Kinda like Power Ranking, which I always love to read, I made some myself grading the whole teams performance. Enjoy it, I tried not to be so biased The Coach Jeff Van Gundy: C+ It always seems like much mystery surrounds Jeff Van Gundy in his coaching. Sometimes this season he looked brilliant and other times he looked horrible, especially in the playoffs. He did lead the team to a great record when Yao went out though.. Too sporadic some say, too slow some say, but who really knows what goes on in the huddle? He had 2 superstars on his team and didn’t make it past the first round of the playoffs, that can sum up his job in a nutshell, enough said. The Bench Juwan Howard: B We didn’t expect much from Juwan, but at times he dazzled us with great shooting performances. His defense though was subpar and at times, he reminded us he is a 12 year NBA veteran. Also he couldn’t make baskets in the playoffs when it counts. But he did get 10 pts and 6 boards per game along with 47% shooting off the bench, a solid sixth man. A team leader, he also made some clutch offensive rebounds in game 7, so he gets a B from me. PS, Juwan, please take a pay cut, thanks. Luther Head: B+ A bright spot of youth in our senior citizen team, Luther tore up the 3 point line this year. But then again, he reminds us he is only in his sophomore campaign and shoots 26% from the arc in the playoffs. Only time will tell us if he will blossom into a great shooter, and everyone in Houston wants him to go to CHEST PASS THE DAMN BALL TO YAO & LEARN SOME DAMN DEFENSE DAMNIT school. But eh, his three point heroics were enough for me to love him most of the time during the regular season. Vassilis Spanoulis/Steve Novak: Incomplete – Please report to the teacher. Everyone sees the potential in Vspan, but he only played 31 games in another country with different rules. Can’t really analyze their performances when they play 2 minutes every 2 weeks. Let us look at the bright side though, Vspan will play much more next year if he plays in the NBA at all. And Novak can only get stronger! Dikembe Mutombo: A You can’t hate Deke. #1 in the NBA in rebounds per 48 minutes, at age 40 and not some punk that played 5 games for 4 mins and got 48 rebounds and screws up your stat sheet, he’s the real deal. Deke’s got heart, something an NBA team always needs. He went on his ferocious tear on the glass when Yao went out and saved our ill-fated season(or not? Maybe we would have matched up better against San Antonio..hmmm…nevermind…). Needless to say this guy did tons for our team and got 5.7 minutes a game in the playoffs, a shame. Kirk Snyder: C+ Brings energy to the table, then poops on everything else. Hopefully he will develop a shooting range and defensive awareness if he wants to play on our team. John Lucas III: B-- John Lucas!? B!? Yeah yeah, well if you were a hobbit playing in the NBA you wouldn’t be so great either. For a bench player he was pretty decent. Needs to work on his shot and court vision much much more, he must be shooting with Rafer Alston too much. On the plus side he almost never turned the ball over, but all he ever did was dribble till the clock got to 5 seconds. Not that good. I think one day he will be a good bench player. Jake Tsakalidis: B+ Big Jake did a good job for us, played hard when he had the chance, but never got much playing time probably because of his stamina. Not much else I can think about him.. The Starters Rafer Alston: C+ The first time I saw his name with the Rockets I thought to myself “Dude!!! Its Skip to my Lou!! He can do streetball and stuff!! We need him he has mad handles!!” Yep. He sets up the offense and does a good decent job on defense. Not bad, I know a lot of point guards that can do that. But then comes his shooting, we all know he is one of the worst wide open shooters ever and we could probably replace him when he’s wide open with a 45 year old fat guy named Earl from Idaho who would shoot better than him. He needs to get demoted or get out before Houstonians begin to attack. Shane Battier: A- The intangibles guy, always a lock on defense. He also made those great three pointers when we needed them, rarely did he miss in the clutch. It’s a shame no one ever let him do his inside hook shot more often, because with that shot I could have seen him getting about 15 a game. A liability when passing though, he got sloppy at times. Chuck Hayes: A At the beginning of the year he was that Ryan Bowen guy. I don’t like Ryan Bowen, not even on my NBA Live teams. But Chuck Hayes did all that Ryan Bowen dirty work while not sucking ass, he worked hard on his layups from missing every 3 of them to being an ace at any kind of layup. He’s a great defender and amazing nose for the ball rebounder. A must have on any team, I love the Chuckster! Yao Ming: B+ The best center in the NBA, though there’s only like 20 around nowadays that aren’t “projects” from Europe or Africa. Yao works harder than anyone on the team, some people never notice and just criticize him for being soft. He would have been an MVP candidate had he not broken his leg. He disappointed us again during the playoffs though, not being able to adapt to the defense as well as being a huge liability on D. Turnovers drove us mad as well. Tracy McGrady: B I just can’t seem to pinpoint this guy out, you seem him walk around like an old man during the regular season, then he explodes with amazing shots. Stupid shots that no one would take, he makes em. But then he reminds us he’s human and goes dry for ages. Why Tracy why must you do this to us? He is only getting older, which means more jumpshooting and less driving, which aint a good thing. We can only hope for something to change for the better before TMac and Yao are gone. Team Grade: B-
Playoff Report Card: The Coach Jeff Van Gundy: D Failed to make critical adjustments, which ended with us usually getting toasted by the SAME plays OVER and OVER. The Bench Entire Bench: F------------------ Entire Bench went Missing in Action. The Starters Rafer Alston: C- Shoots a miserable 33% in the series. Shane Battier: B- Had a few good shooting games. Other games disappeared as usual. Chuck Hayes: C- Brought hussle for a few games. Other games disappeared. Yao: C+ Can I stress "TOO MANY TURNOVERS?". Needs to play more aggresive Tmac: B+ Feel Sorry for the Dude. He kept us in the games only to see the leads wither away at the end. Disappeared in Utah.
