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"I don't think he looks quite as explosive or as quick as he has in the past," said Van Gundy, who coached Howard in Orlando for five seasons before being fired in May. "Now, he's still above almost everyone in the league at that size athletically, but he has not totally looked like himself to me." Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Lakers, Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy 

Howard denied Van Gundy's assertion that he had gone to team management in an attempt to oust his coach, but there is no lingering tension between the duo. "Look, management makes decisions," said Van Gundy, who now works as a college basketball analyst for NBC. "The L.A. Laker management fired Mike Brown. The Orlando Magic management fired me and the Brooklyn Nets management fired Avery Johnson. "Dwight and my time in Orlando, I thought the relationship was good, worked well, produced results and that's what player-coach relationships in this league should be about, are the results that they get and the results here were good, mainly because Dwight's as good as he is. He's a great, great player and I have a great appreciation for what he did for our teams and for me as a coach." Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic, Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy 

Steve Kyler: "I have zero interest in that job," Van Gundy said in a text message to @magicinsider Twitter @stevekylerNBA

Brooklyn Nets, Coaching, Stan Van Gundy 

Chris Mannix: In an email to SI.com, Stan Van Gundy says he has "no interest at all" in the Nets head coaching job. Twitter @ChrisMannixSI

Brooklyn Nets, Coaching, Stan Van Gundy 

JOSH: Stan, thanks for spending all of this time with us. One final question. I don’t know if this is another rumor perpetuated by the media, but I was reading that you were friendly with Dwight Howard. Is that correct? STAN VAN GUNDY: Well, yeah. I mean, look, he’s on the other coast. And my communication with him is basically by text—which is sort of the preferred communication of Dwight’s entire generation. That’s how you ended up communicating with players a lot. I’d have many times where I’d call a guy, he wouldn’t answer, and then you text him and five seconds later, and he texts right back. And so, yeah, we text, I don’t know, every couple of weeks. We were going back and forth last week for quite a while about the Lakers’ defense and his thoughts on it and the whole thing. So, yeah, we’re still on good terms and hopefully always will be. Slate Magazine

Los Angeles Lakers, Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy 

STAN VAN GUNDY: I think the Lakers right now are probably the most out-of-sync team in the NBA, and I think for good reason. I mean, they’re on their third head coach already, less than 25 games into the season. They’ve really been hit hard by injuries. Dwight didn’t start playing until the last couple of games of the exhibition season. When he was playing, Kobe wasn’t. So the first time that they got their four main guys together was at the start of the regular season, and then Steve Nash played about a game and a quarter and went down. Lately they’ve had Pau Gasol out. So this team, really to me, is way behind the eight ball. They haven’t even started. Mike D’Antoni hasn’t even had a chance to get all of his people together and start putting his system in place. And it shows on the floor. It looks like a team that has never played together. And for good reason, and that’s why they’re not playing as well as people had expected them to play. Slate Magazine

Los Angeles Lakers, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, Stan Van Gundy 

Can you talk about what it’s like as an NBA coach to have the kind of ups and downs in a relationship with a star player, when it seems to us, at least as outside observers, the star players seem to have a lot of power? STAN VAN GUNDY: Well, they do have a lot of power, and probably in a lot of ways, should. But I’ve said this many times and it’s really absolutely true. I don’t care what the sport is. The players, in terms of coaching changes, changes to the roster, whatever, really the power they have is whatever power the front office decides to give them. And so ultimately, it’s the front office that decides how things are going to be run in any organization, how things are going to be done. Slate Magazine

Stan Van Gundy 

STAN VAN GUNDY: On every team in every sport right now, I guarantee you that there is at least one key player who’s unhappy about something, and if the front office is just going to be afraid of those people ever being upset, and make changes, and give in to that, well then yeah, that’s what’s going to happen. A lot of them will simply wait for the inevitable shift back to normalcy. Look, relationships between coaches and players, because of the nature of the game and winning and losing and everything else, those relationships are going to be volatile. You’ll go from players being very upset with coaches to that relationship being OK, and several times throughout a season. And I think coaches and players both understand that, and it’s not overreacted to by either side. But at times, when you get people in a front office involved, particularly guys who haven’t played, haven’t coached, don’t understand the nature of the sport itself, more just business-type people, they tend to overreact to those things and panic a little bit about what could happen. And I think that’s what happened in our situation. Slate Magazine

Stan Van Gundy 

STAN VAN GUNDY: I don’t necessarily regret how I coached anybody. The one guy recently that I didn’t think that I got a lot out of was Jason Richardson. I mean, he’s nearing, getting closer to the end of his career. And it was more a system thing. J-Rich and I didn’t ever have any problems. I just felt I didn’t really utilize him in our offense maybe as well as I could have. Slate Magazine

Philadelphia 76ers, Jason Richardson, Stan Van Gundy 

STAN VAN GUNDY: As coaches, we’re coming at it differently. We’re coming at it in terms of being able to do our jobs, and make the team the best that it can be. And, my problems with David Stern have been, I don’t think David has much respect for coaches in our league. I think most guys, if they were being honest, most of the coaches in the league, because I know I’ve talked to them, would say the same thing. It’s pretty clear David doesn’t have great respect for coaches. He’s condescending to us. So right away, I don’t think it’s a very good relationship. And beyond that, where I’ve picked up problems is, David’s the one, as part of his marketing effort, that has demanded that we be ultra-accessible to the media. Slate Magazine

