It's hard to argue against JVG right now because the Rockets are winning and are playing excellent d. And if you can't acknowledge that than you are strictly a JVG hater and will never defer. Cleveland was a great defensive victory and clearly shows how important Yao is to the team. That being said JVG does not inspire his players. He just coaches veterans to do what they already know and everyone else is screwed. I said it once and I'll say it again JVG is old school. He believes that the best way to coach is to be a stern, unemotional, and unrelenting disciplinarian who orders people around like a military drill sergeant. His belief is that respect must be demanded from his players. So he tells people what to do and uses threats of trades and sending to the IR and intimidation and humiliation to motivate. He believes that the tougher he is on his players, the more they will respect him. But that’s not respect and motivation. This "command and control" style of coercive coaching is intimidation and is effective because players will mainly follow you to avoid being physically or mentally tortured. But the fact is true respect must be earned from people, not imposed on them. JVG’s style of coaching is to force people to follow him out of fear. He makes athletes fear by punishing, embarrassing, and yelling at them when they make mistakes or break rules. Vspan is a perfect example of this style. Van Gundy screams at him every time he makes a mistake and immediately benches him. Vspan said in an interview that it is tough when he knows he can't make any mistakes are he won't play. And I got the sense that he ways guarding his words but what he really wanted to say is he doesn’t get this coach, he plays his heart out and gets treated like dunk. So Van Gundy now has Billy under control but at what expense. Van Gundy did the same thing to Yao most of his career and already he started on Snyder, most recently on National TV when Snyder made a foul late in the game against the Bulls. Sure it was a mistake but it was a hustle mistake and JVG screams at him in front of all the fans and then benches him. Sure Snyder just took it and shut his mouth but do you think he did not hate JVG a little bit right then and lose a little bit of his desire to hustle out there. Does he really respect Van Gundy after that and will he give his heart for Van Gundy in the future? And he has been seen screaming at Yao and Luther and now Billy is his new whipping boy. So in general JVG gets his players to comply to his commands, and run his defense but IMO he is not a legitimate leader. His function is more like a dictator, intimidator, and master of manipulation who might be obeyed, but will never be respected. This overbearing and negative approach may work in the short term, but over the long run it leads to people who feel discouraged, persecuted, humiliated, and incompetent. Sure JVG lovers can argue his style because the Rockets are playing great D and winning. But why I find it hard to accept his style of coaching is his players are not treated equally. You will never see him scream at Tmac. Never! I love Tmac but he is human and makes many mistakes and poor judgement and doesn’t play as hard or as smart as players like Yao, Battier and Billy. He never has a bad word to say about JHO last year and certainly Juwan made some stupid shot attempts. So JVG’s dictator coaching style clearly is not across the board and loses all credibility because of this. You see credible coaches are honest and trustworthy in their dealings with their players. They don’t show favoritism and genuinely care about their players - both as athletes and people. They never deliberately humiliate their players in front of others and in doing so they earn their players respect based on integrity, honesty, and trust. I know many JVG lovers just think I am a JVG hater but the truth is I tried. I tried to accept him as a misunderstood guy. I like what he did with the Rowdies and how he talked about wanting to stay in Houston. And his new and improved approach to being upbeat. But then he goes and starts berating players on the sideline and making a big deal about Yao’s shoes and treating Vspan like V-SPAM. The worst part of this is the Rockets are winning and JVG will get all the credit. And yes he will deserve some credit for his defensive coaching... Yes he has a good basketball mind but he uses an inferior coaching style to get results and IMO he is an average coach with an above average team. The Rockets are mainly winning because they are more talented overall and Yao has emerged. Yao is playing like the MVP of the league. He has emerged and wants to win a championship and the Rockets will go as far as he takes them. So it looks like I am stuck with JVG for a lot longer and I have resigned myself to as much. I root for the Rockets and ignore the coach and if we have a good year and a great playoff run than all is good and maybe I will rethink my position.
every coach screams at their players. its a freaking natural reaction for them. do we call knight a bad coach? No. You think Sloan never screamed at Snyder? Hell if JVG was such a bad coach then why do all his players respect him so much? Basicly every free agent keeps saying how much they're learning from JVG and how well prepared and knowledgeable JVG is. Let me tell you something else, that play by Snyder sucked. It basicly gave them 2 free points while using no clock at all. Plus he freaking told him not to foul right before the play. If that was me, i woulda kept Snyder's ass benched for the rest of that period, but JVG put Snyder back into the game after the next possession.
