I hope Chance can, it is really a must-hear. I remember listening to the JVG show in the past over the internet from teh audio vault. So Chance, if you are listening, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post the JVG show from today online, or at least the part at the very end of the show where JVG slams Weisbrod. Thanks
I heard most of the show. The book the caller asked JVG about I think was given to last years team, not this one. Anyway, the name of it was "From Good to Great", and JVG was talking about(from the book) how sometimes being good can even be a hindrance to a player if he remains satisfied with that level, and doesn't want to pay the price to take that step to "great". Sounded like it would be a very good read, and JVG must really believe in it's content/principles to give it to the whole team. I was suprised how he tore into Weasel-brod. What he was actually doing was defending his fellow coach(now ex-coach) Johnny Davis. He said that he didn't think JD should have been fired, and that if you want to get into who was actually responsible for the sub-par effort lately/this year that Weisbrod should look to himself instead, because he made 2 highly questionable trades(or at least the results). The host asked if JVG meant the T-Mac, and Mobley trades, and he said yes. He said that when Weisbrod said the Cat trade was done for cap purposes it was bull because they could have simply played out the year, and let him walk. He was asked about his input into CD's trades this year, and talked about how CD would never do anything without his input, and vice-versa, because they are always talking about the team, and what's best, or will improve it. And that no quality gm would trade for players the coach didn't believe in. He said he will start Spoon most of the time now because he wanted his strength, and defense against the oppositions starting pf(usually the top frontcourt scorer). And that also lets Padgett get a good amount of his minutes against the backup 4's. He was asked about a signing a fa, and said they are looking into it, and if there is someone that they feel "fits" the team, and could help(either on the court or even in practice) they would do it. He was also talking about how hard trades are for him, because when you ask all he does of his players in his system, and then to decide later that you need to replace them with someone else for the betterment of the team, it was just hard to do for him. That last part increased my respect for him when I heard it.
I'm going to see if Jeremy will have John and Lance replay the segment tomorrow on the morning show. I split it into two parts and dropped it into the audio vault here at the station, so it's in the system and ready to go on the air if they want to play it. Simply put, JVG layed the SMACK down...
I only heard the last 10 min but that was enough.WOW!! Can anyone recall a coach actually calling out a GM so publicy? I'm not so sure it's a good idea, but I agree with him completely on the issue. Johnny Davis may be a below average coach, but Weisbrod totally messed up the Magic with the two trades and by signing Turkey Glue to a big contact. Candor is good, especially from coaches, many of whom waste your time with safe coachspeak all the time. But too much of a good thing can be bad.
I would have loved to hear Weisenbutt get smacked by Van Gumby. The only time he gets too outspoken, imo, is when he's talking about his players. He can go overboard doing that. He couldn't say anything too bad about that idiot running the Magic. I feel sorry for Francis, having to play for the fool. Mobes was lucky. Thanks for any and all recaps, folks!
Normally I might agree with you because it might hurt trade relations with a team down the road. In this case, I think JVG is smart enough to know that: a. He would never work for an ass like Weisbrod, and b. Weisbroad will probably be out of basketball sooner than later
He has already called out Portlands' GM about Cheeks. Because he was involved in a trade with Weisbrod VG's comments are going to sound pretty crass but it is the absolute truth. Weisbrod let it get personal with TMac and is going to pay with his job. He traded Mobley to "get through" to Francis. He is so lucky that Hill is healthy this year or he would already be on a pike pole in front of Disney World. VG is bullet proof right now and is even raising his value as a color commentator through the roof. This is on a par with something Walton would say. More power to the guy. I wonder what Stevie thinks about all this now.
