# Jeff Van Gundy speaks on Rockets



## Dean the Master (Feb 19, 2006)

> "I think when you look at our roster, with David Wesley being a free agent, certainly you look at that and say, 'You need a starter'. Right now or maybe forever, I don't think Luther is ready to start. I think he can be a rotational player. He played the 4th most minutes on our team last year, got better... but he is 6-1, and the 6-6 guard is the norm in the league. This year we played with two 6-1 two-guards [and] Luther doesn't have that great strength that Wesley has. We need to get bigger there."
> Van Gundy also said that it "wasn't talked about enough that we need a really good backup point guard", stressing how badly it hurt the Rockets when Rafer Alston went down last year.


Link 
JVG is good at interviewing, a very nice thing to hear from the coach.


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## bronx43 (Dec 9, 2005)

He's right about our drafting. We will be lucky to get a starter from this year's draft. Also, his attitude towards small guards tells me that no way are we drafting JJ Redick.


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## untamed guerilla (May 28, 2003)

rockets need to draft brewer if he's available, big guard 6-7, and he's a athletic 41"vert, he fits what they need prefectly


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## CrackerJack (Jul 2, 2005)

i could see carney, brewer and roy being the only guards we could draft that would be starters otherwise who will we start if we dont draft one of these 3?


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## Gotham2krazy (Nov 22, 2005)

CrackerJack said:


> i could see carney, brewer and roy being the only guards we could draft that would be starters otherwise who will we start if we dont draft one of these 3?


Yeah, unless if Reddick drops to 32 that'll be the only way I'll pick him.


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## TManiAC (Dec 19, 2004)

Gotham2krazy said:


> Yeah, unless if Reddick drops to 32 that'll be the only way I'll pick him.



That would be excellent. 

Between Brewer, Redick, Mike James and Skip, we should have a solid backcourt rotation. Add to that we have Luther Head and possibly Keith Bogans and we shouldnt have any depth or matchup problems this coming season.

Ideally, I would spend the MLE on Matt Harpring or Bonzi Wells instead of James and use the 2nd pick for a PG like Will Blalok. But JJ at 32 would be excellent.


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## debarge (Nov 13, 2005)

It was nice to hear JVG talking some sensible ideas for once, but don't agree that a backup pg is such a great need. Its a desirable need,, not a pressing one? IMO you draft your 'starter' at the 2, and you desperatley need some kind of upgrade at PF who also could play C in a small lineup. Getting rid of one those sorry forwards is a must to me, Bowen/Dke/Stro do not aid Yao or any of the other shooters on the team. If you sign MJames you've got your backup PG w/ lots of bench scoring playing him with Head. 
Jeff needs to look at his forward situation more closely, Tmac was 2nd in rebounding playing only 45+ games. That's horrible! Your startin PF needs at least 8 or 9 boards a game. I'd try moving one of them to get a real rebounder in there. Or at least a long-range threat at the 4.


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## TManiAC (Dec 19, 2004)

debarge said:


> It was nice to hear JVG talking some sensible ideas for once, but don't agree that a backup pg is such a great need. *Its a desirable need,, not a pressing one?* IMO you draft your 'starter' at the 2, and you desperatley need some kind of upgrade at PF who also could play C in a small lineup. Getting rid of one those sorry forwards is a must to me, Bowen/Dke/Stro do not aid Yao or any of the other shooters on the team. If you sign MJames you've got your backup PG w/ lots of bench scoring playing him with Head.
> Jeff needs to look at his forward situation more closely, Tmac was 2nd in rebounding playing only 45+ games. That's horrible! Your startin PF needs at least 8 or 9 boards a game. I'd try moving one of them to get a real rebounder in there. Or at least a long-range threat at the 4.


Your right, our first priority is getting a starting 2-guard.

I think getting a PG is a second priority after getting a starting 2-guard. Afterall, we have no PG other than Alston.

