Would we trade Rudy for any other coaches on that list? My answer would be a HELLLLLLLLLL No! Rudy is number one in my eye. Phil Jackass has to be the luckiest SOB alive. Pat Riley has done squat in the last decade. Jerry Sloan.......grrrrr...hate to admit it, but he is good. Larry Brown is good too, but his old ass cant get along with the younger players. Don Nelson is weird, but he has done a really good job in Dallas Greg Popavich? LOL! Thats freakin funny. Do the Spurs run any plays besides posting up Duncan? Rudy would have definitely led them to a better record in the playoffs. Flip Saunders? Whats this guys playoff record now? Carlisle and OBrien are too new to be ranked that high. I would rate Rudy in the top four at least. Might not be the best xando's guy, but is the best motivator and is loyal! Screw ESPN!
I agree with Jeff. At least when it comes to Doc Rivers. Besides, say, Phil and Larry, I'd take doc or rudy. I really like Doc though and think he REALLY got shafted.
Why are you so surprised? Talent-wise, SA should be a .500 or so team. Pop gets the most out his team, than any other coach in the NBA. When you have 1 great player, and 11 bozos, and you still are a title contender, you're doing something right. Moreoever, Pop gets his team to believe that defense wins. Rudy has failed to get that through his players' heads over the last 4-5 years. I believe the best coaches in the NBA are the ones who are able to "convince" their players to put in effort on defense, no matter how little glory there is that comes with being a good defender.
I agree with the selection. Phil Jackson has won 9 rings in a row. People who say he only wins because he has good players are idiots. Jordan, Shaq, and Kobe never won anything and would not have won anything without Phil. Pat Riley has the most wins of any coach and Donnie Nelson also has won many games in his coaching career (3rd all time). I hate to say it, but Sloan should be up their because he is a damn good coach. He has just been unfortunate to meet the Bulls twice in the NBA Finals. Larry Brown is probably the best coach in the NBA because he understands the game better than anyone, even Phil. I think Popovich should be ranked the same as Rudy becuase they are pretty much the same. The both have the same coaching ratings. Jim Obrien and Rick Carlisle are probably the two best coaches of the next era. They are downright good. Carlisle is rated as the best X's and O's coach and I could see that. He is a very very good coach. Obrien is just the same as Carlisle, though a little less good. So, Rudy T. is graded fairly but I also think that Popovish should go down a spot or two.
I bet if you asked the players to rank the coaches rudy would be a top 5 coach. Me? I'd couldn't put him any lower than 6 on the list if I tried to look at it honestly, but since I'm a life long Rockets fan and Rudy is a life long Rocket, he's #1 on my list.
It's the "would not have" part that I cannot agree. Why are you so sure that they "would not have" won anything without Phil? I still don't understand why people rank coaches (and players, for that matter) by simply counting their rings. Being a good coach is more than winning championships. That said. Phil Jackson deserve more credit than some people are willing to give him. I think he is a good coach, but not #1. (Same with Riley) In fact, I think it is very difficult to rank coaches because they have different styles. How good a coach is depends a lot on what kind of situation he's in and what the team needs. So comparing coaches in different styles is like comparing players playing different positions.
How can you guys argue Rudy's place? Over the last 3 years, our record has ranked us somewhere in the bottom 15 of the league. But, they are showing Rudy love by putting him in the top 10. All of the coaches in front of Rudy deserve to be there. Im not saying that they are all better than Rudy, but you cant leave those guys out of the top 10 list.
How can they rank Nelson ahead of Rudy or for that matter Sloan? The Mavs were one of the worst teams in the league before Nelson got Nowitski and then later on Finley and Nash. Even with all the offensive firepower they are still weak on the defensive end and their guys haven't been able to score in the paint. If Rudy had the same team as Nelson does I'm sure he would have done at least as well as him. Sloan is a better X's and O's guy than Rudy but we not only beat the Jazz for the Championship but nearly upset them in the first round in the playoffs as the 8th seed before Barkley got hurt.
I don't agree with all of the coaches that they have in front of Rudy, especially Flip Flop, but Rudy is about the tenth best coach in the league right now. Thats not particarly bad when 16 other coaches made it to the playoffs and RT haven't made it in three seasons. I'm not bashing Rudy I'm just being honest and looking at the facts.
I think Sloan deserves his spot. That guy has about ten plays, but he makes sure that everyone knows fundamentals, and he takes no BS from anyone. I've always thought that Sloan rookies never look much like rookies... because he already beat the crap out of them in training camp. Anyway, Sloan certainly wins for best dictator. Phil Jackson? God help me, coach another team besides the front-runner.
