VG's A ROCKET MAN By MARC BERMAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 5, 2003 -- SAN ANTONIO - The Rockets' head-coaching job is Jeff Van Gundy's - if he wants it. Van Gundy could be named to the post by the end of the week, according to league sources. Rocket GM Carroll Dawson said on a Houston radio station yesterday, "It's definitely his if he wants it, yeah. If everything goes well, then there's a good chance he gets an offer." The former Knick coach plans to visit Houston today to take a tour of the Rockets' practice facility, meet with team officials and check out schools, the city and housing. Mike Dunleavy, a former Rocket guard, was the other candidate. Dunleavy reportedly is the front-runner now in Atlanta. If Van Gundy goes to the Rockets, the Knicks may be interested in getting compensation such as a future second-round pick since they own Van Gundy's rights until July 31. A TNT analyst this season, Van Gundy seems a much better fit with the Rockets than with the rebuilding Cavaliers, who chose Paul Silas over him. Van Gundy has always been highly complimentary of 7-foot-6 center Yao Ming, and is a good coach of big men, getting the most out of a past-his-prime Patrick Ewing. He's also experienced in designing an offense around a dominant center. Aside from Van Gundy bringing aboard his former Knick lieutenants Tom Thibodeau, Steve Clifford and Andy Greer, Van Gundy could also make Ewing Yao's big-man coach. The Knicks are intrigued by the 7-foot-6 Yugoslavian Slavko Vranes and asked to watch him work out at John Jay College on Monday. Vranes, part of the Marc Cornstein European stable, is staying in New York through the draft. The 20-year-old played limitedly for his Yugoslavian team, so he's likely to be a late first-round or second-round pick.
Anyone want to dig up the reps of Thibodeau, Clifford, and Greer? My quick search dug up one thing promising. According to a NBA GM Survey Tom Thibodeau got one vote for best assistant coach in the league.
Some background info on Van Gundy's likely candidates: From the NY Post: "Chaney axed Tom Thibodeau, Steve Clifford and advance scout Andy Greer at season's end because the trio turned down contract extensions last November, most likely to keep their options open in case Van Gundy found work." http://www.nypost.com/avantgo/avantsports/35872.htm JVG (when coach of the Knicks) on Tom Thibodeau: "With the departure of Brendan Malone, Tom will take on added responsibilities in the fields of individual player development and game planning," says head coach Jeff Van Gundy. "Tom is as good as anyone in working with individual players, and the time he spends and the dedication he exhibits are unparalleled. He's just terrific." http://www.nba.com/coachfile/tom_thibodeau/?nav=page Steve Clifford interview on WFAN April 3: http://nykfanpage.com/sounds/ Listen to his comments about D and TO's around the 6:00 mark. Andy Greer: http://www.nba.com/coachfile/andy_greer/?nav=page Greer's pretty green, but if the reports are true that the Rox haven't been using an advanced scout these days, he could be very valuable.
Tom Thibodeau is regarding as a good to great, very experienced ast. He's 42 and has been in the NBA for a long time, working with the Knicks, John Musselman, Tarkanian, and Lucas, as advanced scouts and assistant coaches. Clifford and Greer have little NBA experience. Clifford was an advanced scout who moved to the bench, and Greer was hired to fill the vacancy. Greer has some experience coaching, the first of which was asst for Van Gundy's dad. Advanced scout is for scouting the opponent's tendencies, not draft picks. The two were pulled from Div II and III schoold. Clifford has more coaching experience in college, and was a defensive star player at Boylen's school...though they didn't play together. They were both captains, though Boylen was a star PG/scorer.
??? where'd you hear this. Even if they don't actually fly adv scouts around, they use video extensively. That's the "video coordinator" coaching job. To break down the opponent into pieces of video that the coaches can look at fast. The difference is one guy reports back to the coach, and the other guy shows the coach video proof, so he can see it for himself.
Good post. I think assistant coaches are very important Don't people see every winning team has one or two excellent assistant coaches?
On that GM poll: http://netscape.nba.com/preview2002/General_Manager_Survey.html Kind interesting that Rudy T didn't make the list for top 8 or so best head coaches or best motivational coaches but was 7th at X's and O's. Yao Ming was the only player mentioned from the Rockets, except Kenny Thomas as one of the most underrated.
