... would Jeff Van Gundy be coaching the Rockets? Remember that Van Gundy's major reservation about taking the Houston job was that he wanted to stay near New York and preferred not to move his family halfway across the country. If Byron Scott had been dismissed after the NBA Finals, as was rumored, I think Van Gundy would have been New Jersey's number one choice. Given the lack of disruptions to family life and the chance to coach Jason Kidd and the two-time defending Eastern Conference champs, Van Gundy likely would have accepted. Where the dominos fall from there is interesting: Does Rudy T still get "moved up"? If so, do the Rockets pay more to get Larry Brown or do they settle for Mike Dunlevy or someone else? Given the circumstances, I think the Nets have to be regretful that they didn't pull the trigger when Van Gundy was still available. If the Nets were a little bolder, Van Gundy could easily be on the New Jersey bench rather than the Rockets' bench this afternoon, and the Rockets' roster would have a very different look.
I don't think we'd have the best defense in the league, but we'd be top 10 for sure. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that any other coach would have this team running a better offense. We score just like the Knicks did and they had players like Houston, Spree, Ewing, Mark Jackson, etc.
Totally speculative thread. 1) Why would NJ fire a coach that took them to the NBA Finals two years in a row? 2) Why is there an automatic assumption that New Jersey would offer the job to Van Gundy over the man who built New Jersey's offense? Eddie Jordan built Scott's offense and was hired last summer as the Wizards' head coach.
We wopuld have 10 more wins if Byron Scott was our coach... JVG sucks. The defense isn't his contribution, it;s a default of starting Cato and JJ.... He is a horrible coach....
Because they wanted to fire him last year BEFORE the Finals. It's sad at what happened to Scott but he had problems with a lot of the players. It was just about a silent mutiny that was going on in NJ.
RR NYC - If they would have fired Scott at that time, they still would have hired Eddie Jordan over Van Gundy IMO.
Something to think about.... One of the reasons speculated that Scott was fired was his relationship with JASON KIDD. Do you really think KIDD would be interested in playing in JVG's SLOW DOWN offense? Looks like a horrible match to me. I think Kidd would have much rather played for Eddie Jordan and his motion offense.