Coaching, Stan Van Gundy, David Stern 

Stan Van Gundy has already reached out to D'Antoni and encouraged him to keep assistant coach Steve Clifford on his staff. Clifford had a strong history of working with Stan in Orlando and Jeff Van Gundy in Houston and had gone to the Lakers to join Mike Brown's staff. As much as anyone, he understands how to incorporate an individual's flaws into the greatness of Howard's ability to dominate on the defensive end. Yahoo! Sports

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni, Stan Van Gundy, Jeff Van Gundy, Steve Clifford 

Brian Schmitz: I also asked Stan Van Gundy if he would be available for Lakers' job, he joked, "I'm sure I'm at the top of their list." Twitter @MagicInsider

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Stan Van Gundy 

Brian Schmitz: Former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy called the Lakers' firing of Mike Brown, "the most ridiculous firing in the history of the NBA." Twitter @MagicInsider

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Mike Brown, Stan Van Gundy 

Although there are numerous quality coaches available for hire, sources stress that it's not yet clear what sort of direction L.A. would pursue if it decides that an early season change on the bench is unavoidable. Mike D'Antoni, Nate McMillan, Jerry Sloan and Howard's outspoken former coach in Orlando -- Stan Van Gundy -- are among the accomplished coaching names who are presently unattached. The prospect of Jackson's third stint coaching the Lakers is also sure to be talked about if the star-studded roster continues to slump. ESPN.com

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni, Mike Brown, Jerry Sloan, Nate McMillan, Stan Van Gundy 

Stan Van Gundy thinks the NBA’s new flopping rule is going to be a flop. “I think the attempt to try to address it is a good thing but I don’t see the rule having much effect,” said Van Gundy, the former Magic coach who is transitioning this season to broadcasting with NBC Sports Network and Dial Global radio. “First of all, I think the only ones that you will see penalized are very, very egregious flops. I’d be surprise if it even got to one a game, and I think anybody who watches basketball knows that there is far more than one every game. “And I don’t even think this is the NBA’s fault. I just think it’s impossible the way the rule is written where they can ‘crack down’ on it. I think they will make sort of a cursory attempt, and make it look like they are trying to do something about it.” SI.com

Stan Van Gundy, Referees 

“To me it is pretty simple but they won’t do it this way: Leave it to the referees. If you just told referees, ‘Look, you have a guy flopping and don’t give him any calls, period.’ That would stop it in a heartbeat. It’s natural selection. Once it does not work anymore, it’ll disappear. A $500 fine will not have much of an effect. What will have an effect is a guy not getting any calls anymore. Once he stops getting calls, all of sudden the behavior disappears. But they don’t want to handle it that way so I don’t think anything will really come off this.” SI.com

Stan Van Gundy, Referees 

You’ve said your relationship with Dwight Howard is good, these days, correct? Van Gundy: Yeah, it is. We’ve been in touch throughout the offseason and throughout his rehab. I’ve kept tabs on what has been going on with him. I’ve said from my standpoint that my thoughts of him are all good. I don’t know how many games we won here in five years but it was a lot and he was a huge factor in that thing. He did a lot for me and he was an easy guy to coach, one of the smartest players I have ever coached. He was coachable and practiced every single day. We had our differences and they became public. Had we been left to handle them on our own, I think things would have been a lot of different. SI.com: If you had to coach him again, there would be no issue? Van Gundy: Not from my standpoint. Heck, if I were ever anywhere again and he were available, I’d be knocking down the door of my general manager to do anything to get him. SI.com

Los Angeles Lakers, Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy 

Dial Global and the NBC Sports Group say basketball veteran Stan Van Gundy is the latest to join NBC Sports Radio as a Senior Analyst for the NBA. Van Gundy will call into network shows each week during the NBA season. The former head coach of The Orlando Magic will talk exclusively (they have exclusive national radio rights) to NBC Sports Radio affiliates and co-host for an hour every Friday during the NBA season, on a show soon to be announced. Radio & Television Business Report

Media, Stan Van Gundy 

John Denton: ESPN and NBA released statements that NBA did not veto hiring of former #Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. Shame cause SVG woulda been great on TV Twitter @JohnDenton555

Coaching, Media, Stan Van Gundy, Jeff Van Gundy 

Jeff VanGundy, ESPN/ABC's lead NBA game analyst, suggests his brother Stan's failure to land a studio analyst role at ESPN raises big questions about whether ESPN's NBA coverage can be reasonably independent. Jeff, who hadn't previously spoken publicly on the issue until an interview with USA TODAY Sports, says his brother "had a basic agreement" to become an ESPN/ABC analyst in the marquee studio shows that wrap around game coverage: "And then something changed. There's certainly circumstantial evidence that something from the outside -- presumably the NBA -- changed (ESPN's) thinking. ... I was happy when they came to an agreement and shocked when they pulled their offer." USA Today

Media, Stan Van Gundy, Jeff Van Gundy