I've often wondered about this, especially now that we've jettisoned Steve en route to happier times in Rocketland. I guess we'll never really know, but the question remains - did Rudy really need to go, or was Steve just too stupid to buy into what he was saying? Obviously, the team stepped it up defensively last year, in a way unlike anything we ever saw in the Rudy era. But on the flip side, the offense came to a lumbering halt in an equally unprecendented fashion. Sure, the Rockets finally made the playoffs under Van Gundy's first year as head coach, but how much of that can we lay at the feet of Yao Ming emergence as a force on the court, or the luck of landing Jim Jackson at the right time, or even the return of Maurice Taylor? Not to mention the retirement of John Stockton, the decline of Phoenix, and the disappearance of Portland. It's very possible, and somewhat likely that the Rockets would have made the playoffs last year under Rudy T. So what's the difference? Did Van Gundy come in and whip some shape into our undisciplined youngsters, as advertised? No, he shipped them out of town, and brought in new (old) talent he could trust. I'm not a Van Gundy hater, and I didn't shed any tears when Rudy stepped down (was fired). Just like nearly everybody else on the board at the time, I felt it was time for a change, and that the change needed to start at the top. But looking back, I'm not as sure as I was a year ago. DH
Rudy had a great presence for a team with veteran players. He didn't cut it though as a teacher, a role that was necessary since the Rockets were such a young team especially as it pertained to their future stars. I'm glad they made a change and I'm OK with JVG although it would have been nice if they landed Larry Brown.
My point is... Van Gundy was brought in to be a teacher, then found that the students were unteachable, and got new students. Are we really expecting Van Gundy to "teach" and "mold" T-Mac? I don't get that impression. And, that being the case, is Van Gundy really a significant improvement over Rudy at this point?
If not for Le$, Rudy would still be the coach. The whole 'Rudy can only coach vets' thing has always been a crock. Totally unsubstantiated.
I don't know if Van Gundy is a better teacher than Rudy but you have to ask yourself questions before making these ridiculous leaps of logic. Who else would Rudy be coaching? If he wasn't lucky enough to get Steve he would have had a lot worse team when Barkley finally went down and Olajuwon finally started breaking down. As much as you guys hate Steve, how many games was he supposed to win before Yao Ming got here? He carried this team to a 45 game winning record in the big man dominated West, the next year he was injured, and the next year the Rockets still won 43 games in a season in which Yao wasn't exactly a force just yet. Lastly, did Rudy get fired for only the team's performance? Probably not. He probably got fired more for his personell failures, Moochie, Cato, MoTay's contract, eddie griffin, etc.
Agreed. I'll admit I wasn't exactly upset to see Rudy replaced as the coach after 4 straight lottery seasons, but I was more concerned with his mediocre performance as talent evaluator and GM over the last 5-6 years. Now we'll see this summer how Van Gundy fares in the role. And no, JVG doesn't get points for swapping Steve for T-Mac. Any idiot would've seen the logic in that move.
Ask yourself this question: what if Rudy hadn't gotten fired, we made the playoffs last year, we still land T-Mac? Do we look at Rudy as a bad coach, or unfit to coach this team? I don't. And I think it's extremely reasonable to assume that those events would still have played themselves out. It just seems to me that the lack of discipline on the Rockets over the last 5 years had a lot less to do with Rudy than we give him credit for. DH
Whatever happened to objectivity? Do you honestly believe that Van Gundy alone got this team into the playoffs? And if you don't, how does pointing out that Rudy could have done it as well make me a ROF, if such a thing exists. Grow up.
No knock on JVG, but I wish Rudy was still around w/ the Rockets as coach or w/ management. But now he's about to go to the Lakers, seeing him work w/ purple and gold makes me want to puke.
You can talk about lack of dicipline all you want, but the bottom line for the general public is wins and losses. And again I ask, how many games were those teams supposed to win, when for three years Francis was the only All-Star player on the team?
Would Rudy still be coach if Yao didn't gas out at the end of the season? Would Rudy still be coach if Kenny Thomas hadn't been traded? Would Rudy still be coach if Moochie was a better back up? Would Rudy still be coach if he had started Cato at PF? Would Rudy still be coach if he had drafted Prince and not Nachbar? Yes, and no, and who cares.
Maybe if they'd have been well disciplined, about as many wins as the Rudy coached teams of '93-'95, who had roughly the same number of All-Stars on the team. Wait, how many was that? I can't remember... Oh yeah... ONE!
Can anyone remember who JVG drafted in NY? We dog the hell out of rudy for not drafting talent, don't get me wrong im not defending him, but somehow I can't seem to recall any real contributors from the JVG years in NY. Someone help me out here. Can someone list the JVG draft picks of the NY era? (sorry if this topic has been posted)
So Francis isn't Olajuwon, if you think that proves your point you need to keep trying. Not only that, the Rockets were on pace to finish almost at the bottom of the playoff bracket the next year before we got Drexler, so it does seem that even champions need help. Try again.
A 7'6" All-Star doesn't count as help? You're pretty quick to dismiss my arguments, but from my perspective, you've done absolutely nothing to disprove my point. I'll restate: Rudy no longer appears to be the scapegoat of the lottery years. The team's improvement and success was not significant in his absense, and would likely have had similiar success if he were still at the helm. I can't tell you what the Rockets would have done without Steve Francis. Perhaps we could have this same argument if Doug Christie were the focal point of the offense for the last 5 years. What is clear is that Jeff Van Gundy did not make Steve better. If anything, he made him worse. We didn't get a smarter, more efficient point guard. We turned the ball over at key times when it counted the most. You can argue that the same thing would have happened under Rudy, but then you'd be agreeing with me. DH