Man this had to be the lame part. but here's what i got. next time I'll try to get the whole show and just post the good parts. Rich: Life is good right now as the coach of the Houston Rockets, can I at least say that? JVG: Oh you can say whatever you like! (laughter) I mean I may not say that but you may Lord: well how do you feel about it? JVG: you know how it is in the NBA, it changes from good to bad and bad to good and the only thing I keep trying to sell to our team is that in our approach and attitude is right we can beat anybody anywhere at anytime and if there’s any change in our approach and attitude - anybody can beat us anywhere anytime so much of it has to do with your mental approach and readiness and uh that’s why you have to stay on top of it. question: Coach we talked to you after the shoot around yesterday and you expressed some concern about the teams intensity and approach at the shoot around but you also noted that it can change over the course of the afternoon, were you happy with the way they played in that respect come game time against Portland? JVG: I was.. I was impressed by our energy and intensity and our readiness to play that game and to sustain that throughout the course of the game and like you said it wasn’t correct at 10 30 in the morning I think our players recognized that and they made the adjustment and came ready and gave the respect that each opponent deserves, you come in and try to not give respect to an opponent and it will come back an haunt you so I was proud of our team for that. Lord: well nice win last night on the heels of a perfect road trip and hey winning games at seattle phoenix sacramento and golden state obviously its all good there’s no negative there but do you believe that part of the benefit of winning games like that is to plant perhaps a future seed of doubt, I mean the Sonics, the suns, event the Kings, teams you might run into the playoffs they now know you can beat ‘em in their building is that a factor at all do you think from and intangible standpoint? JVG: I don’t think so I think uh in particularly the case of Sacramento and Phoenix, they were missing key guys like shawn marion and brad miller so..but also I don’t believe that… I think its more gotta do with our beliefs in ourselves , that belief that it creates, not a seed of doubt in an opponent. So I feel like our team right now knows that we can play with anyone but it takes our best because our margin of error is smaller than most teams. Question: Coach how about the kind of early returns - after the juwon howard injury - on Clarence weather spoon and scott Padgett and how you thought they perform at filling in that #4 spot? JVG: well obviously over the course of the last few months had been our most consistent rebounded, he was playing very well to compliment Yao in that he could make the 18ft shot, he was giving us second chance opportunities, his work in transition defense and on the pick and roll really were subtle - not statistical - things that help us function well. But I have every belief that Clarence and scott can play effectively, I know we will get their very best . Clarence is going to be more of a defender /rebunder , Scott more of a offensive rebounded and spread the floor with his shooting ability and so while they’re different from Juwan hopefully we can still have the same success that we had when Juwan was playing at a very high level. Lord: You had Vin Baker out on the floor for just limited minutes last night, is there any indication that he can help you out at that spot? JVG: Well I haven’t had much of a chance to really evaluate him, we obviously been in a busy part of our schedule so that we havent had as much practice time as maybe earlier in the year and certainly I’m not going to change our rotation if we continue to be successful. Vin’s got to learn more and find a level of intensity that will allow him to be successful on the court and once he becomes an expert on what we do and how we do it that’ll give him his best opportunity if he does get a chance to play effectively. Lord: and starting Clarence weather spoon effectively allows you to keep the rotation intact off the bench coorect? JVG: correct and I feel.. We’re comfortable starting Clarence because clarences strength is post defense and rebounding and when your starting your obviously playing against usually the best frontcourt scorer then it allows Scott to play a majority of his minutes against backups.. question: Is there a possibility coach or even a likelihood that somebody else will be brought in somewhere along the way uh kind of a street free agent to help kinda feel out the roster and maybe give you some minutes? JVG: its possible. We have to find the right guy that we feel can actually help us whether it be practice, games, whatever. But if we find somebody we think can help us, we know our position right now playoff wise, we can move up, we can move back, nothings assured so if we can find somebody that can help us certainly we’d look at that very strongly. Caller: one question or statement I want to make first is that I’ve never really been a coach van gundy guy, never been in his corner too much especially after the championships in the mid early 90’s. you know it took me awhile to warm up to his style of coach and also to see what he’d to the rockets, I just want to let him know he’s won over my respect, he’s done a great job and my question would be what can he do or what can the coaching staff do to improve Yao Mings presence in the center, to really come in and be more of a physical type player and does he really think Yao is going to be the presence shaq is in the coming years? JVG: well again I think its.. First of all to expect Yao to be a physical