Okay after getting annoyed halfway through your rant. Let me state something clearly. For these players, this is a job. If you don't perform at your job, does your boss say, "Oh that's alright, you just keep trying hard and eventually you will get it right." Or if you start at a new company, does your boss say, "Okay, I am giving you our most important clients to handle, because I have seen from your prior work you are so good you don't need a learning curve to adjust to our business." NO... he does not say those things. JVG's job is not to coddle and placate a bunch of weak willed snotty nosed children. He is an "office manager" trying to get the most out of his production team. Should he yell? Maybe not. But have you ever seen your boss lose his temper with one of your coworkers? I have. If you want a coach who is going to be sweet and nice, watch a grade school game (and even then you will probably see the coach yelling at his players and benching the ones that do boneheaded things) ::end my rant::
If anyone, other than 111, is making a lot of mistakes, I want him out, especially if leaving him in could make us lose. I care more about winning at this point, than developing more players. The shoes COULD have been the problem. I think he did the right thing. He's protecting our superstar and this is a negative thing somehow?
Errr ... you *are* a JVG hater, and that's why you cleverly titled this thread to get people to read it. Same old JVG is too negative, he doesn't develop his players the right way nonsense. I guess he has really ruined Yao with all these years of constant yelling, hasn't he? I guess Pop is the lucifer of NBA coaches, since he's probably the one NBA coach that's harder on his players than JVG (try asking Manu Ginobili how pleasant his first NBA year was). Bah.
Wow... if he's been screaming at Yao and Luther and Hayes, and they became the way they are today, then I hope he screams his ass off to Snyder and Spanoulis... McGrady could use a little screaming right now, too.
Get over it. Poor Spanoulis got yelled at. Guess what: Greg Popovich yells at his players too. So does Pat Riley. Jerry Sloan is always intimidating his guys. Phil Jackson doesn't just hand out zen books and has been known to make caustic comments - he wrote a whole freaking book trashing Kobe. Larry Brown is always b****ing at or about his players. It's the NBA, it happens. If it doesn't there'd be a problem
Example of a coach with problems. George Karl - "a player's coach" - awesome job being a friend to the players. What does he get? K-mart acting up during the PLAYOFFS. Before that you had Nene, Camby, and Martin arguing over playing time. You have to wonder if Carmelo would have thrown those wrist bands if Sloan, JVG, or Skiles was coach.
I do think that JVG talks to players like VSpan, Luther or Snyder about his personal attitude I do not think that he just goes out and screams at them like a mad man...he wants them to improve in every way... his methods are strange and harsh, but it keeps the team together I do feel that he needs to put more passion into his coaching, it would make a positive impact on his players... for right now, its screaming and weird faces, without passion
George Karl is a players coach, he comes in, turns the team around, then he starts sniping at them in the press and the whole thing falls apart: See, Seattle, Milwaukee, and now Denver.
What exactly makes you think he doesn't have passion? What do you want him to do, dance like a monkey all over the sidelines? Some of these comments are real headscratchers.
Uh, the guy puts his entire life into basketball and is an absolute workaholic, He transferred from Princeton to some crappy D-3 school in order to get a chance to play ball. He might be many things, but "dispassionate" is not one of them.
"It's hard to argue against JVG right now" yet, Old Man Rock, somehow it wasn't that hard for you. I don't know where you get this idea that JVG is "stern, unemotional, and unrelenting disciplinarian" because the JVG I see on the sidelines is different. If you go to a live game versus seeing the game on TV you will see things not shown on TV. This 'one way' you portray him is not the whole JVG. Yes he screams at boo boos but he also praises his players. When Yao responded to the Cavaliers with three consecutive offensive plays at the 4 minute mark in the fourth on his way to the bench JVG patted Yao's behind, vigorously clapped and told him what a good job he did. What a nice feeling that must have been to Yao. But that wasn't show on TV.
just take a look at his face.....did you ever see him throw a smile to a player, high five aka borat style, tap one of them on the but, he does not even acknowledge them when they bass by him! What kind of sucky attitude is that!? he acts like a little boy when the mom takes his nintendo sixty fooooour I do not see the, what do you call it, connection between him and his players I know its all professional, but do it a little bit differently
did he really transfer from princeton to go to a d3 school? jesus my respect for him just rose even higher. I really hope he gets a huge ass contract from new york when the year is over and les decides to match it. Then we can hear 3-5 more years of people arguing against JVG.
why not title the thread "JVG sucks IIII" i wouldn't have bothered to read if i knew it was gonna be another downer when the team is playing so well. why can't we have a thread based on how great defense we're playing? that's it, no JVG bashing, no yao or tmac bashing, no rafer or bonzi bashing... just be happy that we're playing well.
