Steve Kerr...the "hot" coaching candidate lol

[Puff]

The people that support Kerr's thought of hiring Thibodeau just really have no clue and just want to blame every thing that went wrong on MDA. It was just as bad of an idea as the decision to hire Porter. He wanted a defensive coach to coach players that could not play defense. It just does not work.

In theory hiring Thibodeau sounded like an ideal situation but it would have been horrible and every Suns fan would have hated it. All the while your 60 win coach would have been looking over his shoulder while dodging an assortment of folks trying to stick a knife in his back. He did the right thing to walk but he should have never taken the New York job. However I don't think he expected Melo to arrive on the seen and did not realize what an ass clown Melo really is. Then he took the Laker job. Another mistake. Unless you are Phil Jackson or one of his proteges you have no chance in LA at this point in time.

If you enjoy the way the Bulls play and the old Celtics played so be it. I do not like the style Thibs plays in Chicago and the only reason I liked the Celtics is that they beat the Lakers.

How in the world was he going to turn Amare and Nash into good defenders. If you think he was going to accomplish that, you need help. If Mike would have given up playing time allocation to him as well he would have had the whole team on the IR by the All Star break. I admire what Thibs has accomplished but I would not want him as our Coach ever.

To blame anything that went on in New York or Los Angeles on him is just pure lunacy. There are plenty of lunatics in LA that probably think he should have won a ring when Howard was there and should have made the playoffs this season.

I expect they will be wishing they had him back by mid season this coming year.

The good thing that happened is that we found Hornacek. I like him a lot and hope he continues to do well. We appear to have our front office in order and cannot wait to see what we do with our roster this summer.

Go Suns

[letsgosuns]

The people that support Kerr's thought of hiring Thibodeau just really have no clue and just want to blame every thing that went wrong on MDA. It was just as bad of an idea as the decision to hire Porter. He wanted a defensive coach to coach players that could not play defense. It just does not work.

In theory hiring Thibodeau sounded like an ideal situation but it would have been horrible and every Suns fan would have hated it. All the while your 60 win coach would have been looking over his shoulder while dodging an assortment of folks trying to stick a knife in his back. He did the right thing to walk but he should have never taken the New York job. However I don't think he expected Melo to arrive on the seen and did not realize what an ass clown Melo really is. Then he took the Laker job. Another mistake. Unless you are Phil Jackson or one of his proteges you have no chance in LA at this point in time.

If you enjoy the way the Bulls play and the old Celtics played so be it. I do not like the style Thibs plays in Chicago and the only reason I liked the Celtics is that they beat the Lakers.

How in the world was he going to turn Amare and Nash into good defenders. If you think he was going to accomplish that, you need help. If Mike would have given up playing time allocation to him as well he would have had the whole team on the IR by the All Star break. I admire what Thibs has accomplished but I would not want him as our Coach ever.

To blame anything that went on in New York or Los Angeles on him is just pure lunacy. There are plenty of lunatics in LA that probably think he should have won a ring when Howard was there and should have made the playoffs this season.

I expect they will be wishing they had him back by mid season this coming year.

The good thing that happened is that we found Hornacek. I like him a lot and hope he continues to do well. We appear to have our front office in order and cannot wait to see what we do with our roster this summer.

Go Suns

Well Kerr is the person that won multiple championships with Michael Jordan and then won again with the Spurs. I would say he knows a hell of a lot more about winning in the NBA than Mike D'antoni. He understands that you have to play defense in order to win a ring.

No one ever said that Thibodeau would turn Nash and Amare into great defenders. However, he would have improved the overall team defense and held them more accountable. And how can you say you do not like the way the Celtics played? They won the championship. I would rather the Suns do that then play run and gun with no defense and get bounced from the playoffs every year. That is unbelievable that you would say you would not want the Suns to play like the Celtics that year, who were, by the way, the number one defensive team in the league that season. And everyone knows that defense wins championships. I would be ecstatic if the Suns could play defense like that.

You also cannot blame D'antoni's Knicks teams on Carmelo. In his first two seasons coaching the Knicks without Carmelo, they had a record of 32-50 in 2009 and 29-53 in 2010. That was before Carmelo got there. It was not until the Knicks got Carmelo in the middle of the 2011 season that they were able to finish a season with a winning record, which was 42-40. Then as I stated in an earlier post, in 2012, they had an 18-24 record with D'antoni and he was fired. Mike Woodson took over and they finished the season 18-6. There is not much more proof than you need other than that to know that D'antoni's coaching has and always will be a fraud. He is an incredibly stubborn man that refuses to take input from outside sources and everything is his way or the highway.

