Mike Bresnahan: Lakers hire Mike D'Antoni

[MensRea]

Aaaaannnddd...It's ESPN official.

http://espn.go.com/nba/

[Jajwanda]

As a Knicks fan, I feel bad for you. He had no control over our players and played no defense what so ever. Horrible move. Dont even try and make it sound positive

I don't have to, I watched your team with him there. He can't do anything with Carmelo-Amare and he can't do a thing without a defensive coach. Those are his problems.

[LateRoundFlyer]

Will be interesting to see how the team responds now in the next two games with Bernie, seeing as how he's effectively a lame duck. Will they come out on Tuesday as if they have something still to prove? If so, that bodes well for us.

[No-Man]

The key question is ... is Kobe OK with this?

kobe's been a d'antoni fan since he was a boy in italy watching the italian league

not to mention all the times he's played for MDA for USA

Yeah, but NBA competition is different. Can D'Antoni's system win at this level?

You can't win against Miami running, not with this roster

There's no way.

[ITALIA17]

As a Knicks fan, I feel bad for you. He had no control over our players and played no defense what so ever. Horrible move. Dont even try and make it sound positive

It never helps when your star player wants to run you out of your job.

Yeah and look at our record since he left and this season. I just dont see this working in LA.

[Speedlot]

why 4 years though?! Geez

[Optms]

I doubt he'll last the four but it looks like he's our head coach for the future.

I have mixed feelings about this. Either way, he's an upgrade over Mike Brown. Right?

[BEazy]

Don't even know what to say. This team is doomed on the defensive end.

[Jajwanda]

As a Knicks fan, I feel bad for you. He had no control over our players and played no defense what so ever. Horrible move. Dont even try and make it sound positive

It never helps when your star player wants to run you out of your job.

Yeah and look at our record since he left and this season. I just dont see this working in LA.

Ya the reason your roster is good is Carmelo is at the 4. Your defense went from around tenth best to first because Amare is no longer there and you actually have decent perimeter defenders instead of Carmelo. Carmelo has a mismatch every night at PF and you have shooters he can kick to. It's a nice team.

[gotokyo]

Wowww wasn't expecting that. I think everyone, players included were expecting phil. Oh well still a massive upgrade over mike brown

[Michael Lucky]

way better than Dun anyways. Offensively I can see why Jim went this way. They want the brand to be entertainning/ Obviously the D might not be great but at least we still have Dwight and MWP on the roster. Anyways expect more playing time for meeks and possibly Duhon even though Morris has improved so much since last year.

[Alienware]

Kobe said last night he was fine with d'Antoni in case the Phil option wasn't there anymore.

[Gideon]

I get why people are disappointed with not getting Phil back... obviously he's a legend and an all-time great.

However, I think D'Antoni is a very good, underrated coach and a perfect fit for this roster... he was in the process of molding a pretty good young SSOL-style team on the Knicks with guys like Felton, Chandler, and Gallinari, when the Melo trade changed everything. It's probably legit to knock D'Antoni for not being flexible... he coaches a certain system and when Dolan tinkered with his roster by forcing the Melo trade, it screwed D'Antoni by leaving him with a group of players that didn't work well for that system.

Although D'Antoni may not be flexible, the system he coaches will work exceptionally well with the players currently on the Lakers IMO. This Lakers team has a pretty similar roster to D'Antoni's best 60-win SSOL Suns teams... however, I think this is actually a better team:

Nash (Lakers) < Nash (Suns) -- sure, Nash isn't as good as he was in 2005, but he's still very good... he probably had his most efficient year last season and is the perfect D'Antoni-system PG. Also, Duhon is a serviceable backup who can do what D'Antoni needs for 14 minutes or so a game.

Kobe >>> Joe Johnson -- Kobe, even at his current age, is an exceptional athlete and a perennial MVP candidate... he's a great fit for this sort of fast-paced system, and a clear step up from Joe Johnson (and even more so from Raja Bell).

Metta/Jamison < Diaw -- Diaw was very effective for the SSOL Suns, but Jamison is the sort of athlete and all-around player who could work really well in the same sort of system... I think Metta is not a great fit, unfortunately, but he is a good defender and athlete so maybe he will prove me wrong.

Gasol > Marion -- Marion at his prime was an awesome all-around player, but Gasol's currently underrated and is just incredibly valuable and consistent... he's even one of the league's top clutch players statistically (see 82games.com clutch stats)... people have worried about Gasol fitting into D'Antoni's system, but I think he'll fit perfectly... he's good at every facet of the game, not a great athlete but definitely not slow or anything, and has a crazy-high BBIQ

DH12 >> A'mare -- Howard is the league's premier defensive force and undisputed best center... A'mare was a defensive liability who was explosive off the PnR with a great PG to feed him... DH12 is a big upgrade.

Prediction: D'Antoni and the Lakers win the NBA Championship at least one of the next two years... I think it might take them a year of playing together to really gel and hit championship form (like what happened with the Heat), so I'm not predicting this year, but I think it could definitely happen this year, and will probably happen by 2013-2014.

[BEazy]

[kobeaki]

beyond disappointed

Same here. By this logic, Phil asked for too much money , control, so hire a guy for four years who will end up being fired before his contract is up... So throw away even more money,

Ugggh, beyond beyond beyond disappointed... I'd rather have bickerstaff

[Jakay]

Well this will be interesting. Last year the Knicks were D first, and Phoenix was all about the O. Nash basically got his free reign under D'Antoni, so I like the hire. Preferred Phil, but whatever. I think next year is the year though; this season seems like more of a longshot now to win it all.

[Bandwagon1]

F it, im done, im drowning myself at swimming today

[Rox_Nix_Nox]

I doubt mitch had a real confident smile on his face on this hiring. & dtoni, did you not hear the chants? No one wants you goo away!

[Michael Lucky]

well if Phil wanted part of Mitch´s job i´m not that disappointed he didn´t get hired.

[Leaguepass]

Oh boy, my sincere condolences guys. D'Antoni is a terrible fit with this roster IMO, let alone the fact that he isn't a good coach at all. Once D'Antoni is finished with you guys "defense" will be a very distant memory for you. When you see it it'll usually be the opposing team playing it. Also prepare for Gasol to shoot a lot more 3 pointers...a lot of World Peace 3pointer as well. I thought you guys would play the Heat in the finals but with D'Antoni I can't imagine you beating SAS or OKC.