who did VG ever coach that had talent that was not already fully developed? He inherited Ewing, Spre, Houston...each of whom were already stars...the rest of his roster was filled with role players
On a side note, I don't think Rudy helped Francis' development. He gave Francis too much reign and too less discipline. Remember Kobe's first and second year. Phil benched his ass a lot which helped him to develop an all-round game.
I am not sure what difference having young players and veteran players has to do with development. NBA development depends upon talent, skill, maturity, attitude and some teaching. I guess there are teaching techniques that help players, but I would say that is the least factor in a player's development. Most teams have coaches that can teach. Name 10 players who developed or improved significantly because of a coaching change. Here are the most important factors in NBA player development- 1. Talent- serious talent will rise to the top in time 2. Maturity/attitude- hard dedicated workers pay the price 3. Supporting cast- you are as good as your team will allow 4. System- if the system doesn't benefit your skill set- you lose
This is absolutely true. I can't count the number of times that JVG deflected blame away from Steve, or noticably left him out of criticism. Yao was more of JVG's whipping boy than anyone else, and I think JVG had the feeling that Yao could take it, especially since I doubt he even reads the American media. JVG was also a huge supporter of Cato who has been a notorious sulker in the past. IMO JVG knew which guys he could jab at and which guys he had to give a bit of slack to. And the Superbowl incident was a big mistake by Steve and I don't remember anything that JVG said during that incident that was out of line or inflammatory.
Of course he wasn't... he needed one more superstar before he could accolades for being such a great coach.
Here are the draft picks Jeff had to work with while he was there. i'm going back a couple of years before he was named head coach since he was on the staff. 1993 none 1994 Monty Williams, Charlie Ward 1995 none 1996 John Wallace, Walter McCarty, Dontae' Jones 1997 John Thomas 1998 none 1999 Frederic Weis 2000 Donnell Harvey I'm not sure that any coach could have turned most of these guys into player.
I'm not sure if getting guys like Kelvin Cato, Mo Taylor and Jim Jackson to work themselves into the best shape of their careers is considered "developing" a player, but it ought to count for something. I think there's also something to be said for planting Yao firmly in the post all season. His game developed quite a bit from the experience, and many were saying he'd be a better player from the elbow. Sticking a 7'6" guy at the elbow isn't going to get you 40-point explosions. What Rudy would have done I suppose we can only speculate. In just his first year, however, I think JVG has illustrated that one of his strengths is getting his players to work hard for him. I doubt Francis and Mobely ever worked as hard in their careers as they did last season. I KNOW Yao, Cato and Taylor never did.
Except that Larry Brown had won an ABA championship, was NBA coach of the year, and won an NCAA championship. Not necessarily "NBA championship caliber," but enough to be considered above average. Of course, winning it all last year made the point moot.
I'm not the biggest JVG fan but I also agree with post. While I think Steve improved his first three seasons under Rudy, I think Rudy gave him and Mobley way too much freedom. JVG got Francis to play better defense and pass the ball earlier in the offense. He got Mobley to stop trying to initiate the offense and pass the ball to Yao more often and become more of a spot up shooter.
whatever jvg is coaching, ive noticed that younger developing players tend to: - cut down on the mistakes - appear to have a better knowledge of the game- play smarter i guess - develop some post skills - play better defense unfortunately, what other posters have stated also seems true -van gundy gets players fearing mistakes. it could be argued that yao, stevie, mobley, houston and camby all showed a little drop in offensive creativity under jvg. lets hope mcgrady doesnt do the same!
So in other words, if JVG manages to win a championship this year then he suddenly becomes an above average and someone who developed players? Or better yet, if Bob Joe from Deke's fav strip club somehow manages to get hired and by luck, every superstar plays for him and they win a championship, then Bob Joe is an above average coach? More talented teams win more championships, regardless of the coach, and Larry Brown ALWAYS had better teams than JVG. Pat Riley won as a Laker but suddenly couldn't win jack as a Heat. So I'm guessing Layden build a crap of a team (and the Knicks pretty much telling JVG to keep his head out of roster moves) is also JVG's fault? And btw, NCAA champ means sh*t. Any crap of a team can get lucky for couple of days and win the tournament. Ask them to play 7 game playoffs like the NBA and all this upset crap almost never happens.
Yeah.... Marcus Camby Yao Ming (In the process) Boki (In the process) Notable mention include......Spanoulis and Badman (albeit dreamcasting).
A championship-level coach is one who wins championships. It is highly unlikely "Bob Joe" could accomplish that, no matter how talented the group. If he did, sure, he's a Championship quality coach. It isn't that easy though. The just-disbanded Lakers did not win championships until Phil Jackson took the job. The Rockets with Hakeem in his prime languished in the middle of the standings under previous head coaches. The same goes for Jordan and Pippen's Bulls.
I agree. I think that JVG expects his players to *know* fundamentals reasonable well. He's willing to teach and mentor as long as you have a player that *wants* to spend the extra time learning. But he doesn't have patience with players that are lazy or clueless about basic skills (passing, shooting, defense, teamwork). If you are, you will probably sit on the bench or be traded (hint, hint!).
