i just want to know what the real problem is because i see so many different complaints. i cant believe that any coach could make it to this level and have so many coaching problems. i dont particularly care for jeff van gundy, but i hate to see misplaced blame. 1. is it his attitude?? i dont like his attitude either, but that would be more of a personal preference than whether he can coach a basketball team. 2. is it the win loss record?? a coach could be partially responsible for that, but ultimately the players determine the outcome of a game. if you dont have the right players, you cant win games. in 4 years, byron scott went from the nba finals twice, to losing his job, to coaching the worst team in the nba. how can i blame him?? 3. is it his system?? against the suns and lakers, i saw teams that made their open shots, and we missed ours. what coach knows how to coach a team to win that cant hit their open shots?? or doesnt defend well. maybe some of your problems with jvg is because he hasnt come up with some brilliant scheme that gets us layups because we cant do a basic fundimental of basketball. jeff van gundy has been to the nba finals, but only yao and padgett have winning records. that would logically suggest to me that maybe the players havent been doing something right and dont know how. 4. is it player production?? when have these guys ever produced success in their careers?? 5. is it how he utilizes yao?? yao has never shown anyone that in a different system he could be more productive. i seem to think that what holds him back is his wanting to dominate the game. do you know what most experts and fans say about yao ming?? they say "i dont know if yao will ever possess the mentality to dominate the game". look at what they are saying. they arent saying "yao cant dominate because he isnt as good as everyone hoped", they are basically saying "he could dominate the game if he wanted to, but we dont know if he will ever want to". did you notice that they arent using the word "superstar", but the word "DOMINATE"?? do you realize who the players are that have dominated the game?? do you know how dissappointing it is for fans to know that the difference between solid and DOMINANT is between your ears?? i think it is yao who doesnt utilize himself properly. 6. is it his lack of creativity with yao?? yao has to learn to develop a repertoire in the post, but he will never be a face the basket player. there is a big difference between what you see with guys like tim duncan, amare stoudamire and yao. the difference is the fact that they both have the ball handling ability to make a move off the dribble, and they are both quick enough to get by a defender while facing him. what does that have to do with yao shooting 17 foot jumpers?? because if there is the threat of being able to get by your defender, then there is going to be spacing between you and him. and spacing is what makes it possible to shoot over athletic defenders and jumpers. yao doesnt have the ability to handle the ball and make moves to the basket. his best bet in creating his own shot is to make a move in the post and limit the distance he has to move to get that shot. and the way to create shots for others is by causing a double team. the ability to pass a defender is the same principle as posting and threatening to score. it draws defenders to you and creates open shots for teammates. 7. is it not willing to accept placing blame in the right direction, so you blame someone else?? that is called scapegoating. 8. is it his defense?? like offense, you can coach it, but if your players arent good defenders, it doesnt matter. a coach can coordinate a good defense, but he cant make the plays. he cant turn players into something they are not. 9. is it that you think he is turning yao into something he is not?? id say 19 ppg suggests yao is a post player. but yao is never going to be a face the basket player in this league. he has the size and skill to be a great post player and creates way more problems in the post than he does at the perimeter, but he doesnt have the mentality to dominate or take over a game. that isnt going to change just because he is facing the basket. 10. is it the way he lets tmac play?? tmac isnt having a great efficient year at shooting, but he is still being double teamed every time and that is why he wanted out of orlando. he wanted the defense to focus less on him and free him up. but he only needs to be told once that we want him to take over the game, and he has no problem with shouldering the load. problem is that he is the only one that wants to on most nights.
for me, at this point, it's simply how ugly a system it is. the rockets are just rarely fun to watch. i actually find myself missing the mediocre days of a steve francis led/rudy coached rockets because atleast they were more fun to watch. if his system was producing results i'd be quick to stfu, but it's not AND i'm bored out of my mind when i watch the rockets.
i agreed with that earlier this year, but now we are averaging nearly 100ppg over the last couple of weeks, and i find it funner to watch. what would make it even more fun is for us to win, and to watch yao dominate, but i cant blame jvg for not winning when players miss open shots, or for yao when he doesnt try to dominate. i definately agree about rudy t. he was may favorite coach of all time. i would have never let him go. i would have hired a 1 year replacement just to get him back the next year. i am a big francis fan, but i think tmac is capable of so much more.
IMO the people on this board and maybe Rox fans in general just don't like him, his methods, or his lack of personality. If he gets crosswise with Yao as posters lately have alluded to, then he is gone anyway. Yao is much more valuable than his paltry salary is.
Im starting to question whether the players are giving him their all. We have players that have shown to be better than their play lately(Tmac, Yao, Howard, Mo and Wesley)...is this basic inability to put the rock in the hole a fluke? or is it because their coach isnt inspiring them to give it their all on the court? I would like to think that our players would be professional enough to try their hardest regardless of who is at the hellm.....but it just doesnt look that way anymore(at least to me it doesnt). Deke is the only one that plays with intensity no matter when or how much he plays...but that doesnt surprise me...Deke has always shown himself to be a professional..... Im frankly flabbergasted at the shooting lately..our guys can shoot better than what they are doing now....why cant they show it? is it the coach? I dont know the answer to that question...and neither do any of the others who will respond to this question with their normal " Fire Van [insert random insult here] " rants...
the sarcasm was not needed...my point being that if someone can come up with 10 good points to question van gundy on, then it's pretty obvious why people around here have a problem with him. we all have questions and concerns. how many questions do you have for phil jackson or jerry sloan about thier system or how they use the guys they coach? untill jeff can prove himself on all of your points then people will complain. that IMO is why the board flames him so much. because there is a lot to question.
thats why are coaches there! JVG and his assistants have to handle it. why doesnt yao try to dominate,how to motivate players and how to utilize players effectively! if players cant shoot open shots,lets them attack the board. i mean if our players can hit open shots consistently and Yao can dominate consistently,i would be the coach either!
