[Van Gundy] To co host 610 afternoon show tomorrow

Sam is that you?? the first caller?? LOL

Too funny.

 

can someone give me a recap, I'm stuck at work

 

i think matt's checking in on this thread during the show, asking about spanoulis now.

 

Spanoulis question now.

JVG thinks young players need to earn their way.

Likes Billy, but didn't think he earned his way on the court or was good enough to play more.

 

Whoa - says there was a rift b/w him & "the organization" over playing time for Spanoulis & Novak, but he believes in playing the best 8-9 guys, not 10 or 11.

 

He IS here He is on the "Currently Active Users" list

 

pretty sad when unproven bench scrubs decide the fate of a good, proven coach.

 

They are talking about him a lot, JVG is old school and says it was a normal year for a rookie.

He says Novak and V-Span had normal rookie years.

I will recap in a bit.

DD

 

Thinks Spanoulis had a fairly normal year for a low second round draft pick and wishes he would reconsider his NBA experience in light of that, and come back to play.

Says there was plenty of stuff with Spanoulis ability to work with, but just not enough to get him on the court really during his first year.

 

I thought it was the first round exit.

 

RECAP:about Management and their views on young players please fill it in if I missed something.

MattJ asked him if Yao was healthy all year would he have developed some of the younger players more, like V-Span.

JVG says he would not do anything different but there was a rift in the organization about this, and that managment wanted him to play Novak and Billy more.

Says that he was not in the meetings with the owner and could not be sure what the GM or others were saying about his rotation and development.

Thinks he did fine developing Luther and Chuck Hayes.

He thinks V-Span has some skills and is a tough kid who is extremely confident and thinks he is possibly giving up to early, wants him to change his mind and come back.

JVG thinks Novak and V-Span had what he considers normal rookie years.

JVG says V-Span has some PG skills and some SG skills needs to get more efficient and to not give up so early.

No need to pigeon hole a player as a PG or SG....

He thinks the NBA is a different animal, and that it is not just basketball, because JVG said "I played division III, basketball and the NBA is an entirely different animal" (paraphrasing).

Overall, it sounds like management wanted JVG to develop some other players and JVG was determined to only play the guys he thought could help him win that game.

I think JVG did what he thought was right, and that management was taking a longer view and it got him fired......better to have management and coach on same side - and clearly that wasn't the case.

I did not like JVG as the coach, thought he was flawed, but I respect that he did whatever he thought was right, REGARDLESS of pressure by management, you have to admire that if it did get him fired.

DD

 

Matt cracked a V-Mac joke and JVG didn't acknowledge it & launched into a serious discussion about him.

Man, this pisses me off & reaffirms my, and others, belief, that JVG was driven out by Les over the playing time that a couple of low draft picks got.

 

Anyway, he was frank but sounded like he liked what he saw in Vspan. Even repeating many times that he hopes Vspan comes back.

Again, JVG is an old school coach who wont give rookies much playing time. That's it.

How Vspan and others on this board think that is wrong - especially when those rookies are unproven - is beyond me.

 

No he was saying that Greek coaches he spoke to thought Vspan was a combo guard.

Rockets management thought Vspan & Novak should have played more. JVG disagreed, and this created a rift.

 

What exactly has he proven?

anyway, Matts being a little immature about Span

 

ASK JVG about what would be his ideal situation to solve the PF problem....try to get a few names of guys he thinks would mesh well with our core. Thanks!

 

I think by upper he means Leslie.