In six years of coaching after D'antoni had the ultra loaded Suns teams, he has compiled the following records:

With Knicks: 32-50, 29-53, 42-40, 18-24

With Lakers: 40-32, 27-55.

Also, zero playoff wins in six years of coaching.

This past season was considered arguably the worst season in Lakers history, yet you are saying that their fans will be wishing they had him back by midseason. Hell there were games in 2013 when D'antoni was bringing Pau Gasol off the bench. That is insanity. The reason he did it is because he has no clue how to coach big guys, and he sure did not know how to coach Gasol and Dwight Howard together. Gregg Poppavich would have had that team rolling.

If you need more proof on D'antoni, read this about Jalen Rose raving about Rick Carlisle and subsequently destroying D'antoni when he talked about how clueless he was versus the Spurs in 2007. http://forums.prosportsdaily.com/showth ... s-clueless

Oh yeah, in 1999, D'antoni coached the Nuggets for 50 games. They were 14-36 with him as the coach and finished the season dead last in defensive rating. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DEN/1999.html

I do agree with you about Hornacek though. I think he has the Suns headed into the right direction. I just hope he does not fall in love with small ball and play the Morris brothers frontcourt anymore next year.

[Miklo]

Time to see how many teams suddenly think of Derek Fisher for an opening...

[RunDogGun]

Time to see how many teams suddenly think of Derek Fisher for an opening...

I'm starting to wonder if Phil is getting a cut from these guys' contracts.

[Puff]

The people that support Kerr's thought of hiring Thibodeau just really have no clue and just want to blame every thing that went wrong on MDA. It was just as bad of an idea as the decision to hire Porter. He wanted a defensive coach to coach players that could not play defense. It just does not work.

In theory hiring Thibodeau sounded like an ideal situation but it would have been horrible and every Suns fan would have hated it. All the while your 60 win coach would have been looking over his shoulder while dodging an assortment of folks trying to stick a knife in his back. He did the right thing to walk but he should have never taken the New York job. However I don't think he expected Melo to arrive on the seen and did not realize what an ass clown Melo really is. Then he took the Laker job. Another mistake. Unless you are Phil Jackson or one of his proteges you have no chance in LA at this point in time.

If you enjoy the way the Bulls play and the old Celtics played so be it. I do not like the style Thibs plays in Chicago and the only reason I liked the Celtics is that they beat the Lakers.

How in the world was he going to turn Amare and Nash into good defenders. If you think he was going to accomplish that, you need help. If Mike would have given up playing time allocation to him as well he would have had the whole team on the IR by the All Star break. I admire what Thibs has accomplished but I would not want him as our Coach ever.

To blame anything that went on in New York or Los Angeles on him is just pure lunacy. There are plenty of lunatics in LA that probably think he should have won a ring when Howard was there and should have made the playoffs this season.

I expect they will be wishing they had him back by mid season this coming year.

The good thing that happened is that we found Hornacek. I like him a lot and hope he continues to do well. We appear to have our front office in order and cannot wait to see what we do with our roster this summer.

Go Suns

Well Kerr is the person that won multiple championships with Michael Jordan and then won again with the Spurs. I would say he knows a hell of a lot more about winning in the NBA than Mike D'antoni. He understands that you have to play defense in order to win a ring.

No one ever said that Thibodeau would turn Nash and Amare into great defenders. However, he would have improved the overall team defense and held them more accountable. And how can you say you do not like the way the Celtics played? They won the championship. I would rather the Suns do that then play run and gun with no defense and get bounced from the playoffs every year. That is unbelievable that you would say you would not want the Suns to play like the Celtics that year, who were, by the way, the number one defensive team in the league that season. And everyone knows that defense wins championships. I would be ecstatic if the Suns could play defense like that.

