From the Rockets Notes. I thought this is an interesting quote to add to the colorful conversations wrt whether JVG is a player's coach or an old school tyrant type coach, or something in between. It is hard to really tell. It takes a <i>JVG Companion Anthology of Historical Quotes</i> book to figure it out. so...add this to the anthology. Feb. 2, 2007, 12:45AM <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4520333.html">ROCKETS SUMMARY</a> By JONATHAN FEIGEN Schedule loosens I wonder if JVG has always done this, or only when he has a team that is "using practice time correctly." Plus, he has one star with chronic back problems and another who is 7'5 who can use all the rest he can get. In comparing JVG to Riley, this doesn't seem like something Riley did. He does give a occassional days off, but Riley was always big on using as many practice days as possible,,,to be the best conditioned team as possible...no?
I would prefer few "quality" practices over "quanity" . As far as conditioning go by doing quanity, I don't believe in that as these guys are all professional and know to do that on their own. Whether they are discipline or not to do that is up to them (ala Bonzi). If they are not in shape, they will find themselves on the bench. Simple as that. By this stage in the season, these guys should be at optimal level of conditioning, so give them more rest and save the energy for "real" game. What did Allen Iverson say ? " Practice ? Practice? .. man we are talking about practice" There is a funny video on that , let me see if I can dig it up.
It seems that everything I can remember reading said that JVG does not have a lot of practices just a few really intense ones. Although shortly after the trade Francis was interviewd on some national program and his words of advice for TMac were, "get ready to practice". So maybe you are right - year one with a more undisciplined team he had more practices (or Steve was just being a baby). Absolutely Riley never seemed to care who was on his team - he would run everyone into the ground.
At this point, everybody is INTO Jeff's system now. They all understand the fundamentals of his system. It's just a matter of execution and maintaining energy and intensity especially on D. So having more rest helps a lot. That's the benefit of having a veteran team with high BB IQ. You rarely see Jeff standing on the floor yelling and directing every move of the team. Rockets rock!
Pat Riley was a practice tyrant. It's just the way he operates. Historically, his teams have always been in incredible condition, this year's Heat notwithstanding. When SVG left and Riley came on board, I'm sure it was a shock to their system. I guess this is another thing JVG didn't learn from Riley and I'm sure it shatters the image of some JVG-haters that see him only as a Napoleonic slave driver based on his media comments.
i'm pretty sure he eased the practice schedule after going through last year's injuries. even this year we've had our share of injuries. he know's it's important to rest and recover. however, the players must understand (as rafer said) that with days off comes resposibility to focus and come prepared when you practice. with an immature team, JVG probably could'nt give as many days off.
when jvg first arrived cato mentioned how much fitness they were required to do and how players had to be within a certain bodyfat percentage.
I think this also plays into the "JVG-type" players. He wants guys who are smart enough to catch on quickly, and self-motivated enough to study playbooks, watch tape, and do drills on their own. Potential cancers like Spreewell or even Bonzi can get in good with JVG if they want. Unmotivated players like Stromile just don't put enough into their own development for JVG.
If I had just the slightest of YouTube skills, I'd do a mashup that goes along the lines of: [Narrator's Voice] "For this special edition, we've brought together two leaders in two different sports, and they'll be speaking to us about the importance of practice in the playoffs." Allen Iverson: "We talking about practice." Jim Mora: "Playoffs?" Iverson: "Talking about practice." Mora: "Playoffs?!??" Iverson: "Practice, man!" Jim Mora: "PLAYOFFS?" Iverson: "Practice!" Mora: "PLAYOFFS!??!?!?" (con't) Iverson: "Talking about practice." Mora: "Playoffs?"
Not saying this is the only reason, but Jeff Van Gundy has officially stated that they're not having much practice at all when they're already so injured. If the team was fully healthy, they would practice more, but too many practices now would be an unnecessary risk.
I am pretty sure Rafer was talking about when he first came to Houston in 2005. Riley is big on 2 x day practices. Van Gundy will go a whole week with no practices, because of the game schedule. That's why it's so hard for rookies to prove themselves in practice in a week. They don't have any practices that week.
