<font size="5">Rockets failing to mesh</font> Van Gundy says changes imminent in organization full article One thing Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy can guarantee is that changes are imminent in the Rockets' organization. He isn't sure what or when they will happen. He just knows the current situation isn't working. Three weeks into the regular season, Van Gundy has yet to see the team mesh on the court. The Rockets (6-7) have won only two games against teams with winning records and lost four games to teams under .500. "Certainly if the results don't change, we'll need to change either who plays or who's here," Van Gundy said. "Because one thing you don't want to get used to is mediocrity." ... "To break the cycle of mediocrity that our organization has been in is a challenge for all of us from (owner) Leslie (Alexander) on down," Van Gundy said. "And the one thing I love about him is he has an urgent desire to win. And he doesn't have any patience with mediocrity. And I think our team needs to reflect that. And I don't think we do, yet." Van Gundy hopes to see progress as early as tonight when the Rockets travel to play a Utah team searching for answers of its own. Van Gundy is still mulling possible lineup changes and didn't rule out the possibility of one happening as early as tonight. The Rockets have not changed the starting lineup all season except when injuries have forced it. Van Gundy has proved over time that every decision he makes is deliberate. "One thing that you don't want to be doing is vacillating," Van Gundy said. "So you want to be sure if you ever do change, not vacillate back and forth." ... The change Van Gundy hopes to eventually create will catapult the Rockets to the top of the Western Conference. He has seen the potential in this team, but the glimpses have been fleeting. "To break out of that rut of being just OK is very difficult, but we have to be able to be ruthless in our pursuit of being better than mediocre," he said. "Mediocrity has seeped in and stayed in. "And to have a breakthrough, we're going to have to do some things differently as far as sustaining our play." ..................................................... I've said this a few times before, but our most glaring problem right now is rebounding. So far, our forwards are getting outrebounded 18.7 boards/game to 15.2 boards/game by opposing forwards. So far this season we average only 8.9 offensive boards in the league, which is last by far (second worst is 10.3, and third and fourth worst is 10.8). And we're giving up over 12 offensive boards a game. Yao isn't a great rebounder, but he and Mutombo are doing a much better job on the boards than our PFs. I personally think it would be a good idea to play Weatherspoon over Howard for a few games. He's a good rebounder, and a competent scorer. Coming off the bench, Howard's rebounding has been particularly pitiful, and he hasn't been doing much of anything while on the court other than trying to put the ball in the basket. We need much more out of our 4 spot. Our other glaring weakness is poor continuity on the offensive end, particularly with our passing. Look at these stats. 45% of our shots come with 8 seconds or less on the shot clock, which is the most in the league. The problem with this slow-plodding approach is it can result in more turnovers. We have more offensive fouls and bad passes than our opponent, because we take so much longer setting up our offense that there's more opportunities to lose the ball. While traditionally coaches want to slow the pace to reduce turnovers, I think we've gone overboard and its actually backfiring on us. If we pushed the ball a bit more we could get better shots and make fewer mistakes. I also believe that when Mutombo is in the game, we should take advantage of his shot blocking abilities by gambling more on defense. Yao isn't a good shot blocker and he's foul prone, so I understand playing conservative defense when he's on the court. But when Mutombo subs in, we should play a more aggressive trapping defense and go for more steals. Mutombo would neutralize any increased penetration opportunities this allows for opponents.
Well I do not know why they are so bad really. They have a great one two punch with Yao and Mcgrady exactly what they had in Los Angeles when they won the three titles in a row with Shaq and Kobe. I think what they really need is a solid floor leader at point guard Sura is a decent point guard, but one thing every successful western team has is a good point guard, and that is what the Rockets need. Also they need Yao to be more vocal in terms of callign for the ball he is to quite and lets Mcgrady control the game to many times. Van Gundy's coaching style really is not working with the Yao Mcgrady duo they need to either change there style of play or sign someone I agree with what Van gundy said in this article.
Good Read.. The Rockets do need some changes, but any, Trade Yao, or McGrady type things are pre-mature. We have one of the youngest cores in the NBA. Time is all we can ask for, but Les has been known to take gambles, bringing Barkley, Clyde for Otis, which was speculated for so long. Don't be suprised to see Mo Taylor, J Howard, and Lue in new uniforms. I still think Barrett is our answer to point guard. He is such a good role player, I love this guy. I think the time of patience has passed. Time for Les and CD to crack the whip -- and see who really deserves to wear the red and white.
