It's not just a claim. I was a season ticket holder and any fan could see it. Was constantly waving his arms to pick it up. I even started a thread about it, calling it skip-hopping by Francis. That 2005 bench team sure did run. all that said, keep in mind that JVG wasn't necessarily trying to become a fastbreaking coach, but he sure wanted Francis to try it. And then following year, he's going to let TMac do TMac things, but he wanted that bench to run.
And he’s not likely available... and at the time of his hire, most here were laughing (much like the MDA hire)... thus pure hindsight. That’s why I think a current assistant who he’s close with is likely the only possibility of making him happy and still having a fresh enough voice that they may grow into a nick nurse type coach.
JVG loves his vets even more than MDA. Combine that with ugly offense and outmoded defense (see Thibs in Minny) and Rockets will plunge into mediocrity or worse. Give me a historically innovative coach with ability to continuously adapt to his talent over a lovable rah-rah old school coach who cannot let go of the good old days.
Rudy T was more innovative than Phil IMO. The Triangle offense was ALL Tex Winters and we now know that Krause hired him so he could install that offense. Stretch 4 is credited to Rudy but he built a 3 point shooting wheel around Dream. Every player not named Hakeem (or back up 5) had to be able to shoot 3, this maximized Olajuwon. Just like MDA maximized Nash, Harden and now Westbrook. JVG, Thibs, etc. are unlikely to maximize jack.
That vision jaded Rudy to the point of drafting guys like Bryce Drew and Bostjan Nachbar, and trading for Eddie Griffin (and making him a 3 point shooter), while passing up on guys Rashard Lewis.
Exactly. Rudy had the team bombing from 3's and built around Dream, but he never got credited for it. Rockets were shooting 21 3's a game in 94 when teams were shooting only 14 3's a game Tex Winter did all the work on offense and Bach on defense. Phil looked like a genius because he had Jordan and Pippen, but he was also smart enough to not take any credit and gave credit to his assistant. This is what Phil said about his success, gave his success to his assistant "There wasn't much you could put by John Bach and he loved defense. Many people don't know that when I was given the job as the Bulls coach I named John as the defensive coordinator, but knew Tex was the offensive coordinator. That early Bulls team was a terror on defense with Pippen, Jordan, and Grant as the Dobermans of D. We had 3 types of presses besides a full court man-to-man press that put teams under duress. John was the defensive teacher of that first 3-Peat team. Tex was dogmatic about the game and the way it should be played, whereas John was about "let's get this hand to hand conflict on". I was their student for 2 years. I thought I knew the NBA game, which I did, but I didn't know the history of the game of basketball.
People that still believe jvg would be that same coach offensively just don’t listen to him enough at all. His game after game analysis/media absolutely paints a meaningful glimpse of how much different he has adjusted to the games these past years. And adding following him leading the fiba/USA teams there’s a significant difference there. Simply being stuck in the past is the worst way to judge jvg without actual context from that time frame all the way til now. Quite frankly, pretty lazy judgement. He didn’t crawl into a black hole all these years. He’s been right there through it, evolving with it
Damn, that crazy. 7'3 and only a junior. He should be destroying those little kids, but he isn't. Throw some sharp elbows around, little bump and grind, and those little rich kids wouldn't even be trying to guard him. Imagine some 5'8, 150 pounds kids trying to guard this Giant.
Just saw his highlight. Kid ain't going to make it. Doesn't shoot any 3's and no toughness. He needs to throw some elbows and use his shoulders to bully everyone like Charles Barkley and Shaq did. He needs some better trainers. Teach him to throw that big body around and scared those little kids.
suppose it depends on how you define "prime" (and frankly, mvp). pat riley certainly coached magic and kareem and shaq in what most people would consider their primes. i don't think anyone thinks russell westbrook is in his prime and i don't think many people think of steve nash as truly deserving of an mvp (and even if he was, certainly d'antoni was a big reason for it). pop coached 2 mvp's (duncan/robinson) and one of like ten 2-time finals mvp's in kawhi (though 1 wasn't really like the other), all definitely in their primes.
