Van Gundy's future, J. O'Neal trade prospects & more

	Jeff Van Gundy says he needs more time to decide if he'll return as Rockets coach for a fifth season. AP
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There's no point in trying to get inside Jeff Van Gundy's head, trying to anticipate his next move or moving into guesswork territory with the Houston Rockets' front office. If either side had made a decision regarding Van Gundy's future with the Rockets, the press release would have already been issued.

Though we usually assume a coach or player will shun retirement if the decision doesn't come immediately (usually these pronouncements, eventually regretted, come directly after the conclusion of a grueling pro season), that doesn't mean we'd be surprised if Van Gundy called it quits tomorrow, or signs on the dotted line for four more years.

But doesn't it seem like the best time to have a parting of the ways? Van Gundy is a polarizing coach to the fans of the teams he captains, and even this objective observer has flip-flopped feelings (on a monthly basis) about Van Gundy's coaching abilities ever since he took over the New York Knicks in March 1996. He seems intractable, a step behind, dismissive, intuitive, ambitious and borderline brilliant all at once. He somehow led a Rockets team, playing in the West and missing Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming for a combined 45 games, to a 52-win season. Even throwing out the Yao/McGrady absences, look at this roster. Play these All-Stars for 80 games at 40 minutes per and 52 wins seems like the best you could hope for.

And yet, despite it all, Van Gundy made it work this season. He eschewed his propensity for using pet pluggers (i.e. Ryan Bowen) and played productive per-minute players like Chuck Hayes and tough buggers like Shane Battier big minutes. He allowed, for whatever reason, Rafer Alston to have his way with the basketball. He stopped asking Yao, for half the game at least, to chase guards off the three-point line while defending the screen-and-roll. He never called out his players in the media, never whined about his contract status, never made excuses for the injuries, and he didn't hesitate to credit former stars Dikembe Mutombo and Juwan Howard (cashing the smallest paychecks of their long careers) for keeping his Rockets afloat.

If Carlos Boozer doesn't play out of his mind in the first round, nailing rainbow jumpers from all over the court, the Rockets are still chugging along, and this column has to wait another two weeks. Boozer hit those jumpers, though. Luther Head had a shooting slump, Rafer Alston played like Rafer Alston and a Houston team full of savvy veterans somehow failed to win one of three road games.

And après les deluge, Van Gundy probably sees the writing on the wall, as he did in New York in late 2001. His Knicks had just bid against themselves to re-sign Allan Houston to an outrageous deal. His team's veteran core was crumbling. Jason Kidd was starting to turn those flighty New Jersey Nets into an Atlantic powerhouse. Van Gundy knew things were going downhill. A month into the season, he quit.

It isn't all downhill for these Rockets. The team's core is young, its fan base rabid and its new GM (Daryl Morey) ready go against convention and try not to waste the primes of Yao and T-Mac in the same way that we saw Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, and Paul Pierce's best years go all for naught. Maybe it's Van Gundy, and not Don Nelson, who is at his best dealing with underdogs. Maybe he's the one who should call it a day, lay low for a couple of years while earning some coin from TNT, and find a new job with a batch of new players and a GM who remembers only the high points from his time as Rockets coach and beyond.

Maybe it's not an overreaction to leave the team after a close Game 7 loss, one that could have gone either way. Maybe it's the appropriate end to a relationship that's just about to sour.