Those Yao years were definite heartbreaks. Unlike this year's squad, it wasn't for the lack of trying.
For all you JVG haters, what other championship coach is out there available? Stop throwing that garbage out there to make your point. Plus, the referees screwed the Rockets in those playoffs you guys keep bringing up. Find a better reason.
When did jVg win a championship? His career playoff record is 44-44 0-3 as coach of the rockets Last series win: 2000
Anybody who doubts that JVG is not better than Silas, Griffin, or Dantoni is on crack cocaine. Les has now proven that self pride is more important than winning. Notice that JVG was willing to put past his differences with Les, because he cares about the city of Houston and winning. Go F yourself Les for being such a piece of greedy self centered piece of crap.
Refs fault the rockets blew a 8 point lead at home in 4th of game 3 and a 6 point lead with three minutes in game 4 against Dallas. The mavs were up by 3 when the Finley play happened. So you are 100% sure the rockets tie it on the other end? It's not like the rockets were shooting lights out and they defiantly would have tied it and won in overtime. So controversial play happens when LOSING at the time means the rockets definitely would have tied it and won it? You don't seem to understand that having two great players mean the rest of the team is not that good unless they take discounts. You think it's unfair that jVg didn't have a squad of 5 all stars? How many other teams at the time had 2 top 10 players at the time? Maybe the heat with shaq and Wade and Nash/amare? JVg liked all those dudes on the roster. Babe Ruth played in a time when they only played the World Series so the most games you could play was 7 so any analogy with him is useless. In the NBA you can play between 4-28 games in the playoffs. The Yao/tmac/jVg era tried three times but failed to win 4 out of 7 games hence they could not play anymore games because they were not good enough to play more games. You wanted 3 more seasons of first round exits to satisfy your needs? They didn't play more playoff games because they could not win enough to advance and play more games. That is hard to understand how? I repeat, to play more playoff games you need to WIN. Rick Adelman was able to win a series without tmac and without home court and then mostly without Yao able to push the eventual champs to 7 in the second round. I'm glad jVg is not coaching just for the fact that people here act like he's Popovich when he hasn't done anything in awhile. If you blame the roster back then, then guess what? The roster sucks now so then it must not be JBBs fault either right? Despite what you guys think, I like jVg. I just think his time has passed. Hasn't coached since 2007 so either no team thinks he's good enough to make a great offer to or if someone made a offer, he didn't want to coach. I'm still waiting for a jVg fan to tell me the greatest moment during that jVg rocket era. Everything has to do with conspiracies or the Marty Mcfly alternate universe of coulda, woulda, shoulda, if, buts, and if we only had, etc
If this was regular season games, then yes I agree it's too small. But in the playoffs you get at most 28 games in any year. There is a huge difference between 19 regular seasons games and 19 playoff game. 19 playoff games is plenty when at most you get 28 playoff games a year. Tim Duncan has 251 playoff games over 19 years. Roughly 13 playoff games a year. How much of a sample size is big enough for you in the playoffs when you can't make it past the first round?
Nothing is guaranteed, but when there is an obvious mistake in a one possession game where the Rockets have a chance to tie, then yes the refs impacted the series. There have been many teams with two or more great players that did not start a player the caliber of Ryan Bowen in three playoff games. From that years playoff teams alone you have Duncan/Ginobili, O'Neal/Wade, and Nash/Stoudamire. Having two great players, one of whom is on his rookie deal should not lead to starting Ryan Bowen in playoff games. The Rockets just had an incompetent front office that never recovered from Pippen. What you don't seem to understand is that it doesn't matter WHY the sample size is small, a small sample size makes the results less useful. It is why the players who put up great postseason numbers in a limited sample that are well above their prior regular season numbers don't go on to be that much better the next season, because you can be hot or cold in a 7 game stretch. Changing the label from regular season to post season does not magically transform 19 games from too small a sample to an adequate sample. Absent a very long career with many playoff appearance, one is unlikely to play or coach in enough playoff games to get a statistically relevant sample. The larger regular season sample size is a better indicator. That is why you very often see the best teams have the best record in the league, but upsets occur in the playoffs. 82 games is going to give you a better, more accurate view of what a team is like than 4-28. The roster now is significantly better than the roster JVG had to work with. It was good enough for the #2 seed and going to the WCF last season and there were no major subtractions over the summer. JBB had a 15 win downgrade with little roster turnover. First, I don't care if you like him or not. Second, clearly your arguments are based on his time then, not his abilities now, so whether or not you think his time has passed, your arguments do not support that assertion. During the Rockets/JVG marriage, he turned Yao Ming from a jump shooter into a consistent low post monster, and improved the defense every season that he had even a somewhat healthy roster. He engendered loyalty among the players, despite his hard nosed nature (or perhaps because of it). He squeezed the most he could from marginal players, most of whom would not go on to play for other teams. Coaching is not about individual moments, it is about a trend line, and JVGs trend lines were very good.