Im not sure that the draft can really address our need for a starting 2-guard. Ronnie Brewer and Rodney Carney are two years out from that level. IMO, the MLE should be spent on one of either Bonzi Wells, Matt Harpring, Greg Buckner or James Jones.

Our PF situation is bad, but its not the worst. I also like getting a long-range threat at 4. Steve Novak seems to be our guy. He is like Pat Garrity or Scot Padget and should help keep defenses away from Yao. If it were up to me, I would take Will Blalock with the 2nd instead of Novak (since shooting PFs can be found other ways -- see my last paragraph).

Drafting Brewer and Blalock should help with our first two needs. An MLE is well-spent on a long 2-guard to help Brewer ease into the starting role.

As for our PF and C situations, we have Luther Head and Stro as our tradable assets and can make the package more attractive by throwing in our TEs and taking on a contract that the other team considers undesirable. If at all possible, I would try for Nocioni and Songaila in Chicago and dangle Head and a future pick as bait.


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## untamed guerilla (May 28, 2003)

I think people go over board with the state of the rockets in mean come on a year ago this was a 50 win team, that went to 7th game with dallas, the main thing for the rockets in that series was that dallas was so much more athletic then them that's how they lost the series the rockets had nobody to guard stack, howard, or terry, wesley, barry, and sura couldn't get the job done on that end, the rockets need athleticism and shooting, all they need is a shooter who can hit the open shots that mcgrady and yao provide through double teams, athletes who can get fast break buckets and guard people and this team is a title contender imho

all this season there two star players were hurt, mcgrady was hurt all year and yao was hurt until the latter part of the season, and the bench players couldn't do diddly squat, but with a healthy t-mac and yao, adding a young wing like brewer, a year of progress for luther head, the rockets are going to have a big season

as far as stromile goes what exactly do yall expect from him he never did anything in memphis, in his career he's never avg. more than 6 rebounds and never more than 11 pts, i mean what did yall think he was gonna come in and avg. 18 and 10, imho if u get 12 and 7 from stro that's great i mean he's only making 5 mill a year, that's not bad if he can get to 12 and 7 next year, stro is never gonna be a all-star in this league, but maybe he can contribute, if people stop expecting so much from him, the rockets need him for defense and tip-backs and athletic plays if he's doing that then your getting the most from him


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## TManiAC (Dec 19, 2004)

untamed guerilla said:


> I think people go over board with the state of the rockets in mean come on a year ago this was a 50 win team, that went to 7th game with dallas, the main thing for the rockets in that series was that dallas was so much more athletic then them that's how they lost the series the rockets had nobody to guard stack, howard, or terry, wesley, barry, and sura couldn't get the job done on that end, the rockets need athleticism and shooting, all they need is a shooter who can hit the open shots that mcgrady and yao provide through double teams, athletes who can get fast break buckets and guard people and this team is a title contender imho
> 
> all this season there two star players were hurt, mcgrady was hurt all year and yao was hurt until the latter part of the season, and the bench players couldn't do diddly squat, but with a healthy t-mac and yao, adding a young wing like brewer, a year of progress for luther head, the rockets are going to have a big season
> 
> as far as stromile goes what exactly do yall expect from him he never did anything in memphis, in his career he's never avg. more than 6 rebounds and never more than 11 pts, i mean what did yall think he was gonna come in and avg. 18 and 10, imho if u get 12 and 7 from stro that's great i mean he's only making 5 mill a year, that's not bad if he can get to 12 and 7 next year, stro is never gonna be a all-star in this league, but maybe he can contribute, if people stop expecting so much from him, the rockets need him for defense and tip-backs and athletic plays if he's doing that then your getting the most from him


When we were a playoff team, we had shooters like David Wesley, Jon Barry, Mike James and Scott Padget to help spread the defense. This year, we will only have Luther Head as a spot shooter. There definitely is a huge hole to fill and a definite need for players that can help spread the defense. 

While its not quite time to completely abandon Stro, he was an incredible disappointment and couldnt do even as much as Spoon and Mo Taylor did for us two seasons ago.

