Jeff Van Gundy can coach team defense. And offense is nice and all, but what good is it if a team can't score more than they give up. JVG teams played such tough defense that his teams always had confidence in stopping the opposing team from scoring. I think JVG can work wonders for this team. Ariza, Beverly, Capella, Montiejunas all have very good ability to excel defensively. Even Harden was known early for his defense, so he has the ability to be a good team defender. This team coached properly can be good with little tweeting.
Complementary basketball... better defense will let us get more fast break opportunities. And maybe... make Brewer functional again. <Prepping for the ban>
Oh, Mr. Van Gundy doesn't "hate" offense, he is simply incapable of getting any offensive production from a team he coaches. The regular season scoring averages for his entire career: 1995-1996: 97.2 ppg 1996-1997: 95.4 ppg 1997-1998: 91.6 ppg 1998-1999: 86.4 ppg 1999-2000: 92.1 ppg 2000-2001: 88.7 ppg 2001-2002: 91.2 ppg 2003-2004: 89.8 ppg 2004-2005: 95.1 ppg 2005-2006: 90.1 ppg 2006-2007: 97.0 ppg The two 97-point seasons are clearly outliers. Discount the partial seasons (1995-1995 strike shortened season, 2001-2002 when he "pulled a Palin"), and the average comes to ... 91.2 ppg. Even if one is generous and says he could equal his all-time high in scoring, 97.2 PPG would land the Rockets at number 31, just under the Knicks, Jazz, 76ers and Lakers.
Yeah, the key here is to look at the decades he was coaching. Everybody except the Suns was scoring way less back then.
Of course ppg alone is basically a meaningless stat. You are not accounting for pace, and JVG consistently coaches a game that is among the slowest paced in the NBA (bottom third in all but one season). 04-05 and 06-07 both showed that when given a couple of weapons like TMac and Yao, he can run out at least an average offense even when his third best offensive options are guys like David Wesley, Bob Sura, or Shane Battier. With the current Rockets team he doesn't have the Yao to complement Harden (Howard doesn't have Yao's post skills, but his ORtg is close to Yao's, but the supporting cast is far superior on offense, which is sad considering how mediocre they are on that end.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"I think it's a great job with a Hall of fame player in Harden. That's why I was interested." - Jeff Van Gundy <a href="https://t.co/LbOSfTUvQo">https://t.co/LbOSfTUvQo</a></p>— Rockets Insider (@Rockets_Insider) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rockets_Insider/status/733024389390700545">May 18, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He's the same dumbass that wouldn't give Rick an extension because he blamed him for Yao. ****ty owner.
