Lopez Opening Fire on Les for Wanting a Better Coach

I am not sure what this is all about, but i see too much credit given to JVG in this article, something like he took a loosing team that did not get into the playoffs in 5 years into a team that went to the playoffs, and that Les should not be concerned about what the fans want. what a bunch of crap and he says that the team is very close, well how close do you want to be after being up 2-0 on Dallas after beating them twice in their home court and then loosing 7-3, how close can you be more than having UTAH at home in game 7 and not showing up.

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/lopez/rockets/4787658.html


Alexander needs to decide if he want a coach or a comic


By JOHN P. LOPEZ


JEFF Van Gundy will be out as Rockets head coach by the early part of next week, if not the end of this week.

Rest assured the Rockets will call it a mutual decision or something of that sort. The front-office team and maybe even Van Gundy will stand together, smiling, talking about moving in another direction. They'll thank one another for jobs well done and talk about no hard feelings.

It will be one big happy grip-and-grin on the way to other things. Certainly, Van Gundy's moving on will please some Rockets fans and anger others, but that's not the point.

The point is, Van Gundy's "agreeing" to pass on a contract extension, which is how this all figures to be framed, should make sense to no one.


Drayton redux
And one question will hover over all.

When did Rockets owner Leslie Alexander become Drayton McLane Jr., circa 1997?

When did this one-time forward-thinking, risk-taking, win-first owner of Houston's only major championship organization become a slave to public perception and Q-rating?

There is absolutely no sound basketball reason for the Rockets to move past Van Gundy as head coach. None.

Yet they will indeed do that after meetings with Van Gundy today and/or Thursday iron out the hows and whats of an exit strategy.

Van Gundy has a good relationship with Alexander, so he won't make it difficult on the owner. He also could use a break to spend time with his wife and two daughters here in Houston, a city Van Gundy has come to love and plans to make his home with or without a job with the Rockets.


In Van Gundy's blood
But rest assured, given the option to coach again in 2007-08, he would.

He's a basketball coach. He was born to coach, has coached all his life and knows that with just some tweaks and creative salary capology, the core of this club is made up of championship-quality pieces.

Don't buy it when Van Gundy plays nice at his farewell. Out of respect, he'll let Alexander have his way without causing a stink, but how many chances like this one does a gym rat have to win an NBA title?

Van Gundy has turned a losing franchise into a winning one. He has culled the organization of thugs, do-nothings and dead weight. He has established a trust with those cornerstone pieces Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.

He has this team close. Very close.

He took a bad team and won 52 games this season, earning the fifth-best record in basketball and carrying the Rockets within a couple minutes of the conference semifinals.

Ultimate success has not arrived, but you can see it from here. Alexander sees only those droopy eyes, a pound-it-out half-court offense, and flashy teams like the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns getting all the pub.

The old "next step" crutch figures to be the one on which the front-office leans as it moves on from the Van Gundy era. And sure, it is about getting deeper into the playoffs.

Yet after Van Gundy inherited a team that hadn't been in the playoffs in five years and got it within a breath of the NBA elite this season despite Yao's missing 32 games, the biggest reason Alexander appears ready to move on is cosmetic.

That's a total sellout to shortsightedness instead of building toward the big payoff on the horizon. It also is contrary to all the daring things Alexander did in building back-to-back champions.

All about winning? Not anymore.

Alexander now wants a coach who comes off fun-loving and happy in interviews. He wants a coach who plays a faster-paced style, perhaps even at the cost of the most important element of winning basketball: defense.

Alexander wants, in essence, a salesman.

That's not Van Gundy by any stretch. On numerous occasions last season and again before this one, Alexander met with his coach and said in so many words, "Can you do something about your on-camera personality?"

Did he want the old soft shoe from Van Gundy? Maybe a big, red foam clown nose during news conferences?

Henny Youngman?

"Take my power forward. Please."

Certainly, Van Gundy is not without fault in turning off some fans with his droopy-eyed, unforgiving postgame appearances. It's just bad TV. Depressing sometimes, even.

He also has failed to make all the pieces work, for better or worse.

Bonzi Wells was a fat bum from the start, but some coaches would have overlooked that. Vassilis Spanoulis was a turnover machine, Kirk
Snyder couldn't find a place
in the rotation, and Steve Novak couldn't guard a Nerf basket.

But maybe they would have logged some minutes and knocked down some shots under someone who could care less about defense.

It will be an amicable parting of the ways between Van Gundy and the Rockets. But Alexander should be careful. Not all good coaches are good salesmen.

And vice versa.

 

I think JVG is lucky to have a boss like Les that won't go out and fire his ass on national TV, but rather give him the option to retire or say that it is a mutual decision.

 

Dude who brought these players to Houston? wasn't it JVG? he wanted to win now and thats were we ended up.