As for our PG situation, we only have Skip whereas two years ago we had Sura, Charlie Ward and Mike James. 

You can see that even though our core is intact, we are missing alot of pieces. Brewer cant fill all those holes and its very apparent there needs to be alot of activity this offseason to just be at the level we were two years ago when (even then) we knew we didnt have enough to get over the "hump."

So in order to be a contender, there has to be alot of changes.


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## untamed guerilla (May 28, 2003)

> When we were a playoff team, we had shooters like David Wesley, Jon Barry, Mike James and Scott Padget to help spread the defense. This year, we will only have Luther Head as a spot shooter. There definitely is a huge hole to fill and a definite need for players that can help spread the defense.


yea the rockets were a playoff team with shooters like wesley, and barry, and james, who can't guard bricks, van gundy knows that this team has to get athletic if it want's to compete, while i am not saying that brewer fits all this teams needs, he does fit the need of a athletic wing, the need of starting point guard my be over rated with brewer and mcgrady able to handle the ball, and as far as shooters go, head and alston can shoot the ball, what they need to get is a rebounding big, because yao is no big rebounder and neither is stro, a guy like millsap in the second round could help, and i don't know if the rockets have a mle or not but if they do they can use that to get some interior help

and as far as mo taylor and "spoon" there about equal with stro, i mean how did stro dissapoint, he had the exact same numbers he had the year before, in my opinion rocket fans had to high of a ceiling for stro, and when he never reached it like he never will now he's a dissapointment, well he had the same numbers basically his whole career that he had last year, the problem is he never exceeded expectation, like i said if u get 12 and 7 from stro and he's playing defense and getting putbacks u should be happy he's only there at 5 mill per so that's pretty good, and when mo taylor was there he ans stro grabbed about the same amount of rebounds although he out scored stro by 2 points per game, so yea he did way more, oh yea and weatherspoon did 3 and 3 in 13 min of action, so yea he was alot of help as well, but had van gundy had the vision to play "spoon" 40 minutes per he would have gotten u 9 and 9, wowzers!

i mean what the rockets need most is a healthy t-mac and yao all season, and what do mean had bob sura he's still there, and i didn't say the rockets where going to win the title next year i was just saying that they could have a big season if all the above happen, and that this bad season for the rockets could chalked up to injuries to there two best players, so to say that rockets are in a state of rebuilding would be bad judgement


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## TManiAC (Dec 19, 2004)

untamed guerilla said:


> yea the rockets were a *[1] playoff team with shooters like wesley, and barry, and james, who can't guard bricks*, van gundy knows that this team has to get athletic if it want's to compete, while i am not saying that brewer fits all this teams needs, he does fit the need of a athletic wing, * [2] the need of starting point guard my be over rated with brewer and mcgrady able to handle the ball*, and as far as shooters go, *[3] head and alston can shoot the ball, what they need to get is a rebounding big, because yao is no big rebounder and neither is stro, a guy like millsap in the second round could help, and i don't know if the rockets have a mle or not but if they do they can use that to get some interior help*
> 
> and as far as mo taylor and "spoon" there about equal with stro,* [4] i mean how did stro dissapoint*, he had the exact same numbers he had the year before, in my opinion rocket fans had to high of a ceiling for stro, and when he never reached it like he never will now he's a dissapointment, well he had the same numbers basically his whole career that he had last year, the problem is he never exceeded expectation, like i said if u get 12 and 7 from stro and he's playing defense and getting putbacks u should be happy he's only there at 5 mill per so that's pretty good, and when mo taylor was there he ans stro grabbed about the same amount of rebounds although he out scored stro by 2 points per game, so yea he did way more, oh yea and weatherspoon did 3 and 3 in 13 min of action, so yea he was alot of help as well, but had van gundy had the *[5] vision to play "spoon" 40 minutes per he would have gotten u 9 and 9, wowzers*!
> 
> i mean what the rockets need most is a healthy t-mac and yao all season, *[6] and what do mean had bob sura he's still there*, and i didn't say the rockets where going to win the title next year i was just saying that they could have a big season *[7] if* all the above happen, and that this bad season for the rockets could chalked up to injuries to there two best players, so to say that rockets are in a state of rebuilding would be bad judgement


1. Im sure most of the Rockets fans will disagree with you here, Wesley has been our best perimeter defender the past three years and can stick anyone 6'5" and under with his good quickness and excellent strength. Mike James was also a very good defender and like Wesley was also very strong. You are correct about Barry's defense.

