The Talented Mike D'Antoni
By Matt Kolsky posted on Thursday, February 5, 2009 @ 6:10 PM - (General)
Last week I wrote about LeBron James and how he shapes up as the Air apparent (pun fully intended… you know, 'Air' sounds like 'heir.'). It also gave me a chance to talk a little about Kobe Bryant. In other words, I generally discussed the two best players in the NBA.
After this past week, a little part of me wishes I had waited – only a few days after my post, Kobe went into the most hallowed building in professional basketball, Madison Square Garden, and set the New York Knicks on fire. He broke the MSG scoring record with a 61-point performance as his Lakers sprinted past New York 126-117.
Two nights later, in the Knicks next game, LeBreezy came to town and may actually have beaten them up worse. Though he only got to 52 points and his team won by a comparatively meager 107-102 margin, James added 11 assists and 10 rebounds for a triple double – the first triple double with 50-plus points since Kareem Abdul-Jabar had one in 1975 (and the only one since the NBA/ABA merger). It also ties LBJ for the second-highest scoring triple double ever behind Wilt Chamberlain's 53-pointer in 1968.
In other words, I would have had even more to talk about if I had waited to write about LeBron (and Kobe) until after they played the Knicks. An obvious oversight on my part – note to self, any time you intend to write nice things about a particular player or team, check the schedule for the Knicks game and plan the article for the day after… And it was this note to self that led me to today's issue – Mike D'Antoni.
Specifically, Mike D'Antoni is a fraud. Maybe that's not the right word, actually, because I don't think he really lies about what he does. Let me rephrase – Mike D'Antoni is a joke as a head basketball coach – he's an offensive coordinator.
He may be the best offensive coordinator we've seen since Tex Winter's triangle offense helped my Chicago Bulls win six titles in the 1990's. His seven-seconds-or-less approach creates some of the most fast-paced, exciting, downright electric basketball you could ever want to watch. It's a blast – and it's virtually useless in the grand scheme of things, as long as D'Antoni is also responsible for a team's defense.
D'Antoni doesn't coach defense, and therefore his team doesn't play it. They don't play any. And when newish Phoenix GM Steve Kerr tried to convince D'Antoni that he'd need to play a bit of defense to compete for a title, the coach decided he'd rather leave town in favor of a team that will gladly play on only one side of the court.
Now, of course, there is no definitive way to prove this – we can't go back in time and have Mike Fratello convince the 2006 Suns to play defense. But we can take a look at how teams changed when D'Antoni took over…
Let's take Phoenix, where he took control 21 games into the 2003-2004 season. For the next 13 games, D'Antoni was at the helm of a team that featured several of the pieces that would contribute to the Suns' later success – Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa and Joe Johnson, to name a few – but was led by none other than Stephon Marbury and prominently featured a completely broken-down Anfernee Hardaway. These Suns went 4-9 (.308 winning percentage), until they were able to undergo NBA radiation and chemotherapy by unloading Steph and Penny to Isiah Thomas' Knicks.
From there on out, D'Antoni led a cancer-free (and also essentially point-guard free, unless you count Howard Eisley) team to a 17-31 (.354) finish. Looks like unloading Marbury agreed with them, and heading into the 2004 offseason the Suns were a very young, talented team with no point guard – in other words, the NBA equivalent of a chicken with its head cut off.
Add a year of experience for the aforementioned young talent, a 30-year-old Steve Nash at the peak of his passing powers and young sharpshooter Quentin Richardson, and suddenly the Suns were in business. They finished 62-20 to earn Coach of the Year honors for D'Antoni and stormed through two rounds of the Western Conference Playoffs before folding like an origami swan against the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.
Perhaps the best way to illustrate their transition is to note that the Suns went from scoring 94.2 points and giving up 97.9 to scoring 110.4 and giving up 103.3; in other words, their offense got A LOT better, while their defense only got a little worse.
Don't get me wrong, D'Antoni had a lot to do with the team's success and the emergence of Steve Nash as a multiple MVP (nothing like a coach who couldn't care less about defense for a team leader who plays very little defense). No question about it – D'Antoni's system turned the Suns from trash into a competitive, exciting team.
