The Rockets are looking bad, have lost four in a row at home, and are 3-7 over their last ten. However, it is early, and firing a head coach at this point in the season is not the organization's style. This poll is not do you WANT Van Gundy fired, but I'm asking you to play swami and read Les' mind. How close is Mr. Alexander to deciding "That's it, this is not going to work, a move needs to be made at the top."
I think he gets the entire season....unless of course the Rockets have a sub .500 record after December. In that case, he's toast by the new year.
Les will give JVG untill the end of the season before he makes a decision on firing him since he has two years remaining on his contract. The only way that JVG will be gone during the season is if he quits.
I list at least 5 reasons why Van Grumpy needs to go. I am sure there are more: 1. conditioning of Yao has over emphasized increasing muscle mass. This has made Yao a poorer jumper, rebounder, made him slower and bulkier, less responsive. This explains turnovers, fouls, and poor rebounding. Yao needs to slim down a bit and get sleeker and quicker. Yao is a finesse player and Van Grumpy does not want to believe this. 2. offense does not exploit T-Mac's skills at all 3. redictable, repetitive offense, nothing innovative about this offense at all, its like watching Yao and T-Mac on an NBDL team 4. calling time-outs every minute and micro-managing the game, not giving Yao or T-Mac any say on how the game should be run 5. "destroy the player and rebuild him" and discplinarian styles of coaching focusing only on what's wrong may work with certain players (Latrell Sprewell types), but doesn't work on Yao and T-Mac.
I think JVG will last until All-Star break at least, but my guess is until the end of the season. He probably won't get kicked out before then because that would make the front office look like they were admitting that they made a mistake in hiring him, and they won't allow that.
I agree, I am not one for bandwagon jumping, but I am getting sick of Van Gundy pointing the finger at the players and putting them on blast all the time. Van Gundy got everyone HE wanted on this Rocks team, now its time for him to shoulder alot of the blame for the team underachieving. No excuses for him, management supported him in what seems to be every personel move he wanted. Be a man Van Gundy maybe you arent the coach that the New York media hyped you up to be..... P.S. I hope he can turn this thing around, but I hate how he slows the team down so much....
If, what JVG said about Les not excepting mediocrity is true, then Les is thinking about it right now. Even though many thought the Rox would be struggling at the beginning, they are still under-achieving.
I wish Yao would say something about how he feels he should be developed. He's gotta have some bright ideas besides always agreeing with whoevers coach. Yao it is TIME for YOU to SPEAK UP!!! Its time Yao stops just being a GUINEA PIG for everyone!!! If Yao thinks Kareem or Bill Russell would make better coaches, then HE SHOULD SAY SO!!!
You guys are absolutely nuts. We are 14 games into this season with a revamped roster with many holes in our lineup. Van Gundy isn't going nowhere. I will be totally shocked if they can him. He really hasn't gotten all of his type of players in here yet. I would bet that he gets through next season before a real evaluation is made on him..................unless something goes terribly sour between him and Yao and TMac.
Who else would start a thread like this? EDC of course. I hope you go into hiding forever when JVG and this teams turns it around soon. Yeah fired....in your dreams edc....and your dreams and wish will not come thru. Stop beating yourself up - RudyT is gone; get freaking over it. PS. Phillip ain't here coming either
I say fire him now. He cant coach the rockets. He had a good year last season becoz he wants to prove something that he can still coach. Now, this is the real test for him to elevate the rockets team from a good team to a great one. But with his style and approach, sorry, it cant be done. There is only one pat Riley in the world, and jvg, being a riley wannabe cant get it done becoz he doesnt have the respect of his players. Beat that.
I think we are moving closer to the point of seeing what Van Gundy is really made of. Is the guy willing to bend and change his scheme to accomodate the players or is he going to be inflexible and attempt to move everybody out the door that doesn't suck up to his style of ball? It should be obvious to just about everyone that this team would be better off on the offensive side of the floor, if Van Gundy would just shut up and let'em play. They would get the ball to Yao and TMac and everybody would play off them, but still take advantage of the other mismatches on the floor, and would go to who's hot. The thing is.........it is the coaches fault if the players do not consistently respond to their coaching. When Van Gundy can't get players like Yao and TMac motivated with all his ranting and screaming, then it is time to take a look at what you're doing.