Van Gundy's first year coaching in Miami was Wade's rookie year. There was no Shaq. Wade missed 20 games and the highest PER on the team was Lamar Odom's 18.5. That team had three players with PER > 14.0 (Odom at 18.5, Wade at 17.6 and Eddie Jones at 16.7). They had no all stars, two below average starters and a very weak bench full of below average cast-offs and role players. Yet, SVG managed to get that squad to the second round.
Compare that to the first time Nate took the Blazers to the playoffs. Brandon Roy was in his third season, healthy and had a PER of 24.0 (7th in the league) was 6th in WS and WS/48 an all star, 2nd team All NBA and 9th in MVP voting. Nate had a roster full of above average players. He had SIX players with PER > 15.0 (Roy = 24.0, Aldridge = 19.1, Oden = 18.1, Rudy = 15.5, Joel = 15.4, Outlaw = 15.1). That team was stacked from top to bottom, inside and out - and all players were healthy going into that series. Yet, Nate McMillan couldn't even get them past the first round. In fact, in spite of home court advantage, he couldn't even get to a 7th game in the first round. Given the talent McMillan had, that series against Houston was a total failure on his part.
Wow, are you really this clueless, or is it all part of your act? That season, Shaq played the first two games and then missed the next 19 games due to injury (sprained ankle). It was no coincidence that Pat Riley took over as head coach the exact same day Shaq came back from his injury. Riley was just waiting for his opportunity to swoop in and "lead" the Heat to a title. A healthy Shaq made that possible.
And for the record, Van Gundy wasn't shit canned, he resigned. At least that was the official word. It was obvious at the time he was forced out, and it was even accurately predicted, in advance by several sports writers, including Adrian Wojnarowski, who wrote in July (Van Gundy resigned in mid-December):
"Pat Riley needs to stop framing this as some noble return to his passion, and tell the truth. His ego could never stay in the background and let Stan Van Gundy get the shot at bringing that championship parade to the shores of Biscayne Bay.
Suddenly, coaching the Heat is a glamour job again, and Riley's ego would never let him sit that out. If Riley will want to insist this was a hard choice based purely on the best chance for a championship, or finding the best coach for the job, ancient NBA history backs him. It's just that modern history doesn't. Across the past two seasons, almost no one in the league has coached better than Van Gundy."
And BTW, the season before he was "shit canned", Van Gundy led the Heat to a game seven in the Eastern Conference Finals against the defending champion Pistons - and the Heat might have won that series in six games had Dwyane Wade not been injured and missed game six (the Heat were up 3 games to 2 at that point).
Stan Van Gundy may, or may not be the right guy for the job, but he's infinitely better, and has a far superior track record, especially in the post season than the guy we just fired - your man crush Nate McMillan. It's laughable to even compare the two. Van Gundy's teams almost always make it past the first round (one exception), McMillian's teams almost never do (again one exception).
BNM