presence would be going against what type of player he is. He’s a presence but you don’t have to be the strength of Oneal to have an impact on the game. I think the greatest disservice people do to Yao is when they mention Yao in the same breath they mention Oneal. Shaquille Oneal is one of the top ten impact players to ever play in the NBA and if your going to coach or youre going to compare him with Yao - Yao is going to come up short. Yao has not accomplished what shaq has , now does that mean he can never win as much as Oneal has? It’d be a challenge certainly but that doesn’t mean he can’t do it. But I just think it does a disservice to everyone involved when the only person anyone wants to compare Yao too is to Oneal so I think we’re better served just trying to maximize Yao and his talent versus whether he measures up to Shaquile Oneal. Lord: coach what specific improvements do you see in Yao since you came aboard last season? JVG: I think he has worked very diligently in his conditioning, I think when he gets the ball in the pain the is a extremely efficient post player, he is one of the best fourth quarter shooters that there is in the NBA. I think he’s improved through his hard work his ability in defensive transition and his ability to defend the pick and roll. I think he has areas he still needs to continue to work on, we’d love to get his turnovers down, we’d love to have him make better decisions on when to foul and when not to uh the timing to block shots versus use your body to get fouls called on you. And I think finally we’d love him to again stay on the floor for more minutes which is an issue of foul trouble and of continued work on his conditioning. question: Coach one of the questions or criticisms about Yao is aggressivness or at least on the surfaces with what seems to be a competitive fire uh especially on this past road trip and really over the last month or two we’ve seen more of that, is that trending the way you want it to be? JVG: well again Yao by nature is laid back and mild mannered he’s not a rough and tough with a bully mentality that’s just not who he is but what is often overlooked is yao is an extremely hard worker, he’s totally team oriented, and he’s got great poise and disposition and I think those characteristics are often overlooked when all anyone wants to talk about is how mean Yao is, I think that overlooks many qualities that Yao has that go directly to being a very very good nba basketball player.
You da man, TS That pretty much sums up the first half or so of the show. The second half was much more interesting though
Weisbrod is a hockey guy caught up in a NBA world. He has noone to blame but himself, JD was just a scapegoat. How do you combat Franchise's high TOs? by giving the ball to a rookie PG, excellent idea! Whats that? Trade Cat for a veteran PG? Oh no, we needed Christie to fill up that empty IL spot.
Couldn't agree more! Part of the package with trading for Francis is to realize his strengths/weaknesses and attempt to put make him respond positively to a challenge, not seperate him from his best buddy and then come up with a lame-ass execuse about how you did it because you weren't going to sign him (I like how JVG called him out on his reasoning for this trade) Weisass will be Weisass, Francis will leave him and go elsewhere and hopefully play well for another team that actually fits him. I knew this relationship would be doomed from the first day, because Weisass thought he could mold Francis into something he is not, and SF3 just seems to not give a damn anymore.
Tell me, what type of team fits Francis? As talented as he is, when you look at the 3 situations he's been in (Rudy, JVG, Orlando), he's never adapted his game to the benefit of the team. I don't think he gets it yet because he is too stubborn. Don't misunderstand me: I don't blame him for the Magic meltdown. But it seems many of their hard core fans have already turned on him for the exact same reasons many in Houston did. They are even talking about how his trade value is "diminished" but they need to let him go and build the future around D Howard, Jameer Nelson and Turkey Glue. (D Howard is gonna be a monster!) One of these years, Steve will get it and realize the team itself, and making his teammates better, is more important than his own personal game fulfillment. I'm glad T-Mac seems to get it, and the Rox are better off for it.
Franchise is not a pure PG, for him to flourish, as I've said many times before, the ball needs to be in the hands of a veteran "big" PG like Eric Snow. Franchise's numbers would go through the roof if he didn't have to constantly try to force his SG mentality into a PG role
I don't get why people seem to think SF will do so much better as a 2 versus a 1. Because of AI? AI is more talented than Francis will ever be, on both ends of the court. Francis is a terrible spot up shooter, bad decision maker, and often gets caught up in the game too much versus understanding what his team needs. All a "veteran big PG" will do is give him the ball to dribble on the wing versus the top of the key. Francis still has to do the stutter step before he shoots to get in rhythm. As far-fetched as this may seem, IMO Francis career is on the decline now. I just can't see any system that he'd flourish in.
This board were talking about Francis' diminishing trade value through out last year. And what happened? Francis landed us T-Mac! I mean there are always suckers around the NBA who are prepared to buy the bridge at the fifth avenue. Francis landed Yao and T-Mac for this ball club. I appreciated him for that! I'd say the Magics should send Francis to the Knicks while Isiah is still the GM of that team. Francis deserves a big market like the NYC.