Flip Saunders? Jim O'Brien? Gregg Popovich? Rick Carlisle Only one has a championship...Popovich...who also sucked until Duncun came along. And they won that championship between the bulls and the lakers, and after both Houston and Utah were in decline. Oh yeah, they had that Duncun guy too. In fact, not only were they the first team not to repeat in 12 years..when the lakers and boston took turns...they didn't even put up an impressive defense of a title they won in a lockout shortened season. What have any of these guys done to be placed above a man with two rings, who successful coached vernon maxwell and made him a star, who turned robert horry into the player he is today, who controlled cassell, who coached barkley, olajuwon, drexler, and now has the respect of francis. The only player he couldn't control was pippen, who acted like a primadona. AI didn't make the playoffs his first 3 years in the league. I think we can give Francis and company the same kind of time. Francis didn't walk into a team with Jabbar, he walked into a team with a barkeley and olajuwon who both got injured. There was no Clyde, no Charles, rarely an Hakeem, no Rice, no Mo Taylor, and a younger Mobley. The only coach in that list which has rebuilt a team after building a contender is Riley and Larry Brown. Outside Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan, the rest haven't even built a proven contender!!!!! There's a big difference in building a decent team and one that can legitimately contend for a title.
this is obviously a what have you done lately deal....there is now way Nelson, Carlisle, Saunders, Popovich, OBrian, Sloan, and Brown rank above Rudy all time. But, currently they do because we have not been to the playoffs for 3 years. Now, with that said, Riley should not be lower in the ranking, but probably in the top 10 because he has not performed well in the playsoffs and Saunders can get by anyone in the playoffs too....Nelson just keeps buying coaches and players with Cuban';s backing so that is a joke.......
Hmmmmm. I wonder how the NBA players would vote. You know Rudy T. would be in the top three -- and these are people who, for the most part, are motivated to "just win, baby."
give ESPN a break. they also said a couple weeks ago that rudy should be the official head coach of the dream team, because he is a great offencive coach, and great with juggling personalities.
Most people seem to forget that Rudy stayed with the Rockets when he knew he would have to rebuild the team. He could have gone to several other teams which had better players at that time. So give Rudy credit he did not leave the Rockets even though he knew that he would get many more losses. Rudy in my book is one of the top 5 coaches. Why do you think Players want to come to Houston? Rudy is a players coach and the players around the league know that.
riiiight. Phil Jackson is the only coach alive who could possibly win a title with Jordan and Pippen or Shaq and Kobe. a real miracle-worker, this Jackson. fear not, all. when Rudy becomes the first coach to lead a team to titles in two different eras, they'll be slobbing all over his special-sauce Taco Cabana meat fajita once again. I have to chuckle at the idea of Nellie being a better coach than Rudy. by what standard? ability to hang around long enough to have more total wins? it's certainly not because he's ever won anything that mattered at all. Jackson can legitimately be placed ahead of Rudy, despite his gargantuan overhypedness. I think even Riley is questionable at this point. Larry Brown can maybe be named "Best Coach for a 2-Year Period if You Aren't Terribly Keen On Actually Winning it All". Jerry Sloan can be placed ahead of Rudy in the same dreamworld in which I get to sleep with Natalie Portman and Penelope Cruz at the same time. if you haven't won 2 titles, then as far as I'm concerned, you need to shuffle on down the hallway to the Consolation Best Coach poll and need not apply to the Better Than Rudy poll.
Anybody remember all the whining and moaning that Larry Miller and the rest of the Jazz people did when Rudy was picked to coach the Nat'l Team in 98 and 00? That epitomizes them right there. I guess Jerry Sloan would have been a great choice if the goal was to play well in pool play and then win the silver medal.
People keep saying that Rudy is poor at X's and O's. I don't think he's the greatest all the time at that, but I won't blame any of it on what happened last year with all the injuries. Head to head in '94, Rudy T. Outcoached Pat Riley. I recently watched games 6 and 7 again on tape, and Rudy's X's and O's were pretty well executed, and his decision making bested Riley's.
I think a lot of people think Rudy's X's and O's are lacking because he is so freaking predictable. Even Phil Jackson said that Rudy is predictable. He calls the same play over and over again until the defense can stop it. His philosphy is to command a double team with a particular player to create open shots for the rest of the team. This is perfect game plan if you want to win it all since it only works if you have a player that can consistently command a double team (Dream, tried it with Francis and Mobley, hopefully with Ming) and only teams with this type of player wins championships.
Well, I think this is good for certain situation, but I do think Rudy uses it too much. It works when you have an Hakeem or Barkley, and the NBA changed the rules to prevent this. However there is something to be said about passing the rock around freely until the right player gets the ball. That is something the rockets don't do well as their team assist numbers show. That's my biggest gripe with Rudy.
