I never thought they were a contender under JVG. Again, not a contender, but I do see your point about playing undermanned and getting them to work hard. The 8th seed thing is overblown, it was a strike year and the Knicks were really far from the normal 8 seed. JVG got what he deserved from Management, this is what I don't get. Three times he turned Les down on a contract extension last year...THREE TIMES !!!! And then he hemmed and hawed at the end of the year....and the Rockets looked around and found a coach that they liked better. JVG had 4 years, and did a good job as Rocket's coach, he did the best he could. I would argue that he is too dogmantic as a coach and is slow at making adjustments, but still a quality coach. But, I guess I don't understand the fanaticism for a coach that lost consistently in the first round.... Oh well. DD
Man, U need to give us some warning for your crack joke. Now, I need to clean my keyboard from spit up coffee.
Of course without the foundation build by JVG, it would be impossible for Rick to do what he is doing now. JVG build an extremely solid defensive foundation which with added offense from RA system made the rockets what it is today.
How much of the credit goes to the system and how much goes to the players' willingness to play defense? Personally, without JVG bringing in able defenders such as Battier and Hayes and Deke, and getting other guys such as Alston, Tmac, Yao and Luther to at least have the desire to play adequate defense, there is no way the defense would have been what it is today.
I hope that was tongue-in-cheek, because the old Sacramento teams played very good defense on top of their crisp offensive execution.
People who complain that Les didnt treat Gundy right, remember this.... When Phil Jackson was available and pretty much said he would like to coach Yao and Tmac, Les responded by giving Gundy a contract extension just a few days later. How's that for a ringing endorsement! He basically told the coach who had won 9 rings to shut the hell up beause he was confident in the one who had won none. I thought it was pretty stupid, and still do, but you can see how much les supported Gundy at first. Guess what? Les also wanted results. When Gundy kept failing in playoffs, he had to go a different direction. Les didnt sign Gundy to a life long contract (Thank God!) I dont see how you can blame your owner for trying to go a different direction in light of continous first round exits.
They had the lead against Utah in game 7 with 1 minute left. JVG can't go out there and get the defensive rebounds for them. If they beat Utah they play the 8th seeded Warriors for a shot at the WCF. If they beat the Warriors they play the Spurs against whom they match up well because the Suns and Mavs were gone. If they beat the Spurs they have the Cavs in the finals, which is pretty much a gimme. Being one minute from having a pretty decent road to the title spells contender for me. It is certainly far more than could have been expected from a team with a PG rotation of Rafer Alston and John Lucas and a PF rotation of Chuck Hayes and Juwan Howard. It wasn't a strike year. A strike year is like when the baseball teams were using scabs. All of the normal players played in '99. Everyone played the same number of games. And the Knicks were the normal eigth seed in that seven teams in their conference had a better record at the end of the season. You and Phil Jackson make up the group of people that think '99 should count less or differently than other seasons. He did turn down in season extensions because he thought that they should focus on the current season and worry about the future later (same reason he didn't sacrifice games to give V-SPAN more run). He didn't hem and haw at the end of the year. He asked for a day or two to let the emotion of the series pass. Morey told him he could have it. Morey also said they wanted him back. JVG told Morey that he wanted to come back and Morey told him he could only come back if he coached the team the way Les wanted it coached (including the personality he displayed to the media).
The ROX are playing a multi-dimentional defense this year than they did during JVG. The players all over the court are more creative with more personality than they ever were under JVG.
you hit it right on. He "created" a very flawed team and the team was really never a contender, check out our record against the top in the west last year
LOL! Wow! JVG took a team of Yao and Tmac to the SEVENTH GAME OF THE FIRST ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS!!! TWICE!!!!! Best coach of all time yall!
That team was fairly similar to ours in more than one way. They (like us) seemed to be fairly lacking in players with 1-on-1 scoring talent, but they just had so many great, energetic roleplayers. We are similar. The difference is that their roleplayers were better passers, and ours are better defenders and rebounders.
Ok, JVG had a system...but it wasn't really a good offensive system. It was nearly flawless on defense. He had 5 guys spaced out on the court. You get back on defense and have those 5 guys running back spaced out at the same time. His idea of an offense was to get the ball in T-Mac's hands and let him create or... Throw the ball inside and let Yao muscle the ball up and take a shot or kick the ball out to the perimeter players for 3 pt shot. Way Too predictable. All defenses had to do was to Push Yao out away and fluster him with multiple defenders and double up on T-Mac. Dare our 3 pt shooters to make our shots. Live by the 3 Die by the 3