HP - Someone posted it in a thread over the past 3 or 4 days. It was from a reputable source and the basic gist was that the Rox (under RT) did not go over the other teams' tendencies in practice. They relied totally on game time (real time) adjustements.
i'm not calling you a liar, so don't take it the wrong way...but, damn that's hard to believe. have we been that inept as an organization? where, why and when did we fall asleep?
In addition to Gater's comments: I think it was more of the Rocket's concentrated on their team, rather than going over defensive schemes / opponet tendencies of other teams. I guess they figured if they played their game, they wouldn't have to worry about other teams offense.
I've always assumed that a significant part of the "video coordinator's" job was to look at opponent tendencies. Now it looks like they were mainly watching their own tendencies. No?
like verse, I don't buy that "reputable source" at all. I've heard Rudy say several times what the game plan was before the game started. I've heard players say what the coaches told them to expect and what defenses they were going to run, etc. Further proof is the Kings game when we beat them with man on man defense. We had been playing zone a lot, then wham,,,,we pulled out a man knowing a zone was futile against the Kings, and it seemed to surprise them because we beat them handedly, by keeping them under 80 points. I don't believe it for a second. I also remember reading the Mobley was given tapes on SGs that he had to defend. Rudy is a video junky, and so was Boylen. No way they are only watching themselves. Going over what they are going to do to an opponent is for a long series. In practice, you practice every piece of what you might have to use against all opponents. Then you supposedly can just tell the players what defense to run; who not to leave, etc. This is not the NFL or the playoffs where you have time to practice specifically for one opponent, nor should you.
It was in a transcript or article posted here a couple of days ago. I remember being surprised while reading it.
verse - I will admit to not reading every post in every thread by every member...sorry. But, I usually read 95% of all threads and definitely all posts by anyone that has established some degree of credibility. Your reason for questioning me is the primary reason that this information "stuck"...I found it incredulous as I was reading it. I am to busy right now to back track thru 8 or so pages, but I promise that I will try to find the quote later on this evening. Unless that poster wants to spare me the agony.....
GATER- I'll save you the trouble. Here's the thread. The excerpt:"Under Rudy Tomjanovich, the Rockets were famous for being old school. Instead of doing extensive scouting of opponents, which is not cheap, the prevailing philosophy was to make sure their own team was ready to play. But with the Rockets pushing Rudy out - he didn't want to stop coaching - it appears they are ready to catch up with the rest of the league. Team owner Les Alexander and GM Carroll Dawson brought up the need to upgrade their scouting with Van Gundy during their meeting with the ex-Knicks coach, before he even had a chance to raise it. " Enjoy.
HP - I'm not going to get into a p*****g match with you over this. However, during the past season the NBA Insiders show interviewed Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat. He is their advance scout and specifically stated his job was to create a 40 page report and condense it down to 8-10 before giving it to Riley. He did this for every upcoming opponent. Surely there is a wide variance from team to team, but if I were a betting man, my money would go on the Rockets being closer to the bottom than the top on total of prep time for each game. To me, some of the surprised reactions of both the team and RT should be testament to this fact. As mentioned prior, I will find the quote time permitting. UPDATE: OK, it looks like it was the NY Daily News. Not sure how credible they are but it looks like the subject was touched on with Rox mgmt & JVG...
thx NIKEstrad. But guys, that doesn't say anything about what the Rockets did in practice or whether they discussed game plans or walked their players through what to expect. Being "ready to play" is as much about being able to do several things, as well as discussing the game plan. How does that sound like they just "winged it" with no discussion of the opponent? I don't get that interpretation at all. What am I missing? It sounds like to me that they used video to save money, rather than fly scouts around. Note that the best scout on the team was Rudy, who you couldn't fly around, and who is a video junky. He doesn't needs advanced scouts if you just give him video clips. He is reknowned for 3-4:00 am video sessions, and so was Boylen. you mean that game day walk throughs did not discuss the game plan...who not to leave...where the rotation come from...how they opp plays the PnR...etc. Sounds like there is a misunderstanding about "make sure their own team was ready to play" being just winging it with no look at tape or anything.
this has no bearing on people's interpretation of that article being that the Rockets didn't scout opponents...none at all. One team flies a guy around in a jet and he gives 40page reports (which is a lot of stats and shots maps, btw...I've seen them), and another teams uses video coordinates to condense a game into consice pieces and sheets of stats. I don't see where people assume these video coordinator asst coaches (we have two of them, right?) are not breaking down the opponent on video and Rudy is not watching it with Boylen. Are we to believe Rudy and Boylen watch only the Rockets?
