Who would you start and play, given the lineups available for the 1999 Finals? Some of you were probably 10 or 12 at the time, so do your best fanboy imitations.

I still cannot believe we had to start Chris Dudley and Charlie Ward.

Spree
Houston
LJ
Kurt Krazy Eyes
Camby

Can you hook a brother up with a copy paste of the roster?

I think if we had a different coach with that lineup it could have been a way different team. With that athleticism/size/shooting it could've been an offensive force, but that was JVG's coaching style. I won't fault JVG as he was a grinder and I think got a lot out of the team, but he wasn't the most creative coach.

Ideally when Spree got here we would've attempted a big backcourt and played Spree at the PG some. HE did it occassionally for Golden State. It wouldn't have been something you could do all game because his handles weren't there, but that would have allowed us to go big at every position on the floor (LJ, Camby, Ewing) and keep the liabilities off the floor (Childs and Ward...hard nosed guys on D, but my gosh, these guys sucked...couldn't penetrate for **** and inconsistent/mediocre outside shooting at best). Instead we played Spree out of position at 3 and we ended up playing a small lineup most of the time against most teams. It was not the small ball era so it didn't work that well.

San Antonio was a great team and by the time we got to play them we were kinda toast, but that was a helluva run. Quite honestly a maddening year as JVG couldn't figure out the right mix during the lockout shortened season and we nearly missed the playoffs. Talent took over somehow when we hit the playoffs with a healthy Camby just flying around everywhere and being a force. Unfortunately we never had that core healthy for an extended run like that ever again...

I think JVG coached as well as you can and we played as well as you can against that stacked Spurs team. Not only did we lose Ewing but we kind of lost LJ when he got hurt in the ECF against Indy. LJ just wasn't a factor in that series. But I still remember in Game 4, it was anybody's game late in the 4th and LJ missed a wide open three which would have made it a two possession game but he missed it and we went on to lose and got down 3-1. We probably still wouldn't have won that series considering the circumstances but it might have been a different series if tied it up 2-2.

EwingDeChile wrote:As far as I remember, the lineup with Spree as PG was used during some stretches, specially in 2000-2001 season, when we got Glen Rice. Didn't have the chance to watch many games that season, besides playoffs ESPN Latin America was the only way to watch the knicks and they broadcasted 4 or 5 knicks games every season. I think it worked pretty well, including a record for keeping opposing teams under 100 points in consecutive games.

Going back to 1999, I think that the biggest error made by JVG in 99 Finals was playing LJ too much (36.8 mpg!). Undersized to guard Robinson, injured while Kurt Thomas played 15 minutes less per game.

Tried to remember if Spree ever played PG with both Mark Jackson part 2 and Charlie Football in the lineup. Hard to tell from the game logs.

What killed me for the 1999 Finals was we could have killed San Antonio's back court if VanGundy wasn't trying to channel his playing career through Charlie Ward. And Spree as a SF was stupid when you had LJ. Spree had one season in Golden State where he averaged more assists than Charlie Ward ever did. You could live with the turnovers at the point if you're getting everything else Spree would have brought at PG.

We were going to get killed in the front court with Prime Tim Duncan and his ultimate sidekick David Robin(son) anyway, but starting Charlie Ward and Chris Dudley was asking to die quickly. I would have rather watched Kurt Krazy Eyes foul out every game and then stick Dudley in for strictly garbage time or to just burn fouls during the games when they weren't out of reach.

But then again, that's why JVG coached for a few millions and I'm posting on the internet for free.