Ward's a bricker now. JJ is no longer the 40% 3 point shooter he was last year. My hypothesis is that the commitment to defense is taking all the energy away from these guys' legs. Look at the horrid 3 point in the Atlanta game. That was the 2nd of a back to back. The Rockets shot 14% from behind the arc that game. Then you got tonight in which the Rockets shot 26.7% from behind the arc. This is at home. The percentage should be higher. Is it possible that the old legs of JJ and Ward are already weary this early in the season? Keep in mind that JJ and Ward were counted on to be the designated gunners. If these guys have dead legs already, then it could mean that the Rockets are going to crash and burn since the strategy of the inside out offense is to jack up as many open 3s as possible. This is a half-court offense. The Rockets have to take and make 3s to be successful. They haven't been making them, so the results have been unfortunate.
BTW, I was lobbying for Ray Allen and Brent Barry to come to the Rockets in the offseason. If TMac is just going to jack up jumpers all game long, I would have rather had Ray Allen shooting instead of TMac. Ray Allen is shooting freaking 60% from behind the arc, and he shoots a lot of them. Rockets should pursue Vladimir Radmanovic. He's a young guy who can fire up 3 pointers with very good accuracy. JJ needs to be put to pasture. He can no longer be depended on for a good deal of the 3 pointers anymore.
Pipe dreams. Rox has no money to pursue any decent players. This lineup is the one you have to live with. Besides Yao and T-mac, our big-money guys are dead meat and nobody wants them. Les does not want to pay the luxury tax. Let's wait and see what the new collective bargaining agreement looks like. The only way this team can improve is to find cheap and young talent. Unfortunately, the organization is not very good with draft picks (late 1st round or 2nd round).
we got someone that can consistently hit the 3-pointer...boki. He's top 10 in 3 point shooting but just hasn't been given the oppurtunities as well as the looks to keep on shooting. And don't tell me that he sucks and he doesn't deserve any playing time. That's all a bunch of bull. JJ is shooting 37% from the field this year. I don't care if he's proven himself! He isn't proving himself this season. I don't understand why JVG benches a guy in the top 10 in 3 pointers?!?! Especially when scoring and offense is our weakest area right now. It just doesn't make any sense. Even the guys on TNT tonight made the comments that boki was playing well and then was benched for 2 games not seeing a single minute. If it wasn't for t-mac or yao, i swear this time is pretty unbearable to watch JVG needs to look around and take off the knick sunglasses
Boki's method of defense is fouling. Honestly, I'd kinda like to see him get some more playing time myself, and I've never been a fan of the chump. But unless his D improves, he'll never sniff real minutes on a Van Gundy team. Just a cold fact.
I know i see that too, boki's having a hard time keeping the fouls low. But still, even w/o all the fouls it just seems that van gundy has a short leash on him. (short being an understatement) I mean if you have your best 3 point shooter (statistically) riding th bench, then ultimately your offense is gonna suffer. I don't know why he can't just find a solution for it. Switch boki on another person, don't make him guard the kobe's, richard jefferson's, carmelo's. Its that simple. You keep him on the floor, he'll contribute. And if you end up making him guard kobe, don't f**cking leave him one on one with him, help him out with the double teams. All i know is that besides yao and t-mac, boki is the only bright spot on this team. Sometimes, i wish he would just leave this team and you'll see him become a better player.
3 pts is the key for us. Like Czar said, if we cant make those wide open treys, we are in deeeep shiat. We are missing wide open shots!
I think JVG needs to devise a defensive gameplan that allows less intensity on defense. Maybe zone them up or something. Allow them to play a more passive role on defense. I really think the intensity on defense is killing this team on the offensive side. JVG is the coach. Does he not see that the shooters on the team are bricking an unusually high number of 3s? Look at what happened to Yao in the 4th quarter. He was short arming every shot. The guy looked like he was dead tired. TMac also said that he was getting tired too quickly bringing the ball up the court. If JVG does not see his players are dying out there trying to play his defense, he needs to open his eyes. The guy needs to compromise the defense in order to help the offense. http://www.akcoach.com/index.htm If your team is tired, they may get some relief playing zone defense. Its the defense of choice for older men playing in the recreational league for the sheer economy of energy. Ideally, you want to play just as hard at zone as man to man, but sometimes you may be forced to conserve strength.
