I thought I would throw a little debate out there to see what you all think. Obviously, they are both great coaches with two completely different styles, but I have found one glaring difference between them that I admire JVG about. JVG has no problem getting rid of a player at the cost of the team. Rudy would always get to personal with the players and develop an attachment. Rudy would never have had the GUTS to pull of the Franchise for T-Mac trade! He would never have had the heart to tell Stevie he was traded. I think that is why we just experienced a decade of mediocrity. What I have learnt this year is that it does not have to take 2 or 3 years to develop into contenders. With the right moves things can turnaround rather quickly. Rudy kept trying to develop the team around Stevie, but that was a hopeless cause. If you hand Rudy a talented basketball team, he can coach them to the promiseland. If you need to develop the team I would much rather have JVG at the helm! YaoMing
I think you nailed it pretty good... Rudy is sorta like Phil Jackson... he can handle all the big egos, and maximize the superstars. But, he's not so great on developing teams. JVG is good... and he's shown that this year... but before this year, he never had a real superstar to coach. He always had those mid-level stars (Spreewell, A. Houston, an aging Ewing, Francis), and now he finally has T-mac. Rudy was there for Hakeem's best years... and he made sure he didn't put them to waste (give the ball to him almost every time). JVG will now be here for the rest of T-mac's best years... and already this season, we've seen him put the entire trust of the team in his hands. In the end, however, people will point to championships... so JVG needs to get on that before you can really compare them.
I think both are good coaches. Rudy actully did fantastic job in LA this season keeping them in the playoff contention. What I love about Gundy is his intensity, he is really serious at what he does and his detail oriented approach. We are lucky to have him. I will place him above Tmac and Yao for the success so far this season if it's not too early to call that. YallMean
Rudy has pulled the trigger on big deals even though he gets close to his players. He traded OT for drexler. Sam and horry for Barkley. Dickerson for Francis. JVG is a good coach but don't downplay the accomplishments of Rudy T
Rudy has won two championships. Rudy did what very few other coaches do, taking a stakced, veteran, championship team through it's life and then starting over with a young inexperienced team. In '94 Rudy outcoached Pat Riley in the finals. It was a battle, but the way Rudy adjusted to Riley's myriad of defenders thrown at Dream, and adjustments with John Starks, etc. helped win us the game. Rudy got more out of Horry, Ellie, Charles Jones, Chucky Brown, and a number of others than a number of higher profile coaches did. Many teams didn't even see the benefit of some of those players, and Rudy made winners out of them. Rudy took a team of amateurs and won a medal in national games. Other coaches haven't been able to do that with U.S. pros. Rudy never gave up on a team, and he got the most out of his players. I won't slam JVG, because he has made changes for this team. Had he been a little more flexible earlier our record might be better now, and it might have been better last year for sure. But JVG did change, and our team has responded. JVG can teach defense and understanding about the game in ways that surpass Rudy. He adheres more to a particular philosphy about the game and is fairly rigid to it. To his credit that philosophy has been a winning one. It is harder to put a finger Rudy's particular philosophy. He is more free flowing, but he's a great coach. I voted for Rudy. That doesn't mean that I don't like JVG though.
I hope some don't feel the need to slam-down one in order to make the other look better. In my opinion, they are both great coaches in their own ways. Rudy T is a great veterans coach who gains the loyalty of his players, but is not the x's and o's guy around. JVG is much more detail-oriented and has clearly more basketball knowledge, and just seems more downright intelligent. But Rudy T has shown he could win championships, JVG has shown that he could do something very few can: overachieve and make the best with what he has. So again, both are great coaches. No need to say who is better, although clearly some people prefer one style/method over the other. Me personally, I much prefer a discpinirian type coach like JVG, simply because I think that type of a coach fits our current young stars much better than Rudy would have. Otherwise, I loved Rudy T and he is a great coach, but so is JVG. As for the championships, I would give JVG more chance to prove he can win a ring with superb talent, which Rudy T had the luxury of coaching (namely Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler), JVG never really had that luxury for long enough to make it work. However, NOW he does, and once Yao hits his prime, I hope he is still our coach, because I absolutely do believe that his philosophy/style will win it all for us. So he is more of a junior when compared to Rudy T, but now he has the pieces to work with. Give him time, and he will lead us to where we are destined to be
Rudy 2 JVG 0 But I think JVG has a chance get one this year. The Rockets are a legit championship contender in my book.
