ooooooo . . .this is good stuff . . . . .can you do one of these for Jeff Van Gundy's seasons with the Knicks???? Rocket River
JVG's prob is exactly the same as Yao's prob. In Yao's case, if he wants the ball he'll have to say GIVE ME THE F*CKIN' BALL, which he can't. Because then our guards will think (screw you rook), in other words, kill team chemistry. In JVG's case, he either needs to bench our guards or make a trade. If he benches or screams at our guards, he'll seem bossy and lose whatever respect our players had for him. If he trades one of our guards, he'll look even worse. Which is my theory why he hasn't pulled the trigger yet, when we all know he's not afraid to bench players. On top of which, all his trades are scrubs instead of starters. The best person to address our problem was Rudy T. He didn't (either because he's trying to be popular or he lost interest in winning, I don't know nor do I care to speculate), which is why he was fired. Come the trade deadline, if we don't see much improvements, I'd expect JVG to be more authoritive and probably pull a trade. PS. That means Rudy's not off the hook... yet.
I would have kept rudy as head coach and thrown jvg as an assistant to help on defense. i think Rudy knew what to do with the offence but was just a bit confused on the defense aspects. When I watch Jerry sloan the and the jazz I see a fluid and almost perfectly executed offensive scheme. I'm still going to give Gumby a chance but I still remain firm on my decision that I would have rather traded stevie than gotten rid of Rudy.
I still think the Lakers getting shaq was tampering . .. . but . . .i get ya point Rocket River still bitter. . .
In case you didn't know, JVG fought with Knicks management because they didn't let him make roster decisions.
If Rudy T. were healthy last season we would have made the playoffs. We were two games ahead of Phonex when Rudy left. Mr. Mean just totally screwed things up. Rudy's record speaks for itself. He is one of the greatest coaches of all time.
But is that because Rudy is a better offensive coach? JVG emphasized defense more. He starts Cato and plays him more minutes. He wants a patient offense, not quick bad shots. Perhaps we can score more points by ISOing Steve, then Yao, then Cuttino, then Mo continuously. But is that a recipe for winning?
Has everyone all ready forgotten the Pippen fiasco? It was Rudy and CD that convinced Les to fork out multy millions of dollars for that over rated Michael Jordan coat tail riding loser. Then trade him off to Portland for trash!!!!
No! 1) Rudy was the one that gave Moochie that ridiculous contract! 2) Rudy's lack of discipline help create that me first mentality. 3) Rudy gave a PF that rebounds like a nun $40 million 4) Rudy stroked Cat's ego and made a 2nd round draft pick believe that he was a top ten player. Rudy is not off the hookl. This collection of brain dead, yet athletic roster is the results of Rudy's bad chemistry experiment.
Do you blame Rudy for all the injuries to the big three? I agree with alot of the posters there's too much of 'a what have you done for me now lateley' attitude about Rudy. Rudy did extraordinary things as a coach which no other coach could've done. Winning a championships with key personel missing and then another one coming late from low in the seedings and in the process destroying teams vastly superior in talent. Also Rudy's handling of veterans attracted a legend like Charles Barkley to not only come and play for the Rox but also stick around for them when he was thinking about retiring. Its clear Rudy didn't have what it takes to handle immature players and it was probably the right time to make a move for a new coach but lets not bury the man who helped bring Houston its first two major league team Championships just cause the Rox had a few bad years.
Rudy was fired because of his coaching, not his personnel decisions. Or else, CD would have been fired along with him. Watching this year's games so far, I don't think JVG is any better than Rudy in terms of getting the players to do what he wants.
C'mon, we're throwin' down! Nah, I'm not starting something with you. It seems to me that you started this thread axiomatically based on the assumption that there had been something to blame Rudy for. There is a small population on the boards -- like OMR and myself -- that don't see it that way. The way I see it, it takes a while to dismantle an old team and rebuild a new one and take it to the playoffs. I'm satisfied with the progress the Rockets have made even though I'd have really liked to make the playoffs the 2 years we were real close. So, I don't find any blame to cast at anyone. I feel like this view is not irrelevant to the subject being discussed and I felt that you were being inflexible in denying the validity of this argument when OMR presented it. It may or may not be right, but it is relevant. Easy, I wouldn't say that Rudy was fired because of his coaching, even. I think there was a hope that a coaching change would shake up a somewhat unhealthy team spirit heading into the future. I think that is somewhat different from saying that Les thought that Rudy had done a bad job in the past.
