When has Phil's teams been unable to win championships? Hes come away with 9 rings out of the 11 years that hes been a head coach.
It was during the CBA renegotiations that made the players balk out of the 98 World Championships. Rudy took the USA Basketball team to the Semis where they earned a bronze (Yugoslavia took the gold where they repeated this year). Rudy is a good coach, but he isn't a great coach. He isn't a "people's coach" in that he can't really get his message across the first or second time like Phil and Larry Brown can. The debacle with handling Dream was because Rudy didn't bring Dream in and tell him that his role has changed but his importance to the Rockets wasn't (even if it was a lie in hindsight...) On the other hand, as a "players coach" he's been able to bring the best out of limited players like Ellie, Mack, Brown, and even Horry. I can't fault his work ethic. He watches tapes day and night searching for his opponents flaws to exploit, but his game philosophy has stayed unchanged (ISOs or the three). I always wondered why. He's not exploiting the talents of all his players to their potential but rather shoehorning them into a system that he thinks will get the most number of points. Makes sense, but it didn't work and it made some boring games last season. Is it because he doesn't want to change the status quo with him and his players, or is it because he's unable to define everyone's roles, which is magnified on a rookie laden team? We'll see if these faults are merited this season and hopefully without injuries...
Who would you consider a good X and O coach, then? Why does that even make a good coach good? For that matter, what coach wins without talent. Hey, just adding talent to a team doesn't mean it will all work. If Rudy can make this a top 5 team, in the West no less, than he should , without a doubt, be in the top 3 for coach of the year. Not only trying to install a new offense, not only being a good players coach, but having to integrate a foreign born Chinese center with more hype than maybe any other player to ever come before him without a preseason to work with, having to split playing time on a much deeper team, while nonetheless keeping everybody happy. A lot goes into coaching. X's and O's are part of it, and while Rudy may not be the best at it, he certainly is still good (heck, he not only understands the pass it to this X in the post because none of the O's on the court can guard him mentally, but he finds a way for his players to do it successfully enough to get him championships) and this season should help prove/disprove what kind of coach he is.
You and I share a brain apparently. Another thing to add is the whole Scottie Pippen fiasco. Granted, Scottie is just a horses rear and the way he made his exit was uncalled for. But I absolutely do not blame him for wanting to leave. In fact, before the Pippen trade happened, I was against it. Its like you said about maintaining the status quo. Anyone that knows Rudy knew that he wasnt really going to change the offense a whole lot when Scottie came aboard. Instead of maximizing the great passing skills and court vision of a future hall of famer, Rudy chose to stick with the same offense that won titles in 94 and 95. That decision 1) Made Pippen mad because Rudy was basically using him the same way as Robert Horry (use him to pass the ball into Hakeem/Barkley and stand around waiting for the wide open jumper) and 2) Im gonna get burned for saying this but I dont really care, Rudy probably accelerated the end of both Hakeem and Barkley's careers because of the pounding they took by being the focal point of the offense. Rudy never accepted the fact that neither Hakeem nor Barkely were capable of leading this team to victory like they would have been in the past. Rudy for some reason just didnt have the wherewithall to maximize Pippens talents. When Hakeem took a turn for the worse, it really happened quickly. If Rudy had maximized Pippens talents, Hakeem wouldnt have taken the pounding that he did and that might have just prolonged his productive years by a year or so. That being said, whenever Hakeem saw that Rudy was pulling the offense out of his hands, Hakeem would complain that the offense needs to be run through him as long as he was here. So Im not sure if we should blame Hakeem or Rudy for that. Hmmmmmm.
I agree with you totally in that what Rudy accomplishes or does not accomplish with this new group of talent will solidify his ranking in history.
All you so called FANS running down our Coach at the begining of the Season. I dont think you have any idea how you are leaving such a sour taste and bad odour. This is not the right time to be doing this, we should be supporting our Coach to the MAX, he has a difficult task to get our Team ready, without all the bad mouthing.
