ESPN: Van Gundy or Dunleavy? Either will work for Houston

Dunleavy might work, but Van Gundy is the same exact coach as Rudy T. Van Gundy will install the same guard-iso offense that has been the Rockets problem for 4 years now.

 

Dunleavy is better with screw ups and ego's than any other coach out there. I'm not saying that our team is made up of screw ups and ego driven players... but I think Dunleavy will be able to get the best out of our players, something that Rudy was able to do with Veterans and Super Star players.

 

Why not? After all its true!

 

I think the least polished player on our team is Yao Ming. Can Van Gundy take care of grroming this ENORMOUS potential?

 

I'm very pleased with the prospect of having either Jeff Van Gundy or Mike Dunleavy as our coach. Van Gundy was a protoge' of Pat Riley and took a sweet run to the NBA Finals in 1999. I dont know if you recall or not, but they made that run because of their defense, and more importantly, heart. He was a very loyal, staunched supporter of Patrick Ewing also, and managed to get the best out of him despite his body wearing down; to the point where the main debate at the time was to stick with going to Patrick in the post at 37 I believe, or running a more perimeter-based offense focusing primarily on Allen and Latrell. I also vividly remember at the time that the two aforementioned players were conunctively at the time being praised for their DEFENSE! When was the last time you heard them two names with defense? I havent in a while. There enlies Jeff's genius. He utilized Patrick's strength to the fullest by having the offense go through him, which allowed Allen and Latrell more energy on the defensive end. It's not rocket science genius, but its the kind of talent maximization that our team really needs via exceptional leadership. Jeff's certainly not the flashiest of coaches available, but last I checked we all want to win ballgames first.

Mike Dunleavy is a coach I believe that we will ultimately end up hiring, and why shouldn't we? Larry Brown probably isn't a good fit for us anyway. Although it does pain me to think we, not Larry, didn't have a shot when all was said and done. Larry's Sixers, ultimately, weren't successful because they kept trading what worked. Mike wont have that problem with us, because Caroll Dawson is as superior as the best excecutive in the league as far as compiling talent is concerned. He's no Pete Babcock, or lol Stu Jackson. He managed to always steady the ship for the JailBlazers especially towards the end to the playoff run. It takes a lot of people skills to do that with the Blazers. Maurice Cheeks hasn't done any better thats for sure. My most comforting fact knowing that Mike D may utlimately be our coach, is this. Jerry West called him one of the best basketball minds in the game. That's all I really need to hear, as well as his track record. He's worked with great big men already, Vlade and Aarvydas, both of which are excellent passers. Yao is a hybrid of them two.

Great things will come with either of the two. Im fkin excited for next year!!!!!

 

Good post Jack Hammer. I feel alot better after I read your post

 

Amen to that, Jack actually made me forget about Larry "whats his name?" and focused me in on Mike D. Man, Im excited about getting him, but I guess that Jeff Van Gundy would work too. But I would rather have Mike!

 

dunleavy.....definately dunleavy

 

I'm holding my excitement until a decission has been made. I've been a supporter of MD in several posts and I think he's got the inside track now. Dunleavy is juiced about this team and really wants to coach here, thats enthusiasm that we need. West is a great mind in basketball today and if he's willing to endorse MD all the better. I'm really not sold in JVG. This team doesn't need to be running a slowdown, halfcourt offense. Both coach tough D but in different ways. MD pressures the ball fullcourt, making the other team earn it all game long. JVG runs a great halfcourt defense. Either will work for this team so its a question of offensive styles. Since we are young and atheletic, and Les has stated he wants an up-tempo offense, then it sounds like MD is our man.

 

i saw peeps post good things about JVG.. i saw peeps post good things about MD.. i saw peeps post bad things bout JVG.. i saw peeps post bad things about MD.. whoever will be the rocs coach this season, im good with it.. coz bring all those posts together, they sorta balance out.. so, whoever gon be our coach for this season, i wish him the best of luck and i hope he will make right decisions in order for houston to taste the sweetness of the championship seasons again..

 

Thank you Jackhammer! It's refreshing to finally see a little sanity on this board. Dunleavy is the obvious choice for Houston and I predict that he'll eventually surprise all of the Larry Brown fans on this BBS.

 

Thank you Jack. As I said in another thread these two are very good prospects and that played a bigger role in us passing on LB than money, as Clutch, inadvisably passed on, from his source.

 

past Feigen article on Van Gundy


Dec. 15, 2001, 6:37PM

Costello, Van Gundy are two of a kind
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

Larry Costello was one of those guys who coached in a T-shirt. Nobody paid him to wear their designer sweats. He was a T-shirt, whistle and canvas sneakers kind of guy.

