Sorry if this is already posted, but here is one writers take on the Rockets of this year compared to last year: 4. Isn’t it interesting the Rockets are no longer talking about how great they’re going to be offensively with Rick Adelman replacing Jeff Van Gundy? No more about the great flow, and how fast they’re going to play, and how all this freedom is going to make them a better basketball team. And interesting, isn’t it, that Yao Ming called the Rockets something he never did with Van Gundy as the coach: “Soft.” As much as owner Les Alexander wanted to believe it, Houston isn’t constructed to play a fast and furious style. So far, GM Darryl Morey’s moves haven’t paid dividends, but it’s still early. For now, the Rockets are 12-11, the epitome of a mediocre Western Conference team. A year ago, Yao missed several weeks with a broken leg, Tracy McGrady was in and out of the lineup with his assortment of back problems and Houston still won 50 games and took the Jazz to seven games in the first round of the playoffs. Houston believed it could do better with Adelman. And how’s that looking now? http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...YF?slug=aw-lastshot121407&prov=yhoo&type=lgns Implicit in the hiring of Adelman was the concept that even if our defense got worse, it would be offset by the corresponding vast improvement in our offense. After 23 games our defense is worse, and our offense is at best, marginally better. It seems quite likely that if van gundy had been given this year's roster last year, we would have been much better than 12-11. Maybe the Rockets will "turn it around" in the second half of the season as they "learn" the new offense, but at this point in the season, this year's Rockets sure seem worse than our team from last year. thoughts?
A JVG team with the same lineup and a worst bench, looked like the better team and won games. A JVG team without Yao Ming still won enough games to give us a good playoff position. A Rick Ruler team with the same lineup, better bench, doesn't look any better on offense, doesn't play defense and is not winning enough games......yet. A Rick Ruler team without Skip struggles to win games.........for now. Kind of weird right?
As much as I like JVG for his preparation for the game and dedication, the team won't have a chance to go further down the playoffs with him. Coach A might have a chance but who knows. The beef I am with JVG is that he never trust young players and won't use them very much. Look at Toronto, they are not a better team but Mitchell is bold enough to bench Carter and use people like Jamario Moon, Kris Humphries, and Calderon when he was a rookie. Look how they develop now! I don't think Coach A is doing that enough to give the playing minutes to the most deserved person who train the hardest and work the hardest.
you know van gundy has coached a team to the finals before right? this idea that he can't advance teams in the playoffs is just false.
The Rockets were just a few minutes away from advancing past the first round last year, and that was with most of the team slumping horribly and Yao not close to his best offensively. How can you say that we have no chance of getting further, particularly with additional offensive weapons to bring off the bench? I just don't get that.
Even if JVG was still here.. how much do you guys think he would've used Bonzi (if he stayed) and Francis? We probably would've gotten someone else besides Brooks but it wouldn't matter as Jeff probably won't even use them. My point is if JVG was still here, we would've seen the same lineup and a slight change in bench with Scola and maybe James. I think he probably would've gotten the same regular season results as last season.
We tried three times and all failed. The last TWO times we all go to 7 games. It is close but hopelessly close.
Thoughts? RA should be fired if the Rockets fail to make the playoffs. The Rockets need an upgrade at the point (through trade). This board was right to hate the Rudy Gay trade. T-Ming are too soft to win a championship. Someone on the team is a cancer.
If Bonzi was in shape, JVG would've played him. Bonzi is a Rick Aldeman's guy so Rick's playing him. But has Francis really played that much this year? I mean the two games Rafer was out, Francis shot 50% from the field, 3 assit and 4 reb in the first game in 31 min. Then he played 10 min before getting pulled in the second game and now he's back on the bench behind Rafer, Head, and James. I think Rick's giving Francis as much of a leash as JVG gave Bonzi last yer. Also, Aldeman isn't exactly playing Landry or Brooks (our young players as much), and you have no reason to believe that JVG wouldn't play Scola, since he was willing to play Chuck as long as he proved to be a good enough player to earn the time.