All of your 10 questions are legit. I don't like the guy because I think he is a worse coach than he has been hypered to be. This is not just some speculation, I was a long time Bulls fan, watched us kicked his Knicks for many years, and I know what kind of a coach he was. Why I don't like him besides the 10 things you listed? 11. He made an arrogant/cocky guy like Francise to second guess himself whether he could even play in the NBA. Heck, even TMac & Yao started having doubts in their mind now. 12. We became the oldest team from one of the youngest within 1 1/3 season since he took over, and the team hasn't doing any better than before. Basically, our hope is NOW, we don't have a future. 13. He has terrible people skill, which is the most important quality for a head coach in today's NBA. The guy has never be able to say anything position without adding his f** negative tone. I'm really tired of that crap. With all that be said, I still want this guy to succed here because he is coaching the Rockets, and I'm a Rockets fan.
I have always agreed with this, but what if you have an over-coacher? If a coach is over-coaching to the point where his team always takes on more of his identity than that of the players, no matter what players come and go, should the coach not take more blame when the team underachieves? Is the recent offensive upswing, uncharacteristic of any JVG team, ever, a product of a change in coaching philosophy (keep in mind JVG said publically that he would NEVER change his philosophy), or the players just ignoring the coach and doing their own thing (this is basically what TMac has said in public)? Bottom line is you have a team that was expected to challenge for home court advantage in the playoffs that is under .500 30-plus games into the season. You have an entire roster turned over in a short period of time to adjust to a coach. Almost every player that was deemed to be holding this team back has been shipped out. You have a team right now that is underachieving by a much greater margin than the one that got the previous coach, an icon to the city, fired. You also have a coach that is a jerk. Underachieving team + jerk of a coach = coach gets criticized. Coaches have been fired for far less than this.
i would say that in a league who's rules have changed to favor young run and gun teams, this person has continued to trade away youth and athleticism for old slow plodding players. use 1995 for example, when we struggled because of the rule changes to prevent a repeat of the knicks/rockets scarily similar to Van Gundy ball finals, we made a trade to be able to run and be athletic and eventually ran our way to another title. trading away everyone under the age of 28 is not the answer. While i like Howard, trading MoT for older players isn't the answer, trading the 32 year old Howard while he still has value will serve the rockets better in the future. Mo is athletic and he did well in the Phoenix game because it was his type of game. Van Gundy continues to slow things down with howard, while running more recently, he needs to get the young legs of MoT in the game and really let us run and try to trade Howard for a shooter for when we get bogged down in Half court which seems like most of the time. A Wally Z type from Minn. would be the type we need.
Daddy In your first post you stated: i dont particularly care for jeff van gundy OK so you have done a Francis and dribbled all around the subject and worked the shot clock down to almost nothing, and you've reviewed most of the roster strength & weaknesses. BUT what is it you really want to say about not caring for JVG? What is it about him that you do not like? Either long-term entire career or right now what he is doing with this team?
good question. what does daddy not like about jvg.... well, when this season started, long before the league started talking about it, i was making posts that i hated jeff van gundy for turning steve francis and tracy mcgrady into a half court jump shooters who walk the ball up the court and score a whopping 86 ppg. my biggest problem with van gundy was his inability to feature a fast break on this team and get the guards in the open court where greats like tmac thrive. i didnt want to change the half court offense that is built around yao, i just wanted to see us look to fast break when we can, to get easy transition points, and if nothing was there, run our usual offense. i also hated walking the ball up the court for 1.2 years. i thought we were hurting ourselves by limiting the amout of times tmac or yao touched the ball by making it a possession game. since then, we are looking to fast break, we are giving tmac freedom, yao is still being played the right way, our tempo is up, and we are scoring almost 100 points per game. now i put it on the players to execute. other than that, my problems with him are more personal, and CAN, but dont necessarily reflect those of the players. i also am only commenting on the 48 minutes per game that i actually see him. i dont know him for the other 47 hours between games. things like: i hate that he is so down. he looks so gloomy and im sure has a negative energy. i hate that he is a short bald little man who has never played pro ball, and doesnt look like he should be barking commands to guys 3 feet and 100lbs bigger. but his career accomplishments speak for themselves. i hate that he is stubborn and isnt a joy to play for. rudy was my favorite coach and jeff is the opposite of rudy. but obviously coaches like that are good coaches too. im scared of his eye for talent. i have never seen him or his coaches draft a player, so i dont know what kind of eye he has. i hate the non family atmosphere. i think teams that come together as a family increase their chances of winning. these are all just my personal preference, and may not mean anything to the players. but a big reason i dont care for van gundy is because i will be a rudy loyalist for the rest of my life. the man who brought this city the greatest excitement i have ever seen. an icon who is still revered by former players of that team. anyone else is just chopped liver.
How exactly is this thread any different from this one? http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?threadid=89405
