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Houston Rockets: Mike D’Antoni Hire A Mistake

By Cameron Stewart

Apr 16, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni gives direction to his team during the first half against the San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 16, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni gives direction to his team during the first half against the San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Houston Rockets reportedly will name Mike D’Antoni head coach. By doing so, they’re making a big mistake.

The Houston Rockets are in the process of finalizing a deal to make Mike D’Antoni their next head coach, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

D’Antoni has previous head coaching experience with the Denver Nuggets (during the lockout season of 1998-99), New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, and most famously and successfully, with the Phoenix Suns.

D’Antoni is credited as one of the architects of modern offensive basketball for his time spent with the “Seven Seconds Or Less” Phoenix Suns, in that they pushed the pace, played small and spread the floor.

While many at the time criticized D’Antoni’s uptempo offense as gimmicky and not being a way to win it all, D’Antoni’s offensive philosophy is now a staple around the league, most famously with the Steve Kerr-led Golden State Warriors.

The Warriors won a title in 2014-15 and finished 2015-16 with the best regular season in NBA history behind an offense that was birthed to a degree by D’Antoni, with two-time MVP Steve Nash being the original Stephen Curry.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Kerr.

From Kerr, via Kurt Helin of NBC Sports:

"“I think Steve kind of laid out a vision for a whole generation of young point guards. And with the game changing, Mike D’Antoni kind of initiating that style in Phoenix, the floor starting to spread, the whole league kind of playing shooting fours and fives and playing a little faster. I think Mike and Steve in many ways set the table for Steph Curry.”"

Denying D’Antoni’s positive influence on the league would be a foolish task, but does that mean that he’s a good coach in 2015-16?

I say no. Here’s why.

For years, D’Antoni succeeded with the Suns due to his innovative offense. That run ended in 2008. That was eight years ago.

The rest of the NBA has since caught on, adopting his principles and philosophy. No longer can D’Antoni take teams by surprise by going small against teams. Just about every team has lineups prepared for small-ball situations.

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    • The pace of the NBA has sped up. When D’Antoni took over in Phoenix, the league average for pace was 90.1 possessions per 48 minutes. By the time he left Phoenix, it was up to 92.4. The league pace in 2015-16? 95.8.

    The rest of the league has caught up to D’Antoni, tweaking the philosophy and making it their own. He’s not catching anyone off guard anymore with his innovative style because it’s not innovative anymore.

    Those Suns in that era were as good as D’Antoni could’ve asked for. He had an all-time point guard running the offense, a jack-of-all-trades athletic, small-ball power forward in Shawn Marion, and a perfect pick-and-roll partner for Nash in Amar’e Stoudemire.

    Going against the league’s norms were D’Antoni’s strengths in that era. Now, the norm is what D’Antoni was doing, but they’re doing it better and defending better in the process.

    It’s part of the reason why D’Antoni has failed in his two post-Suns stints in New York and Los Angeles.

    Just take a look at how his offenses and defenses have fared.

    D’Antoni’s defenses have been in the league’s top ten only once, and that was largely due to D’Antoni being fired after 42 games in 2011-12 and being replaced by Mike Woodson.

    D’Antoni’s two seasons in Los Angeles are memorable only for it being a disaster.

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    In 2012-13, D’Antoni took over the Lakers after Mike Brown was fired for a 1-4 start. This was after a much-hyped offseason where the Lakers acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to help Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol make a return to the NBA Finals.

    Instead, they finished 45-37 and were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs.

    The season was marred with injuries. Nash played only 50 games. A 34-year-old Bryant tore his Achilles tendon at the end of the season after playing at least 40 minutes in seven consecutive games as the Lakers were pushing for a playoff spot.

    Howard struggled after having surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back before the season and played through a torn labrum in his shoulder throughout the year. Gasol was sidelined by a torn plantar fascia and struggled when he attempted to play through it.

    In New York and in Los Angeles, D’Antoni struggled to maintain a positive working relationship with his star players, which is a red flag when dealing with a personality like James Harden.

    D’Antoni and Dwight Howard butted heads during their season together with the Lakers, which likely spells the end of Howard’s time with the Rockets, as he has a player option for next season.

    D’Antoni’s offense relies heavily on pick-and-roll option, which is a great strength of Howard’s, but something the big man wasn’t happy with. Howard also reportedly talked with Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak after that infamous season about feeling marginalized in the locker room by D’Antoni.

    Carmelo Anthony clashed with D’Antoni during their time together in New York. The Knicks went on an unlikely winning streak behind Jeremy Lin‘s “Linsanity” era when Anthony was sidelined with an injury.

    D’Antoni resigned midway through the 2012-13 season, just days after a report from the New York Post’s Marc Berman that Anthony was unhappy with the coach.

    To bring it back to how it affects the Rockets, let’s look at why the Rockets had a coaching vacancy to begin with.

    After reaching the Western Conference Finals a year ago, the Rockets fired Kevin McHale just 11 games into the season. The Rockets were 4-7 at the time, with a noticeable lack of defense and team chemistry. J.B. Bickerstaff took over as interim head coach and led the Rockets to a playoff birth at 42-40, well below the team’s expectations.

    The problems with the Rockets this season were all about defensive intensity and chemistry, two things that D’Antoni has failed at doing.

    The Rockets of this season were a dumpster fire. Instead of getting a firefighter to put it out, the Rockets brought in an arsonist.

    The Rockets could very well improve this upcoming season. Harden is one of the league’s most gifted players and GM Daryl Morey has put together a team that has finished .500 or better every season since being hired in 2007.

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    The problem with hiring D’Antoni is that he will not fix the flaws that doomed the Rockets to mediocrity in 2015-16; he’ll just compound the lack of defense and team chemistry while playing a modern, more entertaining offense.

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