Nearly half way through the season, I am still not sold on JVG. He seems to be trying to force players into playing his way rather than making them play to their own strengths. For instance, Yao is more of a finesse player yet JVG constantly forces him onto the low block which is probably the biggest reason Yao is tired all the time. Also, Steve is being forced to abandon his drives to the basket in order to be a more pure PG. Also, Mobley is not utilizing his quck first step and it has to be because it is not part of the new offense. I like the defense they play, but their offense is HORRID, even worse than last year and we have better players. I wish we would have signed Dunleavy...or kept Rudy T. DD
Rudy let these guys play to their strengths and that did not work, right now I put little blame on the coach and most on the players.
a lot of blame has to be put on CD. When consturcting a roster you need to look at players strenghts and weakness. And the current rooster is not constructed in a way to generate consitencny.
As most will remember, I was a big Rudy T supporter. I thought he did a great job with the players he had. He only had 2 losing season is 12 years and both were due to injuries to the 2 best players on the team. Not bad considering he also won 2 championships. Once he was gone, I admit I was pro JVG, although I actually wanted Carlisle. I was wrong. JVG knows defense, but he doesn't know a lick about relating to people or offense. He reminds me of Buddy Ryan. A great defensive assistant coach, but has no idea how to get the best out of his players. I know he tries to emulate Parcells since they are friends, but he is no Parcells. Bring back Rudy T.
I really have always thought that Rudy was let go to get Brown here. Once he wasn't available, the went with JVG. I was personally a huge fan of Rudy and after he was gone, my next affiliation went with Dunleavy. Who knows? JVG will get this year and next. Let's see how he plays out. ' And I'm not sold on him at all yet, either. Best to just give him the benefit of the doubt. Rudy wasn't the greatest when he was originally given the reigns, either, ya know.
no. I've only seen maybe 4 or 5 games this season. I've seen middle school coaches implement a better offensive scheme. Wow, what a great defensive mind.... Dude coached in the east. 'nuff said. Wow, we're holding teams to low figures..... whoop-tee-fvckin'-doooo. Zone defense + a league of turds that can't hit jumpshots are the main factors no one is scoring in the NBA except for couple of teams.
I bought into the Van Gundy hype too because it seemed from knowledgeable media sources that Van Gundy was a much better coach than Rudy T. I remember reading an ESPN Insider report during last season that said most coaches in the NBA thought the Rockets were playing out of control and that Rudy T was no good at the Xs and Os. If only they had got up to win some of those trash games like the Cavaliers and the Clippers, the Rockets wouldn't be sentenced to some serious misery now. This makes Rudy T look pretty good. He may get another coaching job after the season especially if his cancer is gone.
Overall, I like JVG and the defense he brings. And I'm not convinced the Rockets players fully run whatever offensive sets he has installed and probably don't make good decisions within those sets. But I will also admit to a level of frustration with the offense that I can't pin entirely on Van Gundy nor any of the players. There is one thing I am fairly confident of...the Rockets play a controlled game and limit the numbers of possessions (and consequently the number of shots) by both teams. It's no surprise that the Rockets take the fewest FGA's per game in the league. With that backdrop, I decided asked myself...how do the Rockets compare to the other teams in FGA's in a half-court set. The results somewhat surprised me. For the sake of argument, let's say that every fast break point is a point not scored in the half-court. And further, for ease of calculation, let say that every 2 fast break points represents 1 FGA. (There could have been an "And1" foul on the break, but that is probably equally distributed across all teams). What I then calculated (approximated if you will) by backing out the fast break FGA's was how many half-court shots (FGA's) were taken by each team. Surprisingly, the Rockets are not dead last. UTA, PHX, NJN, and TOR all take fewer half-court shots than the Rockets. The next thing I wanted to observe was...how many more FGA's do the better half-court teams take...you know...the early offense, smooth passing teams like the Kings or Mavs. Or even the Andre Miller / Earl Boykins Nuggets or the Clippers under Dunleavy. Again, I was surprised. The Mavs top the league. But their 79.2 half-court FGA's only tops the Rox by 7.8. Dunleavy's Clipps are next by a 7.1 margin. The Rox take 4.8 fewer half-court shots than the Kings and 1.2 fewer than Denver. Restated, teams can use the fast break to increase their overall FGA's. Houston takes only 4 fast break shots per game. DEN 10.5, DAL 8.5, and SAC 6.5 fast break FGA's. Surprisingly, the Clipps take 0.4 more fast break FGA's than the Rox. (Talk about early offense...those guys must jack up shots at 10 or 12 seconds on the shot clock!). The Rockets are a very good defensive rebounding team. They could really help themselves by looking for transition baskets. The difference between the Rox ppg last season and this is as small as one transition basket per quarter (93 ppg vs 86 ppg pre-Detroit). Or even fewer TO's and a few transition baskets.
That's an excellent analysis GATER. My two cents is that the Rox have to cut down on the turnovers, PERIOD. When I think Opponent FGAs, I think of how many more posessions, and thus FGAs, we give them by virtue of our turnovers. Attempt for attempt, we can win many of the games where we lost by 5 or 6 points had we simply cut down on the number of turnovers. Even a 4 turnover differential improvement means we can cut the margin of losing to winning in half. Just think about all the 1 point, 2point, and 4 point games we've lost to date. If the Rox can figure this puzzle out and take better care of the ball, we will rock! Moreover, come playoff time when all teams clamp down on defense, we'll be in good standing b/c we're already experienced in half court sets. theSAGE
Sage - I'm a little too burned out right now but I like the TO idea. Perhaps I'll revisit that in the morning. Something like FGA differential adjusted for TO's. On a very elemental level, if a team shoots 40% and cuts down it's TO's by 5, that's two extra baskets....4 to 6 points not counting And1's.
As much as I hate to admit it, I think you're right. And at the time, I thought JVG was a better choice. But you've got to admire what Dunleavy's done with the Clips -- especially after Sterling lost 3/5 of their starting lineup (Miller/Odom/Olowokandi) and bringing in next to nothing in the way of free agents and trade acquisitions.
if is a bad craftsman that blames his tools If Rudy or JVG cannot get the best out of these guys it is on them Yea the guys have egos, stubbornness etc but a COACH is SUPPOSE to work with those see. . .excellence with the Xs and Os is only half of the job Rocket River
Still not sure. If he continues to use negative reinforcement with Yao, he might not have been the right choice. I hope that whatever he is trying to do will work. So far, things have been ugly.
You've gotta admit that dealing with and motivating Yao are areas where Rudy seems to have had a better approach than JVG.
