Rockets Woo Van Gundy By THE NEW YORK TIMES In what essentially amounted to a recruiting trip, the Houston Rockets took Jeff Van Gundy and his wife, Kim, around Houston yesterday. Carroll Dawson, the Rockets' general manager, has said he wants Van Gundy to be the team's next coach. But Van Gundy, who met with officials of the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, has yet to make up his mind. "It's flattering," said Van Gundy, the former coach of the Knicks. "But as we all know when we've moved, it's a major decision in your life and a lot of things go into it." The Rockets have reportedly had preliminary negotiations with Van Gundy's representatives, and it is believed that he would receive $4 million to $5 million a year for four or five years. An Eastern Conference official said Houston had also broached the subject of compensation with the Knicks, who own Van Gundy's rights until July 31, perhaps giving up a second-round draft pick. From a basketball standpoint, the Washington job does not compare to the one in Houston. The Rockets have the 7-foot-5 center Yao Ming and the All-Star point guard Steve Francis, while the Wizards finished below .500 in the mediocre Eastern Conference. Van Gundy, who resigned after nearly six seasons as the Knicks' head coach in December 2001, realizes that Houston's roster makes it attractive. "Somebody I really trust in basketball, I asked him what he thought were the pluses and minuses," Van Gundy said. "He said that the biggest plus about Houston was that every day that Yao Ming wakes up, he's 7-5."
Isn't it odd that this is pretty much what Larry Brown signed for to be coach of the Pistons? If this is what Houston has ACTUALLY offered JVG, then I wonder how much they offered LB?
i totally agree...these guys seem to have total east coast bias...but atleast lb went to a team whose situation is a little bit better than ours ( detroit has their role players in place)...if jvg goes to washington (total control or no total control), then he is a moron who dosent deserve this job in the first place...
well, thats my point. there are many threads where there are people bashing Rockets organisation for not pursuing LB enough, but if Houston offered LB the same amount of money as they have JVG then what more could they have done, if LB's mind was already made up? And if i am not mistaken, i think i read in some other thread, that the Wizards were going to offer LB $8mil. If thats the case, then getting LB to come to Houston was going to be very difficult to begin with. I know that as Rockets supporters, we have grown accustomed to our "splash" off-seasons (the last couple years there have been major acquisitions), but this year, with a coach in mind, that should not necessarily be the case. We just need a coach who will not tolerate immaturity from players, and implement good offensive/defensive schemes that suit this team.
Money was not the issue.... I said it was an issue. I've made it clear I have no idea if Brown would have gone with Houston had the money been higher, but it made his decision easier. Also, Brown is getting a lot more than $5 million a season with Detroit. There are incentives in the contract that will be much easier to earn with Detroit.
Clutch - Thanks fo clarifying. But with all due respects...how many issues were there? IMHO there were only ever 3 issues: 1) Money. 2) Fastest track to the Finals. 3) Mrs. Browns' desire to retire in LA. Now, given he went to Detroit, we can safely rule out #3, no? So unless you can enlighten me, it's money or fast track. Embedded in "fast track" is the ease with which Brown could achieve incentive bonuses. Again, with all due respects this makes $ an extremly high %age of the final decision. It's not a productive use of either of our time to speculate whether Houston was ever on Brown's radar. But it is without question that the Rockets management knew in advance of any negotiation with any candidate that Rudy T's salary was a "sunk cost" regardless of whom they eventually hired. I am of the opinion that the Rockets management had a $5m budgetary ceiling on the new coaching position at the very onset of the hiring process. Whether we agree or not, I think there is much merit in all of the following statements: 1) The Rockets management misjudged the market value of a HOF or near-HOF coach. 2) The Rockets management underestimated the pluses associated with both the PR and the teaching abilities of a HOF coach. 3) Had Larry Brown never become available, the Rockets management would still have used the $5m ceiling as what they would pay for the next coach. My apologies if this is offensive, but given these facts: * Phil Jackson's base salary was reported to be $10m when his contract began * Larry Brown turned down $7m-$8m from the Wizards * Larry Brown's incentives at Detroit are worth $3m-$5m * Geore Karl will make $7m for 2003-04 * RT made $6m/year * Brown's last Philly contract was for $6m how do the Rockets go into the negotiation process for a high profile coach with what appears to be a $5m ceiling? According to SI's Marty Burns, a "high profile" NBA coach makes between $6m-$7m/year. Unless you can throw light on the subject, the whole process smacks of bad management. And IMO it is what Van Gundy is contemplating now - whether to work for less than $5m/year. Or what his "incentives" ought to be. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/marty_burns/news/2003/06/01/burns_skiles/
