Mike D’Antoni has allegedly moved to the head of the Houston Rockets’ coaching search, but what kind of fit would he be?
Marc Stein and Calvin Watkins of ESPN reported:
Sources told ESPN on Wednesday that D’Antoni has emerged as a leading candidate for the post, having impressed Rockets owner Leslie Alexander in multiple conversations since the search began. Alexander vowed to ESPN last month during the playoffs that he would take a more active role in this coaching search than he has in the past.
And Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reported:
Mike D’Antoni, the architect of the Phoenix Suns’ celebrated high-paced and high-scoring offense a decade ago, has emerged as a favorite for the Rockets’ coaching position, two individuals with know-ledge of the team’s thinking said on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the process.
That’s two reliable sources, both from Rockets beat reporters, so it’s safe to say this is not just some sort of typical rumor mill type stuff. Not to mention The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting the same, so yeah, there’s a very good chance this happens. And D’Antoni makes for a very interesting fit because there are elements of both the best and worst of him in Houston.
On the one hand, general manager Daryl Morey is the perfect philosophical fit for D’Antoni, whose “Seven Seconds or Less” offense was the forerunner of the modern offense, shares the same kind of logic there is in analytical basketball and is the ancestor of the Golden State Warriors’ offense which has taken them to an NBA title last year and possibly a second one this year.
According to Basketball-Reference, from 2004-05 to 2007-08, D’Antoni was the head coach of the Phoenix Suns. Over that span, the Suns made 3,112 threes, which was 402 more than the second-best Warriors. They had an offensive rating of 113.3, which was also the best in the NBA. At 96.0, they had the third-fastest pace in the league. And while those teams had a reputation as being bad defensively, it is partly because the league, media and fans hadn’t quite caught on to the notion of pace-adjusted stats just yet. The Suns were not great defensively, but they were 16th in defense while D’Antoni was there.
His next stint was in New York where his offense was less effective but where he also had far less talent on his team. Still, the Knicks hit the second-most threes while he was there and the 14th-ranked offense. With Raymond Felton and Amar’e Stoudemire in 2011-12, it started to look like his offense was starting to get some traction. But then the Knicks made the trade for Carmelo Anthony, who needs to hold the ball to be the most effective, and that seemed to stop D’Antoni’s offense in its tracks. It was only a matter of time before D’Antoni was done in the Big Apple.
He followed that up with a stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, who had acquired Steve Nash. But the offense went through Kobe Bryant, and again that slowed things down. D’Antoni was the coach but it was never really his team, and it never executed his offense.
All this is relevant because James Harden is the player on the court who the Rockets rely on the most, so the question becomes: Is Harden more Nash or Anthony?
Harden ran 566 isolation plays last year. That’s more than nine teams and only seven fewer than the Golden State Warriors. That’s a lot of iso and the polar opposite of D’Antoni.
To be fair, it’s not like Houston has tons of other guys who can create off the bounce. But it’s still a valid question if Harden can work with D’Antoni.
On the other hand, Harden is an exceptional passer and a very efficient scorer. Only two players have ever averaged more points and assists than Harden while carrying a higher true shooting percentage:
| Shooting | Per Game | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Season | Age | Tm | TS% | PTS | AST |
| 1 | Michael Jordan* | 1988-89 | 25 | CHI | .614 | 32.5 | 8.0 |
| 2 | LeBron James | 2009-10 | 25 | CLE | .604 | 29.7 | 8.6 |
| 3 | James Harden | 2015-16 | 26 | HOU | .598 | 29.0 | 7.5 |
That’s pretty good company.
The question, though, is if Harden can work with D’Antoni. He has elements of Nash in that he’s a capable passer and an efficient scorer; he’s also capable of having that Carmelo-Kobe impact on the offense. Will Morey find players in free agency who can actually shoot the basketball?
If the Rockets want to make D’Antoni the next head coach, one has to hope that someone, somewhere has thought about how to sell this offense to Harden and how to make it work.
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