Si.com: It's time for Van Gundy to fire up the Rockets

What a bunch of crap... Cant stand writers, who don't know what they are talking about. Idiot

 

Someone wake him up and tell him it's now 11/2005, not 11/2004.

 

It's a poor article with an intriguing point.

Throw out the T-Mac Sprewall comparison, and the fast-breaking Francis stuff...ok, through out the whole article...but I see the point as poorly as it's constructed.

Basically, now that Van Gundy has a team that can really run up and down the floor (well, except for Yao and Deke who will always trail), is he still going to play half-court basketball or turn the dial up?

Ya know - that's a legitimate question. The Rockets have never been known as a fast break team....well since Lewis Lloyd and Mitch Wiggins.

 

LOL! That was my first thought as well.

If you think about it, Riley's Knick tenure was the only spot in his career with that type pf team. As GM of the Heat, especially the last few years, he certainly isn't molding a "grind-it-out" type of team. Hell, he went out to acquire guys like JWill & Walker for heaven's sake.

I agree with others. This guy certainly doesn't know what he is talking about.

 

One has to assume the guy didn't watch the Rocks after JVG's alleged conversation with Tracy about the offense. He opened things up a lot, and I disagree as well with his bizarre characterization of Riley. He clearly didn't watch him coach the Lakers prior to coming to New York, with it's completely different personnel. Van Gundy showed last season that he is willing to adabt his offense to the players he's got, as Riles did. I look forward to a more potent attack this year.

 

JVG has said before that he doesn't care if we are a fast breaking team or not and abhors the slow it down grind it out rep that he has. He just cares if we are effecient and smart about it.

Granted we do have the personnel to be a fast break team, but we also still have alot of 30ish and older players.

The main thing with JVG this year is how much trust will he put on TMac and Yao as they still are 1 and 1A. He already pretty much has given TMac the green light on offense but he still reigns in Yao. Will he trust them enough to let them play or will he call timeouts at the usual crucial times to pull the puppet strings?

BTW the article stinks but what else is new.

 

Wow. That article is a big steaming heap of crap. I've never seen so many blatantly wrong statements in a sports article. A political article? Sure! But a sports article?

 

I think the real problem here is that some national writers, whom as many of you have already mentioned are mostly ill-informed about other teams outside of their towns, are too easily seduced into stereotyping players/coaches. The writer in this case was merely sterotyping JVG's style of coaching that he was known for in NYC (which could be argued was the result of the type of players he had to work with), and he was suckered into using the 'prima donna' overgeneralization of today's superstar athletes (It's the same as the silliness being spewed about a league 'image problem' because of a few bad apples, while in the process ignoring the fact that the vast majority of NBA players are good citizens who contribute positively to their societies; the only thing they want to talk about are 'over-tattooed thugs').

It's intellectual laziness on his part, IMO.

 

True - but it's also true that even in the pre-season, Houston is like the lowest scoring team. Maybe there's a point in there...

 

seems like most people arent understanding the article. i really liked the article, it isnt saying we are bad or that ewing and sprewell were better than yao and tmac, it said tmac and yao are better. it complimented us alot, its just hittin our coach a little hard. But sometimes people are hard on the players and they forget about being hard on the coaches. I think this is one of the best articles i've read about the rockets in a long time. usually all articles are biased either for or against but this one is somewhere in the middle. And yes this is our year, if something is gonna happen it will happen this season. Im sure this guy will write a followup article when we are in the finals against miami/indiana

 

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...idiot

 

No, the guy has many facts wrong and only glossed over JVG's achievements with us to this point. He basically belittled our 51 wins last year, saying that Houston fans expect more, when in fact it was a minor miracle that we finished the way we did. If this tripe is the best rockets article you've read in a long time then you need to... read more.

 

He is the first and only person I have ever heard call Yao Ming a prima donna. That should tell you all you need to know about this guy's credibility!

 

My guess would be that Memphis is the lowest-scoring team in the preseason. I didn't check, though.

 

Year : Team Points per game

01-02: 92.3 (Rudy's "potent fast breaking" team)
02-03: 93.8 (Rudy)
03-04: 89.8 (JVG's first year)
04-05: 95.1 (JVG + TMac)

 

Finish the sentence:

This is not the case in Houston. For all his many skills, Yao Ming will never be Ewing. Tracy McGrady will never be Sprewell. Van Gundy's stars now are prima donnas, not bullies. But you know what else they are? They're a whole lot better.

 

The article is interesting but I think pretty spun. I do agree that Van Gundy really has all the pieces to really complete at a high level. But some of the points about Van Gundy not willing to change seems a little odd. He really changed the offensive flow with Wesley and Barry. Maybe it was the players as well... but it seemed the sets were different. I think van Gundy is most comfortable with the punch you in the mouth style but I think he also understands that he does not have that team. He also has not built that team so I think he knows what he has.


I do agree that this team is not built like Van Gundy's knick teams. But I am not sure that bothers him. I think if the team executes and win or loses then he will be okay. If they do not it will drive him to drink. That is the key being in position, rebounding the ball, making the right pass. We do that... we will be fine. We have a great deal of talent it is about using it.

Fierguard

The big thing, I accept this team to start slow again. So I will really judge Van Gundy in Late December.

 

Although most of the article is misinformed, I have to agree with him on his intention. This team has everything it needs to have a great season and get far into the postseason. Well if a team has all the pieces, who is responsible for making sure they come together and play well? I think that was his intention behind writing the article, he just made himself look foolish by writing in a bunch of filler with Van Gundy and McGrady's pasts in mind.

 

No comment.

No f'n comment.

My article is here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/kelly_dwyer/10/28/southwest.preview/index.html

 

Hey Kelly you should put this in its own thread. It deserves a new one rather than joining the responses of this garbage heap article´s thread.