God do I miss Stan Van Gundy

[iTs JusT zo]

The only coach we had that had our players ready to play and give effort EVERY NIGHT. Yes, Vogel is new but this is not about Xs and Os, it's about motivating your players to atleast give EFFORT... Regardless of the outcome. After 8 games what is clear to me is that Frank Vogel simply cannot get this team mentally prepared to try hard from the beginning of the game. It is becoming a really bad trend.

This is not doom and gloom, but the lack of effort... Not cohesiveness or team play... But simple effort is something our players simply don't do for Frank. The only time we "look" like we are giving effort is when we are down 20-30 and the other team literally stops trying.

Yes yes yes... Give this team some time to gel, new coaching staff.. New players blah blah blah... Lack of effort is something that is never ever acceptable.

I miss Stan..

[Statlanta]

You can miss him but again it's only been 8 games...

Also as recently as a week ago
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1488384

[shadrock]

I remember SVG often getting on our guys for lack of effort. Effort should be a given in the NBA. If you have to coach desire then you have the wrong players on the team. While we have been playing soft rubbish lately, its more a symptom of us not having the required talent or understanding of our systems.

[iTs JusT zo]

You can miss him but again it's only been 8 games...

Also as recently as a week ago
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1488384

I know it's only been 8 games but this is not a gelling issue or an Xs and Os type thing. We literally give 0 effort in the first quarter. I don't care if we lose every single game but Jesus Christ can you atleast try?? That's I ask... Try. 1st quarters this season have been absolutely pathetic. We just come out flat and pathetic every single game. I just don't get it.

Losing is frustrating but losing because you get down by 20 every single game because you give 0 effort is infuriating to say the least. It's literally like they are making money regardless and just refuse to try. It's really making me sick to my stomach watching them crawl around like a bunch of old men. 3 miles an hour. Giving up offensive rebounds. Wide open 3s. BECAUSE OF EFFORT!! NOT ACCEPTABLE.

[npiper17]

Yeah as much as I loved Stan you could give this team to Red Auerbach with a staff of Jackson, Popovich and the Van Gundys and it still wouldn't make a difference.

[iTs JusT zo]

Why can't I sit around and give no effort at my job and still get paid? Am I missing something here?

[shadrock]

If only you guys had the same amount of respect for your own country as you do for SVG's coaching...




Stan Van Gundy speaks out against 'brazenly racist' Donald Trump
By: Andrew Joseph | November 9, 2016 3:42 pm


Much of the sports world has been trying to wrap its head around the fact that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. Some were happy while others were more than disappointed.

Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy was the latter.

Speaking extensively to the media Wednesday in Phoenix, Van Gundy ripped Trump.

He said via The Detroit Free Press:

“I didn’t vote for (George W.) Bush, but he was a good, honorable man with whom I had political differences, so I didn’t vote for him. But for our country to be where we are now, who took a guy who — I don’t care what anyone says, I’m sure they have other reasons and maybe good reasons for voting for Donald Trump — but I don’t think anybody can deny this guy is openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic and ethnic-centric, and say, ‘That’s OK with us, we’re going to vote for him anyway.’

“We have just thrown a good part of our population under the bus, and I have problems with thinking that this is where we are as a country. It’s tough on (the team), we noticed it coming in. Everybody was a little quiet, and I thought, ‘Well, maybe the game the other night.’ And so we talked about that, but then Aron Baynes said, ‘I don’t think that’s why everybody’s quiet. It’s last night.’

“It’s just, we have said — and my daughters, the three of them — our society has said, ‘No, we think you should be second-class citizens. We want you to be second-class citizens. And we embrace a guy who is openly misogynistic as our leader.’ I don’t know how we get past that.

“Martin Luther King said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but bends toward justice.’ I would have believed in that for a long time, but not today. … What we have done to minorities … in this election is despicable. I’m having a hard time dealing with it. This isn’t your normal candidate. I don’t know even know if I have political differences with him. I don’t even know what are his politics. I don’t know, other than to build a wall and ‘I hate people of color, and women are to be treated as sex objects and as servants to men.’ I don’t know how you get past that. I don’t know how you walk into the booth and vote for that.

“I understand problems with the economy. I understand all the problems with Hillary Clinton, I do. But certain things in our country should disqualify you. And the fact that millions and millions of Americans don’t think that racism and sexism disqualifies you to be our leader, in our country … . We presume to tell other countries about human-rights abuses and everything else. We better never do that again, when our leaders talk to China or anybody else about human-rights abuses.

“We just elected an openly, brazen misogynist leader and we should keep our mouths shut and realize that we need to be learning maybe from the rest of the world, because we don’t got anything to teach anybody.

“It’s embarrassing. I have been ashamed of a lot of things that have happened in this country, but I can’t say I’ve ever been ashamed of our country until today. Until today. We all have to find our way to move forward, but that was — and I’m not even trying to make a political statement. To me, that’s beyond politics.

“You don’t get to come out and talk about people like that, and then lead our country and have millions of Americans embrace you. I’m having a hard time being with people. I’m going to walk into this arena tonight and realize that — especially in this state — most of these people voted for the guy. Like, (expletive), I don’t have any respect for that. I don’t.

“And then you read how he was embraced by conservative Christians. Evangelical Christians. I’m not a religious guy, but what the hell Bible are they reading? I’m dead serious. What Bible are you reading? And you’re supposed to be — it’s different. There are a lot of different groups we can be upset at. But you’re Christians. You’re supposed to be — at least you pride yourself on being the moral compass of our society. And you said, ‘Yeah, the guy can talk about women like that. I’m fine with that.’ He can disparage every ethnic group, and I’m fine with that.

“Look, I don’t get it. And I’m having a hard time taking it. I’m just glad that the people I’m with here — and I’ll include you guys, too — that I like. Because I’m going to have a hard time. I will say, one point of pride, I live in Oakland County, Michigan, and I was surprised, but Oakland County voted for Clinton. At least I can look around say, ‘We weren’t the ones putting that guy in office.’

“It’s incredible. I don’t know how you go about it, if you’re a person of color today or a Latino. Because white society just said to you, again — not like we haven’t forever — but again, and emphatically, that I don’t think you deserve equality. We don’t think you deserve respect. And the same with women. That’s what we say today, as a country. We should be ashamed for what we stand for as the United States today.

“That’s it for me. I don’t have anything to say about the game tonight.”