Jeff Van Gundy is a better NBA coach than you remember, and he had immense success in New York, coached well in Houston, and is now an analyst for ABC. I love him on the sidelines calling games, but he has taken on a new challenge that I believe he is well-suited for. He will coach Usa Basketball in their next big tournament, and he is becoming an international basketball expert.
I believe he will succeed in this venture, and it is all because of the transition from the booth back to the sidelines.
Team USA is well-organized
The USA Basketball organization is managed beautifully, and it has been put together to ensure that everyone who plays for them is chosen with the utmost care. The teams were selected to ensure that every roster has the proper compliment of players, and the teams are easy to coach now that USA Basketball has been under Coach K's leadership for so long. He stepped away from the position, and he has allowed Jeff Van Gundy to take up the reins of the program.
He has a new profile as an announcer
Players who play under Van Gundy for USA Basketball likely know him much more as an announcer than they do as a basketball coach. This will work to his advantage because the players respect the opinions that he offers from the booth. They know that he knows what he is talking about, and there are many players who will think of him as the wise old owl that has stepped down from the booth to help them. It is a bit like Dick Vermeil coming out of retirement to run the Rams. The players knew who he was, and his time away from the game gave him a fresh perspective.
It does not matter yet
I have no reason to believe that USA Basketball will have any trouble going into the 2020 Olympics, and that will give Van Gundy plenty of time to set up his own program that will allow the team to succeed.
He will be firmly ensconced in his job by the time the Olympics roll around, and we will see the team plow through the Olympics just as it has in the past three Olympics. The program has been improved to a point where USA Basketball will never lose a game ever again. We will be proud as Americans, and we could watch Jeff Van Gundy ascend to new heights he did not reach in the NBA. He did not win an NBA title, but I believe that he will win a gold medal in 2020.
Splitting jobs
Van Gundy can easily work with USA Basketball and be an announcer at the same time, and he will warm our hearts with both. I enjoy watching him propose new rules on the spot, and I will enjoy the medal ceremony in 2020.