don't bother bringing up facts. people like to paint the past the way they remember, not the way it happened.
The victor gets to write the history - and those 2 championships were FREAKING INCREDIBLE. So, we are even complaining about the championship years now huh?
hell no! but to say that those rockets teams were playing a brand of basketball way more exciting than this team? I just don't know about that right now. Of course we derived more excitement from them. They won championships. But the pound it down low and let Hakeem operate, was hardly run and gun.
how in the world can a first round exit be exciting and add to that low bench output and the lowest or one of the lowest scored in playoff history.. plus 1st round exit 2 years ago with worst defeat in playoffs..
I dont question Jvg's abillity to coach. He is a great coach. I do think that he is not the right coach for this team anymore. He has taken them as far as he could take them. This reminds me alot of the situation with the pistons the year before they won the title. Rick Carsle did a awesome job and got them to the playoffs but they needed Larry brown to take them to that championship level. Im not saying I want larry brown to coach this team, but similar to rick I think jvg has maxed out all the potential out of this team that he could with his coaching style. It is time for a change.
First of all I think trying to trap and get a steal was a good plan. DWill's FT% was 84% in our series. Sending him to the line is likely going to just end up with us down 4 with 9 secs left and then we still have to score twice. The problem was the trap came too late, and we should've fouled immediately after the trap was broken with like 7 secs. Who's at fault for this? Really can't tell if it's lack of execution or the coach not properly positioning the players. Either way, IMHO it's ridiculous to say this decision should contribute to his being fired. As for developing his bench, yes I wish JVG had done it more esp. in blowouts. He did it some, but could've been more. I think it is worth pointing out though that if developing Span, Novak, Snyder had cost us a single game at any point of the season, we would not have had HCA and any benefit we would've gotten from slightly better play from those guys is easily offset. Also we are top 2 or 3 defensively and not just because we slow the game down (as evidenced by the defensive efficiency stats [at least last time I saw them posted on this site]) and that's b/c of JVG. Basically, I'm down with the "improve what we've got" method, using Morey-ball to get some better players, and expecting JVG to develop more offensive creativity and using more bench play. The TMac/Yao duo will reach their peak within a year or three, this style fits them. If injuries don't derail Yao again, we're not that far away. Let's develop what we've got and fit in some better pieces.
I agree but I dont think rick would have been able to manage him the way larry did. Rick's track record with headcases is not the best if you judge him by his time with the pacers.
Sorry about that... I don't know where I stand on the JVG issue. On one hand, it's possible he may have taken this team as far as he could. It's certainly on him that he didn't do a little more to develop the bench. Yao's injury, while forcing them to work harder for wins, would have been the best time to get more minutes for those at the end. You can only get better to a point in practice alone. At some point, you have to allow the Spanoulis' and Novak's of the world a chance to make mistakes and to feel the successes with the team. That's the best way to learn. On the other hand, JVG cannot shoot the ball for Alston, Head or Juwon. He cannot make Yao & McGrady play with the passion that was clearly lacking in the road games. He can't guard Boozer. This loss is on the entire organization. If Van Gundy decides to leave or is fired, they really need to think long and hard about where this team is going. I'm not advocating blowing it up. Tweaking should be plenty to keep this team at the top next season and hopefulyl lead to some playoff success. A PG, starter or backup, is required. A PF that can block out and hit the occasional jumper would be nice. Convince Spanoulis to stay and give him a real chance to develop into the player that everyone thinks he can be. Yes, there will be growing pains, but that's all part of the learning process.
is this insider article posted yet? http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blo...log/index?entryID=2864199&name=sheridan_chris if not, can someone post it (cause it is only for insiders) thanks
JVG isnt the only one retiring. Mutumbo might retire http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Notes_Mutombo_once_again_cons-224331-34.html?rss=true
Why isn't anyone talking about the fact that Yao said our offense was too one dimensional and dependent on him or TMac drawing the double team in contrast to Van Gundy claiming that the defense was the problem?
Or that during JVG's tenure (he spoke of it in the past tense) that CD was not allowed to work with him. Talk about micromanagment. DD
i hope the only drastic move we make is a new coach. It takes patience to build a good team. Its paid off for toronto, cavs and bulls. I hope tmac and yao stay...it might well be another decade before we get a duo like this. I hope rafer "i will be here next season" burns in hell. maybe i'm a homer but i think a new coach could turn luther/vassilis into solid players.
Go watch those games again. Only the knicks series were boring and that was because of the knicks(Gundy was the assistant coach). If you watch the sun, spurs and orlando series, the average scores were up in the 100's and there were alot of fast breaks. Don't you remember Thorpe and Dream throwing those baseball passes to start the break?
