And your point is....what? The tongue-in-cheek comment about Nisalke ignores the fact that Nisalke also lost 391 games for a .388 %age. Will he ever pass Chaney's W's? Yep, this season and Van Gundy has coached in fewer games so far than Chaney has lost...420 games vs. 425 L's. As for your other comparisons: Losses and Winning %: JVG - 172 / .590 Collins - 242 / .549 Bickerstaff - 253 / .513 Westphal - 159 / .627 Ford - 358 / .465 Your comparison to Westphal is interesting - he's the 8th best All Time %age.... and he's .037 ahead of Van Gundy. There is absolutely nothing about Van Gundy's stats that suggests "middlle of the road"...get over it..
Isiah Thomas. We'd need electronic stop watches to time how fast he runs this franchise into the ground.
I don't think Phil can handle a young team like this one. He works better for the kind of team with legit stars in place(in fact, that's the only kind of team he works for). I think Red Holzman was a bit too softspoken to effectively teach and discipline a team like this one. Pat Riley would certainly make this team better defensively, but the offense would probably be just as bad. I think we're getting a younger version of him in our own JVG. Maybe Jack Ramsay? He would certainly be able to teach the team to play together as a unit. I'm not sure I'd want Rudy T. coaching this team. But three years from now? I could see it.
Point? That longevity matters. It is easy to start your career 3-1 with a .750 winning percentage and "quit on top." 400 games is comparatively a pretty small sample size. Chaney is head coach of the Knicks this year. Absolutely no way the Rockets win 37 more games than the Knicks do. The Knicks won 37 last year, the Rockets 43. I'd expect the best the Rockets could do is the same +5/6, and are likely to come in a couple games under that.
Longevity? The kind of longevity that makes Lenny Wilkens the "best" ever because he has won 1,268 games? I guess we just discount the fact that Wilkens also lost 1,056? Admit it...your real point is that you are extreme PRC and want to bash Van Gundy. Let's look at longevity in a different light.... RT has coached in 818 games. Of the 23 coaches who have coached 818+ games, RT ranks 8th in winning% (but will likely drop to 9th behind Larry Brown after this season). Who is ahead of RT? Jackson, Riley, Auerbach, Sloan, Adelman, Daly, Karl and Nelson. Who's within 5 per centages points (0.05) of Tomjanovich? Fratello, Del Harris, Wilkens, Doug Moe, Red Holzman, Alex Hannum, Jack Ramsay, Cotton Fitzsimmons, John MacLeod, & Alvin Attles. But what about winning % for coaches with less than 818 games? JVG ranks 6th behind Billy Cunningham, K.C. Jones, Gregg Popovich, Paul Westphal, Lester Harrison & Tommy Heinsohn. IMO, that's pretty good company, too. Let's say that JVG can't get his .590 W% and can only get to RT's # - .562. That's 46 W's/season. Given that RT has 212 more wins, the 43 year old Van Gundy would catch Tomjanovich early in JVG's fifth season and well before he is 50 years old. And he'd have a higher overall win %. IMHO, the best you as a PRC extremist can hope for is that either Yao Ming is a total bust or JVG burns out as a Rocket within 5 years. Otherwise, you will have to find another excuse to anoint Van Gundy as "middle of the road".
JVG has a four year deal. If he hasn't reached the Western Conference finals by the start of season four (that means the next two seasons after this one), I fully expect him to be back in New York, probably sitting in his comfy analyst's chair.
Calvin......wouldn't u luv to see Calvin runnin around the court with those suits and jumpin on Yao's back after a game winning bucket??
You know Calvin always has good suggestions... I always tought he had the mentality of a coach... But then when you think about it he is just a commentator and he says stuff but would he be able to run a team?
If Calvin were serious about coaching, he should've taken an assistant's job, a head job in college, or at least have found a way to keep his "free throw coach" position. He knows the game, and *could* do it, but I think deep down he is happier in the broadcasting job.
"The White Shadow," Ken Reeves. He always got the most out of Thorpe, "Salami" and Coolidge. Just think what he could do with Yao, Cat and Stevie.
Current/recent coaches. 1st pick, Larry Brown, 2nd Rudy, 3rd JVG All Time considered, probably still would be LB for me.
