Nachbar got almost no minutes at all under Rudy. JVG was the first to give him significant minutes. He didn't exactly take the world by storm in his minutes. The whole JVG hates Nachbar angle is pure fantasy. Ward was a cheap $2 million stopgap when CD traded the entire backcourt. Weatherspoon was acquired in exchange of the great Moochie Norris and I believe Spoon ended up contributing more. Ryan Bowen got 10 minutes a game or less under JVG-- and was fairly effective in these minutes the first year. The second year he was ineffective and eventually lost even his 10 mpg despite injury issues to the rest of the team. Alston played not because of "personality" but because JL3, Head, and Spanoulis all SUCK at being PG. SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK. Get it through yoru head. It's not that complicated. This entire "JVG plays favorite players" angle is a made up fantasy passed on through generations of idiot fans who don't look at actual facts and in-game performance. Some among this group probably still thinks Spanoulis has a chance to dominate in SA.
I'm still impressed at how much this team achieved under JVG. Its a fact that he didn't have a lot to work with, at least, compared to what Adelman will have in his first season here. I'd be willing to give Jeff another shot if the Rox don't get 60 wins this year.
hmm this thread has sidetracked pretty quickly... Scola is a good pick-up.. he's gonna do wonders for us as our starting power forward [unless we get someone better than him]
Get it through your head carl herrera...JVG sucks... No other team really wants him.... he will not even come close to comparing with Rick Adelman.... Its not about spanoulis... True , Spanoulis was a big mistake but JVG was an even bigger mistake. It is not about how cheap those players were, it is about who was the principal influence behind that decision. Did weatherspoon really contribute that much? It is an uncontroverted fact that those were JVG's boys under new york and he was even proposing that rockets make a move to acquire Sprewell. JVG never played at a high level that is why he has such a narrow understanding of how the game is played... compared to Adelman who has the playing experience to back up his coaching skills. Basketball is game of theory and practice.. JVG was a pure theoretician who has no practical knowledge and flexibility to succeed in the playoffs. Don't give me that crap that he played pointguard in college... anyone on this board could probably beat JVG one on one as a player.
JVG is a very good coach. How can you correlate his lack of playing experience with his coaching abilities? Ask any team around the league, and they will say that JVG is a very good coach. If he wanted to, I think he can get a head coaching job anywhere. And noone on this messageboard is better than JVG as a coach. Not even close. Give JVG some deserved credit. It's not fair to say JVG is junk. He is a very very good coach. Yao and T-Mac will agree 100%.
I knew it was CD who wanted to give JVG a home by bringing in all old Knicks scrubs. I'd give JVG another shot if Adelman can not get 80 wins next season. Everybody loves JVG. SF, Cat, Boki, Vspan.......and Les love him more.
JVG played Division 3 college ball and shot .58% from the field in his college career. It's not Duke or Michigan State, but it's something. Of course, it's too much to expect idiots like you to actually check the facts.
Jeff Van Gundy will take a year off out of his own volition, not because nobody wants him. Rick Adelman similarly took a year off last season. But apparently he doesn't suck and does not compare with Van Gundy. Again, realitiy based reasoning obviously is not a strong suit for you. Maybe you need some help? http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/
if you can't attack the merits of the argument you resort to calling other fans idiots. Name-calling is what people who cannot grasp rhetoric resort to. Forgive us if we don't think highly of you or you're boyfriend JVG as well as your idol Carl Herrera.
great move if Scola really go to NBA i still think we would have a bit less problem on PF if we drafted Splitter anyway, scola > splitter so... great move
In argumentation , you disagree without being disagreeable Mr. Herrera wannabe. But since thats the way you argue... might as well join you. Sorry if you're boyfriend JVG got offended.
I was saying it is highly incredible that JVG did much as a player. His player credentials have a direct causal relation with the way he coaches.
God have mercy on my soul... a thread on Scola has degenerated into infighting between fellow Rockets fans (I believe) on JVG. Can't everyone get along?
And what relation might there be between playing career and the way a coach coaches? What is your theory and how does your theory apply to the following current or former head coaches: JVG SVG Flip Saunder Pat Riley Magic Johnson Rudy T Greg Popovich Larry Brown John Lucas? Explain.
Well it is quite simple Mr. Herrera. the main difference between the practical coach and the theoretician, is the latter focuses on rigid concepts and forces his players to adopt to his system, while the former has more flexibility and practical knowledge to think out of the box. The former points out to his players their mistakes and allows them to correct it, while the theoretician ends up being a control freak. Practical knowledge can be acquired either through experience or through a very perceptive and observative learner. Some coaches who do well but who admittedly did not have much playing experience, did well nonetheless because they gained practical knowledge and used this to their advantage. I submit that JVG did not have enough practical knowledge to make adjustments in the playoffs. What I submitted was the general rule which is that it is more advantageous to have a coach that has had player experience at the professional level because he has first hand look at things in the professional level rather than being from the outside looking in. Add to that the fact that basketball is a game of adjustments, a confluence of events, turning points, and breaks of the game can spell the difference between winning and losing which is why we need a coach who recognizes what is happening on the floor. In the playoffs, we sorely needed guard penetration, but JVG seemed clueless about it. He continued playing rafer , ( his personal favorite) who's only move going into the lane is a lame floater that is worse that his outside shot. On the other hand, coaches like Avery Johnson, ( and now Rick Adelman) recognized quickly the importance of guard penetration that is why pointguards like darrell armstrong , devin harris continually took it strong to the hole. Note the emphasis Rick Adelman is putting on acquiring guards who can take it to the rim. Guard penetration is essentially what has brought championships to San Antonio... although Tim Duncan is also a big part of it. Pat Riley, Larry Brown, Greg Poppovic , even Magic Johnson know the importance of guard penetration, that is why they design plays for Dwade, Rip Hamilton, Manu Ginobili, et. al. to take it hard to the basket rather than living and dying with the three point shot. As i said, it is a general rule that a coach who did well as a player is much more likely to do well as a coach because he naturally understands the game better . As it is a general rule it is of course subject to exceptions.