I really liked JVG, but I always wondered, even from the start, if he had what it took to take us to the championship. At the time, I wondered if he would bring us the discipline, then Rudy take us the rest of the way. Rudy was not good at building teams, or developing players ... but, he was great at getting a team to play together to be their best, and lead them to championships aspirations. Unfortunately, I don't think his health will allow him to do that. JVG had never gotten there, either as a coach or as a player ... and it makes a difference. Most of what JVG did was from what he learned from other idea guys, like Riley. JVG was smart, funny, hard working and honest, and I found those qualities likeable. But, Les didn't. It appears he hated the guy, and possibly submarined him, in terms of getting him the personnel that he needed, just so he could get rid of him. That's really sad, not just for the Rockets, but for us fans. JVG also didn't take us beyond the first round. His players quit on him last year. Perhaps that was because of what they were hearing behind the scenes, but, it was clear, they didn't step up, and play to win. So, a change had to be made. I didn't like how the change was made, or why. At the time, I didn't think Adelman was a step up. But, he could build on what JVG did, and bring additional to the table, and maybe that's what we needed. I'd have rather we picked someone better ... like waiting for Phil Jackson for a year, if needed, and give Larry Brown a one year gig to fill in. Brown might have taken us there. But, the biggest problem we have is a lack of talent. That was apparent in the playoffs too. We just didn't have the players who could step it up a notch. For instance, Battier, dissappeared. Is that because he plays his best all year round? I don't know. But, we just didn't have the talent to go all the way. The Rockets make great trades, when they pull the trigger. Sometimes, we have opportunity for great trades, and don't sweeten the deal to get it done, and miss good stuff. Thats frustrating. But, then we pull of a great deal. Where we suck is our scouting and drafting. That's been true for many years. Outside of Yao, we haven't made a great draft pick in 15 years. Yeah, Luther was ok, but we could have taken Lee, who would have fit much better. So, we tend to trade away our draft picks, since we don't draft well. If we drafted well, this team would be in much better shape. I like Morey. But, he'll only be as good drafting as his scouting department gives him data. Can we keep trading our way to the top? I don't know. But, its awfully hard, when we keep trading for right now, and not building through the draft. We have the players that COULD go all the way. It's going to be about this team buying in, working together, and developing heart. It seems like the players aren't bonding with Adelman, and making the changes necessary. Yao really doesn't seem bought in. To me, this is the whole season ... gelling between Yao and Rick. If Yao buys in, and Rick helps Yao be all he can be, then I think everyone else will gel and things will start running on all cylinders. But, if he doesn't, this team won't make it ... again.
The first time doesn't even count. The Lakers were overwhelming favorites in the series. And this "hopelessly close" concept doesn't make sense to me. You can say its hopeless if we didn't have a chance to win either of those series. We gave ourselves great opportunities to win both of them, but it just didn't happen. If the ball bounces differently or the calls go in our favor on a couple possessions, then we very well could have advanced. Hopeless would mean that you were never close to winning before, so you're unlikely to win in the near future.
If JVG were coach, I think you have to recognize the roster would be completely different. 1. Bonzi would be gone. 2. Scola would NOT be getting minutes. We may not have even made the trade since JVG does not like Euros. 3. Steve Francis would not be here. 4. Odds are, James is not here, Juwan was Van Gundy's preferred choice. 5. We would not have drafted Aaron Brooks. Think about those guys not occupying 5 roster spots and who we would have had in their place. We would have had 5 defensive diggers with pretty limited offensive games. Now, I'm sure all the Van Gundy supporters would say this is not the case. They will point out that Van Gundy went to Mike James' house last year to recruit him back, blah, blah, blah. But the facts are: 1. They wouldn't move Howard for James during the season,didn't want to upset team chemistry, etc. etc. etc. The reason they wouldn't pull the trigger is because Howard was Van Gundy's little pet. There is no reason to believe they would have done it during the offseason. 2. Van Gundy and Bonzi parted company before season ended last year. There would not have been a reconciliation. 3. Francis was not going to come home and play for a grinder again. 4. We would have wound up trading VSpan for Nazr Mohammed or some other hack like Jaron Collins that could put a body and lay a whack on somebody but couldn't hit a 10 footer to save his life. 5. We might not be 12-11 but we wouldn't exactly been 18-5 either. We may have a couple more wins against trash teams like Philly but Phoenix, Golden State, and Dallas would still be running us out the gym. 6. We would still have Rafer as the DESIGNATED 3rd scorer. 