This is a really appealing stat to me. Jeff Van Gundy has been a coach that has taken his teams every year to the playoffs, minus the short season he had in 2001 (DNC). He also has a very impressive playoff stats. I believe we have been hard on this guy, but hell, he has turned it around, and so have many of us. Jeff Van Gundy Overall: 293 - 209 Playoffs: 38 - 36 Year Team Season Playoffs 1995 NYK 13 - 10 4 - 4 1996 NYK 57 - 25 6 - 4 1997 NYK 43 - 39 4 - 6 1998 NYK 27 - 23 12 - 8 1999 NYK 50 - 32 9 - 7 2000 NYK 48 - 34 2 - 3 2001 NYK 10 - 9 0 - 0 2003 HOU 45 - 37 1 - 4 2004 HOU 51-31?? ?-? Show the love for Jeff "The Man" Van Gundy!
Yeah, this topic should get more replies than that "FIRE GUNDY!" thread did. I'll start. "TIME OUT! TIME THE F--- OUT!" Love JVG. I'm almost a JVGOF.
After Saturday's game, I can't believe I ever gave up on Jeff for that loser George Karl. Jeff, take me back! I want your baby!
The hardest working man in the NBA... by far. He gets the most out of the least talent... just imagine what he could do with even more depth.
He demands the best of his players, and gives them opportunities to succeed. JVG and management have allowed T-Mac the opportunity to be a winner, playmaker, and scorer all at the same time.
My next nick in chat will be JVG-Lover. Man, the dude is awesome. He has really turned this team around, into a tough tough team with limited talent.
Like many others here, I was not so cool with Gumby from the start. Yeah, I appreciated that he was a balls-to-the-wall take no BS coach, but just felt he would not be able to adjust his game plan to the talent around him. And man did he ever prove me right up until about 1/4 of the way thru this season. I was fuming mad at him and his no flexability approach about then and was screaming for his head, and then something happened.... What happened has been debated here - Mac Gradys' one on one, the fact that he looked to be near being sacked and then my personal theory/favorite - About that time his bro was making huge strides using a less thug-gundy like 'defense only' style of play with great success and I think that had a HUGE impact on his approach. It was was probably all three and more, but there is no denying he changed his style about that time and for that I give him huge kudos. Right now, I can't think of a better coach for the Rockets and I'm damn glad he will be leading us in to the play offs.
his teams are CONSISTENTLY ranked at the top as far as defensive fg% and points allowed are concerned... it took 80 games for some people to give the guy love?
Its not just Gundy changing his style.. yes maybe he changed a bit . but i think his approach to the game has always been the same. other factors u have to attribute is we made some good trades to bring in Wesley, Barry and James.. and then with sura getting healthy we acutlaly had some people whjo could shoot. I think getting rid of JJ opened things up too. And take that with Tmac adjustting to yao and knowing he has to be the first option. WIth all those factors the season turned around.. and of course Gundy RULESSS!! for pulling everything together
very true... I ws a combination of things...key acquisitions(Barry, Wesley) combined with Tmac finally realizing that he shouldnt defer to Yao all the time like he was tryin to do when he first got here...and both he and Yao learning how to work with each other. Sura got healthy (or whatever passes for healthy with that little warrior)...adn the team finally all got onthe same page defensively. Sometimes it take a little time for things to come together when you have a entire team of new players. I never gave up on him personally....but I have no problem givinghim some much due props...he hs done a fine job geting the most he can out of these guys..lets hope he further proves his worth in the playoffs...you know the team will be as prepared as he can make them, and he wont put up with a lack of effort on the floor.. Phil who??? btw...x110street...the graphic that ESPN showed during the Den game showed that his teams were consistently one of the best in opponents field goal percentage 96-97 Knicks............ 1st 97-98 Knicks............ 2nd 98-99 Knicks............ 2nd 99-00 Knicks............ 3rd 00-01 Knicks............ 1st 03-04 Rockets.......... 2nd 04-05 Rockets.......... 2nd
I've said it from day one, while so many others were yelling for him to leave town, that I love the weasley little b*stard... I hope we kick Big D's ass...
when has he ever had the least talent? and while the pf position sucks, we've got the best backup C in the league, and a very solid group of guys to back up/play the 1/2/3. the 4 is all that's hurting while the other spots are very strong as far as depth. whether it was jvg or cd responsible for most of the trades, getting sura, james, wesley, barry, and deke for almost nothing has given us a great deal of role player talent. team with limited talent. again, limited talent? a top 5 player, the second best center, and a good group of role players who can hit the 3 and play some D. honestly, unless we get a much better pf, i'm not sure how much better our group of role players will ever get than this group. outside of hakeem's shear impact on a game, this team isn't much less talented than the title teams (and our 56 or 57 win pace since the trades speaks to that). but there is no denying he changed his style about that time and for that I give him huge kudos. as do i. i hated him with a passion for what he was doing to our offense in the first quarter of the season and for his overall style which included timeouts every time the other team scored 4 points in a row, not ever having timeouts left at the ends of games, always seeming pissed off, never arguing with refs, stifling the offense, etc. but now i have no problem with him. he managed to find a balance between being a very detailed oriented coach (which i like) who still let the game flow and his players play to their strengths. did the better personnel help. of course. but there's no denying he's different. and i like it. i certainly don't think we'll be held back by him in the playoffs and his D could prove beneficial. his teams are CONSISTENTLY ranked at the top as far as defensive fg% and points allowed are concerned... it took 80 games for some people to give the guy love? well there's still this matter of scoring you know. and we had to drill up for oil at the beginning of the season in terms of our ppg. it was horrendous. no matter the personnel, we shouldn't have been near the 86.9 we were averaging the first 22 games. did it really take that long to figure out tmac was deferring too much? but like i said, he figured it out, and none too soon, and now he's starting to grow on me. watching him slam that ball down after bowen threw it out of bounds was hilarious and i like the passion. but lets not all pretend he's a miracle worker or didn't have struggles and we were all crazy to question him at some point. things were not going well at all, and not just for 5 games. this is a talented team and he's making it play like a talented team. so good job.
I didn't say we had NO talent... I just said out of the top western conference teams, we really don't have anywhere near the depth. Just look at who our third-best scorer is.... who is it? (crickets chirping). On some nights its Wesley, on some night's its James. Sura was the man earlier in the season... now he has an occasional good game. As you said yourself, its about scoring points... and a ton of teams have that viable third option (Ginobili, Marion/Nash, Stackhouse, Hinrich, Wells/Miller, A. Miller, B. Miller). Right now, our blue chips are T-Mac, Yao, and Mutombo. That is what we bring to the table every night that the opposing team has to find an answer for. The rest of our guys are the same 3 point shooters and passers that a lot of other teams have, along w/ more weapons... but they have nowhere near the chemistry that JVG has forged (that's what "getting the most" out of your players means). And you mention that we don't have a real 4 (even when J. Howard was here, we still had the worst 4 out of all the playoff contenders) like its no big deal... trust me, it is. (btw, I think JVG would have coached the Magic to a top 5 eastern conference record, w/ the talent and team that Wesibrod had at the beggining of the season...)
