I WATCHED EVERY ROCKETS GAME THIS YEAR, AND WENT TO HALF. I LOVE THE ROCKETS BUT THEY HAVE TO LEARN THEY ARE NOT PLAYING AT THE REC CENTER. AND AS MUCH AS I DON'T CARE FOR DUNLEAVY HE MIGHT BE THE BEST CHOICE. THIS TEAM HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS SCORING, AND THE KNICKS WERE A LOW SCORING TEAM MIGHT LEAD TO A REALLY BAD MIX. VAN GUNDY IS LABELED AS A GREAT DEFENSIVE COACH. AND EVERYONE BUT STEVE MADE GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN DEFENSE. I THOUGHT AT TIMES THE TEAM WAS A GREAT DEFENSIVE TEAM WHO COULD BE ONE OF THE ELITE IN THE NBA, BUT THERE OFFENSE COULD NOT BUILD ANY MOMENTUM OR CHEMISTRY. WE NEED SOMEONE MORE OFFENSIVE MINDED TO MAKE SOME ROSTER CHANGES AND GET THESE SCORERS TO LEARN TO WORK TOGETHER. I AM STARTING TO LEAN TOWARD DUNLEAVY.
Allow me to correct myself. Dunleavy has actually coached two of the best passing big men to ever play the game. Sabonis & Divac Please remember that the year the Dunleavy Lakers went from 63 wins to 43 wins was when the Lakers lost Magic Johnson. When the Lakers lost Magic, Dunleavy still managed to have a 43 win season. With out Dunleavy the Lakers went 3 straight years with a sub .500 record.
Are you talking about the WCF or NBA finals? Dunleavy did make it out of the WCF with the Lakers but I don't think it's accurate to say that his Portland teams should have beaten Shaq and Kobe when Shaq was in his prime and LA still had some good role players like Horace Grant and Glen Rice. I thought just the fact that the Blazers were able to take those Lakers teams to 7 games was a hell of an accomplishment. Remember how easily the Lakers disposed of the Tim Duncan lead Spurs in the play-offs during their 3 years of dominance. Also consider the major head cases that Dunleavy had to deal with in Portland. I think he did an outstanding job in Portland and L.A. when he took them to the finals with an aging Magic a hurt Worthy and a rookie center that barely spoke English (Vlade Divac).
Relax on the Dunleavy can't control his Blazer players. Guess what? No coach could! Rasheed might have killed Phil Jackson if he asked him to do some metitating and holding hands in a cricle w/ your eyes closed crap. Mo Cheeks is a great guy and still under his watch Randolph punches Patterson in the face. Rasheed goes into the stands after a fan. Wells makes racist comments and Pippen rips the rest of the team for being immature. Diciplining the Rox would be and ENTIRELY different situation. Our worst attitude problems pale in comparison to some of the lightweight problems the Blazers have. That is not a legit complaint against Dunleavy.
If we hire Dunleavy after firing Rudy. I think the Rockets initially will look really stupid. You don't fire a guy for someone that is probably considered worse. Maybe Van Gundy isn't the answer, but people wouldn't be saying what the hell are the Rockets doing firing Rudy T for ______. I don't think many would call hiring Dunleavy an upgrade, while people would make the case for Van Gundy.
Crash, Great points. I never thought of the fact that Dunleavy has had success with passing big men (Yao) and shoot 1st point guards (Francis).
: What the Hell!? How is Van Gundy perceived as a better coach than Rudy T and not Dunleavy. Dunleavy's resume' is much longer and much more distinguished than Van Gumby's resume. If anything I would definitely consider Van Gumby a much worse coach than Rudy T. Hire Van Gumby and watch our offense wade in mediocrity or worse all of next year. Van Gumby is clearly clueless on offense and even his biggest supporters admit it.
People regard Van Gundy so highly because his Knicks teams were always considered as overacheivers. On the other hand Dunleavy's teams were considered the most talented team, but couldn't win it all. Basically, Van Gundy got more out of his team than Dunleavy. Don Nelson didn't do crap with the Knicks except lose and then Van Gundy came in and the Knicks became contenders.
Dunleavy's Laker team lost to the Bulls in '91 when Magic got hurt in Game 3. In fact I think by the end of that series the entire Laker starting 5 was hurt. In the WCF against the Lakers with his Portland team, LA had the 2 best players on the court. Nobody can win in that situation. Come on. Phil Jackson has NEVER been in that position. The guy didn't win with the Bucks. That's what it comes down to. Phil Jackson would never even think about trying to coach the Bucks. George Karl isn't winning with the Bucks. Rick Adelman didn't win with the Warriors. Don Nelson sucked with the Knicks and got run out of GS. Had Dunleavy left Milwaukee after, say, 2 years, like Larry Brown usually does, his record would look a lot better. But he stuck it out.
It's a miracle that Portland team made it to the West Conf Finals. It was a headcase all star team. Dunleavy did a great job with them. Most other coaches would have faired much worse. Don Nelson wasn't there long enough to make a difference. The Knicks sucked then and still suck.
So many weak minded people. Van Gumby over achieved in the EAST not the WEST. There is no such thing as overachieving in a conference where all of the teams suck. Dunleavy did tons more with a team full of head cases than Van Gumby could ever hope to achieve. Dunleavy clearly has a much more impressive resume than Van Gumby and he knows how to coach both offense and defense not just defense.
I think the balance of power clearly shifted sometime between Jordan's departure and Jackson's joining of the Lakers. So in that, I think it would be fair to say that the East was in power during the first part of VG's reign and the West was in poer during the last part.
I notice you said the Bulls. Well, didn't anyone tell you that Jordan retired and is 40 yrs old? In the forseeable future, the West has an edge over the East. The West has won 4 straight titles. This year will be the fifth.
Uhhh...what does that have to do with it? The fact is Jordan was the best player in the league for half of JVG's coaching career. Seriously, do you get how stupid you sound? What does the West's dominance now have to do with when JVG coached?
Actually you might want to check your history. Jordan had retired and Pippen was playing for Houston when JVG lead his juggernaut Knicks team to the finals in 98-99. The mighty Bulls did not even make the play-offs that year.