Anyway, my profuse apologies to you Carl Herrera if you were offended by any remarks against JVG. We are all rockets fans.... but it was very frustrating to lose against the Jazz last year. Tmac even shed a few tears because he sincerely believed the team could do better. I sincerely believe our team can do better under different coaching and player recruitment. Scola will hopefully contribute to the betterment of this team.
But see IMO what really happened doesn't wash with what you stated here. Why? Because Nachbar was injured almost the entire year under Rudy. Or did you forget that? He had a very severe hernia and when he finally got off the injured list he was only about 60% healthy. Nachbar confirmed that himself and said he didn't really have the health to play much. It wasn't until he was healthy under JVG that playing time became an issue with him. But that's not even comparable to Spanoulis. Nachbar was behind McGrady and Jim Jackson. Who was Spanoulis behind? Rafer Alston (who had the worst season of any starting point guard in th league) and John Lucas III (a 3rd stringer on any NBA team), and Luther Head (he simply is a 6-3 185 pound SG with zero PG skills - he's actually the worst of the 4 point guards without any debate if he is actually forced to play PG). Sure enough JVG forced Head to play PG, no matter how bad it got, he kept sticking to it. Even though Head almost always played worse there than Spanoulis ever did, as far when Head was forced to play PG. So right there we have several inconsistencies with how you state JVG formulated play time. Another is JVG's constant harping about playing players based on defense. Well all year long the stats on defense showed Spanoulis was fare superior to Head and Lucas. So right there we have a big inconsistency from JVG. He either is simply lying about how he handles PT, or if he is not, then he is setting a double standard for Spanoulis only. How any fan could miss this is beyond me, or do the vast majority simply refuse to even let that come into any discussion because they all know it is the one thing that proves JVG treated Spanoulis differently? You say that Alston played because the other point guards "sucked so bad," the word sucked seems the favorite of fans in this forum to describe anything that might force a debate over how the coach handled the team. Well again that makes little to no sense to me IF that is really the case. The reason being Alston's season was absolutely horrible. I do think Alston could possibly at his best have the potential be about 20-25 in NBA point guards playing under Adelman's offensive system because everyone suffers stats wise and efficiency wise on offense under Van Gundy. It seems a lot of fans simply refuse to own up to that. But Van Gundy's whole career supports it. But Alston under Van Gundy was last year, and I say this with firm conviction, THE WORST STARTING POINT GUARD IN THE NBA. He maintained amazing consistency and efficiency, it was quite a feat actually the way he managed to keep his throne as the worst starting point guard in the NBA from opening night through the end of the Rockets playoff season, without even once skipping a beat. I find it an EXTREME leap of faith in JVG's media words to actually believe that throughout this whole time Spanoulis never once during any week of play in practice did not in earn the spot over Alston. Because if that is in fact true, then Dean Cooper, Dennis Lindsey, Carroll Dawson, Daryl Morey, and Rick Adelman are the worst talent evaluators in the NBA. They all seem convinced Spanoulis can play well in the NBA. But if he could never once throughout the entire year even earn a little play time against Alston in practice, during the season that Alston set major precedents for maintaining being the worst starter in the league at his position for the whole season, then all of those professional talent evaluators are wrong. And again, never mind that as I stated earlier, JVG always claimed he based PT much on defense, as in who defended the best and who helped the team most on D when in the game. Well ALL YEAR long Spanoulis was shown by all defensive stats to be far superior to Head and Lucas on D. In fact Spanoulis showed a plus effect on D, while both Head and Lucas were simply terrible all year on D, they could not guard anyone literally all year long. Was JVG simply having an out of body experience when looking at the defensive numbers when it pertains strictly to who gets PT at backup PG? Was he lying about how he actually handles PT? Or did he simply decide that Spanoulis was in the proverbial dog house no matter what actually happened in practice or no matter how poor the players manning the 48 minutes at PG were performing? There were a couple of stretches during the year when Alston and Head were nothing short of embarrassing they played so poorly at PG. Now to actually defend JVG when someone points out he played Ryan Bowen more than Nachbar, or that Alston played 37.1 MPG during an absolutely dreadful season for him, it quite frankly doesn't make much sense to me. It just seems like it's real easy to just take the opinion that JVG never made a mistake with rotation decisions and anyone suggesting he may have, just doesn't get that so and so just "really suck." Sure that argument might actually hold water if we were not talking about Rafer Alston and Ryan Bowen here. I cannot imagine fans of any other team defending a head coach so fervently, based on what is actually being debated here.
