I'm sorry I did not read your entire post. As for the GM well, IMO, I think you will get you want as Daryl Morey takes the reins after this season. I honestly don't think it was JVG's idea to start Hayes in the beginning of the season. Plus Morey, I believe, had a lot to do with the young'ins in Boston.
If indeed there was a mandate or even a request sent down from the FO to Van Gundy to play him some minutes, I cannot imagine that sitting well with Van Gundy and I can see it becoming a sticking point in retaining him as coach. I really think one reason that Van Gundy hasn't signed an extension yet is because he is looking for more leverage into player personnel decisions and from the FO side, they may be evaluating how much development the coach has given the team. In my opinion, I don't understand what VSpan needs to do or not to do to warrant a few more minutes. And I don't quite understand how bad for how long that Rafer and Luther have to play to warrant giving a younger, developing player a few minutes. At some point you reach crossover where the on court performance of the players playing has to cross downward through the inexperience of a bench warmer with potential. In my opinion, there have been several games during this season where that point has been reached, including last night's debacle, when Rafer, Luther, and Shane were all throwing the ball away like crazy. You bench a guy for a high turnover rate, well why would you accept that out of your regulars, not to mention your starters???? VSpan did get 9 minutes, but 6 minutes were in the first half when he played as well or better than any other player on our team. He was rewarded with 3 lousy minutes in the 2nd half and we went back to the other guys trying to throw the ball over the top to Yao over and over again only to get it stolen or fumbled out of bounds. To me, our offense is fatally flawed and the problem has not been rectified all season. Even Van Gundy keeps saying, if you are going to be a championship team, you have to do everything well. Well, the one area that we do not do well in is penetrating and finishing at the rim. We are one of the poorest teams in the league at it. Our shooting has been good enough. We may complain about Rafer's shooting and wished it was better. If it were, we would have about 7-8 more wins than we do right now but we would still be one of the worst teams in the league in finishing at the rim. So, if you are going to fix something, you gotta fix it. If you can't get Rafer to penetrate and finish and you can't get Luther to penetrate and finish, then you'd better be looking around and finding somebody to develop that can penetrate and finish. Either that or make a trade for somebody that can penetrate and finish. Because that is a skill that is needed in balance with shooting on any championship team. That's why in my opinion, the winner of the East, whether it be Detroit or Miami, is going to make a serious run at the winner of the West. Because both of those teams have the ability to get to the rim and finish with the best of teams. And in my opinion, if either one of those teams goes up against Dallas or Phoenix, they have a very good chance of winning because of the flaws in those teams. Dallas has no post presence to speak of and no answer for Shaq and Phoenix does not play effective defense against teams that can both shoot and finish. But San Antonio does everything well. They are the best balanced team and my pick to go to the Finals and meet Detroit or Miami. I still go back to if you are going to do everything well, you've got to find the answers in the regular season. Rafer is not a finisher. Luther is not a finisher. Rafer is a very good ball handler that is a very mediocre spot up shooter in our offense. Luther is an effective spot up shooter that can't handle to save his life. Neither one of them are finishers. On this roster, there are only 3 people besides McGrady that can possibly penetrate and finish, Snyder, Bonzi, and VSpan. And Snyder and Bonzi are not top of the key players. There's only one choice here and if your FO doesn't make a trade to bring you a penetrator/finisher, then you've got to work with what you got. So, if we're gonna have that player this year, on this team, then it has to be VSpan. That's why as soon as the trade deadline passed without a deal, JVG should have been running him out there as often as possible because VSpan needs to develop this year to help us this year. Because our lack of being able to penetrate and finish is going to doom us in the playoffs when teams are overplaying our shooters and doubling 111.
Great post. I wanted to highlight the last line of it since it is the bottom line. JVG said in the chronicle today that the team either needs to hit those 3pt shots when they are doubling Yao or they need to penetrate. That's all well in good but the "personnel" is not set up to penetrate. It is Yao+Tmac and jump shooters (or cutters like Hayes). We dont have the penetrators in the rotation. This has been an ongoing problem for this team the last couple of years and that's someone other than Tmac that can create their own shot on the perimeter and take it to the basket when we are not shooting well.
no, I really have zero "inside info" I am native Houstonian who happens to be Greek and I no many of the folks in direct contact with Span. I was at the game last night (like I am at every game) and spoke with the Greek Consolate about the situation that is all.
Really?!?! Let's test you. Do you know what a Baklava is? If you are Greek surely you must have come across one!! So no excuses.....
It's funny how everyne here who watched the game (I didnt manage to unfortunately) says that Span played a relatively decent game in the context of how the whole of the rockets played. The greek press (that know Span's game better) reports on how he failed to grab his chance and had a bad game and in general are much harsher on him
He did not have a bad game at all, he didn't score, but he set up well, drove the ball into the defense and passed extremely well, and played defense very well..... It was a decent game, and one that should warrant some more time. DD
Spanoulis needs 2 play 10-15 mins in every game not 6-9 mins in every other game or one in 3 games.Then he can show something like that guy DD keeps saying. IMHO he can become a very good NBA player if given a chance.
Ah ok.... Havent read through the entire game thread... I just caught a few posts here and on the game thread where it's mentioned he played "on par" with the rest of the team in a sense... We shall see, I predict he'll probably get a few more 10 min appearances in the next few games... Hopefully he'll use those mins well
Since JVG has him playing the off gaurd than Span needs to get to the hoop and or take a dribble in and shoot an 18 foot shot not a three like Head will do when he is in the game.
From what I saw he still looked like Roadrunner/Speedy Gonzales with his feet, he even got called for travelling. And what exactly are you talking about when you say "extremely"? The only few times he passed was when he was only on the perimeter and passed to another guy on the perimeter. Defense? When someone drove in, Spanoulis was swatting at the ball... I was surprised he didn't get in a fight with that guy.
Did any of you guys watch the game between the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns? Well the Warriors blew the Suns out. What did Nellie do? He basically played 4 guards and one forward and in the first 10 minutes they had built up a 20 pt lead. Jason Richardson basically rained three pointers down on Phoenix's head and the speed and strategy by Don Nelson totally caught the Suns's off guard. Now I will pose the question. Why can't the Rockets do that???!!!???
be careful da dakota, Spanoulis might scratch a toe-nail trying to get over that high bar you set for him. "more nba-ready than Sam Cassell" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
I didnt see the game but the play by play i read mentions 1 TO for a step out of bounds.... Someone who saw the game can point out what the situation was (i.e. if he was trying to keep a lost ball in play and didnt quite manage it , it really doesnt seem bad to me) Also, you say he was swatting the ball and youre surprised he didnt get in a fight... I see no fouls called on him so I dont see how frustrating an opponent to the point of almost fighting and NOT getting a foul called on you is a bad thing .... Regarding the passing, I dont know
