You must be kidding youself? I have read many posts, claiming that Jackson cannot coach young talent, etc. That's just totally bush**t. Jackson coached the Albany Patroons (CBA) for 5 years with a record of 117-90, a league title, and won a CBA Coach of the Year Award. He joined the Bulls as the assitant coach in 1987, then became the head coach in 1989. In his first year as the head coach, he took the Bulls to the conference final, lost 3-4 to the eventual champ the Pistons. Just look at that years' team. He had too rookies (King & Armstrong), three 2nd year players (Grant & Pippen & Purdue). If those are not called young talent/team, I have no idea what your definition of "young talent" is. You can say anything about PJ, but let's not ignore the fact. As for coaches without previous head coach experience? How can anyone make that suggestion? You might want to try that experiement when you have a team full of young and un-developed players. But for a team like the Rockets, with two established stars in Yao & Tmac, you cannot afford to gamble, you have to pick someone with proved experience,
Agreed... or choose somebody with assistant head coaching experience who was a floor general when he played (like Avery Johnson). I don't really buy into Mario Elie... he's a tough-nosed type of guy (kinda like Larry Smith was), but I expect him to be very low on the x's and o's. Mullin is his best friend, and that's why he's got a job at Golden State... but I don't think he's ready to be a head coach. Ideally, you'd want a guy who demands respect, doesn't let the kids run the house, is great at game-planning, great at x's and o's, and preaches sound defense... oh wait, who do we have now? I guess we can put "has a good media attitude" and then you can get somebody other than JVG. In the end, the only change I want is either a new GM, or for the current GM (whoever he is) to get some accountability... because right now, we need to get a stable roster with a hint of talent together so they can gain some chemistry, and then make their run in the next 2-3 years (it won't happen overnight).
The Bulls went to the ECF the year before w/Doug Collins as well. Don't act like Phil worked any miracles with that team. Although your ability to read his bio is quite impressive.
Doug Collins or Del Harris And what about Hubie? Is he really really retired? The man looked good for a mid 70 year old when he was with TNT last season. Maybe he'd like to try his hand with our guys for a coupla years?
Dream. He could just say "Humble & Hungry" over and over. JVG gets a pass this year. By mid-season if not sooner next year, we'll see the new coach if the team's not at .500 yet.
I'm with ya, brother!! You need to look at the assistant coaching staffs to find a good coach. Why keep recycling the same old coaches? Look at Mike Brown in Cleveland. Great defensive assistant coach under Rick Carlisle. Now he's a head coach because Cleveland had the smarts to not just plug in one of the same old coaches who's been doing it for years. Sam Mitchell was a hard nosed assistant who was promoted to head coach and despite a goofy GM, is making some headway with that team. Come on! Is that as smart as some of you are? Just regurgitating the names of old head coaches? Let's see some basketball knowledge. Throw out some REAL ideas doe head coaches. Personally, I think Jim Eyen, assistant coach for the Clippers would make a nice head coach. He was assistant coach for the Lakers under Riley and has spent most of career assisting Mike Dunleavy. Okay, anyone else have any ideas OTHER than throwing out Riley, Jackson, blah, blah, blah?
I'd like to see Marc Iavroni of Phoenix be given a shot. I think that the team needs to change the type of complimentary players that they have gotten use to bringing in under the Van Gundy regime. Some more offensively taleneted plays(who can shoot the damn ball) would be nice instead of these defensive specialist who are known bricklayers!
I say Eric Musselman as he got hosed in Golden State while he started that team's turn around. Mario Elie probably would be a good choice as well if he is ready to make that step. But Les only likes to make big splashes so unless Phil Jackson, Isiah Thomas or Larry Bird would be the only kind of name he is interested in. Can't see Les hiring an unknown or someone without name recognition.
I think we should stick with JVG one more year cause this year was a whole mess of injuries. What would be nice though, is to cut some dead weight. Get rid of Ewing and bring in Stan VG as an assistant coach. Seems Yao has been learning more from Tom T anyways, and Stan could possibly infuse some much needed offense into this bunch. Perhaps the best thing though is to look more toward the GM spot, because the players we had at the beginning of the season were on life-support and the players we have now are bench warmers at best (aside from a few).
Your end of duscussion is only a reminder that you forgot to mention that headed by Michael Jordan the Bulls were ready to make the next step and had been in the EC Final, rather than let their Coach take them all the way the Bulls moved him up to take them to the next level. Jordan and co did not have to be coached just adjusted and twigged into a world championship team. Unlike the Rockets which needs a make over with younger additions and need to be moulded into a team. This requires a different type of Coach than a Phil Jackson.
Rudy T didn't have much experience as a Head Coach and he was given the chance to prove himself and he didn't do too badly!! Phil Jackson is getting on in years and I await to see if he is able to develop the young Lakers team to the level that is expected of him.
We could bring in Stan as an Assistant Head Coach and keep JVG. That way we could have the "Twin Gundies." Or maybe not. Frankly, I think all this speculation is just silly. JVG will be back. JVG should be back. Remember how strong our team was at the end of last year? We still have that team. (Except for the crumbling of our shooters, obviously.) But the core is there. And it showed this season when we were healthy. All this is just knee-jerk panic. Next year, when we have Healthy T-Mac and Dominant Yao, we'll be on 4-game and 5-game winning streaks galore. People will be back on the bandwagon. Watch. It'll happen. Besides, I'm also in the camp that gives Van Gundy considerable credit for Yao's development. Not too long ago, people thought that "Van Grumpy was an idot" for putting Yao on the block. They said he was stubborn. Inflexible. You know what? They were right. Van Gundy is stubborn. Like the stern teacher that challenges his pupil, JVG forced Yao to move away from his comfort zone, to learn how to dominate down low. And just you watch. Now that Yao can muscle in the paint, he'll bring the lighter touch back to his game. Think of it like an English teacher. The teacher forces a talented writer to learn the proper rules of grammer, even if that writer will break them in the future. Sorry for the long post. It just makes me sad to see Van Gundy get absolutely NO love or respect for the investment he has made in Yao's game. And he's stood by the big fella. I hope the team stands by him.
The credit I give Van Gundy is his patience with Yao. I think Yao's development comes from all involved but mostly Yao himself. I'm a die hard Rockets fan and was as optimistic as anyone here at the beginning of the year. I also new the Rockets season would depend on staying injury free. Image last year going into the Dallas series with a healthy Juwan Howard instead of Rybo. Injuries have caused CD and JVG to reshape this team on the fly, this year it didnt work and last year it did. Regardless, love him or hate him JVG is our coach for the future.
