2011-12 NBA Season

[Rockstar Matt]

Griffin was in mid air and an out of position Pau Gasol tried in vain to make a late play. The only reason Pau got clocked in the head was because he got in the way after Griffin left the ground. It's more Pau's fault IMO.

Will this surprise you? I agree lol. But, since Griffin led with his left arm and cleared out Gasol by hitting him in the head, you gotta call that a foul. And you have to call a taunting on him for standing over Gasol. Very immature and unprofessional.

[Lights Out]

Terrible coaching from Vinny (what a surprise). Anyone who has ever watched a basketball game would have been double-teaming Bynum all game. Furthermore, VDN has apparently never heard of riding the hot hand. There was absolutely no reason to take out Nick Young in order to sub in a cold Randy Foye at the end of the game when they badly needed offense. This was a winnable game, ruined by the worst coaching job I've seen all year.

[The_Admiral]

Furthermore, VDN has apparently never heard of riding the hot hand. There was absolutely no reason to take out Nick Young in order to sub in a cold Randy Foye at the end of the game when they badly needed offense.

Vinny used to sit Derrick Rose at the ends of games in his rookie year because he wanted experienced guys on the court, so we had to look to Brad Miller or John Salmons for game-winning shots. Now did you want the membership card or the membership patch?

[rams80]

Griffin was in mid air and an out of position Pau Gasol tried in vain to make a late play. The only reason Pau got clocked in the head was because he got in the way after Griffin left the ground. It's more Pau's fault IMO.

Will this surprise you? I agree lol. But, since Griffin led with his left arm and cleared out Gasol by hitting him in the head, you gotta call that a foul. And you have to call a taunting on him for standing over Gasol. Very immature and unprofessional.

With Gasol you can never be sure if he's faking or not. Griffin just chose to err on the side that he was.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I watched the game last night. Bynum is good but plays like an .

Neither the Clippers nor Lakers seem especially well managed.

[dfwabel]

This was a winnable game, ruined by the worst coaching job I've seen all year.

Said for the 22nd time this season.

[HolyStroke]

Really Matt? You think the put back dunk for LAC's first points was a foul? The second dunk could have been called a foul for the off arm, but there's no way the first one was a foul

[Rockstar Matt]

Griffin was in mid air and an out of position Pau Gasol tried in vain to make a late play. The only reason Pau got clocked in the head was because he got in the way after Griffin left the ground. It's more Pau's fault IMO.

Will this surprise you? I agree lol. But, since Griffin led with his left arm and cleared out Gasol by hitting him in the head, you gotta call that a foul. And you have to call a taunting on him for standing over Gasol. Very immature and unprofessional.

With Gasol you can never be sure if he's faking or not. Griffin just chose to err on the side that he was.

And that's literally the only thing I don't like about Gasol. Look at a guy like Bynum, he never flops, but, Gasol does flop. I don't think he can help it. He's a European basketball player.

Really Matt? You think the put back dunk for LAC's first points was a foul? The second dunk could have been called a foul for the off arm, but there's no way the first one was a foul

Yeah, I thought it was. But, I'm fine with the referees call. It was a close call that could have been a foul or a no-call. Either one was acceptable.

[rams80]

Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard are the best of pals.

[pmoehrin]

Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard are the best of pals.

Van Gundy was a lame duck coach the second they resigned Howard and I'm not even sure why the Magic bothered to keep him past the deal announcement.

The Magic could win the NBA title and I would still say there is a 50/50 chance Van Gundy is gone at the end of the year.

I don't think what Van Gundy did by going with the media with that was right but I could understand at the same time. Howard has been trying to play it both ways all year with whether or not he wants to leave. I could only imagine what it would be like dealing with that on a day to day basis and Van Gundy has always been a guy to speak his mind and he's probably thinking look if I'm going to be fired, I'm going to do everything I can to make it known that as talented of a player Dwight Howard is behind the scenes he is an enormous pain in the ass and whoever happens to coach him buyer beware.

[Lights Out]

This was a winnable game, ruined by the worst coaching job I've seen all year.

Said for the 22nd time this season.

What can I say? Every time I think VDN's reached his nadir of coaching, he finds a way to top himself.

[ninersdd]

Well the Magic are getting pounded by the Knicks without Amare and Lin in the midst of the Dwight and Van Gundy saga.

[TFoA]

You really have to be some type of circus when the Knicks come to town and THEY look like the more stable club.

