Weekday games are less-well attended than last season. Weekend games are signicantly better attended than last season, often selling-out or coming close. Overall the average attendance is up. However. the new arena and the curiosity factor surrounding it, make direct comparisons impossible...unlike something like, say, "team scoring average per game."
Enron Field was sold out almost every game even with a team on the field that wasn't going to make the playoffs. A new arena or stadium is usually a short-term positive due to the curiosity factor. It's quite damning for the city of Houston to basically treat the Rockets as old news so fast.
You have either not watched the Van Gundy Rockets or you have no idea what a zone defense is. Van Gundy never uses a zone.
Not really. Things were a LOT different when Enron Field opened. Despite being a very nice facility, the novelty of "new buildings" has worn off for the Sports Fans. Considering the terrible economy, the added competition of the Texans, and the product being put on the floor, the organization is doing good to increase the (average) attendance as much as they have.
JVG has used the zone. Not very often but he has. Just for a few minutes, maybe once every 4,5 games. I'll double check but I think we even used it agaisnt the Celtics. We don't play the zone well, our big people are not mobile to shift constantly and our guards keep forgettting to cover the holes behind them.
JVG is not smart enough and hoping that Yao can be pushed to play like Patrick or even Shaq. He keeps pushing Yao to establish low post even at double team. Yao made hard effort to do it that way but got tired early under such a hard defense. When he got tired he becomes even less effective. JVG even shows disgust when Yao can not do that right now. Yao is apparently not Pat or Shaq and never meant to be like them. JVG still don't get it. Even with training and experience built up in the future, Yao can become stronger and can play more like them. But Yao will never be like them. JVG need to learn to play into Yao's strength right now. He is tall and excellent shooter and passer. He can play low post combined with mid range shot. At mid range, he gets more room to do foot work and can easily shoot over the defenders. The opposite team can place one or two body on him at low post but can not do that beyond that. Right now, he does not shot much even when he is open at mid range, because JVG keeps pushing him to got to low post. When he hits his mid range shots at higher percentage, Defenders has to come out, then he can choose to go to low post whenever he choses to, instead of being forced over there to fight and get exhausted. JVG needs to get smart to design plays utilize these Yao's strength instead of crying out loud over Yao's weakness, i.e., lack of physical strength.
I agree with you here. A coach is supposed to maximize his players' strength and minimize their weaknesses to get the most out of them. He really doesn't appear to be maximizing any of his players' strengths, but instead exposing their weaknesses. I question Van Gundy's fixation with playing Yao almost exclusively in the low post. Yao has shown that he has great range and can drain the jumper out to 20+ feet. In the last few games, there were many instances in which Yao was wide open for a jumper from about 15 feet. Not many centers have this kind of range. Why not take advantage of this and make this a regular part of his game for Yao to conserve some energy and to pull the opponent's big man out. This will clear up the lane for some penetration by our guards as well. Let Yao drain more mid-range jumpers so that he can conserve some energy for crashing the boards.
JVG gets outcoached consistently in the NBA by Nelson, Jackson, Popovich, Rudy T, and this season, J. Obrien, Bedzlik, Hubie Brown, and Larry Brown. Wake up stupid fan. Here's what Tommy Heinsohn said about JVG sitting down Kato and Ming in the fourth: "The Rockets are countering Walter "Franchise" by bring in more defensive help." 1. Lost 3/4 games using Moochie and the small ball line for the fourth quarter that cost Rockets the games against Memphis, Toronto, and Denver. 2. Playing Cato as the pf against Dirk diggler, Duncan, and KG. That's just plain stupid. I don't think the Rocket have won a game yet in those match ups. 3. Not playing Boki, and Wilks in order to develop their game as well as getting the Rockets ready for second half of the season. 4. Sitting Ming and Cato for the entire fourth quarter when Boston was fading. The fact JVG gets rattled in the fourth shows me he has no confidence in his players. Remember he quite on the Knicks in 99 halfway through the seanson. I don't think Ward really wants to play for VanGundy. I think he will lose the players respect very fast in Houston if the team struggles.
Who rule the reb who win the game, I mean defense is more important to Rox. Last year we score 90+ in many games but win a little this year we score less but our opponents score even lower I agree Rox' offense is "HORRI..", let it be, Roxman will burst sooner or later ^^ I think JVG is definetly the right COACH to Rox. I'm not saying he is better than Ruby, this year many new faces on our player list anyway
