JVG has done a great job but Avery should be leading at this point. The Mavs are winning at a 90% clip since the 0-4 start and the talent on their squad isn't super dominant. He should be a runaway choice IMO. The last 30 games will decide the winner. If the Mavs continue the steamroll the case is closed.
Although this would be a great honor for JVG and the Rockets, very few Coaches of the Year have won the Championship in the same year. To my knowledge Pat Riley of Miami is the only recent one.
http://www.nba.com/history/awards_coachofyear.html Since beginning the COY award in 1962, no coach has ever won it back to back. If we get a top 4 record, JVG will get it.
Yea Hollinger showed the Rockets some major love today: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jake (Oregon): What's with this first round loss talk about the Jazz? They are an elite team that has proven all year they can beat the other western powers. You don't really think they are just going one and done do you? John Hollinger: Depends who they play. if they end up no. 4 and face Houston with T-Mac and Yao in the first round, then I think it's curtains. If they can hang to No. 3 and draw a team like the Lakers, their odds improve considerably.
Is that a joke? Sure, they could be a little deeper, but when you don't have any serious injury problems, and your top 5 are as good as they are, that isn't so much of a problem. - Dirk = MVP - Howard = All-Star - Terry = just below all-star - Stackhouse = former all-star, double digits off the nech - Harris = top 5 pick, ton of athleticism and potential - Dampier & Diop = great complimentary 1/2 punch at center. Both are good defenders and rebounders, but in different ways (Dampier = pure size, Diop = athleticism), making it hard for the other team to adapt - Buckner = defensive specialist Avery is a great coach, no doubt, but the Mavs team is loaded with both superior talent, and solid role players, who don't complain.
yeah, i wouldnt say dallas is dominant, but they are loaded with a ton of talent. avery is a good coach and a good guy...he also 'fell' into a championship caliber team. plus, dont forget that avery does have a ton of help on that bench.
I like JVG, but I don't understand why he's getting Coach of the Year talk before McGrady gets MVP talk. JVG does not deserve COTY until he figures out how to win without T-Mac... We are 2-5 with Yao and no Mac. 17-6 with T-Mac and no Yao. That speaks to the value of McGrady more than to the value of JVG. McGrady right now is the third leading candidate for MVP as far as I'm concerned -- right behind Nash and Dirk... And with Dirk, it's really hard for me to see how much he deserves MVP until I see how his team plays without him. I think the Mavs are a very deep team, and they would be a playoff contender even without him.
JVG haters wont show up until rockets goof up one of the "should have won" games!! but anyways JVG all the way baby!!
I believe we are actually 2-4 with Yao and no T-Mac if you exclude the game Yao got injured in the opening minutes. Anyways, don't knock on JVG for the 2-4 record w/o T-Mac: 1) Team struggled at first w/o one of it's superstars, but started to gel around the Spurs game (previous loss to the blazers really woke them up from the coasting attitude). Couple that with the weaker upcoming schedule, you have a major time for the role players to learn to do more beyond their normal contributions. I'm not taking anything away from T-mac, but JVG played as big a part in getting the old washed up "has been's" to play like they would ten years ago. 2) This team is built more around T-mac at this moment than Yao. Therefore it is tougher to win without T-mac. If Yao goes out, there are still post players in Juwan that can play from the pivot; Shane can also post up smaller players. Bonzi would have been a bigger boost, but let's not get started there. Conversely, without Tmac, we have no more playmakers (unless you consider 0-fer a playmaker) on this team, especially during close games. This is the major reason, we lost in amost all close games in the games w/o T-mac. It also forced Head as the starting SG, which gave us the weakest defensive and least versatile backcourt in the NBA. In a nutshell: OUR BEST POST ASSESTS PLAY BEHIND YAO, WHILE WE HAVE NO PLAYMAKING ASSETS OUTSIDE OF T-MAC. Can't put this blame on JVG. FYI, I used to hate JVG. But after this season, even I got to eat some crow. JVG = COY
No, I'm not crazy. Yes, the Mavs have a very good team and their roster is well stacked, but they do NOT have one of the greatest rosters of all time (which their record would seem to indicate). Avery Johnson deserves a lot of credit for their focus and consistency. It is simply amazing. His coaching job (so far) this year tops JVG. I say all of this despite strongly disliking both the Mavs and the silly JVG-haters (who have all disappeared).
WTF? These guys suck horribly and are the weak link on the Mavericks. Ericka Dampier = 2nd best center in the WNBA, enough said... Diop can block a few shots but is a foul machine, can't score, and can't stay on the court for more than about 15 minutes a game. If the Mavericks could they'd play Dirk at center and play small, but Dirk isn't up to the task of guarding guys like Yao and Duncan, and isn't a very intimidating interior defender, so they're forced to stick Dampier and Diop in their lineup. I'm sure if they had a reasonable alternative there they'd turn to it.
I'll make one more comment and probably just leave this alone: Last year's Pistons were headed towards 70 wins and were the prohibitive favorite to win the title. Some of us looked past the W/L record and noticed they were a little softer than previous years. Sure enough, they cracked and crumbled. I'm not saying this year's Mavs will do the same thing but the pedestal they are on right now is too high.
The sudden mass Van Gundy buttsmooch cracks me up. First he was the devil, now he's standing next to Jesus in The Last Supper. If I'm ever an NBA coach, I plan to inherit one superstar, trade for another, and then post a 34-48 record so I can look like a genius the next year.
mcgrady is clearly valuable, but because he's an amazing talent doesn't mean van gundy has to prove himself even more. no team in the nba wins more because of their coach then because of their best player. period. if we used that basis then we wouldn't have a coach of the year award. van gundy has been the coach of a team that has one of the best records in the nba despite losing the best center in the league for more than half the season. that speaks for itself really.