7. We would have no Yao at the high post and opponents would be hanging all over him, even worse than they are now. Everything is not peachy under Adelman, I'll agree. But it's because all the players have not bought in yet. They haven't committed to Adelman's system. They're still stuck halfway between Adelman and Van Gundy. Remember, come playoff time, for us to become champions, we can't have our point guard shooting 32% from the field. We'll never win that way. And that wasn't going to change in a Van Gundy offense. You can torque up the D all you want but when you can't put the ball in the hold and the ball is being funneled to you, because you can't, the team is going to lose in the playoffs. When is the last time a team won the Finals with their starting point guard shooting 32% or less from the field during the playoffs???? I bet it NEVER has happened. Rafer or no Rafer, Adelman's offense is about getting high percentage shots to guys that can knock 'em down, it's about getting the ball to the rack, without one guy having to drive the ball through 5 defenders, it's about ball movement and player movement, something Van Gundy could never conceptualize because of his "controlitis" and wanting to script every pass, dribble, and shot. You can say we wouldn't be 12-11 under Van Gundy all you want. You may be right. We may indeed be at the top of our game right now, under Van Gundy.......with nowhere to go but down. What does the top represent under Van Gundy? A team that struggles to hit 90 points a game and relies on a bunch of scrapers to hold the opponent under 90. That's it. That's all. Just imagine a roster full of Jarron Collins, Nazr Mohammed, Trenton Hassell, and Earl Watson and that's what your team would look like.
Well I think coaching style changed has shown us that it is not as important as we all thought it was. We are a team inherently play how we play because of the big fellow in the middle is slow and Tmac needs the ball to be effective with many jumpers. No matter who the coach is, that wont change. I think the key loss for this Franchise was we missed Foyle by one spot. We would've drafted if we had had chance. If Foyle is manning the PG for us, this team can play anybody in the West. Right now we are difficient. And I blame it on that game JVG refused to tank in Denver while we didnt have anything to play for excpet for lottery. It really hurts.
Tihis is a garbage dump as usual. Again with the "JVG as GM" silliness - I guess you have to criticize him for jobs that aren't his now? 1. bonzi has 3-4 good games this year and 15 mediocre to bad ones. Good riddance to Bonzi 2. LOL - JVG wouldn't have given up Spanoulis for Scola? Shut up. JVG hates rookies, JVG hates euros, shut the hell up, you are just making crap up. 3. Demonstrably false, the Rockets tried to acquire Francis last season. Francis himself has said 4. Doubtful. And I wil be the first to admit that James has been a disappointment this year anyway outside of a few good games. 5. Complete crap once again. JVG has said numerous times he does almost no college scouting - why is he not drafting Aaron Brooks? (who has done nothing in the NBA so far anyway). Anyway, tell me since he hates Euros why did JVG draft Spanoulis in the first place? This of course buys into your myth that he is the GM.
We will never know what would happen if Van Gundy was still the coach. So it's a moot to argue what or what not happen with him. All I know our offense still sucks, maybe even worsre, defense not consistent, we are still not running and Adelman is sticking with Gundy's personnel except for Scola. It's clear to me the coaching change wasnt well thought out for the sake of Rockets, how the new coach would and should fit with the team.
I agree...first I hated the Rudy Gay trade from day one, second T-mac has no heart and Yao has no fire, third there definantly are some chemistry issues with the glut of guards we have on the roster, last but not least is the point guard problem, we have so many of them you'd think we could find at least one that can make an open shot and penetrate and/or dish out. I hope things turn around quick because we're just digging ourselves a hole if we keep with the current trend.
It is hopeless because the way they lost. If they are not that close, maybe we can start something new sooner. I will again take Toronto as an example. They did not even make playoffs last few years before the try. They lost to NJ team which is a worse team last year. However, the way they are playing and you can see the upward trend. They are getting better than last year for sure even they did not add many new players. Some of the players have developed into better ones, like Moon and Humphries. That gives you hope to win more and get into playoffs further. Look at the team who lost to Dallas and the team who lost to Utah. Do you see much upgrade? Do you think this group of players ever have a chance to win under the same coach? Sure, JVG will give you another 50 wins season and even maybe to the second round playoffs. But then what, there is not a chance they will beat other elite teams in the west.