but how does this fit with history? i like jvg. if he becomes coach i wouldn't freak out or anything. but jvg certainly coached some fairly talented rockets teams. maybe not quite as good as the recent rockets, but tmac/yao and some decent role players. and he won 0 playoff series. i don't know if he was holding people accountable or not, but he lost game 7 by 40 points to dallas and lost another game 7 at home to a good but not great utah team. were we possibly the 6th best team in the league that year and the west was so stacked that we were only 5th best in the west? probably, but still he wasn't facing 4 hall of famers in their primes. his only true playoff success was as an 8th seed in one of the most even eastern conferences ever (top team 33 wins, 8th seed knicks with 27 in the lockout year), and that was just to be a sacrifical lamb to the spurs with no real hope of winning a title. meanwhile, d'antoni has been up 3-2 on arguably the most talented team of all time and might have won if not for an injury to his 2nd best player. and he also played the only other competitive series that warriors team faced in 10 tries. not to mention d'antoni turned a 41-41 team into a 2nd round team his first year. if james harden and chris paul could get along, we'd have been reasonably high up the contenders list this year (we'll have to see how harden/russ works out). he was also possibly an amare suspension away from a title in phoenix (no competition after that round). i don't know who d'antoni holds accountable or not, but the guy has had way more playoff success than jvg.
Valid points... but r u really gonna hold JVG accountable for the TMac curse? JVG made the playoffs 3 out of 4 years - despite all the injuries regrading TMac and Yao... Here are some good points from Wiki. regarding JVGs tenure.. "On June 10, 2003, Van Gundy was named head coach of the Houston Rockets, replacing Rudy Tomjanovich.[20] In his first season as the team's head coach, the Rockets finished with a 45–37 record, and qualified for the playoffs for the first time in five years, but they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers. In his second season with the Rockets, Van Gundy guided the team, led by the Yao Ming/ Tracy McGrady duo, to a 51–31 record, which was their first season with more than 50 wins in eight years. The Rockets once again lost in the first round of the playoffs, this time to the Dallas Mavericks. McGrady and Yao missed a combined 70 games due to injury in the 2005–06 season, and Van Gundy did not make the playoffs for the first time in his NBA head coaching career. In May 2005, Van Gundy was fined $100,000 by the NBA, for accusing referees of targeting Houston Rockets center Yao Ming. Van Gundy blamed Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban for causing the referees' alleged bias. This is the largest fine handed down to a coach in NBA history. The injuries and disappointments continued for the Rockets into the following season, with injuries limiting Yao to just 48 games played, and McGrady also not fully recovered from his injuries. The Rockets went on a late season run, on the back of a resurgence from McGrady, but another first round playoff loss, this time to the Utah Jazz, sealed Van Gundy's fate as the team's head coach. At the conclusion of their decisive game 7 loss in the first round of the playoffs, Van Gundy was fired, and then replaced by Rick Adelman." and regarding MDA... You mention "d'antoni turned a 41-41 team into a 2nd round team his first year." - but 2 years prior they were a WCF team - and that was with McFail... then JBB nonsense went 41-41... I'd say making the playoffs for the first time in 5 years in his first season (JVG) is more impressive than taking a .500 team that was 2 years removed from the WCF to the 2nd round in his first season... imo... Dont get me wrong... if we went with JVG he would def need a strong offensive minded assistant to balance his skill set... just as JVG needed Bzdelik to balance his attributes... I just greatly prefer the whole tenour of JVG to MDA as a leader and motivator... again imo...
You can watch game 2 of the 2005 playoffs Right now on NBA TV... probably the best of JVG’s teams while in Houston. They’re actually playing with a frenetic pace. Having dead-eye shooters like Barry, Wesley, and good ol Mike James really helped space the floor well for T-Mac/Yao.
I like MDA and I think he's earned another shot, but if that doesn't happen I'm all in on JVG. Hakeem and Rudy T are locked in as my favorite Rockets player and coach of all time. But JVG is my second favorite Rockets coach ever. Just need to hire him a great offensive assistant.