So what coaching success has jVg had since 2007 that leads you to think he will be good now? What are his abilities now? How come nobody wants to make him a offer he can't refuse since he is so Awesome? So tell me, why didn't jVg get to coach more than the 19 playoff games they had? How many more should he have coached with the rockets? With them losing in round 1 all the time it would have taken them like 10 years to get enough playoff games for you to be happy. Let's talk about the regular season. Last year of Rudy T they won 43 games with rookie Yao and Francis/mobley. JVg comes in with 2nd year Yao and Francis/mobley and they win 45 games. Not a huge improvement but whatever they played harder I guess. Defense got better. Francis got worse. Either that was on Francis or the new offense is debatable. They win 51 games with Yao/tmac but then the NBA wanted to screw the team with the large Chinese following and the very popular Tmac in favor of David sterns most fined and hated owner mark Cuban. It happens. Then the injury season. Can't knock him for that season. Injuries happen. Then the 52 win season. Go up 2-0. They get to game 7. Fall behind early. Then come back and take 5 point lead with the ball 6 minutes to go. Then the offense stops working. They lose game 7 at home. JVg out. Adelman in. They win 55 games and lose in the first round again with no Yao. They next year under Adelman again they win 53 and a playoff series. So jvg's 4 regular seasons were so overwhelming for you? So how many playoff series did the jVg/Yao/tmac era win again? Who cares how much his ex players love him. The purpose of sports is to win not be the most popular ex coach. Most players like and will defend their old coach. That's good he was able to squeeze everything out of players on their way out of the league. That's good he can motivate. That's good that ex players like him. But winning playoff series is what matters.
jvg is definitely better than all the candidates les has interviewed and had interest thus far. simple fact - since jvg, the only hc houston has had who'd been to the finals was adelman and he's now retired/unavailable.
Or C) coaches look at what they did to McHale, hear whispers about the team, franchise, and star that are alluded to in the media by people who are affiliated with the NBA, and don't want any part of this franchise... You think A) or B) explains why people like Thibs and Brooks (and to some extent Walton) didn't even consider this place?
He hasn't lost a single game in that time period. What coaching success did Steve Kerr have before taking the helm in Golden State? He has a sharp basketball mind, can motivate and inspire loyalty in players (important for buy-in) and consistently improves the defense of any team he is associated with. Know any teams that struggled on defense recently? There are only 30 jobs in the league, and only a few of them are available at any one time. Of those, JVG isn't leaving his cushy color job for teams that have no chance at contending, reducing the pool further. On top of that, everything I read said he didn't want to leave Houston, especially while his kids were in school. Sometimes it takes the right confluence of circumstances to make something happen. It looked like this team, this year was that magic moment, but it apparently was not. To get a statistically significant sample, you need a lot more than 19. 19 games is not enough to filter out the noise. So JVG improved on the Rudy teams (with the exception of the injury year), making the team better and better. Adelman (another championship caliber coach) comes in and leaves JVG's defense in place but adds some of his offensive magic to improve by a few games, then the defense fades every year thereafter without JVG there, and the team falls off a when Yao and TMac are lost for good. Nothing is overwhelming, I am watching other people play a game. IMHO, JVG is the best coach the Rockets have had while I have been watching (so I can't speak to pre-Rudy guys). You don't seem to understand that you cannot make an accurate assessment of something as complex as coaching prowess based on a sample size of 19. If your analysis goes no deeper than 0-3 in playoff series, there is no point in further discussion.