Not worth responding to. Not sure about 'a decade of mediocrity', as the team just won 62 percent of their games in '99. There were only 4 years where the team missed the playoffs. Not bad for REBUILDING. It doesn't have to take 2 or 3 years to develop into contenders, you're right- it usually takes much more than that, and many teams never even become contenders, period. As for developing the team around Francis - who else was there to build around? Should they have kept Dickerson, Othella, et al and tried to build around those guys? Or should they have given up on Francis after he was Rookie of the Year? Or after they were 45-37 in his second season? Or after he missed like 25 games in his third year and the team lost all 25? Or maybe after one year with Yao Ming? Come on, enlighten us with your plan to rebuild faster than the Rockets did. How hard is it to 'develop' two top 10 players?
That must be why JVG took the same team Rudy had and couldn't improve them. Or why Rudy had a better record this year with a lesser team before he left. Or why Rudy's team was 2-0 against JVGs team this year. Come to think of it, maybe you're right.
I think one of the biggest differences is personality. Rudy was the eternal optimist, JVG the eternmal pessimist. I'll be the first to admit that around Christmas time, I wanted JVG gone. He seemed like he wanted to win under his terms and play slow NYK style ball. However, after the acquisitions and his willingness to let the players play, he's grown on me. I still think that he focuses on the mistakes too much - like when we win by 20, but we had too many turnovers, but that is what makes him JVG. He's a perfectionist, and it can be frustrating to the fans especially after following Rudy. I think rookies and players with not very much experience could be affected by the constant negativism. I think that is why JVG prefers veterans. I'm not sure if the '94 & '95 teams would have won with JVG at the helm, and I'm not so sure that this team would win with Rudy, but both bring vast differences to the table and depending on your team either could be better. The jury is still out, but thus far I like what I see.
Didn't improve them? He took over a team built to someone elses (ISO) specifications and made the playoffs with them. A better record with a lesser team? How about a team that didn't go to China and that received (just like ORL) 60% of a playoff teams' starters to add to Kobe. In contrast, the Rockets had Yao, JJ, Spoon and Taylor from the prior season. If I wanted to gauge early season success based upon receiving players that know each others moves, I might think Johnny Davis was a good coach. Rudy was Rudy...and he had Dream. Van Gundy brings intensity and he had Ewing. If you want to tell me the Knicks and Rockets could have swapped Centers with the same results...we'll have to agree to disagree.
You forgot to mention that "the same team" was minus, Eddie Griffin and James Posey, two starters, and they still managed a better record and the playoffs. You forgot to mention that T-Mac didn't play in one of those 2 games and the Rockets still almost won the game. I'll admit that the Rockets got off to a terrible start - but what will you critics say now? That he can't adjust? He's shown he can adjust and the team has flourished so now you'll just point to the first half of the season? Couldn't improve them? The Rockets had one of the best defenses in the league last year. There's not much you can do to improve offensively when you have an absolute moron running the point. I'll leave it at that for now.
My thoughts exactly. Rudy doesn't coach pretty ball but it is effective. The lakers were well in the playoffs until Rudy resigned and Rudy only had 2 losing seasons with the rocks even while rebuilding. Althought I don't like JVG much, I do respect him and his record. He is a good coach and we are lucky to have him. That being said, Rudy is ahead right now because of the titles. But I wouldn't mind in the least if JVG starts catching up to him this year.
I think the reason some people might prefer Rudy T over JVG is likely due to the 'loyalty' factor more than anything else. Of course, RT did get two championship rings, so naturally people will think he is a better coach accordingly. Similarily, Scottie Pippen is ten times the player Charles Barkley ever was, and he has SIX RINGS to show for it. Of course, Phil Jackson is 4.25 times better than Rudy T ever was, because he has 9 rings. So that is how, according to some here, the comparo should go. But seriously now, I think JVG didn't have Ewing at the prime of his career, which is not something you can say about Rudy T, who had coached Olajuwon throughout the prime years of his career; so JVG has never had that luxury of talent at his disposal. Moreover, JVG, as I have mentioned above, has coached for less years in the league than Rudy T has, so he has had less time to accomplish anything. Of course, by the basic assumption that some here are making regarding the 2 rings Rudy T got, and the 0 JVG got in his coaching career, I would assume many of the same people would have made the argument that Rudy T is a better coach and teacher than Larry Brown, especially since LB went for soooooooooo long without ever winning a ring. So that means Larry Brown (whom I think is the best coach in the league bar none) is worse than Rudy T, correct?