But I think the team's playoff record indicates that other teams around the league pretty quickly caught on to what the Suns were: a brutal team to face in the regular season, but a very overcome-able postseason opponent. After going 9-6 in his first playoffs, D'Antoni struggled more to get to the subsequent Conference Finals (10-10) before losing to Dallas, then lost in the second round in his third year and the first round last year (both to the nemesis Spurs).
Now take the Knicks, who are clearly better this year given a 21-27 record thus far after only 23 wins all of last season. Again, part of this is D'Antoni… but a big part is personnel.
Last year's Knicks featured: two vile cancers, two shoot-first point guards and a complete and utter dog as their top five minute-getters. More specifically – Stephon Marbury and Zach Randolph (cancers), Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson (PGs), and Eddy Curry (dog). They scored 96.9 a game and allowed 103.5.
So far this season they have banished one cancer and traded another, traded one of their shoot-first points (Crawford) and seen the big dog play a total of three minutes on the season. Meanwhile, D'Antoni now has an undoubtedly pass-first point in Chris Duhon and is giving far more tick to interesting younger talents like David Lee and Wilson Chandler. And the team, as you might expect, is significantly better on offense (104.3 ppg) and a little worse on defense (106.3), and will probably finish the season within shouting distance of .500.
I assume that the coming offseason will be a good one for the Knicks, with personnel guru Donnie Walsh firmly entrenched at the helm. In fact, I would expect the Knicks to make a key pickup or two and give D'Antoni the horses he needs to make the playoffs, perhaps even with a shockingly impressive record.
But once they are there, then what? I'll tell you – teams coached by more defense-focused guys (or, put differently, coaches who even care at all about the defensive end) will shut down the Knicks offense at key points in the game and score at will against a team that doesn't defend individually, doesn't defend as a team and usually won't even box out on rebounds.
And after a few years of that, the New York brass will realize it's time to make a change to a coach who can get them over the top. A "B to C guy," if you will. Because D'Antoni, for all the firepower he brings, cannot be that guy. He's your "A to B guy."
Sorry Mike, but the whole Championship thing… it's not gonna happen for you. But in the meantime, it should be a blast for all of us – not only to watch D'Antoni's offense go crazy, but to watch the stars of the game go crazy against his defense.
Speaking of which, the Knicks travel to Golden State next Tuesday, so I'm thinking Wednesday might be a good time to talk about Stephen Jackson and Jamal Crawford. Hell, maybe even Corey Maggette.
I'm Kolsky, and I've said enough.
After this past week, a little part of me wishes I had waited – only a few days after my post, Kobe went into the most hallowed building in professional basketball, Madison Square Garden, and set the New York Knicks on fire. He broke the MSG scoring record with a 61-point performance as his Lakers sprinted past New York 126-117.
Two nights later, in the Knicks next game, LeBreezy came to town and may actually have beaten them up worse. Though he only got to 52 points and his team won by a comparatively meager 107-102 margin, James added 11 assists and 10 rebounds for a triple double – the first triple double with 50-plus points since Kareem Abdul-Jabar had one in 1975 (and the only one since the NBA/ABA merger). It also ties LBJ for the second-highest scoring triple double ever behind Wilt Chamberlain's 53-pointer in 1968.
In other words, I would have had even more to talk about if I had waited to write about LeBron (and Kobe) until after they played the Knicks. An obvious oversight on my part – note to self, any time you intend to write nice things about a particular player or team, check the schedule for the Knicks game and plan the article for the day after… And it was this note to self that led me to today's issue – Mike D'Antoni.
Specifically, Mike D'Antoni is a fraud. Maybe that's not the right word, actually, because I don't think he really lies about what he does. Let me rephrase – Mike D'Antoni is a joke as a head basketball coach – he's an offensive coordinator.
He may be the best offensive coordinator we've seen since Tex Winter's triangle offense helped my Chicago Bulls win six titles in the 1990's. His seven-seconds-or-less approach creates some of the most fast-paced, exciting, downright electric basketball you could ever want to watch. It's a blast – and it's virtually useless in the grand scheme of things, as long as D'Antoni is also responsible for a team's defense.
