Rick Adelman would bring alot of creativity to our offense. under him, i can see tracy and yao thriving. even guys like Vspan and luther will also get bigger roles. Span in particular. alot of passing on offense and alot f open looks are gonna be the norm under rick.
Since the Chronicle is saying Jeff hasn't officially been let go yet and there seems to be plenty of denials going around for the moment I'm not so sure this thread deserves to be stickied unless Clutch has heard something that backs up Vescey.
JVG isn't bad as a TV announcer. NOt as good as Walton or Barkley, but JVG does have his own style, which I like. Do you think he will stay in Houston? I think JVG would make an excellent replacment for Clyde on the Rockets broadcasts, though it might be a bit wierd initially. That is why retirement would be better than being let go involuntarily. PS: I think JVG would make an excellent coach for some college teams. I think he would be happier there as he would be able to boss the players around more. He could just kick the head cases off in mid semester without the Bonzi type drama.
There were some comments from Van Gundy that really caused me to wonder after the loss. When he was asked what went wrong, he pointed to the defense and said it wasn't good enough, that there were too many times that Utah players got away from us. Then he specifically mentioned Harpring and his cuts to the basket. That was McGrady's man every time. To me, it felt like he was subtly calling out McGrady and expressing his disappointment at him for not being able to stop Harpring. Which I thought was crazy seeing as how much McGrady had to do every game just to keep us in the game. For the coach to look at that game and say the defense wasn't good enough and not say the offense wasn't good enough........makes me wonder. There are two sides to the basketball court. If there were just one, Van Gundy would be one of the top 2 coaches in the league.
If only...Stop being so naive. Spanoulis was taken at the end of the of the 2nd round. He stayed in Europe for one reason and one reason only: he was not ready for the NBA which BTW is the same reason Badianne isn't here. His game skills were intriguing but his inability to hit a jumpshot + his penchant for turnovers negated those skills completely. The only reason he was brought over was because the great CD needed roster filler and he was it along with JLIII aka the "inch-high SG". Novack was also taken late and proved to be a one dimensional player. He simply wasn't fast enough to play on the perimeter and proved to be yet another warm Rocket body that couldn't make his own shot. And don't you dare try to lay the blame for Bonzi Wells at JVG's feet because that fat ass didn't want to be here in the first place. Again, if only that were true then I'd be right there with you but I simply don't buy this argument that this team somehow underachieved because JVG was unwilling or unable to magically force them to play to their fullest potential. JVG may not be the most likable guy around but he got more out of this team than I ever believed possible. You have let your dislike of JVG blind you to the reality that this was a good solid team but nowhere near championship timber. Oh they tried but they just weren't good at it. I felt that they should have played more but JVG was determined to go down doing what he knew best. Yao ends up having to cover PnRs because that's how you attack the Rockets. EVERYONE with a tape player knows that. In the end, JVG Like Sloan was too locked into his system to make changes. Sloan's way ended winning the day while JVG's didn't. Stuff like that happens in the playoffs and teams with inherent flaws in their makeup & play come out on the short end of the stick. I never believed that Spanoulis was that good in the first place period. I think it borders on heresy to even mention him in the same context as Tony Parker. Parker's ultimate success in SA says more about how that organization goes about its business than Popovich's willingness or unwillingness to assign playing time. And it's my hope that you too remember this thread next year when the new Rockets coach fails to win the championship. Thanks to the sterling efforts of the past regime, this is a team with precious few resources available to make the changes necessary to compete and win in the Western Conference so I expect the next year to look a lot like this year with the only difference being that there won't be all of those "JVG Sucks" threads posted here.
He's problem was with gundy. new manigment equates to new beginings and fresh chances. clean slate so to speak. also one needs Remember Bonzi played that unbeliveble series under Adelman. the offensn adelman runs suits someone like bonzi like a tee...
Some interesting quotes from Clyde Drexler's book regarding Rick Adelman when he first became coach of the Trail Blazers: "Rick talked to me that summer and said, 'Clyde, you don't have to do everything this year. We are going to cut down on your shots, let you do a little less, give you a little more rest so you will be healthier and fresher for the playoffs. You don't have to carry the team like you did the past couple of years. You can just play your game.' " Rick Adelman: "Clyde didn't respond to public criticism very well. He liked to play the game and not be under a lot of restrictions. When I took over, I just tried to go to the strengths he had on the court. It's like that with a lot of players. If they feel they are being used the right way, they respond in a positive way."
We need this kind of mentality. free tracy to score and not to have carry everyoneelses behind at the same time. get a PG to do the passing and let tracy go beserk on offense. This is why Adelman is the best coach for us. tracy is gonna be a 28 to 30 point player ander adelman.
Barkley an excellent TV announcer? He's just a funny guy on the half time and Inside the NBA show. He announced one game and that was pretty bad. Anyways, I like JVG. He did a great job with our team and even with the injuries and limited about of talent on our team, he still took us as far as we could take him. He's a smart coach who knows how to win. In his years of coaching, he's only had one losing year and that was when Tracy and Yao were out almost the entire season. He is the ONLY coach to take an eight seeded team to the NBA finals. That's gotta mean something. However, if he chooses to retire or if we fire him, I will not complain. We have a great core and he did help us get to the playoffs but sometimes change is good. We may need another coach to help carry us over that barrier of the first round. A coach that is more of a player's coach or a coach who just has the winning formula. A coach that would give young guys like Kill Bill and Steve Novak an oppertunity to play would be nice also, because these guys when doing what they are known for have a chance to be something really special. I like Rick Carlisle. He's just been having lots of bad luck with some teams and their stupid idiotic behavior. Bring him here where he'd have some great players to coach and I believe special things can happen.
