Van Gundy couldn't get out of the first round. Adelman couldn't get out of the conference finals. Did anyone see Van Gundy's playoff record with the Rockets? He should be fired.
Very interesting article, especially the part about management being fond of Snyder. Maybe Battier will get traded for a mobile power forward, and Snyder will start in his place?
Yeah, JVG's firing was warranted. I don't care how many games he had to play without Yao or McGrady. His starters might have proven more durable and/or more conditioned had they not played so many freaking minutes during the regular season behind what I'm no thinking were primarily disagreements over personnel he had with the front office. Like he always says, he is what his results say he is. And this team needs to get beyond the 1st round.
What people really don't know is that he was having an affair with Clutch the Bear. Thats the real reason he got fired.
In 14 seasons, Adelman, who was fired in 2006 in Sacramento, never missed the playoffs. _____ Sacramento did not make the playoffs this year.
The knock on JVG is he couldn't lead the Rockets out of the first round. The knock on Adelman is he couldn't lead the Kings out of the conference finals.
Gene Keady and JVG are cut from the same cloth. Gene Keady - can't get past the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. JVG can't get past the first round of the NBA playoffs. Gene Keady gets more out of his players than other coaches. JVG ditto. Gene Keady doesn't have enough talent. JVG ditto. Gene Keady teams lead the Big Ten in defense. JVG teams lead the NBA in defense. Gene's teams were low scoring grind it out affairs. JVG's teams ditto. Gene's teams were always averaging about 50-60 pts a game. JVG teams about 80-90 pts. It's remarkable how similar both these programs are at Purdue and Houston. Gene Keady - Best College Coach to Never Win a Title JVG - Best NBA Coach to Never Win a Title Players for both coaches said that their coaches were tough nosed, win at all cost and great teachers. That they never had a better coach in their life. Bottom line...still doesn't work to win championships. Combination teams like the championship Duke / North Carolina / Hoosiers / Michigan in college were all combination teams with great offensive presence and great defenses. You gotta be able to play both sides of the ball. PERIOD.
OMFG, I feel disgusted the paper had to drag Yao him into this. I don't think Yao has anything to do with JVG's firing. Yao had his moment of frustrations after the game 7 loss, but he's perfectly Okay with JVG coaching.
I've been so darn busy to keep up with this stuff, but I'd like to chime in and add that JVG sacrificed his own defensive principles, and that was a major reason why the Rockets lost. JVG changed his PnR defense from 2 years ago in order to conserve Yao's energy (which personally, I don't think Yao gets tired playing proper defense...he gets tired running up and down too much IMO). JVG played Yao 37.2mpg in the playoffs. JVG had to do so b/c the offense was pathetic without Yao or T-Mac...that's on JVG and management...and of course the offense was pathetic many times w/Yao and T-Mac...sad. But b/c the offense was soooooo bad, JVG felt that he had to play Yao 37.2mpg (or more if not for foul trouble); and JVG believed that the only way Yao could play that many minutes were to sacrifice defensive movement on Yao. If necessary, I can illustrate the difference between how the Rockets used to play defense on the PnR, and how they played it 90% of the time vs the Jazz during this year's playoffs. At the end of games, JVG would actually revert to his old PnR defensive scheme, but that was too late in my opinion. In a roundabout way, JVG's weak offense is a main cause of his demise, b/c it effected the way he coached defense, which was really bad...honestly, it was terrible, and JVG knows it b/c the way the Rockets play defense the last 2 minutes of the game (the strategy that is) is always different from how they play in the rest of the game...JVG sacrificed his own principles and paid the price of failure.
The Kings were in a period of transition. They had just traded all the pieces of that team and were in a period of flux and felt it was time for a shakeup, similar to the Rockets getting rid of Rudy T. Of course it proved to be a disaster for them because they hired an idiot to replace him.
I already knew that Adrian Warj...Wata...Whatchutalkinboutwillis didn't know anything about NBA ball before I read this gem but now he has gone and proved himself as the least credible writer since that chick wrote that Kobe is better than MJ a few months ago. JVG wanted out? Not what local writers are saying. Adleman is cheerful? Does Adrian actually watch NBA ball? Nice article.