So the coach that finished 4th in COY gets a C or a D... The coach that helped us get the 5th best record in the NBA despite major injuries to Yao and T-Mac gets a C/D. JVG's defense got us here. He deserves a B minimum. I wonder how Mavs fans are grading Avery...
Hello, the problem isnt having jvg as a coach. the problem is having chuck hayes and rafer alston as your STARTERS.
Playoffs Report Card Coach Jeff Van Gundy: F Failed to make any adjustments throughout the series and was thoroughly outcoached by Sloan The Bench We have a bench? Could have fooled me. F The Starters Rafer Alston - D If you can't shoot, can't defend as williams blew by you all series, and aren't a playmaker, what exactly are you providing out there to justify your 44 mins playoffs average? Tracy McGrady - C+ You wanted all the blame when you said it was all on you and you're going to get most of the blame. Only drove the lane in spurts when you felt like it. Didn't show enough heart or leadership throughout the series. Settled for jumpers too much and your shot is just as bad as alston these days. Stopped attacking the basket in the 4th when the game was on the line. Chuck Hayes - C Love your hustle, but on offense the team is playing 4 on 5 with you out there. Where were you when Okur was launching those dagger 3s? Shane Battier - B Great defense and you're Mr. Intangibles, but for this team to succeed you need to start showing some tangibles. Grab some more rebounds or have more of an offensive game that doesn't just consist of spot up corner 3s. Yao Ming - B+ Gave it your all and was the MVP of the series, but you need to work on your rebounding. Not much you could do about boozer as he's too fast for you and he was hitting some ridiculous rainbow fadeaways over you all series. Plus you always had to cover for alston who let williams blow by him all series. You had your way with okur and went to the line a lot this series, but the refs limited your aggressiveness by always calling offensive fouls on you when you took it to the basket strong.
Reg. Season: JVG: A. The season could easily have gone the way of last year's, but it didn't. The defense was easily top 3 in the league, and the team was together and on task. A team takes on the personality of its coach, and you have to like what ours was. Took fair flack about developing the young guys, but that would have come at cost in terms of wins. McGrady: A-. Had a tough 2006 but strong 2007. The back's a ticking time bomb, but he didn't allow the team to go under without Yao. Yao: B+. Had an MVP-quality 2006 and a tough 2007. It's fair to wonder if the leg and foot problems are going to continue to plague him because of his frame. Hardest worker on the team and the classiest. Battier: B+. Probably the main X-factor between last year's collapse and this year's success. Ultimate team guy and picks his spots on offense flawlessly. Unfortunately, that's not very much offense. Alston: B-. Could sorely use Battier's discretion with his shot, too often being an Antoine Walker volume shooter. To be fair, his coach is the one telling him to keep firing them up. Unappreciated ballhandling, thievery (1.57/game), and was excellent at feeding the post. Hayes: B+. Hard to have on the floor if you're struggling to score, but his nose for the ball and off-ball movement is borderline game-changing if others are drawing attention from the defense. Superb back cuts and hustle. Howard: B. Rose his game in Jan/Feb with Yao out, and was hardly the contract albatross that he's considered to be. Head: B. Nailed a blistering hot 44% from the outside, but offered little else. His inability to feed a 7-6 presence in the post has to be upsetting. Mutumbo: B+. Offered a surprisingly strong season, grabbing 6.5 boards and swatting a block in 17 mpg. Most teams would kill for that from a 25 mpg back up big. The rest of the team didn't play enough for me to worry about rating. The Playoffs: JVG: B-. Essentially kept the ship straight, not giving into panic moves but also prodding the team for needed changes. McGrady: B-. Showed brilliance in all 3 wins, and averaged 25 for the series, but often had terrible halves, shot poorly from the outside, and will be deservedly dogged for not leading the team with a refuse to lose attitude. Yao: B-. Struggled as much as McGrady, but with more of an excuse as he was burdened with mauling defenders and referees that permitted it. Still, he must develop to where no one can stop him, legally or no. Battier: B-. Production was nearly identical to his regular season. Slightly raised his game on D, but not on offense. Alston: C-. Shooting somehow managed to get worse, turnovers increased slightly, and assists dropped slightly. Still, it would be extraordinarily difficult to blame the series on him. Hayes: C+. Went back and forth between brilliant games and eggs. Howard: D. Game 3 was the only exception to an upsettingly miserable series. Head: D-. When you only do one thing well, it's not pretty when it's out to lunch. Mutombo: INC. Received next to no playing time.