Costello, the last NBA practitioner of the set shot, was built like a brick and about as unyielding. He wore the haircut of a Marine officer and was as interested in compromise. He was a throwback. He also was ahead of his time.

Jeff Van Gundy looked like a hospital patient -- too thin, with a cue-ball complexion and bags under his eyes that wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment. But that appearance spoke for the sacrifices he made to achieve, the endless hours he worked and the pressures he absorbed and let fester.

The NBA lost both last week, with Costello's passing in Fort Myers, Fla., and Van Gundy's abrupt resignation as Knicks coach.

Van Gundy will return in time. But something seems wrong that he had to leave in the first place -- a victim of the changing times that had taken so much out of him. Van Gundy was at his best when he could demand as much as he gave -- just like Costello.

Van Gundy earned his players' respect not with his athletic ability or playing career but with his work ethic and intelligence.

Like Costello, the first coach to issue a playbook and whose collection of plays numbered more than 100, Van Gundy tried to control too much. Like Costello, who once cut his former roommate from the roster for talking back, Van Gundy could be stubbornly unforgiving. But like Costello, Van Gundy knew his business, and other coaches knew how tough it was to go against him.

Van Gundy quit because he lost his "laser-like focus." But he would not have lost it had the league not changed from the one Costello knew.

Costello also had great talent, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson on his 1971 championship team at Milwaukee. But back then, the boss was in charge.

Van Gundy knew he only ruled as long as the players approved, but he cited none of that when he resigned.

He always seemed caught in the wrong time -- a better fit with Costello and Red Holzman and Red Auerbach (and perhaps throwback Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) than good guy Doc Rivers or even Don Chaney, Van Gundy's successor with the Knicks.

"I've always felt as a head coach that I was the best person to lead this team," Van Gundy said. "And when I felt that it had to be somebody else, then, I made that decision. I know some people are going to judge it harshly, but you've got to do things when you think it's right and suffer the consequences. That's what I'm prepared to do.

"I don't want to question what I was putting into it because I was putting a lot into it. I knew what I was fighting against. I knew I had a lot of questions in my mind, so I made sure I was doing my work. That can only last so long."

But there were other factors.

Van Gundy did not think he had the support of Cablevision, which owned the team. He lost his best friend, Farrell Lynch, in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. And he wanted to spend more time with his 6-year-old daughter Mattie.

But, like Costello, Van Gundy is someone who should be coaching. The other way is not bad, either. But there should be a place for doing it their way.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I hope Les is not judging Van Gundy too harshly because he is not a tall imposing figure like Rudy or Dunleavy or because he drives honda civics and wears suits from the mens warehouse.

Q&A with Jeff Van Gundy

The 40-year-old former New York Knicks coach took a break from his job as a TNT analyst to chat about the NBA and himself.
Posted: Wednesday January 08, 2003 11:30 AM



SI: You famously got in the middle of a fight between Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning and then a fight between Marcus Camby and Danny Ferry. Why not break up a fight between Muggsy Bogues and Spud Webb?


Jeff Van Gundy. George DeSota/Getty Images
Van Gundy: I'd be afraid of where they would hit me.

SI: What's it like when 20,000 people scream "JEFF VAN GUNDY", as Knicks fans did during the 1999 playoffs?

Van Gundy: There are very few things from any job -- and I was with the Knicks for 12 years -- that you never forget. And on the list of things that I'll never forget, that's No. 1.

SI: As a coach, you were an obsessive Diet Coke drinker. How many cans did you go through then? How many now?

Van Gundy: On the day of a game, I was good for a six pack. Now I'm down to four, but don't try to sneak a Diet Pepsi in there.

SI: What's the best team you've seen so far this year?

Van Gundy: The Kings. They've played through so many injuries, so much distraction and still they're right up there.

SI: What's harder: Getting Lee Nailon to play defense or getting airtime while working with The Czar, Mike Fratello?

Van Gundy: The Czar's stranglehold on airtime is air tight. It's impenetrable.

SI: Is it really a compliment when people say you look 10 years younger since you've been out of coaching?

Van Gundy: When people say I look good, I say that's impossible. I may look 10 years younger, but as I said on my 39th birthday: I'm 39, I look 49 and I feel 59. Now I can play around with those numbers.

SI: How did you try to defend Charles Barkley when he was playing?

Van Gundy: I wish that five-second rule had come in a few years earlier. We wanted him to shoot over size. We didn't want him to be a passer. He really was one of the best low-post passers of all time.

SI: Best celebrity exchange you had as a coach?

Van Gundy: None of them knew who I was, so I never had one. They wouldn't recognize me even when they walked right by me, if that's an exchange in itself.

