Azubuike is a mediocre guard that has managed to put up okay numbers in Golden State, the team with the fastest pace in the league. Nachbar was so awesome with NJ that he was out of the league in two years at the ripe old age of 27. I would say Van Gundy developed Yao very well, and I am much happier with how he used him than Adelman. I am glad he was here so we didn't end up with a 7'6" Chinese Troy Murphy. Other than that, I don't see any players that Jeff failed to develop that showed their potential elsewhere. That was kind of the point of the list. JVG picked all of the guys on my list? Or JVG signed some old Knicks to 10 day contracts as stopgap solutions when players were injured? The point is, Jeff didn't develop young players because we didn't have the young players to develop. Since Adelman was here (and Morey) they have drafted players that someone can work with. I don't think JVG would have refused to play Landry, and there is no evidence that he would have. Maybe the Rockets don't draft Brooks (who Adelman "found" out in the Pacific NW) but if they did, he would have gotten play too. It isn't like the Rockets never drafted players under Van Gundy, nor was he in charge of drafting them. The guys they drafted either got plenty of burn (like Yao), have proved to suck no matter who they played for (like Boki), or sucked so much that they never played for anyone else either (like V-SPAN).
This supposed superiority of Adelman over JVG is yet to be proven. Until Adelman wins an NBA Championship, both he and JVG are in the same boat: Good coaches who never won.
Anyone ever heard of this "Gerald Wallace" character? I think Rick failed to "develop" him and SAC let him go and he later flourished in Charlottte. I read somewhere that this Gerald guy is better than both Boki and Buike. But I don't watch players who have never been Rockets and don't like to talk about examples that don't support my imaginary point.
The exception that proves the rule.....one guy, is that all you got? Hey since you live in NY, and are a Van Gundy fan why not name all of those glorious rookies he developed while in NY? DD
That's one more than you were able to name on the other side. But here we go down the glorious "JVG FAILED TO DEVELOP FREDERIC WEIS" path. Somebody please alert me when it's over or when DD has retired to his recliner for the evening with his tub of Haagen-Daas.
You can always count on the same people arguing for their Van Gundy pinkie ring. Thou musn't make fun of a fellow New Yorker....heh. I get crap for my mancrushes, at least I have company.....LOL.... DD
Other players who didn't play much under Adelman as young guys but later "developed" with other coaches: Donyell Marshall, Robert Pack, Tracy Murray. These guys are have NBA careers at least as substantial as friggin Nachbar and Azubuike. On the other hand, guys who grew with JVG into NBA regulars include Yao, Hayes, Head (who really did not have much talent), Charlie Ward, Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas, etc. Frankly, an NBA head coach account for maybe 10% of a player's "development" at best. For the most part, it's a matter of having talent and having the will to develop one's game. Some players grow, others don't. Adelman didn't force Keving Martin to spend weeks every summer working iwth David Thorpe on various skills any more than he forced Jerome James to become a lazy bum.
I would think it's got to be a bit higher than that. I know head coaches generally don't work with players in the summer, but their job is to put those players into situations where they can excel. Besides Yao, one of the best 'development' jobs JVG did was Chuck Hayes. He was a nobody, an afterthought.. and JVG made sure he remembered that everyday. I remember reading how Van Gundy would leave notes in players lockers.. Chuck Hayes' would read "remember who you are." He gave him a role and constantly encouraged him to maintain the same mindset of doing his job and working hard. Now Chuck is seen as one of the leaders of the team. I don't get this need to put down one coach in favor of the other. Adelman has done a great job bringing along players (Brooks most recently); but every coach is going to have their misses (Wallace). JVG, in Houston, never had any talent to work with. It's funny, because the year they decided not to retain JVG is also the year they brought in Scola, Landry and Brooks. It would have been interesting to see JVG's team with competent players in it instead of journey men.
That's silly.. if you wanna talk like that, then let's see who's won more. Rick 2nd round, JVG nothing. But I'm not going to base it off that cuz that's stupid. Rick wins even without counting wins, just looking at how he plays players on our team that wouldn't be as good. And if you want to use that logic then JVG won 30 with tmac and Yao partially playing, Rick won 42 without both all season. Rick still wins. Coaches should not always be judged by rings.
Are you kidding me? Use some damn logic. You can't just blindly compare two seasons like that without taking into account the PLAYERS ON THE ROSTER.
I decided to do some more research, and it is worse than I thought. JVG's youth hating ways went back to his days in New York. There he failed to develop such luminaries as: Chris Jent, Walter McCarty, John Wallace, Ben Davis, Etdrick Bohannon, Demarco Johnson, Lavor Post, and just to give extra combo Rockets/youth hate Mirsad Turckan. He broke with his form for some reason, giving extensive minutes to Marcus Camby, Chris Childs, and Charlie Ward.
I dont use that kind of crap logic.. but if you look at the post i quoted im trying to tell him that doesnt make sense.. not argue my point by using that logic..
Since he brought it up, the funny thing about Nachbar and his now-concluded journeyman NBA career was that his crowning 9 ppg seasons were comprised almost entirely on the back of his ability to shoot 3-point shots. He really couldn't do much else. Defense/Rebounding? none to speak of. Post up game? Please. Ball handling/Passing? Not really. Basically we are talking about a slightly smaller Yi Jianlian's skill set here. Yes, he ran and dunked on a ground-bound Karl Malone once in the playoffs - that's fine and dandy but running and dunking isn't really that rare of a skill at the NBA level, I mean you can find that on the And-1 tour any day a week. All in all, a pretty one dimensional player; that 3 point shot was basically his meal ticket for his otherwise unremarkable NBA career. And of course, the common refrain from DD and a few others was that "JVG ruined him by trying to make him a 3-point shooter" - If by "ruined him" you mean "maximized his one redeeming quality in the NBA" then you are correct. Otherwise, you really can't make that kind of crap up. Still glad we opted to roll the dice on him rather than Tayshaun Prince though...d'oh...