Reg Season Report Van Gundy- B+ McGrady- A Yao- A Alston- C Howard- C+ Battier- B- Head- B Mutombo- B Hayes- B Snyder- C- Jake T. - C Scrubville (V-Span,Lucas, Novak, Bonzi)- F
get off his nuts man. mavs fans are probably grading avery VERY poorly, and they should. and LOL @ using 4th place COY as an excuse. just because the media votes a certain way doesn't make it true. ask dirk. that said, jvg did a great job in the regular season, i'd give him an A just for the wins we had without yao, but he gets an F for developing players and motivation, which are most crucial in the postseason, which just so happens to be the only season that matters, so jvg get's a C or D overall. i think he's a great guy, but he is not the right coach for this team. period.
JVG - B he's a good coach, a great defensive coach but a horrible offensive coach and unable to adjust during or b/t games. but he's a determined guy and our guys listen to him tmac - B+ the ONLY reason we made the playoffs. yao went out 32 games and if u saw from the playoffs, we actually over-achieved w/ this supporting cast. it's amazing what tmac did. but he didn't deserve an A b/c he did shoot a lot of jumpers, and looked lethargic and old at times. he needs to use this offseason to improve his strength & stamina, plus IMPROVE THAT JUMPER yao - A for reg. season; C for playoffs. i'm sorry, he was great in the reg. season. but in the playoffs, he had good stats, but for a center who is supposedly the one of a top 5 big man to shoot under 50%, doesn't draw a double team after game 2, can't grab a board, provides no intimidation in the lane... it's very frustrating. he's a great player and the best center, but being the best at that position is nothing to be marvelled at. he was exposed of ALL his weaknessses in the playoffs. utah did not fear yao one bit and that's a disconerting thing to see. rest - B => good reg. season. they overachieved. D in playoffs. just pathetic. just pathetic. yao and tmac combined for 50 pts and the rest for 37??? u kidding me right? where's the help for our duo?
Ok, I'll play too. But as a preface, let me state that grades will correspond to both play on the court and size of contract. Van Gundy - B+ Motivated an injury decimated team and reached 52 wins and home court advantage. Helped TMac play some of the most unselfish ball of his career and got the most out of aging veterans Deke and JHo. Unfortunately, given the injury situation, he was not able to develop a bench which ultimately caught up with him in the playoffs. Tracy McGrady - B+ Played some of the most unselfish basketball of his career reaching a high in assists. Played through "back problems" and kept the team more than competitive during Yao's absence. However, a reluctance to play strong defense and drive to the hole on offense cost him his best chance at the second round. Yao Ming - Pre-injury A- - Post injury B- Dominated early in the season showing a new quickness and an ability to spin around many opponents. Absolutely scored at will and showed flashes of being able to dominate on the defensive end as well. Yet with these strides, the post-injury Yao was only dominant on the offensive end and became a major liability on the defensive. So much so, that in the critical point of a playoff game, he had to be substituted for by Chuck Hayes. How much speed Yao will get back during the off season will be vital for a post season run next year. Shane Battier - A He was who we thought he was. A great competitor who brought the d anytime asked. His three point shooting was excellent and his intensity for hustle plays was extremely important to this team. The only knock on Shane is his reluctance to assume more responsibility on the offensive end. With a solid post game, Battier could have eased the load a bit on his teammates in the playoffs. Chuck Hayes - B+ For an undrafted free agent, Chuck Hayes was a god send. Making up for Yao's lack of speed and showing a great prowess at rebounding, Chuck played well enough to earn himself a starting spot on a very good team. Hayes also worked diligently to improve his finishing at the rim which worked well with Mac's prolific passing. The negative was that Chuck often found himself in early foul trouble and his lack of shooting touch was exploited in the playoffs in a very Ryan Bowen fashion. Rafer Alston - C Much was asked of this one time streetballer, and some of those questions were answered. Rafer did the best he could with limited talent, and ran heavy minutes all year long due to the lack of a legitimate back up point guard. Given his position on the team, Rafer was asked to shoot often and he rarely hesitated. This is not a good thing. As has been heavily documented, Rafer's poor shooting is one of, if not the main, reason this team was and is limited as far as playoff potential go. Additionally, Rafer was frequently exploited on the defensive end as well. While I do still believe that Rafer can be a starting point guard on a championship team, I'd rather not be in the position to see it. Luther Head - C- Showed tremendous shooting touch and an ability to knock down clutch three's in the regular season. Then failed miserably in his first shot at the post season. Defense was sub-standard all year long and looked lost as a two guard in a point guards body. His biggest problem was the inability to handle backup pg duties as well as having trouble guarding point's or shooting guards. Long will live my nightmares of watching Luther match up with Cryelinko in the playoffs. Juwan Howard - C- While JHo played well in Yao's absence, his albatross like contract and inability to outplay an undrafted free agent should probably net him a D. His playoff disappearance was great enough to get a series of books modeled after Waldo. They are just waiting on the striped shirts and thick glasses. Bonzi Wells - F- Dude, you let your agent talk you out of a multi year deal, watched your value drop to nothing and instead of proving doubters wrong, you went and hit the bong. Say hi to Kelvin Cato for me.