[pmoehrin]

Well the Magic are getting pounded by the Knicks without Amare and Lin in the midst of the Dwight and Van Gundy saga.

The second Van Gundy made those comments the situation in Orlando became nuclear.

No idea how you can let him coach the team from here on out. I don't care who they bring in. Literally just about anyone would be an upgrade over him at this point.

And I like Stan Van Gundy as a coach. But you just can't have a situation like this heading into the playoffs and expect to get out of the first round. And if you bring Van Guny back next year you risk having the guy you bent over backwards for in order to resign him pouting all year long and drumming up all the BS that you've been dealing with all year long again.

[rams80]

On the flip side, you could be another Utah and end up losing the coach and the player you were accommodating anyway. Besides what was Van Gundy supposed to do? Lie?

[pmoehrin]

On the flip side, you could be another Utah and end up losing the coach and the player you were accommodating anyway. Besides what was Van Gundy supposed to do? Lie?

That's why you don't bend over backwards for players and these are the types of problems you can run into when you do that. I'm sure Dwight Howard would like to stay in Orlando but push comes to shove he rather make more money in a bigger market. So if he is going to come back to Orlando its going to be entirely on his terms, which means you might as well just demote Otis Smith and Stan Van Gundy to assistant GM and coach respectively because end of the day its Howard making all of those calls.

And I'm pretty sure if left up to Otis Smith Howard would have either been traded before the deadline or not resigned and if they did resign him it would be for alot longer then one year. I don't think any GM would ever give any player the type of power Dwight Howard seems to have been given in Orlando. I will bet anything this decision was made by ownership.

As far as Van Gundy goes, I would say anything short of what he said would have been better and if he has to lie to do it so be it. But at the same time like I said earlier I can completely understand where he is coming from and if I were in his shoes I might have done the same thing. There have been numerous times when Van Gundy has gone to bat for Dwight Howard. If what Howard did was true and I'm almost certain it was I don't see how Van Gundy or anyone wouldn't take that very personally. Dwight Howard is no danger of being unemployed next year if he's not a member of the Orlando Magic. Stan Van Gundy is. If your looking at it from Van Gundy's perspective you have to say, if its that bad here in Orlando, then just leave. I've done nothing but defend you and help your career and for that I get thrown under the bus. I don't think Van Gundy would be asking for alot if he told Dwight whatever you do don't turn the situation in Orlando to into one of those its either me or him type of things. Either stay and defend me as a coach which I've done numerous times for you, or just leave.

I'm not going to say that Howard is necessarily wrong for doing this because the way the NBA is set up he's allowed to do this. It just comes as being very classless. If he had resigned for 3+ years you could pass it off as okay he wants Van Gundy gone, but at least he is also making a commitment to the organization. That would at least give you something to defend Howard with. But he's not even doing that. There's nothing stopping him from costing Van Gundy his job and then ditching the Magic at the end of next year anyway

[WSU151]

Van Gundy is one of the most honest coaches in the NBA. He just tells it like it is and doesn't really care. I'm sure he won't be coaching Orlando next year...but he needs to get out of there anyway. That team is a wreck.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

And Dwight Howard seemed so nice as a rookie!

[pmoehrin]

And Dwight Howard seemed so nice as a rookie!

I liked the guy alot coming into this year but I've lost a ton of respect for him the way he's handled this situation. If he just came out and said Orlando is too small for me and I want to go other places, I would have more respect for him. But he won't say that because above all else his goal is to not offend anyone. But at the same time he's been very passive aggressive in getting what he wants. So he's definitely not somebody that is just going out playing ball and letting the chips fall where they may even though that's exactly how he wants to be seen.

At the same time though the Magic have nobody to blame but themselves because they created this problem as much as anybody. If they get burned by this its their own fault, because they were given plenty of outs to work with.

[infrared41]

This was a winnable game, ruined by the worst coaching job I've seen all year.

Said for the 22nd time this season.

What can I say? Every time I think VDN's reached his nadir of coaching, he finds a way to top himself.

Yes dfwabel, LO does more than his fair share of VDN bashing but I gotta agree with him. I've watched more than a few Clippers games this season and I've seen them lose games that I thought they should have won. I'm basically a "casual" NBA fan so it's entirely possible that I'm missing something, but it sure seems to me that VDN is a pretty lousy basketball coach.