<![CDATA[Golden State Warriors Head Coach Rumors: Stan Van Gundy Has A History Of Success (Photo: via SBNation.com)
With Steve Kerr likely leaning towards the New York Knicks and working for one of his basketball mentors, Phil Jackson, Stan Van Gundy has emerged as the front runner for the Golden State Warriors‘ head coaching vacancy.
Van Gundy has previously coached the Miami Heat from 2003 to halfway through 2005-06 season, as well as the Orlando Magic from 2007 through 2011.
At 579-371 (0.641), Van Gundy has never had a losing season. He took the 2008-90 Magic to the NBA Finals and has won over 50 games five times, three times winning 59 games.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported this morning:
Warriors haven’t had serious talks w/ Kerr in days, w/ owner Joe Lacob rapidly joining management in believing Stan Van Gundy’s best choice.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 12, 2014
…while Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported this:
Hearing Stan Van Gundy’s first formal Warriors interview is “imminent.” ESPN reported Saturday that SVG is “closest thing” to GSW top target
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) May 12, 2014
Van Gundy has coached 7 full seasons, 6 of which resulted in having both a top 10 offense and a top 10 defense. While he did coach a perennial all-star, Dwight Howard, he was frequently surrounded by good but not great players like Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, JJ Redick, Mikael Pietrus and so on.
Van Gundy is credited with developing Howard, who was not an all-star before him, and went on to become an all-star every season after Van Gundy was hired and a 3 time defensive player of the year who also finished 2nd in MVP voting in 2011. Howard has not gone on to win a Defensive Player of the Year award or finish in the Top 5 in MVP voting since he left Van Gundy.
Was salivating at the idea of SVG w/ GSW & dug up these two coaching stats: pic.twitter.com/jnGidjbvps
— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) May 12, 2014
To this day, Van Gundy still maintains a relationship with Howard, via text, exchanging idea’s on basketball.
In addition to Howard, Redick went from a fringe end of bench player to one of the better shooting guards in the league, Ryan Anderson turned into one of the leagues best stretch power forwards, and the list goes on.
Other players like like Nelson, Lewis and Turkoglu haven’t found a fraction of the success they did in Orlando. Van Gundy has a history of finding ways to maximize players on offense, while always maintaining a top caliber defense.
In an interview with ESPN.com writer Ethan Strauss last August, Van Gundy offered some insight into his strategy of developing a system:
So your Magic teams adopted a distinct, spread-floor strategy. How did you come by it?
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The plan — not just my plan but [GM] Otis Smith’s plan — was that, when you have Dwight Howard, he’s the centerpiece of your team. What you always want to do is take your best players and figure out how to complement them and the best way to help a big guy like that is to get him room on the floor. And you do that by putting as much shooting out there as possible.
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When we looked at guys — I mean they drafted [J.J.] Redick — shooting was always a priority. And then what happened in that first year the same summer that I came here. Then we got Rashard [Lewis] and [Hedo Turkoglu] who are both 3-men, but clearly among their top four players [at their position], along with Jameer [Nelson], so they obviously were going to have to play together.
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So one of them had to become a 4-man. Rashard was just a better fit at the 4. Look, if Tony Battie had not gotten hurt that year, there’s a good chance that we would have played big at least half the game and not been quite as much four-out. With the roster we had, it was just an absolute necessity that we played the way we did. And I thought the shooting around Dwight really helped. The thought was always trying to put guys around Dwight that complemented him.
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Is concocting NBA strategy actually fun? Coaches are so famously miserable.
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I really enjoyed that part of the job. Sitting around with your staff, and kicking around ideas and looking at different things and trying to find the best way to make it work for your team. I find that to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the job, to think about those things and really, really try to make it fit and make it all work.
Whether Van Gundy is able to motivate the Warrior players, the same way Mark Jackson did, is unknown. With Van Gundy, the Warriors would get a coach with a proven track record of developing players offensively and putting them in positions to succeed, while always maintaining a top caliber defense.
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