Barrett won't be anything great, although it looks like he'll have a successful career. He's a liability in our man-to-man defense at 5-10. Barrett is one who would like to go for steals, but our conservative defense won't allow him to gamble a lot. Although he could be a very good second-string point guard, I don't see him being successful as a starter, at least not in Van Gundy's system.
I'm just glad to see that the Rockets orginization (and particularly Van Gundy) aren't just beating their head against a wall and expecting to get through this. That's what it has seemed like the last several games. Like they know something major is wrong but they think it will somehow work itself out, meanwhile losing to bad teams and losing 4th quarter leads along the way. I'm excited that the prospect of a trade actually came out of Jeff's mouth, and judging by who's playing badly (Juwan), I'm excited about the possibilities we could bring in at PF. As I've posted before, I would prefer PJ Brown, and maybe some kind of deal where we could package Juwan and another player for PJ Brown and Darell Armstrong, both of which are right down Van Gundy's alley. Speaking of Van Gundy's alley, Kurt Thomas wouldn't be too far of a stretch considering he's in New York and Van Gundy seems to have a love affair with getting guys from his old stomping grounds. Contracts... Kurt Thomas: $27,951,374 Juwan Howard: $31,960,500 They are just under the league requirement @ 14% difference.
Contracts... Kurt Thomas: $27,951,374 Juwan Howard: $31,960,500 They are just under the league requirement @ 14% difference.
Kurt Thomas would be a great option. He has range and could also toil in the post when Yao leaves the game. His defense is also vastly underrated. However, would the Knicks take Howard? Knicks fans are already complaining about Thomas's big contract, would they like getting Howard's worse production and bigger contract? I think we'd have to part with at least Nachbar and someone else for Thomas.
I don't think the knicks would take Howard for Thomas (although I'd like to see it).......but I'd love to see PJ Brown and Armstrong
Nachbar seems like he's developing along pretty nicely compared to last year. Therefore, in a few years he will probably be our starting small forward with Jim Jackson gone if we resign Nachbar. I think we need to keep on developing his abilities while Jackson is still here so I don't think it would be all that great if he was gone. He looks like he's going to be capable of bigger things so I don't think we should package him along with a trade. Either Kurt Thomas or PJ Brown would be a nice addition to our lineup, but I don't think Taylor or Howard would be accepted in a trade. Both of them of ludicrous contracts, and don't make up for them, while Kurt Thomas seems like a valuable asset for the Knicks. So, what about Nazr Mohammed? I'm not sure whats his contract but he seems like a guy that can take it downlow which might be a great complement for Yao. How about Taylor for Nazr Mohammed? Mohammed's a center than can play power forward and bang bodies down low. He can rebound the ball quite efficiently and averages about 10 points per game.
Mohammed would be great. He's a good defender and rebounder, and has more of an offensive game than Cato did. He'd be a good addition, but he's the Knicks' only legit center, and it'd be hard to pry him from Zeke.
I want to see Mutombo and Yao in at the same time. I see the negatives of this, it slows down the team, they cant guard speedy players blah blah blah. That wont affect the Rockets, they play half court sets on offense. On defense they could play 2-3 zone. Leave Ward and JJ out on the perimeter exclusively, allowing Tmac flexibility to move around down low and provide a dual shotblocking threat with Yao and mutombo, it worked with Cato, why dont we just try it with Mutombo? Yes Cato was faster, younger and more athletic, but at this point we have to give it a try.
it would depend on what team we try the yao mutombo. Because by playing them at the same time that would mean that they would probably be resting at the same time too. And we would be forced to play mo taylor at center.
In a radio interview with JVG last week, they asked him about trends he's noticed in the NBA. He said one of the things that he found interesting was how the power forwards are more mobile and quicker. That tells me that he'd be against using Mutombo or Yao as a power forward. He's purposely focusing on making sure our PF has very good lateral quickness.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">In a radio interview with JVG last week, they asked him about trends he's noticed in the NBA. He said one of the things that he found interesting was how the power forwards are more mobile and quicker. That tells me that he'd be against using Mutombo or Yao as a power forward. He's purposely focusing on making sure our PF has very good lateral quickness.</div> Well, Taylor is very quick defensively, but he lacks the concentration. In a one-on-one situation, Taylor cannot do a thing, but he's a good help defender who's always willing to sacrifice his body to draw the charge.
