What exactly are JVG's problem? One at a time.... 1, Motivation. How often did you see a coach openly criticize his team? I consider when players are not playing hard, or with heart, its the coach's fault. Besides the game, the coach is supposed to be the mentor,helping a group of young players with his experiences in life.
2. Lack of flexibility. He wants everyone to adhere to his system, although there's never been any evidence that his system works -- especially well enough to win championships. Yeah, I know, Knicks blah blah. Hey, *I* could take over a Pat Riley team and manage to keep it going at the same level for a couple of years. JVG never improved those teams. In fact, they steadily became worse while playing in his system, until the players lost faith in the system and JVG bailed out when they stopped listening to him. Here's a quote from today's LA Times regarding last night's Rox/Lakers game: JVG's diner isn't going to stay in business long unless he opens up his menu a bit, too.
1. Big, dark circles under his eyes. 2. Lack of hair. 3. Buys off the rack. What do you want us to say? How about: Authoritarian. Humorless. (These last two faults contribute to a team constantly looking over its shoulder to see if Daddy's gonna scream at you; see also Yao, Ming, or Ming, Yao, I get it mixed up.) Can't coach offense. Can't improvise on the fly (see also, Suns kicking ass from 3-point line, The). Ossified. He inherited a bruising Knicks team with good shooting guards, rode them to a miracle Finals appearance, and somehow thinks he can repeat that in Houston.
JVG's biggest problem is forcing Yao to become someone he isn't... look how aggressive Yao was in the Olympics... we all that he has the potential... and all JVG does is yell at Yao and breaks him down mentally... JVG IMHO is a r****ded coach and needs to be FIRED because both his offenisve and defensive schemes suck..
Job insecurity. Maybe that contributes to the loss of sleep. Remember what Les said: "When I hired Jeff Van Gundy, I thought he was a good coach".
Just the fact that he tried to keep his job by scraping into the playoffs with a Frankenstien team that he assembles only to bow out and just start off with a whole new team the next year. No developing ability for young players and definently doesn't know how to interact with players and bring their best out.
well, i can tell you that phil jackson did last year, and larry brown and greg popovich are known to openly criticize their teams when they arent playing well. the difference is that their teams usually are playing well, and larry brown won a championship last year which gives him a great deal of credit when criticizing his teams slow start. i consider when players dont play motivated, its because they dont possess what it takes to win. i think a coaches motivation is important too, but if a team isnt playing hard, then im not going to pawn that off on the coach. my parents never blamed the teachers for not motivating me when i didnt get good grades in school. they blamed me for not trying hard enough. i would be doing myself a great disservice if i blamed everyone else for my lack of motivation, or blamed my parents for wrong doings because they did not mentor me in expiriences in life. ultimately, what i do is up to me.
what evidence is there that our players would play better with more flexability?? it is obvious when a scoring champ averages under 20 ppg in the first month that there is evidence that something isnt right, but what has yao shown us to suggest that he would be better doing something different?? i can tell you that scott padgett and yao ming are the only 2 players on the rockets who have winning records in the nba, so maybe its not the coach that should be doing something different, but maybe the players havent been doing something right. too many players on a team that dont know how to do the right things and play the right way. do you really consider a 99 finals appearance "no evidence" that his system works??
maybe because a coach does much more than just motivate. we could pay tony robbins to coach if all we want is a motivator. a coach is only as good as his players. if this werent the case, then why did we criticise rudy tomjanovich?? we had proof that he knew what he was doing, yet the fire rudy threads were just as abundant as the fire jvg threads. why does byron scott go to the finals in back to back years, yet loses his job the next year and goes on to coach the worst team in basketball the year after that?? i think you all are blaming too much on a coach.
See, you try to spin around the thing here again. First you said it's all up to the player, then you talked about how important the coach is. Just pick one side, you cannot have it both ways. If a coach can only be as good as his players, then let's just get someone off the street, paying him/her $6/hr to coach. If the coach is so important, then don't focus your blame on the player only.