You also cannot blame D'antoni's Knicks teams on Carmelo. In his first two seasons coaching the Knicks without Carmelo, they had a record of 32-50 in 2009 and 29-53 in 2010. That was before Carmelo got there. It was not until the Knicks got Carmelo in the middle of the 2011 season that they were able to finish a season with a winning record, which was 42-40. Then as I stated in an earlier post, in 2012, they had an 18-24 record with D'antoni and he was fired. Mike Woodson took over and they finished the season 18-6. There is not much more proof than you need other than that to know that D'antoni's coaching has and always will be a fraud. He is an incredibly stubborn man that refuses to take input from outside sources and everything is his way or the highway.

In six years of coaching after D'antoni had the ultra loaded Suns teams, he has compiled the following records:

With Knicks: 32-50, 29-53, 42-40, 18-24

With Lakers: 40-32, 27-55.

Also, zero playoff wins in six years of coaching.

This past season was considered arguably the worst season in Lakers history, yet you are saying that their fans will be wishing they had him back by midseason. Hell there were games in 2013 when D'antoni was bringing Pau Gasol off the bench. That is insanity. The reason he did it is because he has no clue how to coach big guys, and he sure did not know how to coach Gasol and Dwight Howard together. Gregg Poppavich would have had that team rolling.

If you need more proof on D'antoni, read this about Jalen Rose raving about Rick Carlisle and subsequently destroying D'antoni when he talked about how clueless he was versus the Spurs in 2007. http://forums.prosportsdaily.com/showth ... s-clueless

Oh yeah, in 1999, D'antoni coached the Nuggets for 50 games. They were 14-36 with him as the coach and finished the season dead last in defensive rating. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DEN/1999.html

I do agree with you about Hornacek though. I think he has the Suns headed into the right direction. I just hope he does not fall in love with small ball and play the Morris brothers frontcourt anymore next year.

Whatever you say. I got it. You do not like D'Antoni.

You lost all credibility when you brought Jalen Rose into the conversation.

I expect that Jalen Rose didn't like Mike because he was planted firmly on D'Antoni's bench and he never played for anyone else in his career. He was DOA and all of the Mike haters wondered why he never played. He sucked. How many rings does he have? I have zero interest in anything that Jalen Rose has to say. He is bitter that Mike did not play him. I really wonder how he got his job. He underachieved his entire career and now he is an expert. I wish he would have been coach of the Knicks and Lakers rather than Mike. He constantly takes pot shots at everyone and does not have the resume to back it up.

I am sure that Phil Jackson or Thibodeau would have won multiple championships in New York & LA if they had all the talent Mike had when he was there. I know the Laker fans believe that they would have won a championship in 2013 had it not been for D'Antoni. I wish PJ would have coached that group that Mike had last year and this year. However PJ does not coach unless he has at least one HOF player on his roster in their prime. I wish the great Steve Kerr would have taken up those challenges that Mike took on in New York and LA as well. I expect he would be back in the broadcast booth by now.

No one is saying Mike is ready for the HOF but he is not nearly as bad as you and others suggest.

[letsgosuns]

The people that support Kerr's thought of hiring Thibodeau just really have no clue and just want to blame every thing that went wrong on MDA. It was just as bad of an idea as the decision to hire Porter. He wanted a defensive coach to coach players that could not play defense. It just does not work.

In theory hiring Thibodeau sounded like an ideal situation but it would have been horrible and every Suns fan would have hated it. All the while your 60 win coach would have been looking over his shoulder while dodging an assortment of folks trying to stick a knife in his back. He did the right thing to walk but he should have never taken the New York job. However I don't think he expected Melo to arrive on the seen and did not realize what an ass clown Melo really is. Then he took the Laker job. Another mistake. Unless you are Phil Jackson or one of his proteges you have no chance in LA at this point in time.

If you enjoy the way the Bulls play and the old Celtics played so be it. I do not like the style Thibs plays in Chicago and the only reason I liked the Celtics is that they beat the Lakers.

How in the world was he going to turn Amare and Nash into good defenders. If you think he was going to accomplish that, you need help. If Mike would have given up playing time allocation to him as well he would have had the whole team on the IR by the All Star break. I admire what Thibs has accomplished but I would not want him as our Coach ever.

To blame anything that went on in New York or Los Angeles on him is just pure lunacy. There are plenty of lunatics in LA that probably think he should have won a ring when Howard was there and should have made the playoffs this season.

I expect they will be wishing they had him back by mid season this coming year.

