You must work for the Chronicle. This is the same old tired mantra. It's always someone else's fault. Is this guy afraid of talent? When you can tell me how Ryan Bowen got playign time, , shoot even how Rafer continues to go on having a subpar 30+% shooting season and Bonzi rots then we can talk. I don't care how you spin it, Bonzi would play on any team in this league. I just can't see any team with common sense to find a problem and harp on it and let someone with actual talent just wither away.
What are you talking about? Bonzi can't play point guard in place of Rafer. Try comparing apples to apples. Bonzi has not been playing because he is behind better players at his position. Yes, I said it. Kirk Snyder has been a much better player than Bonzi this season. No matter how good he was in the playoffs last year, Bonzi has really sucked this year when he has played.
I agree it's always injuries, attitude, etc.... JVG has been given enough rope to hang himself and he's doing a fine job. This team will be out in the first round again because it has no leadership or dept and a coach who refuses to put personal issues aside for the team. The one bright spot will be this should be our last year with Van Gundy as our coach. See you on TNT JVG.
By playing some of our players a position or play they are not used to or can't play, see Bonzi, Span, Novak, Alston, Head... The management did a great job, we have 3 players who can score 20 plus points each game, we have a true point guard in Spanoulis and a good backup in Alston IMO. JVG is just not playing them right. Even though he never talks directly about a player, he surely has few in the dog house for doing "mental mistakes". He puts his ego in front of anyone on this team, besides maybe Mac or Yao.... Everyone knows what Bonzi did in the past 5-6 years. He is a very good player and can win a game by himself. He came here to play and not to be on the inactive list because JVG doesn't know where to play him on the court!
From "free Bonzi" at the beginning of the season, to "free Kirk" when he came back from injury but wasn't playing, to "free Bonzi" again. I agree Bonzi should play more, but at who's expense? The only way you can fit Bonzi in is if you take Kirk out, and Kirk has been playing very well lately. Or you can put Bonzi at the SF position because he can't play SG (Mac, Kirk) or PG (naturally) so you have to put him at SF to sneak in some PT. But he'll get demolished on defense, that is if he even tries to play any. If you split their minutes, you're really going to take a stab at their efficiency. Bonzi got 22, Kirk got 19. With Mac playing, you can't have both of them getting that many minutes. Snyder had 10 points, 4/8 shooting, 2/3 ft, 2 reb, 1 ast, 0 to Wells had 4 points, 1/7 shooting, 2/2 ft, 5 reb, 2 ast, 3 to It's just up to you guys on which one you'd rather have play. Well it's not up to you, it's up to the coach, now isn't it? Now now, let's not get carried away. Bonzi, at best, was a 13 and 7 guy. Unless you're talking about V-Mac.
Adjusting a sytem to fit role players is a bad idea. The Rockets play to the Strengths of Yao and T-Mac, not the other bit players. Span, Novak, and Head are all young players who need to develop their games, not be coddled. Remember Steve Francis? He was allowed to 'play his game' for years, and as a consequence he never developed into a complete and disciplined player. He is still the same guy he was when he was a rookie. Spanoulis has yet to prove he is an NBA caliber point guard. If he learns to shoot and hold on to the ball, I think he has potential. The proof is in the pudding. Just like he did in Boston and Portland, right?
That's true, and like I said, I don't mind Bonzi playing over him. That's how I thought it was at the beginning of the season. But Bonzi comes in overweight and under-preforms. At the same time Kirk was playing well and at least playing hard. And yeah, Bonzi's definitely got a few more pounds on Kirk. I think the moral of this story is: You get what you pay for. We get the 2yr/5mil Bonzi...not the 4yr/36mil or whatever the Kings offered him. We get the fat, lazy, out of shape, shell of himself Bonzi. Not the guy who beasted up the Spurs come playoff time.
Bonzi was always an experiment. When he was brought in, the team was already well-off at the 2 and 3 with McGrady, Battier, Head, and Snyder, all 4 of whom have styles which fit in better with the team. Also, we have a center who needs as much space as possible down low. Unfortunately, the Battier-at-PF thing didn't work out too well (we got demolished in the paint), so JVG decided to go with Chuck Hayes at PF, which did work. Unfortunately, having Yao and Chuck in the paint means there's much less room for a post-up guard like Bonzi. The same goes when Deke and Juwan are in the game. Still, Bonzi was given a chance this year, as soon as he stopped being ridiculously out of shape (remember pathetic dunk early on? An in-shape Bonzi could jump much higher). Sadly, he kept getting injured/sucking, and when Snyder returned, he simply outplayed Bonzi. Thus, JVG started playing an 8 1/2 man rotation (on the upper reaches of what winning teams tend to have), which still didn't stop him from talking about bringing Bonzi back into the rotation just a few days ago (before the injuries got ridiculous again). I think this whole "JVG is sacrificing winning out of spite!" thing is a tad overblown.
Most of us probably agree that Bonzi is much more talented than Kirk. However, we need a team player that is willing to work hard, rather than a player that doesn't takes his role seriously and became "unfit" early in the season. Look at how Yao worked out and maintained his shape as best as possible during his injury. Then look at how Bonzi wasn't in the best of shape early in the season. If Bonzi "gets in now" and is willing to dedicate himself more professionally, perhaps JVG should let him back in. Rocket_Zoom
Bonzi DOESN'T FIT !!!!! He is a post up player, who has nowhere to post up on the Rockets team. He is a good player that just does not belong on the Rockets, he needs to go somewhere where he can take a lot of shots and be the primary guy at stretches during the game. He will NOT be that guy in Houston. He doesn't fit in.........and it took the team 3/4ths of the season to figure it out....some of us knew already. DD
How many games has the fat, out of shape, shell of himself Bonzi played with T-Mac and Yao. The guy who beasted up on the Spurs got big minutes when he played them, he can't get big minutes with JVG.
a lot of guys came into the season overweight.. nene, andre miller, and boris diaw to name a few.. but they were still allowed to play and get into condition..
*** Keep your eyes open for a new video thread from interviews after todays practice. I'm working up uploading it now, but it's a lot of stuff so it'll take awhile. There will be some great stuff from JVG as well as Yao and Tmac. A couple notes: JVG said Bonzi WILL see action the remainder of the year as he tries to get his playoff rotation set. Yao did NOT practice today, but wants to play tomorrow. Tracy DID practice today. He said he could have played last night but JVG held him out. All that will be included in the video once it's up.
All of those guys are starters. Bonzi is a backup SG fighting 2 other backup SGs for minutes (Head and Snyder). Nene only splits time with Evans since K-Mart is injured, Andre Miller was basically it for the Nugz at the point, unless they wanted to give all the minutes to Earl Boykins , and Diaw only have to split time with Kurt Thomas. None of those guys where in a situation where the team could afford to hold them out (not to mention the fact that Bonzi is not in the same class of player as Andre Miller). I disagree. If anything, it was an acknowledgment that JVG is right. Battier said they played solid D to claw back into it, then in the last few minutes they were freestyling, and that style of play doesn't win.
Battier said the same thing when both T-Mac and Yao were out the last time. What he means is, 100% of the offense is designed to go through Yao and T-Mac, when both are out, they are out there improvising on the go or in his words - freestyling.
I didn't watch the video, so he was talking about the last part of the game then... But still thats what they do when both yao and mac are out, play ymca basketball. sure they try to get Battier and Howard post ups, but every play is so gutted without Yao and Mac. no one is to blame. Battier knows this.
