I don't think so. I believe coaching is very important in team sports. A coach is like a commander for an army. With the right strategy, tactic, and motivation, you can defeat the enemy even if you are short handed.
Tell that to Larry Brown, or Brian Hill after Shaq left Orlando. They have some influence on the games, but overall, all coaches are overrated. Not once have I seen Bill Belichick make a game saving tackle or kick the super bowl winning field goal. Nor have I seen Jeff Van Gundy miss countless wide open three pointers when the Rockets needed them most.
No kidding. Blaming the coach is the easiest cop out as far as I'm concerned. IF, we were in this situation without these injuries then I would be livid but that was not the case. There are issues with this team but at no point in the blueprint for this years teams was it planned to have Luther Head and Keith Bogans as our starters or loggin heavy mintues. I have faith that the issues this team has will be address over the off season. We'll be back near the top next year and there will be a ton of turn coats on this board, like always
Ok, I'm sure JVG is due some blame for the Rockets' troubles, but honestly I don't think any coach could have much better with our roster given our injuries. Yao was out for 6 weeks, Mcgrady has been either out or playing with injury pretty much the entire season, DA/Barry were also injured for a long time as was Rafer. As someone stated earlier, you gotta have the horses. And our roster just really isnt that good outside of Tmac & Yao. The role players are supposed to feed off of them and when one of them is out or playing with injury, it just can't be done well.
An insightful post, glynch. Van Gundy's mentor, Pat Riley, proved he could adapt to his players in a successful way. He had a marvelous collection of players with the Showtime Lakers, and they played anything BUT a slow it down, use the clock, stifling defense, half court game that we've seen here, with brief exceptions, since Jeff became coach. When Riles moved to New York, he adapted to his players, using the style we see from Van Gundy today with success. Not the success he had at LA, obviously, but he didn't have anything near the team he had with the Lakers. Jeff hasn't show us that, yet. Sure, the style has changed for some stretches of games, but not consistently. His ardent defenders will point to the huge problem of player turnover, but I don't think we've seen enough of him to know if those were aberrations, or are a clear indication that he can change his style to suit the team he has. Van Gundy is at his own crossroads, or, if you will, Two Roads... Media? Or will he have a Shiowtime of his own with the Rockets. Time will tell.
Man, you should share your secret with all those owners, so they can just hire someone off the street by paying donuts money.
What about Coach K? How about what Jerry Sloan did that year he lost Malone and Stockton? Look at what Byron Scott have done for the Hornets this year. Good commanders adopts to their environments. When something is not going their way, they adjust their strategies and tactics accordingly. Good coachs adopts to the situation. If you shooters are not hitting 3s, run more plays that involve cutting and ball movements, make your players get closer to the basket.
Another interview and thread that never would have happened with a healthy Yao and TMac all season. We hate losing so we trash the coach, when he has 2 stars and a bunch of scrubs and the 2 stars have been MIA most of the season. Nash + Marion > Rockets without TMac (100%)- that's a no brainer. I don't like some things about JVG, but this is just the time to pounce on him- his team (our Rockets) have been picture of 'health, consistency and chemistry' all season long.
eeehhhhhhggnn.... wrong again. Like i stated before, Carlisle did it with 3 starters at PF SF and SG gone. No excuses here pal. They screwed up in the offseason and it shows. With that, if you have an offense designed for something that isnt there, common sense tells you its not working out and try something different. Instead we see a guy trying to force a dinosaur strategy on players. The L is changing and if JVG wont, he'll find it out the hard way soon enough.
No, I think I see the deficiencies in JVG and I'm not convinced he is the best coach for the team, but maybe we need to see THIS season for what it is. A total effort in futility- injuries, lack of decent scrubs and no time to gel a new roster around Yao and TMac. There are people who would ditch JVG if we had been healthy all season and lost in the second round of the playoffs. Everyone can have an opinion.
What about Kryzewski? You act as if he's taking players from the local YMCA and turning them into National Champions. Where was Byron Scott's brilliance last season? Coincidentally NOK has performed above typical Hornets fashion by adding one of the NBA's best point guards and likely rookie of the year Chris Paul. I'm surprised that the almighty Byron Scott hasn't come up with a master scheme to stop NOK from losing what, 12 of their last 18, and falling like a lead weight out of the playoff picture? I'm sure next you will tell me that Mike Dantoni is a master tactitian who is capable of turning water into wine by just adapting to the situation.
Just look at the players we're putting on the court night in and night out. There's simply no way that group can win consistently, regardless of the coach. Lack of talent and injuries is the problem. Not the coaching.
We weren't really in a situation the last couple seasons where we could improve our personnel much beyond what it was to start the season. I think most of us were optimistic with the roster we had. CD and JVG, overall, have made solid moves the last couple seasons that made sense at the time. Getting McGrady for Francis was a no-brainer. Sura pickup was excellent. Wesley for Jim Jackson was smart. Jon Barry for Tyronne Lue, check. Mike James for Mo Taylor, essentially: brilliant. This season, I was satisfied with the Swift and Anderson acquisitions. I thought Luther Head was a good draft pick. In retrospect obviously Swift and Anderson weren't great pickups, but they made a lot of sense at the time. And it's not like we blew away a ton of money on those two. The one move I never really liked was James for Alston. But even that looked pretty good in February when McGrady, Yao, and Alston were on the court together. What I'm driving at is we didn't have a lot of options in upgrading the talent of the whole team substantially since we had to take on McGrady's and Juwan's contracts and we haven't had any really high draft picks since Yao. We did ok, given the circumstances. But with all the injuries this season and most of our better players wiped out (McGrady, Sura, Barry, ...), the roster now looks terrible.
So wrong. A GM is more important than a coach. Sanders can't win in Minnesota, now his detroit team is getting ready for another final. but he didn't construct the team. The GM did it. Now coaching is important when you get to the final stage and the talent level is equal among two teams. To be the champion or to be the one next to the champion. A good coaching job could make a difference.
Have you heard there should be a person in any team called GM? Do you really think Phil Jackson brought in Shaq and Kobe to the Lakers during their championship runs? Or do you really think Larry Brown brought in the detroit players during Detroit's championship runs? It's been proven when coaches handle personnel decisions, they make terrible mistakes all the time. Rick Pitino in Boston, Pat Riley in Miami, etc. That's why the best organization won't give the personnel decision to the coach. If JVG has a lot to say about the personnel decision in this team, it only means one thing: The Rocket organization is not a GOOD organization. Its system setup will lead to more failure Well if you don't know the history of these stories, then I won't be surprised you said what you said above.