The good thing that happened is that we found Hornacek. I like him a lot and hope he continues to do well. We appear to have our front office in order and cannot wait to see what we do with our roster this summer.

Go Suns

Well Kerr is the person that won multiple championships with Michael Jordan and then won again with the Spurs. I would say he knows a hell of a lot more about winning in the NBA than Mike D'antoni. He understands that you have to play defense in order to win a ring.

No one ever said that Thibodeau would turn Nash and Amare into great defenders. However, he would have improved the overall team defense and held them more accountable. And how can you say you do not like the way the Celtics played? They won the championship. I would rather the Suns do that then play run and gun with no defense and get bounced from the playoffs every year. That is unbelievable that you would say you would not want the Suns to play like the Celtics that year, who were, by the way, the number one defensive team in the league that season. And everyone knows that defense wins championships. I would be ecstatic if the Suns could play defense like that.

You also cannot blame D'antoni's Knicks teams on Carmelo. In his first two seasons coaching the Knicks without Carmelo, they had a record of 32-50 in 2009 and 29-53 in 2010. That was before Carmelo got there. It was not until the Knicks got Carmelo in the middle of the 2011 season that they were able to finish a season with a winning record, which was 42-40. Then as I stated in an earlier post, in 2012, they had an 18-24 record with D'antoni and he was fired. Mike Woodson took over and they finished the season 18-6. There is not much more proof than you need other than that to know that D'antoni's coaching has and always will be a fraud. He is an incredibly stubborn man that refuses to take input from outside sources and everything is his way or the highway.

In six years of coaching after D'antoni had the ultra loaded Suns teams, he has compiled the following records:

With Knicks: 32-50, 29-53, 42-40, 18-24

With Lakers: 40-32, 27-55.

Also, zero playoff wins in six years of coaching.

This past season was considered arguably the worst season in Lakers history, yet you are saying that their fans will be wishing they had him back by midseason. Hell there were games in 2013 when D'antoni was bringing Pau Gasol off the bench. That is insanity. The reason he did it is because he has no clue how to coach big guys, and he sure did not know how to coach Gasol and Dwight Howard together. Gregg Poppavich would have had that team rolling.

If you need more proof on D'antoni, read this about Jalen Rose raving about Rick Carlisle and subsequently destroying D'antoni when he talked about how clueless he was versus the Spurs in 2007. http://forums.prosportsdaily.com/showth ... s-clueless

Oh yeah, in 1999, D'antoni coached the Nuggets for 50 games. They were 14-36 with him as the coach and finished the season dead last in defensive rating. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DEN/1999.html

I do agree with you about Hornacek though. I think he has the Suns headed into the right direction. I just hope he does not fall in love with small ball and play the Morris brothers frontcourt anymore next year.

Whatever you say. I got it. You do not like D'Antoni.

You lost all credibility when you brought Jalen Rose into the conversation.

I expect that Jalen Rose didn't like Mike because he was planted firmly on D'Antoni's bench and he never played for anyone else in his career. He was DOA and all of the Mike haters wondered why he never played. He sucked. How many rings does he have? I have zero interest in anything that Jalen Rose has to say. He is bitter that Mike did not play him. I really wonder how he got his job. He underachieved his entire career and now he is an expert. I wish he would have been coach of the Knicks and Lakers rather than Mike. He constantly takes pot shots at everyone and does not have the resume to back it up.

I am sure that Phil Jackson or Thibodeau would have won multiple championships in New York & LA if they had all the talent Mike had when he was there. I know the Laker fans believe that they would have won a championship in 2013 had it not been for D'Antoni. I wish PJ would have coached that group that Mike had last year and this year. However PJ does not coach unless he has at least one HOF player on his roster in their prime. I wish the great Steve Kerr would have taken up those challenges that Mike took on in New York and LA as well. I expect he would be back in the broadcast booth by now.

No one is saying Mike is ready for the HOF but he is not nearly as bad as you and others suggest.

I lose all credibility because I backed up my argument with real words from a former player of D'antoni? That makes a lot of sense. I use actual evidence of how a former player feels about him and now I have zero credibility. Sure. You are the one who judges an entire team based on where the team's players were picked in the draft. Which sounds more real credible: an actual former NBA player who is also an analyst on ESPN or a person on a sports message board? Gee I wonder.