I would not mind if Van gundy was coming back, but if he isn't, I would love to see Mike Dunleavy Sr. as the next head coach. He has history with the Rockets organization and he wanted the Rockets coaching job in 2003 before they hired Van Gundy. I think don't think it would be very difficult to take him away from the Clippers.
Oh come on...Larry Brown? Either we get an offensive minded coach in here or we keep JVG. Larry isn't gonna help us.
If there's any truth to JVG having decided some time ago to get away from the stress it would explain the detachment I saw in him the last part of the season when the team would lose. He seemed too even tempered about the whole thing. BUT, I think what would be the best scenario (if this is true) is for Les to ask him to stay as an assistant coach, hire a head coach and let the new head coach say, "Jeff, I'll overrule you when I disagree but I want you to be responsible for the team's defense." I don't think the Rockets have ever had a better defense with the talent available. Sure, Hakeem was a monster defensively, but that was mostly his skill and speed -- not someone's defensive scheme. This would be a win-win situation for the team and JVG -- less stress on everybody.
http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2007/05/jvgs_decision.html <i>JVG's decision Throughout the season, whenever I asked about Jeff Van Gundy's future as Rockets coach, the subject would be quickly changed. Les Alexander would say that he had nothing to say. Carroll Dawson and Daryl Morey said there was nothing to say during the season. Van Gundy himself would say the Rockets needed to be quicker to loose balls. Van Gundy would not even talk about it with his bosses, considering the topic inappropriate during the season. But now that it no longer is during the season, and he is at a career crossroads, he could quit, be fired or be back. The smart money is betting on quit. Perhaps it always has. Believe that Van Gundy had not made up his mind. He doesn't do anything without thinking it to death, and there is no way that he has been thinking his career options to his usual exhaustive levels. His mindset, like the Rockets' as a whole and probably most fans', has been that this season would be the only consideration. Just get it done in the playoffs. That is the only measure of success. The Rockets did not get it done, losing again in the first round. Van Gundy's inclination, again like many fans, is probably that his time has run its course. I'd like to see him back. I still consider him and his staff an asset. There were those that turned on him, if they were ever behind him, based on substitutions. He didn't play Spanoulis. Fire him. He didn't play Novak. Fire him. He has some odd bias against an overweight, self-centered player that repeatedly put himself ahead of the team, skipping most of training camp, playing badly between injuries and walking out on the team a week before the playoffs. Fire him. But his players believed in him. He asked a lot of them and they believed in him. Yao Ming. Tracy McGrady. Juwan Howard. Shane Battier. The players that will be here next season want him with them, and it is not as if he is so easy on them. He had them extremely prepared. Many improved under him. It was a bad team when he got here. It has, with the exception of that injury season, steadily gotten better. It was not a good enough team, but I don't see all this wonderful waves of unused talent others do. There are some things I still want to see in a Van Gundy team. We know he gives the green light to shooters. He expects them to put up shots confidently, without looking over their shoulders. But it would be nice to see a few more guys capable of making those shots. With the league getting faster, you would like a frontcourt with someone that every now and then jumps. In a Western Conference with point guard star after star, you would like the Rockets to have one that could either create or shoot. You would like a backup center somewhat quicker and more athletic than the 300-pound starter. Funny, but by the end of that paragraph, 52 wins is starting to sound pretty good. I'd like to see him give young players more rope when they screw up. He lost some of that luxury when Yao Ming was injured and he had to squeeze every win he could out of the season. And he wasted weeks experimenting with Bonzi Wells. I'd like to see him with a deeper team, and then look the other way more often when players make tactical errors the way he does on shot selection. It's not a popular notion right now, with the wounds still fresh and the search for someone to blame so important to so many. But the better team won. And if the Rockets got one of those last-minute rebounds and beat the Jazz, and moved on to a series they could win, I wouldn't think Jerry Sloan was at fault either. The Rockets tried to restock their roster with unproven reserves, hoping to bridge the years between the bloated contracts and younger, less pricey players. When they missed on their free agent target, Mike James, they had a roster with potential, but far too little proven contributors. They were good enough to win a bunch of games, but in a bad matchup in the first round, they were not good enough to do more. I'd like to see him back. He doesn't get an extension off this season, but he doesn't need one. He is under contract. He has one more season and he's not a college coach that has to go recruiting. The season left on his contract is enough for now. He should not quit. Van Gundy has said he and his family love Houston and would remain here whether he coaches the Rockets or not. And he has said if he stepped down it would not necessarily be to stop coaching. He needs to realize then that the Rockets gig, while not perfect, is pretty good. There are star players that are good workers, good guys. When the phone rings, he doesn't have to worry about who might have been arrested. The team doesn't spend like crazy, but it does go after free agents and gives him some authority to choose his team. The Rockets should not give up on him. Things have not gone as they have hoped, but a few weeks ago, Alexander said he believed Van Gundy did "a great job." It would be worth seeing if he can do that with a better team. We probably never will. He had not decided what he would do on Sunday, and probably, neither has Alexander. But when coaches and owners are not sure if they will part, they almost always do.</i>
When watching how he treated Bonzi, nobody dare to say NO. However, if Yao were Shaq, and McGrady were Baron Davis, they would say No we don't believe him; No we don't want him.
Reverse psychology might be in the works here. Hell, JVG might announce at his Monday press conference that's he going to stay just spite Vecsey. Damn it Vecsey you suck
