Oh yes it is. Not saying I agree with firing Rudy, but this team was undisciplined and faded down the stretch. They were barely in the playoff chase the last few weeks. If they follow that up with a #6 seed that is a great improvement, especially since a #6 seed, in theory, means you're comfortably in the playoffs. Funny, there were a LOT of people not giving Rudy credit for winning those 2 championships and saying that he rode Dream to the titles because Dream was dominant. Now people are calling Rudy a great coach and an icon.
Someone started an interesting thread on coaches who won championships with the same team in different eras, meaning with a completely different cast of players. I couldn't think of one in the NBA and you will be hard pressed to think of any coach in pro sports who has done it. But the most important point you make is that he wasn't the coach for this team, and keeping a coach over players doesn't make any sense in professional sports.
Not so. We should be better than the Clips but that's it. Seattle is really poised to make a jump while GS is an enigma at this point. Phoenix has passed us - get over it. Utah is the odds on favorite to tumble but Portland with Cheeks as coach is better than the Rockets as is Minn. By my reckoning, Utah should fall out of the playoffs with Phoenix & Minn fighting for their spot. This leaves Seattle & Houston fighting for the 8th spot unless GS somehow survives the expected loss of Arenas (sp) to Denver which would put them in play as well. Expect Denver to steal a few more wins as well which would further muddy the waters.
Alex Hannum. He won championships with the St. Louis Hawks in 1958, the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967, and the Oakland Oaks (ABA) in 1969. He also led the St. Loius Hawks to the Finals in 1957, but they lost to Russell's Celtics in 7 games. You also have to consider that none of these three teams had ever even made it to the Finals before he took over! That's just ridiculous. I've always thought that he was the greatest coach in NBA history.
I believe that is a fair assesment as of right not. The best the rocketsa can hope for is fourth best in the west but realisticly they are proberly the 6th or 7th best next year
Yep, he hit that one right on the head. With Dallas on the rise and probably looking at adding Karl Malone for a title run and San Antonio looking to add a major piece this offseason (probably Jermaine O'Neal not JKidd), I doubt the Rockets can become any better than third in the state. I think they will make the playoffs next year under JVG, but I do see a first round flameout.
Yeah, I'm talking about the same team. You could have easily just wrote Phil Jackson. What I meant was, say Pat Riley was still coaching the Lakers, with Shaq and Kobe winning, same team, different era.
OKAY, since were all thinking of next season, how about we find out what the team is going to look like! I mean, come on... The Charlotte franchise just named their team last week, and already they've got colors and a logo picked out. Does anyone know when the Hell were gonna get to see our new colors, logo, uni.... ANYTHING! Seriously, do they want to sell merchandise or not?!
We were not going any better than #8 with Rudy. We needed a change, so get over it. I think Tolbert's opinion was pretty fair, and I've heard him praise Yao plenty of times and said we should run our offense through him.
The difference between 6th and 9th is huge. #9 is a lottery ticket. In the bottom half of the conference. #6 has a decent chance of making it to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and can't even being accused of "scraping in" to the playoffs. Maybe you could say that about #7, and #8... but in the West, it's huge. Note: TheFreak is exercising a double standard when he professes to believe that coaches are not important... yet objects to the firing of Rudy. If this is true, at worst, it might bring a fresh approach.
Not speaking for TheFreak, but I personally don't think coaching matters at this level of play and I didn't want to see Rudy go. My reasoning for not wanting to see Rudy get fired is mainly because of the fact that the man devoted 30+ years of his life to this organization and was a part of the only 2 major championships in this city.