2. You may be right. Personally, I dont think its a priority and I dont think many others feel it to be a priority with Skip playing fair at point, the possibility of Brewer capable of playing point guard, the possibility of Sura returning (for however long he is capable) and the fact that TMac can bring up the ball. That doesnt mean you should bank on those possibilities and ignore the possibility of Skip not playing up to par, Brewer not panning out to be able to play consistently at point guard, the possibility that Sura's career is done, and the fact that TMac has an easier game playing off the ball and being utilized as a scoring option (also the fact that TMac played less than 50 games last season). 

If Skip is healthy, fine... if not, we have a huge problem in that Brewer would have to start at point and Luther is playing SG. Thats not a very experienced backcourt. How would they fare against teams with a backcourt of Terry and Howard, Parker and Ginobili, Davis and Richardson, Billups and Hamilton.... you get my point.

3. They are called streak shooters and thats not much variety in shooting. A shooting PF doubles Yao's effectiveness by reducing the incidences of double-teams on Yao. We all know Yao is unguardable one-on-one. 

I think we are a good rebounding team. Someone know where we rank in team rebounds/defensive rebounds? 

Spending the MLE (we do have one since were over the cap) would mean we would be spending close to $17 million on the PF spot alone when we have no backup PG, no starting SG, no backup for an injury prone TMac and barely a backup center to Yao (who cant be expected to play more than 35 minutes a game) because Deke is about 4 minutes away from a retirement home.

P.S. Yao is a good rebounder when his toe isnt slowing him down.

4. In Memphis, Stro played behind Pau and really had no opportunity to get a steady feed of minutes. When he did play the PF, he had no C to take pressure off him. Instead, he often played C next to Pau and was man-handled by bigger and stronger players. In Houston, this should have been different. Playing next to Yao should have given him opportunties he didnt have in Memphis and his athleticism and shooting should have worked hand in hand with Yao's simple presence. At the least, we expected Stro to be an eventual starter. As it turns out, Chuck Hayes out-played him. This can be considered a disappointment.

5. Spoon was a useful big body and shot decently well from mid-range. Alot of people do things that arent tangible on paper. I think Spoon was a better use than Stro for the simple fact that although Stro outrebounds and outscores Spoon per 40 minutes, Spoon would have prevented more points made by the other team by his better awareness and general bball IQ. Stro couldnt guard a chair right now.

6. Yes, he was with us in spirit like Charlie Ward. You seem very optomistic considering that Sura has yet to put on a jersey the entire season. 

7. Small word, big assumption.


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## Hakeem (Aug 12, 2004)

I liked Weatherspoon, but honestly, he was pure crap. He occassionaly attempted mid-range jumpers, but was very inefficient, as he rarely managed to get to the line. Struggled to clean up competently. Had strength, but was much too slow to guard most players. Just a horrible last season for him.

It's not saying much, but Swift was probably our third or fourth-best player last season. IMO.


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## TManiAC (Dec 19, 2004)

Hakeem said:


> I liked Weatherspoon, but honestly, he was pure crap. He occassionaly attempted mid-range jumpers, but was very inefficient, as he rarely managed to get to the line. Struggled to clean up competently. Had strength, but was much too slow to guard most players. Just a horrible last season for him.
> 
> It's not saying much, but Swift was probably our third or fourth-best player last season. IMO.


Skip, Wesley, Head, Howard, Hayes and KeBo were all better players than him. I wouldnt say third of fourth.


