Has Coach Stan Van Gundy Lived Up To His Hype?

How does Stan Van Gundy’s coaching rate during his tenure with the Detroit Pistons? Let’s explore.

When Tom Gores appointed Stan Van Gundy president of basketball operations in 2014, I think a lot of us breathed a little sigh of relief.   Especially because the heralded coach arrived with a proven record of winning. In my previous article I discussed his successes and failures in the executive role and I really think he has shown some success, along with his general manager Jeff Bower. But how does he rate as a coach so far? In his career, very well.

During three seasons in Miami for the Heat, he was 112-73 with a .605 win percentage. In five seasons in Orlando with the Magic, he was 259-135 with a .657 win percentage.

However, so far in three seasons as the Pistons’ head coach he has a record of 113-133 with a win percentage of only .459.

So what’s gone wrong for the successful head coach?

It hasn’t been a bed of roses for Van Gundy since he arrived to one of the most disfunctional rosters in the NBA in 2014. That list of players reads like who’s who of misplaced, cast off, underachievers… and Kentavious Caldwell Pope and Andre Drummond.

They finished 32-50 that year with the Detroit infamous “J Smoove”, Josh Smith as their secret weapon!! Well, until December 22 of that year when he was waived. After that they found some success with Brandon Jennings running the point. Only until he tore his Achilles’ tendon against the Milwaukee Bucks defending a pretty routine inbounds play. Enter Reggie Jackson and there was reason for hope entering the 2015 season.

In regard to 2014 I think Van Gundy gets a pass somewhat. The roster was horribly ill-fitting, and Jennings’ injury really hindered the only sustained success they achieved.

The 2015 season was a bit rocky, and just little bit kinder.

With the roster becoming more and more Van Gundy’s some success seemed destined, or so we hoped. It was still a long up and down NBA season and after a brilliant trade that brought Tobias Harris from the Magic for Ersan Ilyosova and a fresh off injury Brandon Jennings, they went on a nice run. They had a record of 44-38 and qualified for the playoffs for the fist time since 2008. The team offensive rating climbed from 105.3 to 106.1 and the defensive rating fell from 106.4 to 105.5 from the previous year. Those are small improvements, but still improvements none the less. They were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by the eventual champion Cleveland Cavaliers.

We definitely all had good reason to be excited for the 2016 season at that point.

Ok ok, what happened?!

Well Reggie Jackson’s knee tendinitis is the easiest and most direct answer. Without him, the offensive system was a very unselfish, ball movement type offense. Ish Smith either penetrating the lane, running the fast break or just dribbling around till someone got open seemed to be all there was to it. When Jackson returned he didn’t appear to be ready to play, healthy wise nor did he seem to be in game shape. He did however assume his “main hub” role in the offense and the team suffered. As a player I’m sure you really want and feel a need to get back to helping your team, but it’s obvious he wasn’t able to do that at the level he’s capable of. Stan Van Gundy however stuck by him for way too long before finally minimizing his minutes, then outright shutting him down late in the year.

Their record slipped to 37-45 and they failed to make the playoffs. Their offensive rating dropped slightly to 106.0 and their defensive rating shot up to 107.1. That was still good for eighth in the league though and the team is capable on defense as a whole. There are obvious liabilities though in that regard. Both Jackson and Drummond fail to defend well consistently.

Record wise, it’s a losing record but in context with injuries, roster upheaval and missing draft picks it’s not all that bad as a whole.

Side notes and unmentioned observations

There’s a couple of things I didn’t touch on when  providing a basic rundown of the past three seasons.

One main thought I have is the about coach Van Gundy neglecting to play the young players. These young fellas need to work hard to crack the lineup, and that is more than acceptable to me as a fan. But there are obvious times over the last few seasons that I think they’ve failed a bit to develop the youth. Mind you this is a Piston team trait as well and had gone on for years in the Motor City. It is however a case of cutting off their nose to spite thier face.  Struggling to make the playoffs and giving them their best chance to win games now is coming at the cost of truly developing this young core.

Another is the complete and obvious misuse of Andre Drummond and his abilities. I wrote a completely separate article on repurposing him to place him in the best possible position for success. If Van Gundy continues to go to him in the post multiple times a game instead of running him constant pick and rolls (even without Jackson) and having him crash the boards exclusively, they will find little success.

Rotation wise I question some things. Tobias Harris off the bench and Jon Leuer starting is one. Another is Stanley Johnson playing a majority of his minutes at shooting guard. These are a matter of opinion but I’m of the mind that Johnson should play exclusively at small forward to maximize his ability. Harris is likely a starter on most teams in the NBA.

Where does that leave our assessment?

I think Van Gundy hasn’t quite lived up to the billing he received. Gotta love his honestly and I love that he’s willing to take on some blame for their team failures. But to me he’s responsible for a good amount of those on court failures. I praised him as an executive. As a coach it’s more of a mixed bag. We aren’t in the locker room. We don’t have to balance the egos of 15 NBA players though. Not all while balancing minutes, putting a winning product on the floor and answering to the media. But even an armchair point guard can see that he has struggled with rotations. Lineups and balancing minutes as well. Never settling on a lineup at all last season.

He calls every play too. Very few NBA coaches do that. So when it looks stagnant and you think you’re seeing the same play run unsuccessfully three times in a row, that’s really what’s happening unfortunately. Same for when it’s successful. “SVG” as he’s known around the league might need to vary that playbook a bit. His highly praised one in- four out offense is common place in the NBA now. It also doesn’t find quite as much success if Drummond struggles with passing.

If we are giving a coaching grade I have a hard time going over a C. I’m feeling way more C-. He has made things work somewhat throughout player injuries. However on a whole I don’t think his player development, rotations, lineups or play designs have been as good as I thought they would. In his first three seasons I haven’t seen a very decisive team and coach very often. He still seems like he’s searching for that “magic touch” and thankfully this year he’s got a more well-rounded roster to wrap his mind around. Perhaps we are still about to see that “magic” Stan Van Gundy. No pun intended. Twice.