AussieRules wrote:Ok. A couple more things.
Lakers made the 7th seed not 8th seed that season.
You just made my point for me concerning Earl. He was a scrub under any other coach but very serviceable under D'Antoni scored himself a good contract that year. D'Antoni has increased the market value of numerous players over the years.. Kent Bazemore, Chris Duhon, Joe Johnson, Jeremy Lin and the list goes on.
Pau still shot 3s when he was on the floor with Dwight (you can check the game logs) ofcourse D'Antoni threw him a bone and played him in the post more when Dwight was on the bench, he staggered their mins well.
Also the team was horrible before D'Antoni even joined them, they couldn't win a game that season under Mike Brown. The players were already frustrated, Dwight pouted because he didn't get the coach he wanted. Pau pouted and whined because he had to step aside for Dwight.
In my opinion, D'Antoni did the best he could out of that situation, does he have his flaws? Yes but he is not Dr. Evil and the incompetent coach some fans paint him out to be.
I see your point to a certain extent: D'Antoni is not the horribly awful coach some posters are making him out to be. Plus, even if he looked like so, I always have a hard time calling out an NBA coach. No matter how stupid his decisions seem to be, any guy in that position has forgotten more about pro bball than anyone in this forum will ever know. They also have access to a TON of information we don't, so their system, rotations, adjustments, etc. could follow some plan we plain can't see, or be hindered by internal situations we can't know of.
Having said that, as a Lakers fan I do have one legit complain about him: he is dishonest to the bone. I can accept that he's a "system" guy and he prefers adapting his roster to his system than the other way around. But I can't accept him doing interviews before getting the job in LA claiming that roster was PERFECT for his system, only to start missusing players and blaming them for the losses (Pau, Metta, Dwight). He twisted the team's identity to try and fit it into a system that was clearly subpar for that roster. He had Kobe and Pau for excellent post play and inside-out dynamics. He had arguably the best PnR center in the league. He had an amazing PnR PG and top tier playmaker in Nash (when healthy). Yet he chose to run a mimick of the 2015 GSW offense with only 1 elite 3pt shooter in the team, and disregarded the paint unless when it came to catering to Howard's stupid demands.
As I said, I can live with all those decisions if it weren't for a little fact: his claim of Lakers being a perfect roster for his system proved to be a blatant lie. Once I saw this, I could understand Pau wanting a meeting with him to discuss the system (not pouting and whining, as you said... that attitude belongs to D'Antoni who had no problem throwing his players under the bus time after time while not even once aknowledging his faults) and I could understand Kobe showing him the middle finger and running what worked for so long: Pau as a prime option in the paint, Kobe as a field commander with green light to do as he sees fit. Surprise surprise, the team clicked and had an amazing second half of season to finally clinch a playoff spot.
Is he a coach that could thrive with the proper personnel? Absolutely. Can he use role players to a more than adequate level to integrate an offense? Yes. Can a good ball handler make an amazing career under his tutelage? Of course. Do I trust him as a person to analyze what's wrong in a team and work constructively to fix it? Hell no. Is he an honest guy whose word you can trust? Nope. And IMO that's more important than people give it credit for, so that's why I wouldn't feel comfortable if I were a Rockets fan.