You want more proof about D'antoni? How about Magic Johnson for you. The video of Magic Johnson on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has been taken off youtube, but he annihilated D'antoni in his interview. This is the only thing I can find right now covering the story that is a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK2hqQtMDLc However, you can just type it into Google and see all the quotes.

Is Magic Johnson a credible enough source for you, or is he not good enough? I have been listening to him do commentary since he retired from basketball in 1992 and he is probably the most intelligent basketball analyst I have ever heard. He absolutely hates D'antoni as a coach and has said how terrible he is more than once. There has even been stories written recently that everyone in the NBA now feels that D'antoni's years in Phoenix were a fluke and he is nowhere close to being a good quality coach. There are also many other players that have bad mouthed him after they left his team. It is also widely known how much Pau Gasol dislikes D'antoni. Gasol has two championship rings and made the finals three times. The Lakers were nothing until they got Gasol. I would take Gasol's words over D'antoni's any day of the week.

So do not tell me I lose credibility when I bring up former players that played for D'antoni just because you do not personally like them. Jalen Rose was a very good player and was a key piece on the Pacers team that made the finals in 2000. He actually led the Pacers in ppg that year. Yes, he actually averaged more points than Reggie Miller that season, just barely though. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/IND/2000.html

Mike D'antoni is being exposed now for the fraud that he was and is. I attended about 25-30 games during the 2005-2007 seasons and I have no doubt in my mind that D'antoni is the main reason the Suns did not win a championship. He got bullied by the Spurs and Gregg Poppavich the three years he played them in the playoffs. What happened with Gentry? That's right, his team swept the Spurs. Swept the damn team. Gentry developed a fantastic bench with Dragic, Barbosa, Dudley, Frye, and Amundson. D'antoni would never do that in a million years. If Gentry coached the Suns in 2007, I absolutely believe the Suns would have a Championship banner hanging in the rafters now.

Okay I just found the clip of Magic Johnson bashing Mike D'antoni. He completely rips him apart. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1agri ... art-2_news Again, I hold Magic Johnson's opinion about as high as anyone's ever when it comes to basketball. He says exactly what everyone has said for years, and what Jalen Rose said, that D'antoni does not teach defense. Everything that Magic Johnson said about D'antoni I believe is correct.

[NBAfan3024]

I think Derek fisher will be a better coach imo

[JDLAW]

You want more proof about D'antoni? How about Magic Johnson for you. The video of Magic Johnson on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has been taken off youtube, but he annihilated D'antoni in his interview. This is the only thing I can find right now covering the story that is a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK2hqQtMDLc However, you can just type it into Google and see all the quotes.

Is Magic Johnson a credible enough source for you, or is he not good enough? I have been listening to him do commentary since he retired from basketball in 1992 and he is probably the most intelligent basketball analyst I have ever heard. He absolutely hates D'antoni as a coach and has said how terrible he is more than once. There has even been stories written recently that everyone in the NBA now feels that D'antoni's years in Phoenix were a fluke and he is nowhere close to being a good quality coach. There are also many other players that have bad mouthed him after they left his team. It is also widely known how much Pau Gasol dislikes D'antoni. Gasol has two championship rings and made the finals three times. The Lakers were nothing until they got Gasol. I would take Gasol's words over D'antoni's any day of the week.

So do not tell me I lose credibility when I bring up former players that played for D'antoni just because you do not personally like them. Jalen Rose was a very good player and was a key piece on the Pacers team that made the finals in 2000. He actually led the Pacers in ppg that year. Yes, he actually averaged more points than Reggie Miller that season, just barely though. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/IND/2000.html

I usually like what you have to say, but this is not helping your argument. Magic coached the Lakers for a period of time and he was awful. He is the last person that needs to be commenting on coaches after running off two of his head coaches (Westhead and then Riley). Phil Jackson did not want to coach that Lakers team and the Buss family (except Jeannie) did not want him back.

Jalen Rose was a terrible player when he came to the Suns. Yes he was a key piece of the Pacers team in 2000, but with the Suns in 06-07 he was on his last legs and was sinking like a rock. His athleticism was gone, he could not run or jump or keep up with his teammates and as a result he lost any hope in the rotation of a fast paced team and he blamed D'Antoni for the miserable last year of his career. D'Antoni was not going to recalibrate his team to fit Rose and rightfully so.

