It is interesting to hear the opinion of so many following the recent departure of Jeff Van Gundy. I was surprised to hear so much support when in reality, the Rockets season ended in failure.
There's no question Van Gundy did an excellent job directing the team to 52 regular season wins, however the harsh reaility is the team did not make it to the second round, and that's reason enough for the Rockets to look elsewhere.
As it turned out this post-season was a huge opportunity missed. With Utah fading in the stretch, the Rockets earned the home court advantage in the best of 7 series. It was two years ago, the Rockets lost in the opening round to the Mavericks because game 7 was played in Dallas. But even in a game 7 at home, one in which they took a fourth quarter lead, the Rockets didn't get the job done, period.
Couple the loss with the Mavericks flop in their series with the Golden State Warriors, The Rockets should have been sitting pretty, having another home court advantage with a team with a lesser record. Ouch.
We're hearing talk about how the players liked Jeff, and some have said the failure was their part and not Jeff's. That's all well in good except Van Gundy did nothing to cultivate the bench when he needed it most. In one playoff game only four players scored, something unimaginable in NBA play. Some observers may point to the fact that Bonzi Wells decision to quit on the team is partly to blame. The fact is the Wells and Van Gundy's feud never should have lasted the entire season. Bonzi was brought in for one thing, to be an offensive threat when Yao or McGrady were resting on the bench. The whole Wells episode was a disaster, and his absence was felt in the playoffs. Go and blame Bonzi, but there are at least two sides to every dispute.
The Rockets went to great lengths to pursuade Vassilis Spanoullis to leave Greece, yet he spent an entire year on the bench. What a waste of time and money. We have seen the past few years how well the rest of the world is playing basketball, yet Van Gundy made it clear the NBA is a "different thing." Maybe so, but lately our group of American NBA players has come up far short when they play the rest of the world. Maybe we should take lessons from Europe. Spanoullis at least deserved a chance to play, which he didn't get. Perhaps if he had some quality minutes during the season, he could have helped when there was a glaring need at point guard.
The NBA is all about winning, Jeff Van Gundy had his chance, but just making it to the playoffs with the likes of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady is expected, not a goal. To challenge for a championship is what this team had a chance to do, but fell short. It's time for a change, and if Rick Adelman is the choice, bring him on.

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.