JVG - B+ Starters Tracy McGrady - Reg Season: A- Post Season: B- Tracy was great in the regular season in that he stepped up and led the team when Yao went down. One of his best seasons for sure. However, I really didn't see that much passion or fire from him during the playoffs. He stepped up for some of the games, but in others, there was a severe lack of intensity. Yao Ming - Reg Season: B+ Post Season: B- Was a little more difficult to rate Yao because he was so frustrating to watch in the playoffs. I gave a more forgiving grade though as Yao should not have been defending Boozer. However, he was playing at an MVP level for the first two months before he went down with his injury. If Yao hadn't broken his foot and continued to play at the same level, I would rate him an A for the regular season. Shane Battier - A- We need to keep Shane. Chuck Hayes - B+ Will make a great backup. Need to find a stronger, taller, and quicker PF to start. Alston - C Pass. Get a new starting PG and if Alston is good, he can play backup. Bench Head - B Another frustrating player to watch. He can be great on offense when he's on fire, but his lack of consistency makes me wonder. Also needs to play better D. Mutombo - B+ Still an awesome backup Howard - B- Not much to say about him. Same player.
JVG: B. Great coach for a veteran team. So focused on winning now though that he hasn't developed assets for the future. McGrady: A-. He gets a little ding for taking and missing a bunch of jumpers with the series on the line. Otherwise, what's not to like? Yao: A-. Been great. May have not been heroic in the playoffs, but was very good. Gotta give some credit to the Jazz defense. Battier: B. As good a teammate as he is, he perhaps likes his "glue-guy" identity too much, and doesn't take a more dominating role. If you had a team with 12 Battiers, you wouldn't win a single game. One is the right number. But, you have to think he can do more than he's doing. Alston: B-. Great floor manager. If he could shoot a lick, we'd be a lot better. JVG, CD and Morey get half the credit for his shortcomings though, since they put him in the position of being the 3rd scorer. If someone else had that role, Alston would look a lot better than he does. Hayes: A-. Given the expectations, how can he not come out with a good grade? But, given that he is a starter, it'd be nice if he had some offense, so he gets a little ding. Howard: B-. A better year for him, but I feel like he should be doing better than he is, given his pedigree and salary. Head: B+. That we expected so much of him even though he was a late-first-round soph is telling of how well he's played. He crumbled badly in the playoffs though. Mutumbo: A. Saved our asses when Yao went down. Wells: D. He doesn't get an F only because I know he is a good player; he was just in a bad fit. Plus, he didn't try very hard. Snyder: B. He should have gotten a lot more playing time. If not for the Wells experiment, he probably would have and may have been a good contributor in the playoffs. Spanoulis: C. There's a temptation to give him an incomplete, but too often he looked glaringly bad in the opportunities he did get. He doesn't get a worse grade simply because he's a rookie and I have hope for the future. Lucas: C+. See Spanoulis. Novak: B. His famous shooting never really showed up, but I never expected much from him. We knew going in that he didn't really have skills besides shooting, and I knew that his shooting would take a dive as he got used to the NBA. So, he did well compared to my expectations of him. Unfortunately, he doesn't get much grade inflation from potential, because I don't think he'll amount to much in the NBA. Tsakalidis: B. Didn't see the court much, but he did better than I expected in a couple of outings. He may be worth keeping around as a second-string center (if we get someone athletic at the 4).
