re: 2012 Orlando Magic and Rent-a-Dwight
Really? Get rid of Byron for Van Gundy? Puh-lease.
Let's be realistic, Stan hasn't achieved anything in this league that Byron hasn't also achieved himself. While everyone loves his personality, and while they remember that he coached circles around Mike Brown(Which wasn't hard considering MB's personnel choices to guard Dwight were an old Z, a one-legged Ben Wallace, and a leaner Varejao), they forget about his gimmicky three point barrage offense being completely exposed in the finals, and they forget about his full-strength Orlando team barely beating a KG-less Celtics squad that same year. Van Gundy is a good coach, I am not saying he is bad, but I think it's ridiculous to pencil him in as a "top 3 coach" and say the Cavs should replace Byron Scott with him if they have the chance. Do people not remember the Master of Panic? He got bounced early with rising star D-Wade and still-prime Shaq and then ran out of town by Shaq and Riley, who might be narcissistic jackasses but they know how to win rings, they have plenty of hardware to show for it.
On top of that, you'd want to immediately shatter what has already become a strong working relationship between Byron and our young superstar; the current and future face of our franchise? Nonsense. That's stuff that gets general managers fired. Byron is a great coach for developing a young team and he has more hardware than Van Gundy, partially because of the guy who thought Van Gundy wasn't good enough so he had to step in and do it himself.
In the end, I like Stan Van Gundy as a coach. He's good, he's smart, players generally play hard for him. I love him as a personality, he's honest, blunt, witty, humorous. It's a shame that things had to end for him the way they did, he did a lot for Dwight as a player. He'll find an opportunity elsehwere without too much trouble. (L.A., anybody? :chuckles: )
