Well, we've had a full season under JVG, and while he got us a little further a little faster on the defensive side than I would have thought possible, he was, IMO, exactly what we should have expected: a caustic, defensive obsessed, tireless worker who demanded accountability, emphasized the negatives, and gave us an identity. We also got, as expected, personal and philosophical conflicts, and a good degree of NYC style defensiveness. I was never FOR JVG so much as, once we let Larry Brwon slip through our fingers, resigned to the fact that he was a better option than Mike Dunleavy. I stand by this. I also wished and wish that we had had a real shot at Carlisle, but Brown was the ultimate could have been, as far as I'm concerned. In retrospect, while it amazed me at the time, I think that much of the anti-Brown stuff going on in here was attributable to residual loyalty to Rudy, and anger that we even had to pick someone to succeed him. I find it hard to beleive that the guy most call the best in the biz, or very, very close would have been regarded with such skeptisim at the time without secondary explanations. No, he's not perfect...yes, he might have wanted to wander in 6 or 7 years...to which I say...so what? He also might not, and in the meanwhile, you get the best. So I want people now, after a year woth the alternative, to examine three questions, and give their responses: 1) How much better, if at all, do you think we'd have been with Brown at the helm instead of JVG? 2) In what ways, aside from better or worse, do you think the team would have been different than the team was under Van Gundy? 3) Why do you ultimately think we lost out on Brown, and in retrospect, do you wish we had acceeded to what he wanted ( more $, an ego stroke, more power) whatever you think that was? This isn't only an academic excercise, as I think it will offer an analysis by contrast of what we do have in Jeff Van Gundy.
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Larry Brown is doing what he always does. He's come into a brand new situation rejuvinated and has done extremely well. However, history shows that throughout his coaching career once the honeymoon phase is over between him and his team, he wears thin on both the players and management and eventually quits.
I think Les and CD were a little too cocky when bidding for Brown. I have no evidence, but it seemed that Detroit came out w/ a purpose, they had no hesitation. When I read that Les/CD had met with Brown the day after he quit, I was speechless, I was so excited. But it doesn't really matter anymore. I know what we were getting w/ JVG, but I hope he can adjust and bring more. JVG has never had to deal with the West Super-Powers more than twice a year. Now he sees it almost everynight. I NEED OFFENSE. And for those that think JVG cannot be fired after just one year, Tim Floyd just got fired and I thought N.O. had a pretty good year.
I doubt would have been better under Larry Brown. Our limitations this year came down to our players. Steve and Cuttino would still have trouble adapting to the system, and we would still have a huge hole at PF. And Yao would still be only a 2nd year player. Notice how close the results were to Rudy T's last season? Coaches can't change players. If anything, I believe Larry would have demanded trades earlier. I remember some quotes from him saying Detroit needing more guys, and another quote by the GM Dumars saying they were just fine. Then they get Rasheed Wallace. Larry is not a patient guy. JVG was willing to wait out the whole season and let the players prove themselves (or shoot themselves in the foot). I also think the Francis situation would have been worse. The only bad thing that really happened with JVG and Francis was the SuperBowl incident. But Larry had a long history with Iverson filled will all types of drama.
I thought it then and I think it now. Brown would have been a much better choice for the Rockets. I believe he could have brought some of the work ethic and tenacity that JVG instilled while still keeping an up-beat offense. I hate it that my favorite team has been reduced to 'ugly ball' ESPECIALLY knowing that that style won't fly in the West. At least in the EAST it's still ugly but you win more games.
Mr. Clutch's post sums it up. I think we royally screwed up telling Brown "uh, wait 'til we get back to you, we have another interview with Paul Silas". LB doesn't wait. Detroit snapped him up, and he was ours for the taking. Stupid loser Rocket office. Detroit might win it all. If we'd had half a brain and snapped up the best coach in the game the second he was available, then I would have immediately expected trades. This waiting around with our resident sourpuss forced into detente has been a collossal waste of time. Go Nuclear. Fire Away.