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## Hakeem (Aug 12, 2004)

TManiAC said:


> Skip, Wesley, Head, Howard, Hayes and KeBo were all better players than him.


How? Certainly not statistically. As far as Alston, Wesley and Head are concerned, not defensively, either. IMO it was Yao, T-Mac, Howard, Swift, Alston, Head, Hayes, Wesley, Bogans. I'm sure when T-Mac returns, Alston's game will pick up. But without him he was atrocious.


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## untamed guerilla (May 28, 2003)

> 1. Im sure most of the Rockets fans will disagree with you here, Wesley has been our best perimeter defender the past three years and can stick anyone 6'5" and under with his good quickness and excellent strength. Mike James was also a very good defender and like Wesley was also very strong. You are correct about Barry's defense.


Well when it comes to wesley i agree he's not a terrible defender but when your in a series and has to guard a guy that's 6-6 and a athlete he's gonna struggle, that's why the rockets need to upgrade and get bigger, wesley is a good option to have but if he's your best perimeter defender your in trouble



> 2. You may be right. Personally, I dont think its a priority and I dont think many others feel it to be a priority with Skip playing fair at point, the possibility of Brewer capable of playing point guard, the possibility of Sura returning (for however long he is capable) and the fact that TMac can bring up the ball. That doesnt mean you should bank on those possibilities and ignore the possibility of Skip not playing up to par, Brewer not panning out to be able to play consistently at point guard, the possibility that Sura's career is done, and the fact that TMac has an easier game playing off the ball and being utilized as a scoring option (also the fact that TMac played less than 50 games last season).


your right i based my argument solely on the fact that t-mac we be healthly and that brewer can handle being a part time ball handler, only thing i meant by all of this was if those options pan out the rockets would be ok, but one shouldn't put all his eggs in one basket i agree with you



> 3. They are called streak shooters and thats not much variety in shooting. A shooting PF doubles Yao's effectiveness by reducing the incidences of double-teams on Yao. We all know Yao is unguardable one-on-one.


I would also go with the fact that having head and alston as your best shooters isn't that spectacular but hey what else to you have, trust me stromile is from the same city as me and i see him downtown everyweekend, and i think to myself you should be somewhere working on your mid-range shot, and trying to get some basketball iq, hopefully the rockets can get a good big player with the 32nd pick and spend their mle on a good quality guard or maybe a forward whoever is the best player available, oh yea and the rockets ranked 11th in the L in rebounds last season, that's not bad



> 4. In Memphis, Stro played behind Pau and really had no opportunity to get a steady feed of minutes. When he did play the PF, he had no C to take pressure off him. Instead, he often played C next to Pau and was man-handled by bigger and stronger players. In Houston, this should have been different. Playing next to Yao should have given him opportunties he didnt have in Memphis and his athleticism and shooting should have worked hand in hand with Yao's simple presence. At the least, we expected Stro to be an eventual starter. As it turns out, Chuck Hayes out-played him. This can be considered a disappointment.


yea he was a disappointment from the hype surrounded when the rockets signed him, but now we see why memphis made no attempt to re-sign him, like i said if u get 12 and 7 from this guy it's almost like winning the lotto, but like i said he is what he is and hoping for more is a pipe dream



> 5. Spoon was a useful big body and shot decently well from mid-range. Alot of people do things that arent tangible on paper. I think Spoon was a better use than Stro for the simple fact that although Stro outrebounds and outscores Spoon per 40 minutes, Spoon would have prevented more points made by the other team by his better awareness and general bball IQ. Stro couldnt guard a chair right now.


spoon was smarter i'll agree, and i agree stro can't guard a chair



> 6. Yes, he was with us in spirit like Charlie Ward. You seem very optomistic considering that Sura has yet to put on a jersey the entire season.


hopefully he can return



> 7. Small word, big assumption


So correct


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## sherwin (Mar 21, 2005)

Don't forget the trade exception people!! That is a big thing to have.


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