Van Gundy 說：Too much Francis, not enough …
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/rox/2155583
What's wrong with the Rockets, Part II.
A day after Jeff Van Gundy seemed to call out his team and specify Steve
Francis, he said he was only pointing out the obvious failings and did not
intend to single out his star guard.
Then he found another target. Himself.
"I'm just telling the truth," Van Gundy said. "What am I supposed to say?
`Wow, we're busting our (butts) out there?' We're not. That doesn't mean
we're doomed to repeat the same mistakes. It's an indictment on me. It's not
an indictment on them. As a coach, your job is to have an organized,
disciplined, hard-playing team. We don't have any of that right now. It's not
about me indicting them. It's me indicting me -- and them.
"It's the hardest thing for a coach to say. It wrenches my gut to say, `Right
now, we don't play hard.' "
With that, Van Gundy also made a promise.
"I can say this," he pledged. "We will play hard."
Van Gundy had no interest in "psychoanalysis" about why the Rockets' effort
has been so lacking. But guard Jim Jackson, an expert on starting over in a
career that has taken him to 10 teams, guessed the Rockets' adjustments to a
new coach and system have made them cautious.
"It's being tentative (and asking), `When should I go or should I not? Should
I throw this pass or should I not?' " Jackson said. "That's because you're not
comfortable."
Center Yao Ming, playing for his fourth coach (including two Chinese national
team coaches) in 14 months, described the struggles as no more than part of
the usual process.
"It's frustrating," Yao said. "There's a lot of problems we need to fix, and
we need to use these experiences to discover what our problems are."
Identifying the problems, however, has not taken much investigation.
"We don't play hard," Van Gundy said. "Who cares why? You don't have to be
smart to watch us last night and say that was a disorganized, uninspired
performance."
The Rockets are last in the NBA in preseason scoring, averaging just 78.8
points. They are tied for last with their average of 14 assists. Their
field-goal shooting (40.1 percent) ranks 23rd.
But as much as adjustments to a new system might be hurting the team's
performance, Van Gundy and his players have cited parts of the game that are
universal to any system. Getting back defensively, closing out on shooters
and boxing out are not uniquely Rockets' goals.
More troubling might be that they have made little progress in the most basic
of areas. After two games against the SuperSonics, the Rockets never did seem
to figure out that Rashard Lewis is a pretty good shooter. On Sunday, they
didn't seem to mind that George Lynch was taking target practice.
When the Rockets took outside shots, Hornets players took off for fast breaks
all night Sunday, only seeming to generate interest from the Rockets when Van
Gundy played point guards Moochie Norris, Mike Wilks and Francis together.
Van Gundy has no intention of relying on that rotation. But he said he would
sift through his 19-man roster until he finds five players willing to play
hard.
"I go into the year thinking eight or nine in a rotation," Van Gundy said.
"I'm searching for those guys. If it has to be six, it will be six. If it has
to be five, it will be five. You can't have guys make mental mistakes on the
floor, and you can't have guys on the floor who won't play all out.
"Right now I don't have anything in my mind except I have to find guys who
are going to play all out and not make mental mistakes. Smart players make
smart plays. Players that play hard make effort plays. Those are the kinds of
guys I need on the floor."
He did make a point to say that his criticism of the Rockets offense was not
pointed at Francis. Instead, he said Francis has been forced to go for "home
run" plays because of the problems offensively, rather than Francis has
caused the problems by swinging for home runs.
"The first thing is last night -- and I shared this with Steve -- I said
we're trying to hit too many home runs," Van Gundy said. "That wasn't on
Steve. That was poor team offense that led to our best player having the ball
in his hands trying to create something from nothing, which a great player
can do occasionally. But you're not a very good team if that's what you rely
on."
Francis insisted he understood Van Gundy all along and was not offended.
"Whatever. I know he's not going anywhere, and I'm not going anywhere,"
Francis said. "We just as a team have to get on the same page. We're
straight. We're cool."
But neither Van Gundy nor Francis is happy. Halfway through the preseason
schedule, the Rockets seem no closer to being ready for the regular season
than when they left training camp in Galveston.
Asked if there had been any progress on Sunday, Van Gundy said there was none.
"You can't say it's good when it's bad," he said. "When it's good, I'll
probably still say it's bad. That's my nature. But when there is nothing
good to say, you can't make something up. It is a lack of effort. We don't
play hard. That's it. We don't play hard. Until we do -- and that's the
foundation for every good team: giving an honest day's effort every night
and being unselfish -- we're going to struggle."
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有版友建議我將大意PO出來，但我覺得若我把大意寫出來，很多人一定只看大意而已
這樣難免會造成原意上的偏差且會參雜著太多我的意見，而造成大家的誤會，這應該
也是原作者所不樂見的。所以我想如果有時間的話，我會選擇翻一篇完整的外電，而
不會去翻很多篇的大意。請見諒
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