I'll just skip all the questions you asked and answer my own question... In retrospect, I like the choice of JVG. I thought the choice was pretty good to begin with and after one season under his belt, I still like the choice. I don't think that the Rockets were overachieving, but I thought they did as well as could be expected. I have my doubts about some of his game time decision making (mainly substitution and minutes) but I am sure that I would have had problem with anyone that had been selected on some level. You can't really be happy with everything unless you win a championship. More than anything, I like JVG because he is a team player that doesn't seem to have aspirations beyond the traditional job description of coach. I think that the Rockets have had a strong organization and that a guy like Larry Brown or Don Nelson who think the way to success is through unconventional paths including being both coach and GM or trying tricked out schemes in the end weakens the organization. When one guy has too much power in the organization, things fall between the cracks, especially when that guy leaves. Why would anyone want to give a flake like Larry Brown all the power in an organization when he is just going to skip out of town? Even if he wanted to stay for 20 years, coaching is too unstable to hand over such authority. You have to have some kind of continuity in the management of a team that goes beyond the coaching staff.
I see plenty of examples of my penchant for typos, but with a nod to converational norms, fail to see a glaring pattern of grammatical errors. Perhaps reading while shifting the emphasis onto different words might elucidate.
I don't think it's Brown's patience wearing thin that cause him to quit. Some coaches are better for rebuilding a bad team to respectability and lacks the vision and leadership to take that team to the promise land. As good a coach Brown is, and the business side of NBA has a lot to do with his quitting the team. With the era of big money throwing at players' face, and lots of players turn over, it's hard to keep a good team together long enough to make a serious run for a championship. The most important thing is the organization, like at the Spurs, why are they so successful in building this team. Their GMs made good moves, nothing too drastic but most moves are right on the money.
It's hard to say if it's better with Larry Brown as the coach. First of all, he does not seem all that interested in Houston at the time. Maybe he's seeing something better with Detroit's organization, such as a more sensible GM. One thing I know for sure is Yao would thrived under Brown because he's trained old school, and Larry Brown is an excellent teacher, and with Yao's learning capability, he's going to do a whole lot better. Instead of having Yao becoming another Ewing, Brown would devise something just for Yao to take advantage of his skills and intelligence, not just his physical gift. As a teacher for Steve Francis and Cat, Brown will probobally tear his hair out and wanting to quit in 3 months. I also think he would do a better job to take advantage of Francis and Cat's ability, and find ways to use both big man and explosive guards equally efficient.
I read somewhere one one of the reasons Larry Brown choose detroit over Houston was he thought Billups would be more coachable then SF and brown probably doesnt want to deal with another AI type personality. But the main reason if i recall, was that we left him waiting in order to interview JVG and dumars eventually just convinced him. We missed out on the best coach for a undiciplined and sloppy team like ours. He would have done a much better job then JVG on offense.
JVG is fine, its the players not the coaches fault that we couldnt score, francis lost all confidence in his shot for about 2 months not because JVG was his coach but because he had a mental block of his own, all the other offensive players did fine, mobley, yao, jj, (cept pike), pagett, mo, m. jackson
I thought JVG did pretty good taking a lottery team to its first playoffs in 4 yrs or so especially in the tough western conference division, minus Eddie Griffin. Larry Brown has done a good job taking his team to the second round of the playoffs on a team that was in the eastern conference finals last year without Rasheed Wallace. Rick Carlisle has done a damn good job on a team that was knocked out in the first round of the eastern conference playoffs last year, he has helped his team get the best overall record in the league and has gotten his team to the second round of the playoffs without allstar center Brad Miller. Enough said.
in retrospect, i can understand why brown would prefer detroit much more than houston. Detroit has a better overall team, better team players, much more experience and no trouble makers to cause headaches. they also have good management. most of all, they have the heart and desire to win. I still feel this team is getting used to gaining that mentality, yes we want to win but some of them also want the stardom. do i doubt our teams desire to win? i have no doubt that they like to show and say that they have the desire and the heart, but i don't see it in their actions on the court. looking at detroit, they have a much easier team to control in an easier confrence. I'm even willing to say that they have a better team than us now. what they have managed to do is get every one of their players a mindset in what they are supposed to do in a game and they do it. our players still have a vague idea of exactly what role they are supposed to be in, which is why we hear so many people saying "so-and so stepped up." we wouldnt need to hear that if everyone knew their role. brown made the right choice in choosing teams, and i think our team is fine with jvg because we need an attitude adjustment. the change was drastic but i thought it was necessary, because jvgs method has been shown to work with the type of players we have.
