Awesome Blinebury article....

Yeah I know how much some of you love blinebury but I think he pretty much sums up everything in this article. It seems to me that Rudy didn't run a tight ship and boy is that changing fast with Van Gundy. Yeah there will be people who will say that the players will rebel against it and it will have an adverse effect but already he is bringing in players that buy into his system and even some of our important role players are on his side. Man I am so excited about this season!



Sept. 30, 2003, 10:49PM

Van Gundy already sending a message
By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
That didn't take long.

There are microwave ovens that need more time to warm up than Jeff Van Gundy.

New house. New coach. New teammates.

That's what awaits Rockets veterans when they report for the start of training camp Thursday.

New message, too: The motor is running, and the garage door is open at Toyota Center.

Glen Rice is out. Jim Jackson is in. John Amaechi is also shipped down from Utah because, well, somebody had to be, and let's just say Jazz boss Jerry Sloan would have been happy to pay the postage personally.

On the surface, it makes solid sense in terms of money and age. Rice is a 36-year-old shooter in fading health who was scheduled to make $9.6 million this season. By trading him to Utah for Amaechi, the Rockets saved themselves a bundle. In addition, they were able to squeeze just below the level of the payroll luxury tax and left themselves room to sign the free agent Jackson.

What they get in Jackson, 33, is a fitness fanatic with a lot more spring in his legs and less fear about breaking down in the middle of the season, not to mention the consummate attitude and ability of a shooter.

Van Gundy definitely wants spot-up shooters who can take advantage of the openings that come when the likes of Yao Ming, Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley attract double-teams. Jackson, who converted at a 45 percent clip on 3-pointers last season, fills that bill.

But as much as the move was about money and might have gotten the Rockets slightly younger, it likely was also the first mass communication by Van Gundy to his troops, even before he delivers the opening-of-camp speech.

What this maneuver does is give the Rockets a huge amount of wiggle room in the area of trades for the next 12 months. According to arcane rules of the NBA salary cap, they will now have a $7 million trade exception, the difference in salaries between Rice and Amaechi. That is not insignificant in this age of number-crunching. It means that if the Rockets wanted to make a trade any time in the next year, they would not have to go through the usual accounting gymnastics to make a salary match. They could trade away a player and take on a salary that was much greater in return. It could make them a potential major player in the trade market.

Another byproduct of this nifty little move is to serve notice to the troops who report for duty on Thursday that any one of them can -- and likely will -- be moved if he doesn't get with the program immediately.

Ever since Van Gundy was put in charge of this listing ship three-plus months ago, part of the anticipation of the new season was about how he would make his presence felt in a locker room that too often in recent seasons lacked the focus, the commitment, the plain old-fashioned professionalism to take the step forward into the playoffs.

Would he crack the whip verbally? Would he make his players run slavish drills during two-a-days in Galveston to get their attention? Would he clamp down with an iron fist on the offense and make the Rockets play the tough, deliberate style he employed in New York?

Maybe still all of the above. But having this new added feature of payroll flexibility could be the most effective weapon in Van Gundy's arsenal when it comes to curing any early-season malaise, which would surely translate into new discontent by the now higher-paying customers at the new digs.

Mobley and Eddie Griffin, among others, should beware. If these Rockets don't come out of the gate the way Van Gundy wants and expects, you can figure the February trade deadline will be a hot time in Houston. We know club owner Leslie Alexander's yen for making a big splash. So if Van Gundy wants to change course and can get a big name, it could happen.

Too often in the past few years, the Rockets have been hamstrung when it came to making midseason trades because of all their long-term contract obligations. There were too many players -- Kelvin Cato, Maurice Taylor and Moochie Norris -- who were rewarded with long contracts that became handcuffs. The acquisition of Rice two years ago was dubious at best, because he was past his prime and could never stay on the court long enough to deliver against the big dollars he was paid.

Former head coach Rudy Tomjanovich and general manager Carroll Dawson kept the nucleus of the team together through unfulfilled seasons, in part because they had faith. But it was also in large part because they had painted themselves into a corner.

Van Gundy already has a way out and an eve-of-camp message to boot: The garage door swings both ways at Toyota Center.