SI: Do you still consider yourself a Knicks fan?

Van Gundy: Yes. A huge fan.

SI: Can you actually watch a game without getting that tense feeling that all coaches get?

Van Gundy: I think you still try to coach the game along with the coach of the team you're watching. But I still get a nervous pit in my stomach when a Knicks game comes down to the end.

SI: Have you called Phil Jackson "Big Chief Triangle" on the air?

Van Gundy: No. And I never will. I'm not proud of my exchanges with him over the years.

SI: Do you miss your 1995 Honda Civic that was destroyed at Westchester County Airport by a blast of exhaust from the jet engines of the Knicks' team plane?

Van Gundy: That car was so good to me. The way it was taken was tragic, especially after a loss. If it had been after a win, I would have easily sacrificed it. But that was two losses in one night and that's more than any one man should have to bear.

SI: Could your brother Stan (an assistant coach with the Miami Heat) ever be your assistant?

Van Gundy: No, but I could be his.

SI: What was your most satisfying moment in coaching at any level?

Van Gundy: I don't know if it's satisfying but, I'll give you a most humbling: my first year as a high school coach. Coaches' sons by nature think they're smarter than they are and I was no exception. What I learned after coaching my first five or six years in high school [in Rochester, N.Y.] was that not only did I not know all the answers, but I also didn't know what the questions were. That was a humbling, humbling time for me. Unfortunately, coaches can very rarely remember the good things. They only remember the bad.

SI: Which coaching job would appeal to you more: A team with young players that is a couple of years away from being good, or a team comprised of veterans with a shot at the title?

Van Gundy: Unfortunately, you don't get to pick and choose, but those situations and any scenario other than working for a team that wants to constantly have cap space for decades are appealing.


SI: As a freshman at Yale, you and 12 guys in your dorm each tossed $100 into a pool during a contest to see who would ask out classmate Jodie Foster. You had a chance, but famously choked when you saw her at a movie. Let's say you had worked up the courage, how would that have gone?

Van Gundy: I don't know, but in the end I would have been $1200 richer, so it would have been all good.

SI: Among Pat Riley, Don Nelson and Stu Jackson, which head coach gave the most fiery halftime speeches?

Van Gundy: Pat certainly gave memorable pregame, halftime and postgame speeches, so I would say he was a speaker without much competition in the NBA.

SI: Looking three years down the line, which team has the best upside?

Van Gundy: I think Indiana is extremely well constructed for -- and this is difficult to do -- success now and success later. As long as the Pacers can get their guys signed along the way, I think they're a team that could win the East and the championship -- and also be in position to win it five years down the road, as well.

SI: How nervous were you, at the age of 34, to take over as Knicks head coach?

Van Gundy: I was extremely nervous, but Pat Riley called me into his office once when I was his assistant and said to me, 'You can be a head coach in this league', which I had never even thought about. He said I was confident, sincere, reliable and trustworthy and that I had to start viewing myself as someone who could coach in this league. He gave me the confidence that being a head coach was something I could at least dream about. If he had never said something like that to me, I would have been much more unprepared when I took over.

SI: You live in the same town as the Clintons. Can you officially rule yourself out of the 2004 presidential election?

Van Gundy: Yeah, I think that's pretty safe to assume.

SI: How do I get into the Nazareth College Hall of Fame, as you did in 1996?

Van Gundy: With my being inducted, the standards have been lowered to being on the team, still being able to breathe, or making enough money that you can contribute back to the college.

--Richard Deitsch

Issue date: Jan. 13, 2003

 

Please no on Dunleavy. JVG or Carlisle are infintely better choices, they have gotten teams to play better than you would expect from their individual talents, some of Rudy and Nelson's past teams have as well. Dunleavy's teams could never even meet the team expectations with the deepest roster of individual talent in the league.

More important than a great basketball mind is a coach able to instill discipline, leadership, focus and team-winning (defense) orientation. Those that have the former (mind--Dell Harris, Dunleavy) but not the latter make fine assistant coaches, but poor head coaches. Dunleavy (players coach comfy with our front office) is one of the worst choices we could possibly make, he is a less effective, less proven, less distinguished version of Rudy.

 

In my opinion...

If this is a CD hire, it will be Dunleavy.

If this is a Les hire, it will be Van Gundy.

 

couch_pot8o, Your signature is just hilarious
sorry to get off the subject guys but at this point I just dont care anymore and like both MD and JVG.

 

Mike D is our best option! Van G is just another Iso Offense coach, so why to VG while we can sign up MD!

We will Rock next season!

 

I'd say Eddie is waaaaay less polished.