Link: http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/5154756 Charley Rosen / Special to FOXSports.com Posted: Dec 10, 8pm According to the insistent buzz in the media, the following coaches are on the hot seat. Let's take a closer look. Jeff Van Gundy: Despite his genial arrogance and pouty defensiveness, Jeff Van Gundy deserves a few more weeks on the job to see if the return of T-Mac will indeed propel the Rockets back into contention. At the same time, he deserves to be canned for hiring Patrick Ewing to be Yao Ming's personal mentor. During his long NBA career, Ewing was widely renowned as being a selfish and willful player, who always played hard yet always choked in the clutch. No wonder Yao has regressed under his tutelage. ...
Give me a break. Ewing is teaching him all the things that made him a top center in the NBA for many years, not how to choke and be selfish.
for real. We need to hire Abdul Jabbar away from the Lakers. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Who would you rather coach. Yao or a sissy? Moses Malone wouldn't be bad either. Just not Ewing.
well, JVG might be on the hot seat, but he's not getting canned anytime soon although I'm surprised we have such a soft center like ewing teaching Yao. we should of hired Shaq, while he's still playing for Miami.
RUDY!!!! ... The football player they made the movie out of, not Rudy T the former Rockets coach. Didn't he die though, oh well it would be a good publicity stunt to at least have his corpse here.
I agree, Ewing should have never been hired for Yao. Everybody wants yao to be aggressive, dominant, go up strong and finish with the hard dunk. Those are aspects that Ewing was not known for. Yes he was a great center but do you want a center that settled for a lot of mid-range jumpshots to teach Yao how to play the post and be aggressive?
Actually, many posters here believe Yao should be more like Brad Miller (shooting those mid-range jump shots)... rather than find a way to use his big frame down low. I'll settle for him being another Ewing.
That's not something you can coach. Yao lacks explosiveness and that is why he wont dunk on people. It isn't because Ewing tells him to do layups instead.
Interesting comment about Ewing being a balll hog. Let's compare Ewing's career 2.67 assists per 48 with some notable Rockets.... Ralph Sampson - 3.72 Buck Johnson - 3.49 Otis Thorp - 3.45 Dream - 3.39 Billy Paultz - 3.16 Matt Bullard - 3.11 Rudy T - 2.94 Kenny Thomas - 2.63 Elvin Hayes - 2.55 Jim Petersen - 2.53 Maurice Taylor - 2.50 Larry Smith - 2.27 Major Jones - 2.07 Yao Ming - 2.04 Moses Malone - 1.88 Carl Herrera - 1.63 Kelvin Cato - 1.07 Given that Dream (in addition to not being interested) can't teach Yao to be quick and Moses can't teach Yao to be a bulldog...other than Pete Newell and Kareem, Ewing is good enough IMHO.
C'mon people. This is ROSEN! Mr. Self-Promotion himself who's trying to seem relevent so someone will pay him to write. He does not have any inside info and just writes inflammatory stuff based on the standings and watching ESPN & TNT a few times. Forget it. He has no credibility. Duuuuh, obviously JVG is on the hot seat because our record is 6-12. It isn't because Rosen knows anything specific. Let me know when this guy breaks a real story. Until then, I suggest using his articles for your bird's cage.
Forget the numbers. Ewing was a very mechanical center. He would either fade away for a jumper, bump his man off while leaning in with his shoulder and then make a move, or take 3 steps in the middle of the lane to throw a hook. It was effective for him but it was still very mechanical. I see signs of Yao developing the same moves, minus the efficiency. He has become too mechanical.
PLEASEEEEEE....we could bring back Wilt Chamberlain and hire Hakeem and Yao would still be the same player he is today. You cant teach aggressiveness...you cant press pause in the middle of the game so Yao can dunk it and not da a flimsy. IF Yao was playing like Ewing, 99% of the people on BBS would call him the MVP.