I am not saying D'Antoni was a good or a bad coach. He did very well in Phoenix because he had the right players for his system. He also implemented a system that shocked the NBA in 2004-05.

When he coached in Denver, he had absolutely no talent on that roster. When he went to the Knicks, Donnie Walsh was in the process of cleaning up Thomas' mess and the roster was talentless and in a constant state of flux. The 1st half of 2010-11, the Stoudemire was healthy and the Knicks were a very good team. Then came the Anthony trade and things went to pot. With the Lakers, he had a near player revolt - not entirely because of him, but because the core of that team longed for Jackson and several committed virtual insubordination. The problems was, the expectations were so high at the start of the season and the performance was so low under Brown that these players Jackson could work magic with them. The team was the epitome of dysfunction in large part because of the ego of the players and the battles between Kobe and Howard. No coach other than Jackson had the prestige to make the Lakers players submit for the good of the team. But the problem was Phil Jackson did not want to coach that Lakers team or alternatively, Jackson wanted so many concessions from the Buss (except Jeannie) family that they did not want him back. The old man made the decision before he died.

Even D'Antoni's excellent run with the Suns, the roster was changing every year which was really quite remarkable for a team that had the success it had. Just look at the difference in the 04-05 and the 05-06 rosters. Sixty percent of the 62 win 04-05 starting line up was gone - to be replaced by inexperienced role players and discarded veterans. In addition the two main guys off the bench from the 04-05 team (Hunter and Jackson) were also gone. He was still able to get the team to the conference finals. He did a remarkable job. The 07-08 team was a team in turmoil and D'Antoni contributed to the problem by not stepping up and straightening out the issues - that was his job.

He is neither as good as some of you think and he is not as bad as some of you think.

As for Kerr, he made the right choice. If he had chosen NYK, he would have been Jackson's marionette. Jackson is looking to implement his system through the head coach and he is considering only those candidates that have played the triangle. He'll probably hire Fisher and bring in portions of the old gang from the Bulls and Lakers. Jackson is making no bones about the fact he is in charge things will be done his way.

[letsgosuns]

You want more proof about D'antoni? How about Magic Johnson for you. The video of Magic Johnson on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has been taken off youtube, but he annihilated D'antoni in his interview. This is the only thing I can find right now covering the story that is a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK2hqQtMDLc However, you can just type it into Google and see all the quotes.

Is Magic Johnson a credible enough source for you, or is he not good enough? I have been listening to him do commentary since he retired from basketball in 1992 and he is probably the most intelligent basketball analyst I have ever heard. He absolutely hates D'antoni as a coach and has said how terrible he is more than once. There has even been stories written recently that everyone in the NBA now feels that D'antoni's years in Phoenix were a fluke and he is nowhere close to being a good quality coach. There are also many other players that have bad mouthed him after they left his team. It is also widely known how much Pau Gasol dislikes D'antoni. Gasol has two championship rings and made the finals three times. The Lakers were nothing until they got Gasol. I would take Gasol's words over D'antoni's any day of the week.

So do not tell me I lose credibility when I bring up former players that played for D'antoni just because you do not personally like them. Jalen Rose was a very good player and was a key piece on the Pacers team that made the finals in 2000. He actually led the Pacers in ppg that year. Yes, he actually averaged more points than Reggie Miller that season, just barely though. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/IND/2000.html

I usually like what you have to say, but this is not helping your argument. Magic coached the Lakers for a period of time and he was awful. He is the last person that needs to be commenting on coaches after running off two of his head coaches (Westhead and then Riley). Phil Jackson did not want to coach that Lakers team and the Buss family (except Jeannie) did not want him back.

Jalen Rose was a terrible player when he came to the Suns. Yes he was a key piece of the Pacers team in 2000, but with the Suns in 06-07 he was on his last legs and was sinking like a rock. His athleticism was gone, he could not run or jump or keep up with his teammates and as a result he lost any hope in the rotation of a fast paced team and he blamed D'Antoni for the miserable last year of his career. D'Antoni was not going to recalibrate his team to fit Rose and rightfully so.

I am not saying D'Antoni was a good or a bad coach. He did very well in Phoenix because he had the right players for his system. He also implemented a system that shocked the NBA in 2004-05.

