Larry Brown decided to go where the money was at. JVG didn't. Goes to show you who has the right idea.
There are a couple of major differences: (1) Ming had no history in the NBA. We know JVG was a .550 +/- coach for most of his NBA career, with a veteran team. (2) The Olajuwon move was not made to accomodate Yao Ming. Les threw a big piece of this franchise's history to the curb in favor of some teevee analyst.
when he was coaching the knicks, they had one of the most mediocre roster in the league. having no legitimate center, they used camby. sprewell, being his self is bad enough. that team was really bad, and yet, JVG led them to the finals. and since then, i had respect for JVG. i think he will do good with us. but, its just my personal opinion and i know not everyone wont agree with me. i just want to point out how he made a mediocre team to the nba finals. have a good day. welcome JVG to houston!
The sum total of his career in NY was 4 seasons + a couple of partials. He had one good year, one better-than-average year, and two average to mediocre ones.
You had the errorneous stat and you kept insisting that other people made the mistake. From nba.com: REGULAR SEASON POST SEASON YEAR TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT WINS LOSSES PCT 95-96 New York 13 10 .565 4 4 .500 96-97 New York 57 25 .695 6 4 .600 97-98 New York 43 39 .524 4 6 .400 98-99 New York 27 23 .540 12 8 .600 99-00 New York 50 32 .610 9 7 .563 00-01 New York 48 34 .585 2 3 .400 01-02 New York 10 9 .526 0 0 .000 TOTALS 248 172 .590 37 32 .536 http://www.nba.com/coachfile/jeff_van_gundy/?nav=page
The Rockets said before Larry resign they wanted Van Gundy. When Larry resign The Rockets made it clear Brown was the top canidate for the job. NYC you're the one that said you would take 48 wins. Thats not a big change of what the Rockets are now and 2 years ago.
Out of 7 seasons Van Gundy had 2 50 game winning seasons and 1 40 game winning season. Is that so dominate. The only reason his winning percentage is so High is b/c he has partial seasons. This guy is not a proven Coach in the NBA. He took over a team that was already built by one of the greatest coaches MR. RILEY.
that really has nothing to do with who's the 1st choice. look at this reasonably: Brown signed ?what? five days after quiting. No one is officially allowed to talk to Brown before that. Detroit fired Carlisle before officially signing Brown. We gave him an offer. Why would Brown move that fast, and Detroit? Maybe, just schmaybe it was that they both really wanted each other. We gave him an offer, why wouldn't he like wait to see if we raised it. but the biggest thing was that Les's primary objective at the end of the season in that exit interview with Rudy was to have "stability." Surely, Brown ranks very poorly on stability at age 62 and with his track record. despite the scoop that our offer was rejected on money, that does not necessarily have anything to do with Brown being the #1 choice <b>all things considered.</b> Les probably said, sure he's my #1 choice on paper, but let's see how dedicated he is to Houston and Yao, and Brown probably said, you know, Detroit looks better to me, and Detroit probably said, "we'll outbid Houston's offer no matter what Les offers you," and Les probably said, "I ain't getting into a no-win bidding war and ruining my original first choice before Brown quit--JVG."
Playoffs is a big deal, but if your going to make a coaching change then the differnce of 3 GAMES is not that big. Oh so next yr the 8th seed is ok. Well my opinion is that the 8th seed after this change is not accepted. There is a good chance this team w/Rudy would've made the playoffs next yr.
But does Van Gundy have stabilty? He left w/ 19 games into the season.I understand what your saying on Browns situation but your talking about 4 million dollar difference in Browns situation.
I beleive that the Rockets were better off with Rudy T, than JVG. I hope JVG proves me wrong in the months to come. Oh yeah Brown, was clearly the Rockets favorite; to bad we missed out. The Rockets should of pushed harder for Silas. He demands respect, and he's proved time and time again that he can win with a depleted roster
This thread is insane. To sum up the arguments against Van Gundy: He only made the NBA Finals with such spectacular players as Allan Houston, Spreewell, a finished Larry Johnson, and an almost cooked Patrick Ewing. Moreover, he was winning with the Knicks when he quit. They then subsequently tanked. Versus Rudy, who managed to win with a bunch of average players. Like Hakeem, Clyde (or OT, depending on the year), Cassell. And who failed to win with Barkley, Kevin Willis, Hakeem, Clyde (or Pippen, depending on the year). Jesus. Who the hell really knows? What we do know, is that Rudy wasn't doing that well w/the current roster, and that they hadn't shown significant improvement... and that the team was stagnating. Van Gundy is highly regarded across the league, is young, and at least seems to have caused the Knicks to overachieve in the past. But that's all we know. People need to stop pretending like they know. You don't like the move, Sleepy. Fine. But stop sounding so damned authoritative.
