I voted for Phillip. 9 rings as a coach vs. 5 for Riles. Yeah, Phillip had MJ for 6 of those rings, but his level of success is just plain sick. Even this year, the Fakers did a lot better than they had any business doing. They were a defensive rebound away from a major upset over the Suns in the first round.
Exactly...Definitely makes him look so much smarter for dumping Van Gundy and doing the job himself...There will be a lot of partying in Miami...Oh Yeah, TO likes the Heat so I guess this makes this win that much more meaningful....
It would be easy to look just at results if the Rockets had a complete team that had been together for more than just a year, and had had multiple success/failure in that time. Basically, the team has been in too much fluctuation to evaluate simply the "coaching". JVG has a 2004 where he had players with marginal talent that made it to the playoffs... where they lost to an ultimately superior (yet flawed) team. He then gets a top 5 NBA player in 2005, overhauls the team, and surrounds him with aging veterans (who were still solid role players)... and has that team play better than any other Rockets team since 1997. They had what it took to win a playoff series against a superior team... but just didn't have the personnel/depth in the end to outlast a team for 7 games. Finally, in 2006, everything that can goes wrong does go wrong... started by the injury to your best player. That's basically three different/distinct teams in just three years... with mixed levels of success/failure. Thus, "success" for this team, and JVG, next year will depend on a number of things... if he gets a team together that has few health problems, good young talent (via draft), good role players (via FA), and has good chemistry... there should be no reason why they can't win... and THEN you can evaluate whether or not they can/should/will have playoff success based on just pure coaching. The only way I see JVG losing his job/resinging is if this team has another lottery season... even if it is because of continued health problems to T-mac (which would indicate that this team would be in rebuilding mode anyways, since their best player won't be able to be counted on to be at his best anymore). But, if all those things I mentioned above come together early... and this team puts up a good fight in the playoffs... I'll judge that as "success".
Well, I get it. In your mind, if everything goes well, putting up a good fight in playoffs will be qualified as "success", making the playoffs alone is good enough to reward JVG's another contract. The bar set for him seems to be a little bit low, considering you think this team already has a Championship foundation and JVG is such a quality coach.
Tell me where I thought they had the championship foundation. Having a championship foundation involves having HEALTHY superstars (which is not a given), and COMPETENT role players (for which the Rockets don't have yet). I already said that a lot of what happens next year depends on T-mac, and what FA and rookie they pick up in the draft... as they are built now (even with a healthy T-mac), they are NOT championship calibur with any coach. I do think JVG is a quality coach, and he proved that in 2005, when he had a nucleus that wasn't all that great around T-mac and Yao, and led them to a good season, and a good showing in the playoffs. Also, thanks for pretending to ask a question that you were genuinely interested in... I should have known it was just another "JVG sucks" opportunity.
Wow, it's amazing what a championship will do to one's reputation. Just a few short months ago, Riley was public enemy #1 after supposedly kicking Stan Van Gundy out the door, and now he's one of the best coaches in NBA history http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=105843
LOL, thanks for the misunderstanding. I asked the question just because I was curious about why there are fans still firmly support JVG and think he is the guy who can take Rox to another level. I never say JVG sucks, I just doubt he will be the guy who can bring Rockets championship. I want someone to convince me that he did a wonderful job in Houston during these three years and he deserves to stay. After all, two first round early exits and one lottery season are not tooo convincing.
What a relief! I said the same thing then that I said in this thread, pretty much. You never know when the past will bite you in the the rear.
I don't think I can classify the Heat as loaded, Clutch. They got Wade....and Shaq at 60 percent of his peak strength. And a bunch of role players. I think Riley clearly pushed them past the playoffs. All the motivational mumbo jumbo he does the players bought. All the old guys love him. Just listen to the post game conferences. They love the man. That goes a long way.
The Heat team this year was better than the one last year, correct? They made tons of personnel upgrades in the off-season. They were in the Conference Finals last year, and Wade got hurt. The only concern this year was chemistry with all the new guys; talent was never a question.
Just to chime into the question about JVG and what it would take to get a new contract... I am JVG's lover. Everyone knows that. But this is year numero cuatro. Plenty of time to get it right. We need 2nd round minimum and not be embarrassed if we lose. We need 50 wins minimum. Unless we have another year like this one, I dont think that this is something that can't be done. If we DO have a season like this one where everyone and their mother gets injured for significant amounts of time, then I think we have to start questioning the coach (since the GM is gone, we can't kill him) for picking/trading for these sissy players and let him go and get rid of the twats who constantly keep getting injured. No need to keep around dead weight. That means YOU, T-Mac. You are WAY TOO YOUNG to be having back problems. Geesh...
And as you know, you can have all the talent in the world. Doesn't mean you gonna win. You need a coach to bring it together. Gundy could of done that. But like I said, we will never know, right? Phil wasn't there and Rudy T was, how many rings you think he would of won with Jordan and Pippen? Don't know. Never will either. Riley gets the credit. Period. And the players say so. I think that counts alot more than speculation.
See, that is what I want hear from JVG's fans. You have confidence in him, then you should have the confidence to set a clear goal, a relatively high standard for a man who you think is highly qualified for his job. And I agree with you, Almu. 50 wins in regular and 2nd round of playoffs are the minimum. With two of the top 10 players in the league and a high draft pick, I don't know how you can expect anything less than that.
ivanny... I always defended the coach. I love him to death. But you have to be fair. I didn't want him gone 10 minutes after he arrived because he is from NYC or a former Knick or he is grumpy...blah...blah...blah. That has nothing to do with basketball. But being fair, this is year 4. I do think that is plenty of time. And I forgot to mention the draft pick. Its a lottery pick. Fair or not, the player selected is on JVG. He has been here the longest and probably would have final say on THIS DRAFT. I believe the man can coach. Now, is he the coach for this team? He won't be if we end up in the lottery again in my opinion.
