Poor Mike D’Antoni. He helped create one of the most exciting products the NBA has seen in the past 20 years (everyone read the Simmons article I assume) and now ‘meddlesome’ Steve Kerr is asking him to practice more defense in practice.
Word is that D’Antoni wants the Chicago job (he interviewed for the Knicks job to push the price up in Chicago). I thought it was pretty funny that they didn’t grant permission for him interview in Toronto (ex Sun’s GM Colangelo hired D’Antoni to begin with). Weird thing about the Chi-town position is that John Paxon is an ex MJ/PhilJ Bull like Kerr. He’s pretty well known to prize defense like Kerr but he still wants to pull the trigger to acquire D’Antoni. What’s Paxon gonna do when D’Antoni’s asking Deng & Heinrich to practice steals as defensive strategy (Karl-esque philosophy)? I’ve also heard that Kerr & Paxon are friends so you know they have to have had conversations about Mike’s recent views of Kerr’s so-called micromanagement.
Kinda goes back to the “Avery is out” post but…
As it seems D’Antoni is determined to flee (like his defense when guarding the lane), who do you think is best suited to take this team to championship level? Is there a better choice at all? Do you think your choice is the same as Kerr’s?
7 comments:
I forgot to mention what made me think about the Suns in the first place; it wasn’t all of the D’Antoni rumor mill. It was the Hornets. Spurs still have a chance but the Hornets look absolutely FANTASTIC. What irks me most is that this is how the Suns could, hell should, have been playing the past few years. They are spectacular defensively and CPaul’s court awareness and peripheral reminds me a lot of Steve Nash the past couple of years.
Kerr has got to be absolutely salivating at the way Byron Scott has this team believing in defense. To think that the Suns had the opportunity (and might still for a couple of years) to play a similar game makes me hope they get the right guy to do it. I just don’t know if there’s another Byron Scott out there
Van Gundy likes defense.
JVG is almost the polar opposite. I'm pretty sure Kerr's gonna look for someone a little more balanced (I'm glad Houston grabbed Adelman last summer; he would have been perfect for this team).
I think JVG would be a great head coach option if, I think we mentioned it when he was with Houston, he had an Offensive Guru (specialist/coordinator) as an assistant coach. Preferably one with mediocre people skills so he doesn't get cherry picked by other teams :)
As far as JVG to the Suns. I've got a great picture in my head of JVG going Sprewell on Nash. In full suit, tie thrown over his sholder, on Stevie's back screaming "the purpose of DEFENSE is to DEFEND! If you're going to turn and give your man have a free shot at the basket you might as well stay on the offensive end!! You and Shaq can be [insert soccer position here] and we'll just have 3 people run back and forth!!"
Have you seen Nash "defend"? Ever heard his responses when asked about defense? He sounds like he's in fantasy land dreaming crushing his opponent under the weight of 160 pts.
I think there is enough doubt throughout the suns organization in D'antoni's system that if he were to come back, it would be kinda an akward season. I'm just not seeing the players thinking, yeah this system is gonna work, we gonna win the championship.
As for the best replacement, no idea. Chuck daly? :D
Patrick - you might be closer than I thought with your JVG suggestion:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/
ny-spknix0508,0,1682396.story
haha shasher:
"Van Gundy likes defense."
hahahahah
oh man wouldn't that be hilarious? phx goes from 3first names to jvg?
then comes the question-
shasher, if jvg is coaching those assholes, does that mean you have another favorite team? could you actually start to root for shaq if this happens? oh man i hope so. i like phx and jvg and kerr so much, i'm giddy just thinking about it!
and i totally agree, jer- NOH is looking great, showing a lot of what the suns were lacking. and in particular, chris paul is doing things that i've never seen another point guard do. i've said it before, and i know i'm not alone here, but i LOVE this kid.
its like he uses his GIFT of court vision and applies it to defense. brilliant!
great coaching, great defense, and a great team, but i give the most credit here to the pg. what an amazing young man!
You see CP drive to the hoop last game: when he faked like he was gonna jump, timmy completely left his feet, and CP ran right around him. Brilliant. I been talking to myself about it in the thread SAS-NOH, haha.
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