It’s hard to imagine more negative energy than that generated during the almost daily phone conversations between first-year Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy and his brother Jeff, coach of the Houston Rockets.
“Generally, it’s one of us trying to convince the other that he’s not the lousy coach that he think he is,” said Stan, who at 43 is two years older despite Jeff’s longer tenure as an NBA coach. “The other guy tries to convince him of that. The next time, the other guy is trying to do the same thing. It’s really kind of sick, to be honest.”
These days no one should have any problem convincing Stan, an assistant in Miami for the previous eight seasons, that he can coach. After Pat Riley stepped down four days before the season began, Van Gundy helped the Heat navigate a potentially ruinous 0-7 start. He then orchestrated a 17-4 finish that helped the team to 17 more victories this season than the year before and its first playoff appearance since 2001.
But still Stan — like his brother, a disheveled mess during games — downplays the accomplishments that tied him for third in coach of the year balloting.
“I haven’t done anything that any other guy who had eight years to sit alongside Pat Riley and learn — as long as he just had a little bit of intelligence — couldn’t have gotten done,” Van Gundy said.
Not so, according to brother Jeff.
“I think it was the best coaching job in the NBA this year,” he said. “I think there are a lot of guys that did great jobs, but when you take into account coming in late, the size of their team, the inexperience, the start, the last two years. You take all those factors in, they were the best team in the league over the last 21 games. Over the last quarter of the year, they were 17-4, which is really remarkable.”
Early on, Miami didn’t look like a playoff team. After missing the playoffs two straight seasons, the Heat handed control of a 25-57 team to a coach with no track record.
Even though the Heat appeared to have struck gold in drafting first-team All-Rookie guard Dwyane Wade (16.2 points, 4.5 assists), there were other factors that indicated a disappointing season.
Last season’s rookie sensation, Caron Butler, needed most of the season to play himself back into shape after various injuries. Stan Van Gundy also had to find a way to utilize mercurial forward Lamar Odom, a free agent acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers. The consensus was that Van Gundy wasn’t working with much, except for holdovers Brian Grant and Eddie Jones.
“You could say that’s a fair assessment of where they were,” said an Eastern Conference general manager speaking on condition of anonymity. “Pat would have had a difficult enough time getting that team into the playoffs. Stan got a lot from that roster.”
Odom is a perfect example.
The Heat gambled $63million on Odom, an unquestioned talent selected by the Clippers with the fourth overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, despite his two suspensions for violating the league’s drug policy.
It worked. Van Gundy shifted him from small forward to power forward, and Odom responded by averaging 17.1 points and a career-best 9.7 rebounds.
“Everybody has their own style and Coach Van Gundy’s style is his style and this team is successful,” Odom said. “We’re ready to play every game. We’re prepared and that’s a tribute to him. He knows his stuff inside out.”
And it doesn’t end with Odom.
Van Gundy has gotten key minutes out of players like free agent reserve guard Rafer Alston, a Toronto Raptor before the Heat signed him and who had made his reputation on the And-1 Mix Tape Tour, and undrafted forward Udonis Haslem, who spent last season playing in France.
So here are the Miami Heat, a sure-fire lottery team in the eyes of most at the start of the season, now attempting to reach the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2000. It would appear that Miami has found the right guy to lead the way.
Just don’t ask him to agree with that.
“I think it’s just incredible the way it’s fallen in place,” Van Gundy said. “I’m drawing up the X’s and O’s — that’s it. It’s the group of guys I have. They’re doing all the work.”
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