Bullsh-t. People cite Mutumbo and Howard and Battier and you say "well they're veterans so we can't give him credit for that" - then you take a NBA refuse pile scrub like Padgett (similarly a veteran), who is at the end of the line, and injury prone troublemaker like Wells (also a veteran by any measure), and you use that as ammo for your argument. Inconsistent - and not to mention stupid. Oh, and if you think Head is not "developing", I don't know what you call his measurable improvement from this season to last. Go off and join Old Man Rock and Amel and DaDakota, your table for three is waiting where you can dream lustily of Spanoulis and Novak, the two shining it boys of the moment, and dine on second-round draft pick, diamond in the rough souffle. Bon appetit!
just so i get this straight, you're trying to discredit van gundy because of dekes' OFFENSE !?! of course ten times better is hyperbole. the point is the man is 41 years old and is playing like a spry 25 year-old, something nobody in the league could have predicted a few years back and something deke didn't look like he had left in him when we aquired him.
It was all about Yao instead of his own back? If so, why did he rest for a few games then? I can understand TMac's differing to Yao, but I didn't see any connection between his poor play early in the season with Yao as the leader. So, ther are basiclly 2 possibilities: 1. There was no back problem for Tmac, which is unlikely imo. 2. He is making excuses for his early poor performance. Either way, I don't like this. I just want him to step up like a real man, play the best no mather Yao is on court or not. Stop those talking, walk it!
Luther Head and Chuck Hayes are both exceeding any reasonable expectations, considering they're 2nd-year players who weren't exactly high-draft picks (in Chuck's case, undrafted). Novak is a second round rookie who only does one thing well -- shoot wide open jumpers. He's below average or absolutely terrible at everything else. Blaming the coach on him not becoming a steady contributor within his first 3 months as a pro is just nonsensical. Same with Spanoulis. It's not like he's the second coming of Leandro Barbosa or Manu Ginobili. He has some talent, but like most European players it will take him some time to become a productive NBA player. He was given a good opportunity to prove his worth when Snyder was injured. He played well for a couple games, then crapped out afterwards. He's young and unaccustomed to the NBA style of play, so that wasn't exactly unexpected. As for JVG not "developing" Scott Padgett -- that's so laughable it's not even worth discussing. And Bonzi Wells, ugh. Let's see, he comes to camp overweight and with a bad attitude from the first day. In his first couple games early in the season, he sucked big time. Terrible conditioning and just totally out of sorts. He's told to shape up, and he continues to pout like a baby. Rockets win in his absense. Finally, he realizes he's throwing away his future as an NBA player with his act, and he decides to give being a team player a shot. He's given plenty of opportunities to prove his worth to the team the next few weeks, has a couple nice moments, but in general plays like crap and isn't doing a hell of a whole lot to help the team win. Now he's out with an injury (bad back) -- those kind of things tend to happen when you don't commit to being in shape. Clearly that's all JVG's fault. If he was "developed" correctly, he'd be playing great right now.
