[Lefty Noob]

I have to admit that I was one of the guys who thought Riley taking over for Van Gundy was a bad move, but boy was I wrong. Look at what he's done with this team. They won their sixth straight game yesterday. Wade scored 32 and Shaq added 27 points and 11 rebounds. They lead the Atlantic Division by 6 1/2 games, and with their favorable schedule, they are in prime position to be the No. 2 seed coming out of the East. Riley deserves a lot of the credit for that, don't you think?

[EmpireWF]

I won't give him credit. The Heat are stacked and would be in the same position now if they still had Van Gundy. It's just that Shaq was moping b/c he wanted his best bud in Riley on the bench.

[brianp]

Don't blame it on Shaq! Everything gets blamed on why the Lakers weren't winning that was Kobe's fault! No one but his b/c he is selfish brat! Riley is a good coach and they will be better under him so get over it. Vangundy wanted to be with family so now he is. GO HEAT and SHAQ!

[ThePundit]

Welcome aboard Brian P. Nice to have you but I must respectfuly disagree with you. You don't really believe Van Gundy suddenly wanted to be with his family, do you?

I must admit, Reilly and Van Gundy could have won Academy Awards for that dog and pony show they called a press conference. Van Gundy was just being a good lieutenant, not trying to make his mentor look bad.

I agree with Empire. Riley is doing nothing special. I would have been more impressed with Riley had he done what Van Gundy did 2 years ago: Take a lousy team and turn them into something resepectable. But he bailed out then, because he thought he couldn't win.

Now with Shaq, he saw it has his last chance for that championship. So Van Gundy very conviently "resigned" which paved the way for Riley to return.

For Riley to get any credit at all, he MUST get past the Pistons and make into The Finals. Then and only then can one say his replacing Van Gundy made any difference.

[cjg11582]

Yeah, he gets credit for that. But its not exactly quantum physics coaching a winning team with Dwayne Wade and a healthy Shaq nowadays in the Eastern Conference. Most would suspect Ron Jeremy could have handled the workload. You are right Pundit, that press conference was a facade to end all facades. Here's Hoping Stan Van Gundy gets the opportunity to coach again. Maybe he will replace his Brother and The Rockets will produce a coherent offense.

[brianp]

They already beat the Pistons once that was a great comeback and game. They deserved that win!! so they could do it in the playoffs too!!!