By now, everyone has heard that the Houston Rockets went with Mike D’Antoni as the club’s newest head coach. Having interviewed tons of candidates including Frank Vogel and Jeff Van Gundy, the Rockets feel as though they have made the right decision. Personally, I would have rather seen Houston hire a defensive minded coach (Jeff Van Gundy) than an offensive minded coach, like D’Antoni, so that it would help the team better. In the end D’Antoni was hired, so now we look at what he brings to Houston.
D’Antoni’s History
Back in 2002, D’Antoni became an assistant for the Phoenix Suns and eventually took over for Frank Johnson, who was fired after a dismal start to the season, in 2003. In his first full season as head coach he led the Suns to a 62-20 record, which was a 41 win difference from the year before, and finished 1st in the regular season. He capped off the 62 win season by winning the NBA Coach of the Year Award.
This is the Mike D’Antoni that makes me think this is a great hire. I mean who wouldn’t want a guy that won 54 or more games in 4 straight seasons and won 3 division titles in the process with one team? But, then there was New York and Los Angeles.
After bolting from Phoenix in 2008, D’Antoni only had two more winning seasons. He coached the Knicks to a 42-40 record in 2010-11, and a 40-32 record in 2012-13 as interim head coach for the Lakers. And it’s not like he never had good players in the New York and Los Angeles coaching days. He had players like Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol, and Dwight Howard, just to name a few. In other words, he had talent, but could never put it together.
In fact it never worked in Los Angeles as he completely threw out his own playbook, the one that got him to two Western Conference Finals, the one that got him a NBA Coach of the Year Award, and the one that got him two 60 win seasons in Phoenix. He just threw it out after it didn’t work. He hit rock bottom basically. To make matters worse, he was forced to resign from coaching the Lakers, the same way he resigned from the Knicks, because of how terrible the teams were doing under him.
D’Antoni and Houston
There is no doubt D’Antoni will help the Rockets on the offensive end. The team’s offense this past season was terrible, and it seemed the only way the team could score was by throwing up a three pointer or let James Harden do something. There was no team basketball being played and the Rockets suffered because of it.
I am interested to see what assistants D’Antoni brings in and if he and Dwight Howard can clear the air and maybe land another top free agent this summer. When D’Antoni took this job, he knew what he was up against. He must figure out a way to make this work because if he doesn’t this will, most likely, be his last head coaching gig he will ever get.