When he coached in Denver, he had absolutely no talent on that roster. When he went to the Knicks, Donnie Walsh was in the process of cleaning up Thomas' mess and the roster was talentless and in a constant state of flux. The 1st half of 2010-11, the Stoudemire was healthy and the Knicks were a very good team. Then came the Anthony trade and things went to pot. With the Lakers, he had a near player revolt - not entirely because of him, but because the core of that team longed for Jackson and several committed virtual insubordination. The problems was, the expectations were so high at the start of the season and the performance was so low under Brown that these players Jackson could work magic with them. The team was the epitome of dysfunction in large part because of the ego of the players and the battles between Kobe and Howard. No coach other than Jackson had the prestige to make the Lakers players submit for the good of the team. But the problem was Phil Jackson did not want to coach that Lakers team or alternatively, Jackson wanted so many concessions from the Buss (except Jeannie) family that they did not want him back. The old man made the decision before he died.

Even D'Antoni's excellent run with the Suns, the roster was changing every year which was really quite remarkable for a team that had the success it had. Just look at the difference in the 04-05 and the 05-06 rosters. Sixty percent of the 62 win 04-05 starting line up was gone - to be replaced by inexperienced role players and discarded veterans. In addition the two main guys off the bench from the 04-05 team (Hunter and Jackson) were also gone. He was still able to get the team to the conference finals. He did a remarkable job. The 07-08 team was a team in turmoil and D'Antoni contributed to the problem by not stepping up and straightening out the issues - that was his job.

He is neither as good as some of you think and he is not as bad as some of you think.

As for Kerr, he made the right choice. If he had chosen NYK, he would have been Jackson's marionette. Jackson is looking to implement his system through the head coach and he is considering only those candidates that have played the triangle. He'll probably hire Fisher and bring in portions of the old gang from the Bulls and Lakers. Jackson is making no bones about the fact he is in charge things will be done his way.

I understand what you are saying. I brought up Magic Johnson because Puff said I had zero credibility since I used a quote from Jalen Rose in my post. I thought that was ridiculous. I figured by using Magic Johnson, I would show how one of the top five players of all time cannot stand him as a coach either and it was not only a possibly bitter player like Jalen Rose might be.

In addition, I did not say Jalen Rose should have been part of the rotation or played at all. He was way, way past his prime and was a player that rounded out the end of the bench for the Suns. However, he was one of the only players on the team that had championship experience and understood how important defense is. He asked a question in practice that specifically said how are we going to defend the Spurs. D'antoni had no answer for him because he had no idea. He replied by basically saying, it does not matter how we defend them because they cannot stop us. That is not how a coach should game plan. You have to be able to get stops to win the championship. There is no other way.

As far as D'antoni's career outside of Phoenix, I am looking at the bottom line. He never produced anything with any of those teams, regardless of the roster. Some rosters were good, some were bad. But no matter who was on any of those teams, they were in the bottom of the league in defense every year. That is my main point. D'antoni can coach basketball, he can even get a team a winning record, but he has no idea how to coach a team to a championship. You do not ignore defense and say if we play the way we should, no one can stop us. You have to say, okay guys, when the game is tied with 2 minutes left, we need to be able to rely on our defense to give us a chance to win the game. He does not care about that. He hoped the Spurs would just miss shots, most of which were wide open. Obviously the Spurs players can and did hit wide open shots. In the three playoffs versus the Spurs with D'antoni as the coach, the Suns had a record of 4-12. There were injuries, there were suspensions, but the fact still stands that the Suns got dominated by the Spurs.

Also, D'antoni's Suns team in 2006 nearly lost to a team that had Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, and Luke Walton in its starting lineup. There were two good players on that team in Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom. Everyone else would barely make the roster of other teams. Yet it took seven games to beat that team. D'antoni was being outcoached in that series by Phil Jackson. The Suns team was far superior in talent besides Kobe. However, they just barely held on to win that series.

D'antoni knows how to coach a run and gun system about as well as anyone can. He can maximize athletic players scoring potential by using a fast paced running team. Yet he never plays his bench, does not coach defense, and runs his players into the ground. Without a reliable bench and also having a team that plays bad defense, it is impossible to win a championship. I look at the years he had in Phoenix as the Steve Nash years, not the Mike D'antoni and Nash years. Honestly, the closest the Suns ever came to winning the title with Nash was in 2010 with Gentry as the coach.