Jeff Van Gundy interview

CAMP VAN GUNDY
Coach assesses hand Rockets have dealt
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle News Services
For at least four seasons, most of the Rockets have been in Houston without Jeff Van Gundy. But when they get together this week for the start of his first training camp, Van Gundy will have studied every detail available on all things Rockets.

With only a hint of prompting, Van Gundy can cite everything from the Rockets' records in close games the past few seasons to their medical histories. For slightly more esoteric data -- the success or failure of alley-oops, for example -- he must grab one of the many reports within reach and flip through a few pages, a process that can take five, sometimes 10 seconds.

It turns out that when Van Gundy said he would study tape of every play of every Rockets game last season, that was merely a part of his postseason routine and a warmup for advanced studies to come.

After three months of studying the team, Van Gundy sat down to talk basketball.


Question:
Your first training camp with the Rockets begins this week. What kind of first impression do you hope to make, and what would you like your players to think of you?

Answer:
I want them to think just one thing: how they're going to win a championship. What improvements do we need to make to win a championship? That should be on our minds, in our thoughts and in our spoken words on a daily basis.

Q:
You can have that from day one?

A:
You asked what I hoped. I don't know what will in reality happen. But if I have a wish, that would be a wish.

Q:
From what you've seen studying the Rockets this summer, what have you learned that differs from what you might have thought or might be widely thought about the team?

A:
The more you watch, the more impressed I was with Rudy (Tomjanovich) and what a great job he did. I didn't just watch last year; I went back and watched several years, and he did an incredible job. Two, the more I'm here, the more I've found that these players have staunch supporters in Carroll (Dawson) and Les (Alexander), who have given them another opportunity to keep the core together.
The rest I'm going to find out when I work with them. The biggest mistake you can make as a coach is to try to make judgments on players before you work with them. You only know players when you work with them. You don't know a team -- the chemistry, the spirit, the fiber and the foundation of a team -- until you actually coach it. But I do know all those things are more important than the level of talent on the team.


Q:
Your players have often said they believe they should have been a playoff team last season. Did this team underachieve?

A:
They weren't undercoached; I know that. Whether they individually thought they could have done more collectively, only they know by what they did in practice, how they prepared for games, how committed they were to the end result. But in the end, you are what your record says you are. It doesn't say what you should have won or hoped to win or how hard you tried. It's black and white. Win or lose. Playoffs or lottery. Champion or also-ran.

Q
: At the Toyota Center open house, fans asked about two of the hot-button issues: the use of iso and players dribbling through much of the shot clock, and the power at power forward. Are those problem areas, and if they are, what are the solutions?

A:
There are no basketball issues we can't overcome with the right attitude and chemistry. I'm just focused now on having championship attitude and chemistry.

Q:
But is a tendency of guards or perimeter players in general to dribble too long or to look to go one-on-one too often something to overcome?

A:
I don't break it down that way. I break it down to bigger issues. One of the things I've been able to do is feature my best players to get their best shots in their best spots. You want to be an efficient offensive team and an effective offensive team.

Q:
Is Steve (Francis) enough of a point guard to lead an efficient offense?

A:
That's why I don't like to break it down that way: "What does he have to do?" We are going to be above all that to be a team. We are going to play team offense and team defense and gang rebound as a group, and we're going to win and lose as a group. I seriously don't think about it like, "Is he good enough?" We don't have any problem basketball-wise -- and I'll say it again, again and again -- that we can't overcome if we have the right attitude and chemistry. Nothing.

Q:
You've spoken in the past a great deal about the fast break, which is not your reputation from the Knicks years.

A:
I think running is a hot topic. First of all, every team and every coach has got to find the optimal pace of play for their team to win the most. I don't know what that is for us. I know you need balance to win, between offense and defense, and on offense between inside play and perimeter play, and then between running and halfcourt execution. You have to be balanced. We'll earn the right to run through getting stops and getting rebounds.
The successful running teams in this league are in great shape, run consistently. Perimeter players take care of the ball, and big men make the effort to make it a four-on-three or five-on-four. Since I don't know where we stand in all those, I can't tell you where our optimal level of pace of play will be, but we're not going to run indiscriminately and take wild shots. When we run, we're going to run with discipline.

I think the biggest misnomer in this league is that coaches are the ones slowing the pace of play down. It really comes down to the players saying they want to run, but when you watch the games, very few run. What they're really saying is: "I want to shoot whatever shot I want after I jog up the floor."


Q:
What was the summer like for you?

A:
It's been very enlightening. The more you study, the more you learn. I've enjoyed getting back on the saddle again and slowly getting more involved in coaching. I love Houston. People have been unbelievably welcoming. It's been good.
People here -- you can just tell right away from the help you get at schools to just running into people on the street -- are very, very good people. Yet this guy at one of the open houses said, "And we won't boo you." I said, "That's a shame." I think that hard edge, that immediate feedback, is good for a team. It minimizes the number of days you take off. I thought the booing in New York was a positive, because they only booed because of a lack of effort. I'm hoping if we're not giving them the product they want, they let us know. All other times, I love the politeness.

Now we have to win. Reality is staring us in the face. We have to win October 30 against Denver, then win against Memphis, then go on the road and beat Chicago and win in a back-to-back at Jersey, then come home and find a way to beat Orlando and get Miami. Boom. Boom. Boom. Be ready. We can't say we need time to jell. That's how my summer is.


Q:
You just described a hunger to win. Were you ever concerned that you lost that?

A:
There's no doubt you can get very content working half a year, one day a week, like I was doing. It was great. I was working with great friends in Marv (Albert) and Mike (Fratello) and the rest of the crew. But when you have competitive urges, those are very, very difficult to satisfy in any other job.
It's building, building, building to now. Now that urgency to win is right there. I've given up a lot to get back into that, but I get a lot out of it, too. I'll miss a lot of things that were very good in that life. You can't have it both ways. I'm on edge. I'm urgent. I'm desperate to win again.