Van Gundy's strategy to foul Kwame

I thought it was brilliant because no one expected it. I can almost guarantee that he told the team to foul Kwame if he touched it. Since there was 15 seconds left, he wouldn't ask them to foul any of the other players, since that is way too much time for you to give the team 2 points.

I also think he predicted that that would be the play. I think he knew that Phil would inbound to Kwame, to try and get Yao stuck in the play. Phil knew the Rockets would try to stop Kobe from getting inbounded the ball, so I think that he figured it would be best to pass to Kwame and have Kobe come around for a hand off. Phil tried to get Yao involved off of picks all game, so I think he wanted Kwame to get it and for Yao to have to come out on Kobe.

I think JVG realized this and told Yao that it was coming and that he should foul Kwame right away. I think it was a pretty damn good move.

 

A straight ahead 18 footer is a miracle shot? In that situation, you want to not turn it over and get the last shot. That means you put the ball in the hands of your best decision maker and let him create something.

 

I agree - I recall Van Gundy discussing working for Pat Riley and the depth - detail of preparation required for every game- recap and prep for the nest one. I'm confident there is no one better prepared for the opponent than JVG....

 

Not with 17 seconds left.

 

It was a good strategy by JVG, something that the team should do more often.

The danger of getting into a FT shooting contest for our team, is that we have some fairly inconsistent free throwers, but all in all, a great move by JVG.

Now, not double teaming Kobe for the last 6 minutes of the game.....not a good move by JVG.

DD - fair and balanced JVG coverage.

 

ok,we fire him
but ,who's the very man u need?

 

I think JVG outsmarted PJackson on that call, cause if Jackson would've known there was a strong possibility of JVG fouling Kwame would've been on the bench.

 

JVG always does that. He would rather foul than give the other team a chance to tie with a 3. The fact that it was Kwame Brown made it genius. Too bad we didn't get the rebound, but hey, we were treated with a great game, and most importantly, we won!

 

It certainly looked like a last resort situation to me. The Clippers did it on Wednesday, but they didn't get the rebound.

 

You're ignoring the game clock situation. You don't ordinarily foul with 15 seconds left, up three.

 

Fouling Kwame seemed like a pretty obvious move to me. It wasnt genius or surprising maybe because I've seen it executed by other coaches before, so JVG was not the first coach to ever use this tactic.

 

exactly

didnt JVG say that he will give a great player the benefit of the doubt? ie he will give a great player the freedom to do whatever he wants to in situations such as this.

Tmac is a great player

 

And yet, Phil Jackson obviously didn't anticipate it.

 

Nor did Matt Bullard, who usually has these sorts of things all figured out. Just before it happened, he was saying how it was too soon to do something like that. Obviously, that line of thinking led PJ to make the mistake of inbounding to Kwame.

 

It could be worse if Brown made first and missed second, then rebounded by Kobe. So the key is rebound and guarding kobe at 2nd throw. Obviously, Rox was not ready. Gundy was smart but not enough.

 

Pure genius by the little leprechaun. It would have looked even more brilliant if our superstar (Tmac) blocked out Kobe or attempted to hustle.

 

win is a win,JVG did the right thing,it didn't work out b/z the lakers were lucky.