Lakers hire D'Antoni

[Riled Up]

This move was done entirely to accomodate Steve Nash.

In a standard offense or even the triangle, Steve Nash is an ordinary NBA PG. Good, not great. He needs a system that allows him to dominate the ball and not worry at all about defense. He is the worst defensive PG in the NBA and has been his entire career. Now, Kobe, Gasol and Howard will have to adjust to the system, it should work for Nash and Howard.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out....but if they had tried to run a standard NBA set or the triangle it would have exposed Steve Nash big time.

[EscapoTHB]

The funny thing to me is that they had a top 5 offense when Mike Brown was fired. They were losing because they didn't play defense.


If Mike Brown, whose sole calling card is elite defense--couldn't get the Lakers to defend--how is D'Antoni?

They won't get out of the second round out West if they don't learn how to defend.

Right now the Clippers look the scariest team in LA.

D'Antoni's system has never won big in the playoffs. He's never even made the finals. Mike Brown at least made the finals. Also remember D'Antoni has historically had problems getting along with problem players. Should be interesting to see how he gets along with MWP. Mike Brown knew about MWP before from Indiana. D'Antoni's only comparable experience, he basically ended up paying Marbury not to show up.

It will be interesting to see how DWight gets along with him.

Phil Jackson's demands cracked me up. That dude was trolling the Lakers hard. I don't think he really had any intention of coming back to the Lakers.

[OOO]

The funny thing to me is that they had a top 5 offense when Mike Brown was fired. They were losing because they didn't play defense.


If Mike Brown, whose sole calling card is elite defense--couldn't get the Lakers to defend--how is D'Antoni?

They won't get out of the second round out West if they don't learn how to defend.

Right now the Clippers look the scariest team in LA.

D'Antoni's system has never won big in the playoffs. He's never even made the finals. Mike Brown at least made the finals. Also remember D'Antoni has historically had problems getting along with problem players. Should be interesting to see how he gets along with MWP. Mike Brown knew about MWP before from Indiana. D'Antoni's only comparable experience, he basically ended up paying Marbury not to show up.

It will be interesting to see how DWight gets along with him.

Phil Jackson's demands cracked me up. That dude was trolling the Lakers hard. I don't think he really had any intention of coming back to the Lakers.

That's simply not true. Lakers were 15th in PPG before Mike Brown was fired, only averaging 97.2.

[Slot Machine]

The funny thing to me is that they had a top 5 offense when Mike Brown was fired. They were losing because they didn't play defense.


If Mike Brown, whose sole calling card is elite defense--couldn't get the Lakers to defend--how is D'Antoni?

They won't get out of the second round out West if they don't learn how to defend.

Right now the Clippers look the scariest team in LA.

D'Antoni's system has never won big in the playoffs. He's never even made the finals. Mike Brown at least made the finals. Also remember D'Antoni has historically had problems getting along with problem players. Should be interesting to see how he gets along with MWP. Mike Brown knew about MWP before from Indiana. D'Antoni's only comparable experience, he basically ended up paying Marbury not to show up.

It will be interesting to see how DWight gets along with him.

Phil Jackson's demands cracked me up. That dude was trolling the Lakers hard. I don't think he really had any intention of coming back to the Lakers.

That's simply not true. Lakers were 15th in PPG before Mike Brown was fired, only averaging 97.2.

Do you know what pace is?

[DefenseWins]

The Lakers needed chemistry. Firing the coach doesn't solve that.

Meh, Nash back with D'Antoni. They are gonna chuck 3's. Their defense, Howard will anchor that big time.

But I wonder what on earth Phil was asking for, since they turned him down. Dude took them to the Finals what, 7 times in the last decade?

[LikeABosh]

Absolutely hilarious. They went from the worst offensive coach to the worst defensive coach in a 2 game span

[truthiness]

This move was done entirely to accomodate Steve Nash.

It was done to accomodate Jim Buss's overinflated ego.
Kobe would have prefered Phil, so why risk upsetting Kobe to accomodate Nash ?

Jim Buss is (according to multiple reports) a stubborn moron with a sense of entitlement. His choices so far where horrible: Brown over Adelman and now D'Antoni over Phil.

I think Kupchak is on a very short leash and will get blamed for the team's inevitable failure and get dumped swiftly so Jim Buss can install a pupet as a GM.


As for Phil's alleged requests, he won so much (in his career and with the Lakers) that he's earned the right to demand anyeffingthing he wants.

Check this out:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/coa ... ph01c.html

In his career he won the title in over 50% of the seasons he coached. OVER 50%.
He reached the finals 65% of the time.

If you can get Phil, you give him anything he wants (not to mention that apparently his demands were nowhere near as outrageous as the Lakers let people believe).

So yeah, thank you Jim Buss. If you weren't a moron, the Lakers could have rolled a 3 peat with the team they have, as veteran FA's would have started flocking to them in the summer.

[DEEP3CL]

A lot of guys like to think Jim was in sole control in this deal.......he wasn't it was Doc Buss all the way. If anything Jim is kinda the scape goat. An this move wasn't to appease Nash like one poster put it, on Friday after noon the day of the firing of Brown, Mitch and Jim asked Kobe about the options for a new coach. Kobe responded with D'Antoni as his first choice because he didn't know Phil was even interested in the job.

Jim then asked Kobe "how about Phil ? " Kobe said he loved it. Mitch and Jim also asked Dwight and Steve for their input too, and they also was good with either one coming in.

Also Mitch isn't on a "short leash", with all the screw ups he made before getting Gasol Doc Buss still let him run the team and do his job. Plus Dr. Buss loves Mitch, he ain't going nowhere.

[AdonisDeMarion]

Absolutely hilarious. They went from the worst offensive coach to the worst defensive coach in a 2 game span

Lets put this to rest about him being the worst defensively coach, the only reason his Suns teams was bad defensively is because Stoudemire is a horrid defended. The Suns had good wing defenders in Marion, Johnson, Bell and Richardson. If the Suns had a defender in the middle the may have won a title. Mike has good wing defenders in MWP, Bryant and Ebanks. Howard, Gasol and Hill be all that Mike needs for his up tempo game to work. Bryant playing Joe Johnson's role will be deadly. Johnson did his best work next to Nash and now you give a player way beyond Johnson's power. Nash never had a player like Gasol, Stoudemire doesn't come close either. Gasol can be a pick and roll or pick and pop player. Mike is the best coach for this team, hell Howard and Nash in the pick and roll will put what Nash and Stoudemire did to shame. AJ will be that that stretch 4 that Marion played so well only without the great defends. Hill will provide the same energy Marion did with quick put backs and power dunks.

[Mars]

Healthy and in his prime with the Suns, Amare was an absolutely deadly "pick and roll" and "pick and pop" player. How soon they forget.