among NBA players and will only extend the time to build a contending franchise.
lol. That's it. Try to nitpick when defending your guy. Uuuh... we didn't go to the playoffs or anything but we won some games. Give me a break. Hypocritical argument at best. The facts are Rudy couldn't do it and right now JVG is regressing and isn't getting it done. Period.
Yes, of course... Matt Maloney money isn't money. Moochie Norris for Weatherspoon. Why were we paying Moochie Norris the money he was making when he can barely be a scrub? Why are you casually glancing over that? Oh right... Rudy's regime. My bad. And I know when I go to a game, I'm going to see Moochie Norris play. Mo Taylor is "probably overpaid"? And he "served his purpose under RT". Mo Taylor's purpose coming here was to become a very good 2nd teir PF (if not better) to start and be a go to guy. That never happened and his contract is something we're still eating. Nice. This is getting hysterical. It's obvious some of you are so bent upon defending the Rudy regime that you will bash JVG's regime at all costs while absolutely turning a deaf ear towards the screw ups we had back then with drafting, money squandering, etc. Mistakes in drafting and contracts happen, but the way you guys gloss over them as if they were no big deal is funny to read.
It may just be a change in attitude that could help us. Look at the Nets a year ago, the team was struggling under Scott and canned him. They bring in a no-name coach and instantly go on a 10 game winning streak. It may not be the change in system, but the fact that players play differently under different coaches, period.
D.o.D, What would you suggest then? Keep JVG? It is clear that he is behind all these trades, and decided whom to pursue in the offseason. When has JVG ever been known as a good judge of talent? This team needs that more than anything. So, D.o.D, your suggestion would be...........???? DD
Really good supporting cast my butt. The '94 Rockets had the worst collection of talent of any team to ever win a championship. Vernon Maxwell was bought for 25K. In both championship years he shot below 40 percent from the field. BELOW 40 PERCENT. That's WITH all of the wide-openness generated by Hakeem. That is flat out awful. Had Hakeem watching his back which enabled him to be more aggressive defensively. Kenny Smith was so good that when he left the Rockets, nobody wanted him. He went on to play like 50 more games and retired. The Rockets started the next year with Matt Maloney, an undrafted rookie, in their starting lineup. The difference between Kenny and the Rockets' current point guards is that if any of the new guys were to leave the team, someone else would pick them up (except maybe Ward - blame JVG for that). Someone actually traded for Tyronn Lue even. Sam Cassell BACKED UP the guy above. His best years were far from being with the Rockets. Robert Horry barely averaged double figures in the championship years, and NEVER averaged double figures once he left the Rockets. I'm sure everyone remembers how he'd be asleep the entire regular season - the Rockets of course tried to trade him for Sean Elliott. Prior to hitting some big 3s for LA & Shaq, his most memorable moment was probably throwing a towel at his coach. Otis Thorpe was solid. Hakeem MADE that supporting cast sufficient enough to somehow win a championship. The supporting players on this year's Rockets team can be adequate enough to win with as well. They just need a system and star players they can thrive off of. Nobody had a problem with the supporting cast in the pre-season when they were all predicting top 5 finishes in the West.
If I may jump in here DoD ... 1) LES got rid of Rudy. 2) If 43-39 in Yao's ROOKIE YEAR (while Rudy missed 17 games) was 'losing control', what do you call what's going on right now? That team just flat out wasn't as good as this team. The expectations for that team were to be a bubble playoff team, which is exactly what they were. The only reason people expected that was because they overachieved so drastically two years prior. This team was supposed to be a playoff lock and challenge for homecourt in the first round. This yeam has a seasoned Yao Ming in his THIRD season, plus Tracy McGrady. No matter who else is on the floor at any given time, as long as Yao & McGrady are healthy there is simply no excuse for this team to be under .500.
DoD, if I may jump in again ... Almost every team in the NBA is ALWAYS over the cap. Always. There are plenty of ways to improve your team without having cap space - teams do it all the time! The Rockets are no more handcuffed than any other team. In fact I believe their payroll for the past 10 years or so has always been below average. This team should be winning, bottom line.
Keep JVG until the end of the season to see if he can right the ship or at least make progress. Then re-evaluate. If the situation has improved, let him continue. If no improvement, then either axe him or keep trying to acquire new players somehow. I'm not into making knee-jerk reactions after not even half a season in a re-vamped team. I mean seriously, if it were up to some of you guys, we'd have been through 5 head coaches and a 500% turnover rate on the team by the All Star Game. Rudy's the problem, CD's the problem, JVG is the problem, Francis is the problem, ISO is the problem, Yao is the problem, etc. etc. Good Lord. I hate losing, but I'm not against holding out for even another season after this one to see what we can do. What we have is a bunch of people still crying over Rudy and inciting a cyber-riot in here over JVG. I don't like some of the moves that have been made, but I'm not anywhere near wanting to run the man out of town... yet.
