[Chron] No deal no big deal for Rockets coach

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4555234.html

Feb. 15, 2007, 12:09AM
No deal no big deal for Rockets coach

Van Gundy says he is more concerned with how his team is playing than the fact he does not have a contract guarantee beyond this season


By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Jeff Van Gundy had just become the Rockets' choice, the result of Leslie Alexander's first coaching search, when he made his first request of his future employer.

Van Gundy asked for a shorter contract.

Such was his uncertainty about the position he was accepting at the time. Now, 3 1/2 seasons later, with the Rockets on pace for their best record in a decade and with Van Gundy receiving praise for the team's success through adversity, he shows no concern with the deal he had abbreviated before taking the job.

With this season being called his best, Van Gundy is in the final year of his original Rockets contract. The extension he received for next season is not guaranteed.

Yet Alexander, while praising Van Gundy's work, won't discuss his coach's future.

Van Gundy insists he hasn't deliberated about his plans beyond this season.

"We both have a choice at the end of this year," Van Gundy, 45, said. "It's not just their choice. It's not just their option. Each side has an option.

"But I'm not trying to sound any particular way. This is a subject I really have no interest in."

The exceptions to that, he said, are concerns about his coaching staff. But he said he has not given his own interests enough consideration to even know how he feels. Van Gundy said he and Alexander have not spoken about next season.

Alexander has been steadfastly noncommittal about Van Gundy's future, even while insisting that his reticence to discuss the subject indicates nothing.

"I think Jeff has done a great job," Alexander said. "I really do. Look at our record and where we are: fifth in the Western Conference (and the NBA as a whole). I don't think anyone would have predicted that when Yao (Ming) was hurt. Really, Tracy (McGrady) and Yao have been hurt for a long time."

But when asked about Van Gundy's future, Alexander said: "I won't talk about that."

It's clear, however, that Alexander does not consider Van Gundy to be in the last season of his deal, even though next season is not guaranteed.


Future is now
Van Gundy insists he has more pressing concerns, from defending the Mavericks' pick-and-roll to getting back defensively against Dallas tonight.
"I would just say I'm very content with the team I'm coaching right now," Van Gundy said. "Anybody who says they have no concern in their life with the future, whether it is professionally or whatever aspect, is probably not telling the whole truth. But I spend very minimal time thinking about my professional future. It's just not that important to me right now."

If Van Gundy is content, or at least determined to concentrate on daily decisions, things have come around in ways he could not have predicted, particularly considering last season's injury-filled crash into the lottery. With a win tonight against the Mavericks, the dominant team in the league this season, the Rockets would reach the All-Star break with as many wins (34) as they had all of last season.

But much has changed that the record cannot show. Originally wary of his family's move to Houston, Van Gundy has developed such strong feelings for the city that he could embarrass the Chamber of Commerce with praise.

"The thing I know is I love living in Houston," Van Gundy said.

Although he praises his previous Rockets teams, his current one has rewarded him with a professionalism and determination that the team he inherited could not touch.

"I like for the most part what our guys have stood for, really, since I've been here," Van Gundy said. "This year has been even better."


No time for reflection
Van Gundy won't, however, say what kind of job he has done, describing reflection as inappropriate with games to be played. He describes praise as unnecessary, sometimes uniformed and often fickle.
"Coaches by nature have many insecurities, like all people," Van Gundy said. "But it's not paranoia if it's true. I don't worry about it. I'm at the point in my life (that) I take my self-esteem in coaching not from what anyone above me thinks — owner, GM, assistant GM. I take it from if those guys think they're being well-coached and if my staff and I think we're doing our best. I don't really need the people saying, 'Hey, you're doing a good job.'

"One thing I'm not worried about is job security. I worry about it for my guys. Look, I've been blessed. I have financial security. I do worry about them. There is no better coach in this league than (assistant head coach) Tom Thibodeau. I worry for him. Do you worry about him and Steve Clifford and Andy Greer and Charlie Ward? Yeah, because coaching is a highly volatile profession, and they're really good at what they do."

To Van Gundy, coach-of-the-year talk is merely the result of the Rockets' improved record. But if he is in the conversation because of that record, then Dallas' Avery Johnson should be the runaway favorite, Van Gundy said.


High praise from players
The Rockets, however, offer praise where their coach won't.
"He's the best coach I've played for," McGrady said. "I've had better motivational coaches as far as locker-room speeches, but that doesn't give them the upper hand on Jeff. He's a very smart coach, very passionate, very great — not good, great — at what he teaches us on the defensive end. Jeff has done a great job with us."

With the eye of a coach, Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson watches practices through a closed-circuit monitor.

"I have to compliment Jeff, the coaching staff and the players for finding the right buttons, pushing them at the right time, getting the right chemistry out there, making this thing work probably beyond most people's expectations," Dawson said. "Yao has not played in so long (that) I think most people have forgotten what he was doing for this team: 26 points a game and 10 rebounds. To overcome losing that, Jeff's pulled a lot of strings.

"Using Tracy the way he is, he always has the right people in spots to get them the ball. Since Yao went out, our scoring went up. His team will always play with high energy and play defense. That's the mark of a very good coach. And no team is more prepared to go on the floor. I've watched this very closely, and that impresses me."


A matter of timing
Dawson, in his last season as general manager working with both Alexander and Van Gundy, does not believe there is "uncertainty" about the future. This simply isn't, he said, the time to talk about it.
"It's understandable why they wouldn't do it now," Dawson said. "I was a coach all my life. I wouldn't want to do it now. To me, that's a distraction, a distraction you don't need. Nobody does that.

"Jeff has told me time and time again he loves it here and loves this team. The owner, like everybody else, is pleased with the way the team is playing and job he's doing."

After last season, it's understandable that Alexander and Van Gundy would prefer to dwell on the present instead of the future.

"It's not an issue," Van Gundy said. "And if it is an issue, it would be an issue neither one would want to talk about."

There is a third possibility, however. The remaining 30 games and postseason might answer questions better than either Van Gundy or Alexander can now.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com