Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Yeah, Stan's been fine.
Definitely quibbles, rotations have been questionable at times, minutes allocations have been off here and there, obviously everyone disagrees with the Bledsoe choices, etc.
But a lot of the stuff people are attributing to him are not his fault. People talking about how if we had a different coach we wouldn't lose all those close end game situations, for example, is basically nonsense. A better argument might be that with a different coach we may not be in those close end game situations as often, but once you're in them it's hardly the coach's fault if you brick a shot or if the refs call a nonsense foul or if you dribble it off the other guy's shoe. How is it Stan Van Gundy's fault when the refs refuse to call the foul on Jokic at the end of the game, for example? It isn't.
He's adjusted significantly throughout the season with his rotations and his defensive system and it's shown dividends. We've been a good defensive team by most metrics for a while now, a significant turnaround from being one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA for a long time. Part of that is just development of players and roster stuff: Naji is getting minutes, Jax has taken a step up, for example, but a lot of it is our defensive approach as well; that's at least partly Stan's choice.
Similarly, as others have mentioned, the development has gone really well for guys like Jax and NAW. Is SVG personally responsible for all of that? No, that's not really how coaching works, but it's clear that his team and his way of running things is allowing for that kind of growth.
He's not perfect and, as others have said, he probably won't be here in 5 years, but for now he's demonstrably fine and anyone calling for his job is, imo, just being kinda reactionary.