Yes, T-mac must adjust his game to complement Yao, but the rockets are at their best when T-mac the offense. Yao is a great passer for his size but compared to the other great centers who have played before him, he is not. Yao ming struggles to make quick decisions especially on the fly. Ray Allen likes taking jump shots in transition, therefore Yao would have a hard time finding him consistently. Yao must learn how to play with tmac. Yao must learn to catch and finish Mcgrady's passes because he is slowing down the entire game for the team.
If the problem is Rafer not having a backup, whose fault is it? We've had practically all season now to do something about it. Trade deadline came and went, no moves. And we're still rocking along with McGrady is the point guard and Rafer/Head as the quasi spot up shooting guards on offense.
too me... the bench has always been... guys you put in to give your starters a rest... or to wake your starters up(when they are playing bad) losing a lead has always been a given...the bench is there to give our starters a rest... and thats it... you hope they can hang onto the lead... or keep it even... or even keep the others teams lead close if they take it... granted... Dallas, Suns, SA, are stacked teams.... and have bench players who could start on most teams... but thats why our starters are paid the big bucks...
Jeff Van Gandy's famous quote: Most wives understand this: Play too many young guys. Lose. Fired. No income. No shopping." Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, on why his wife is not pressing him to play rookie Steve Novak more. Now you know why we don't have a good bench.
SMH @ all these fools blaming T-Mac for losing games. How quickly everyone forgets what T-Mac did when Yao went down. I don't think we'd have the same results if T-Mac was replaced by a Kobe, Wade or LeBron. He didn't just go out and score, he played good defense, rebounded the ball and got his teammates involved. He put up numbers that only PGs can put up. You can't ask T-Mac to create for his teammates and expect him to score 30+ every night. Seriously, he can't do everything.
A new JVG quote after the playoff: Most wives understand this: Not letting young guys to play. No bench depth. Lose in playoff. Fired. No income. No shopping." Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, on why his wife was not happy about him not playing rookie Steve Novak and V-Span more in regular season.
Seriously, you guys are too negative. We can't win every game in the regular season. Yet, everytime we lose "Oh we suck, Fire JVG". You guys flip flop worse than John Kerry. That being said, our bench is a problem, we don't have that 6th man that is going to score 15 points a game for us. But you know what? We pretty much have the best starting lineup in the league, the best 2 man team in the league. Do we really need a deep bench? The Championship Rockets were in last place in offensive rebounding, yet they still won their titles. You don't need to be first in every statistic to win it all.
yes... we need a bench... our starters cant play 48 minutes a game... thats why this team won't make it to the WCF... did you notice... Utah used their second string players in the second half to kill us... we will be lucky if we take out Utah... but like I have said before... as long as Tmac and Yao put on a good show... we can get some interest in free agents... or players wanting to be traded here...
Larry Bird often complained to the media that the Celtics had no bench. He was right. Who would come in? Walton for a few minutes, Jerry Sichting or Dee Brown? That was about it. DJ, Ainge, Mchale, The Chief and Bird logged HUGE minutes every playoff series. It didn't seem to hurt them too bad. Everyone's rotation in the playoffs is tightened dramatically to usually only 7 players, 8 at the most. Unless it is matchup driven in one particular series, players 9-12 will usually just be cheerleaders for the most part. Playoff games are not back to backs, you aren't travelling as much, these guys can log big minutes, with all the TV timeouts and such. They can do it. That doesn't stop me from agreeing we have no bench. The oldtimers did what they had to when Yao was out, but Deke and JHO look totally gassed right now.
The only reason the negativism is there is because of recurring problems, not because of losing games. We are only the best 2 man team in the league, when both actually play like super stars. I would actually prefer T-mac to be mroe aggressive in driving than being a playmaker. Being a playmaker should be a way for him to give himself more room to operate because it keeps the defenses guessing.
Yeah, VSpan and Novak would really turn this team around with their great decision making and shooting.
The problem we have is: We can not win the game we really really want. Jazz, Suns, Mavs, NewOleans.... Every time when we play games that we really really want to win, our shots always not fall, that's the problem.
Wes -- I won't need a shovel to take a dig at JVG. His decisions to play the first six to exhaustion will lead to a first round exit -- again. I'll be rooting like crazy for the Rockets (as always), but I will be very pleasantly surprised if I am wrong. We are losing both small and large leads in the fourth quarter because the starters are worn out by then. Also, the bench is weaker than it should be because it is under-developed through lack of playing time. Both maladies are directly attributable to JVG's decisions and coaching style.
Inexperienced players stay inexperienced because they don't get to play. No one can become reliable when they haven't had the chance to develop. I'm not saying they are star material, but at least they could be players that are capable of filling in the holes for short periods of time so that our starters get a rest. Its like starting in a new job, and be expected to handle customers and accounts when you don't even know what's going on. Then when they don't perform, you keep them on the sidelines. That is just faulty logic. If you can't get into game shape just by practicing (as JVG claims), there is no way that you can get better without playing in real games. Devin Harris was given the opportunities to play by Avery, and he's become an asset to the team. Boris Diaw has become an effective player since he got an opportunity to play in Phoenix. Jermaine O'neal had to suck it up as a bench warmer in Portland, and then when he got to play in. There are endless examples.
And that's it. Rafer sucks in most of the games. He is not shooting the ball well, he shoots too mach for 3. He realy sucks. But T-Mac is good. Maybe when there is Yao he is not as great, but he passes the ball very well. I think he should take more responsibility, first think "score" than think "pass". And if he improve his % a little bit it will be GREAT.
Exactly, Management has been moronic, and people smash on Novak and Span when the coach took absolutely no time at all to try to develop them. The team makes the same mistakes, and says the same things after every loss. Why is it that someone can't see some changes needed to be made? How many of these guys have really improved as the season goes on? Why is Bonzi just sitting and rotting? Even Snyder hasn't played significant minutes. These things occur every single year and where is the source of all of this?
every player in the league was a rookie once... and you cant learn if your not allowed to make mistakes.... how many points did Kobe score in his first year??? not to cay Vspan or Novak will be (Kobe like) but you really cant judge a player unless you give him consistent minutes in multiple games.. unless you think coming out to play every 5 to 7 games will develop a player