D'Antoni doesn't coach defense, and therefore his team doesn't play it. They don't play any. And when newish Phoenix GM Steve Kerr tried to convince D'Antoni that he'd need to play a bit of defense to compete for a title, the coach decided he'd rather leave town in favor of a team that will gladly play on only one side of the court.
Now, of course, there is no definitive way to prove this – we can't go back in time and have Mike Fratello convince the 2006 Suns to play defense. But we can take a look at how teams changed when D'Antoni took over…
Let's take Phoenix, where he took control 21 games into the 2003-2004 season. For the next 13 games, D'Antoni was at the helm of a team that featured several of the pieces that would contribute to the Suns' later success – Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa and Joe Johnson, to name a few – but was led by none other than Stephon Marbury and prominently featured a completely broken-down Anfernee Hardaway. These Suns went 4-9 (.308 winning percentage), until they were able to undergo NBA radiation and chemotherapy by unloading Steph and Penny to Isiah Thomas' Knicks.
From there on out, D'Antoni led a cancer-free (and also essentially point-guard free, unless you count Howard Eisley) team to a 17-31 (.354) finish. Looks like unloading Marbury agreed with them, and heading into the 2004 offseason the Suns were a very young, talented team with no point guard – in other words, the NBA equivalent of a chicken with its head cut off.
Add a year of experience for the aforementioned young talent, a 30-year-old Steve Nash at the peak of his passing powers and young sharpshooter Quentin Richardson, and suddenly the Suns were in business. They finished 62-20 to earn Coach of the Year honors for D'Antoni and stormed through two rounds of the Western Conference Playoffs before folding like an origami swan against the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.
Perhaps the best way to illustrate their transition is to note that the Suns went from scoring 94.2 points and giving up 97.9 to scoring 110.4 and giving up 103.3; in other words, their offense got A LOT better, while their defense only got a little worse.
Don't get me wrong, D'Antoni had a lot to do with the team's success and the emergence of Steve Nash as a multiple MVP (nothing like a coach who couldn't care less about defense for a team leader who plays very little defense). No question about it – D'Antoni's system turned the Suns from trash into a competitive, exciting team.
But I think the team's playoff record indicates that other teams around the league pretty quickly caught on to what the Suns were: a brutal team to face in the regular season, but a very overcome-able postseason opponent. After going 9-6 in his first playoffs, D'Antoni struggled more to get to the subsequent Conference Finals (10-10) before losing to Dallas, then lost in the second round in his third year and the first round last year (both to the nemesis Spurs).
Now take the Knicks, who are clearly better this year given a 21-27 record thus far after only 23 wins all of last season. Again, part of this is D'Antoni… but a big part is personnel.
Last year's Knicks featured: two vile cancers, two shoot-first point guards and a complete and utter dog as their top five minute-getters. More specifically – Stephon Marbury and Zach Randolph (cancers), Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson (PGs), and Eddy Curry (dog). They scored 96.9 a game and allowed 103.5.
So far this season they have banished one cancer and traded another, traded one of their shoot-first points (Crawford) and seen the big dog play a total of three minutes on the season. Meanwhile, D'Antoni now has an undoubtedly pass-first point in Chris Duhon and is giving far more tick to interesting younger talents like David Lee and Wilson Chandler. And the team, as you might expect, is significantly better on offense (104.3 ppg) and a little worse on defense (106.3), and will probably finish the season within shouting distance of .500.
I assume that the coming offseason will be a good one for the Knicks, with personnel guru Donnie Walsh firmly entrenched at the helm. In fact, I would expect the Knicks to make a key pickup or two and give D'Antoni the horses he needs to make the playoffs, perhaps even with a shockingly impressive record.
But once they are there, then what? I'll tell you – teams coached by more defense-focused guys (or, put differently, coaches who even care at all about the defensive end) will shut down the Knicks offense at key points in the game and score at will against a team that doesn't defend individually, doesn't defend as a team and usually won't even box out on rebounds.
And after a few years of that, the New York brass will realize it's time to make a change to a coach who can get them over the top. A "B to C guy," if you will. Because D'Antoni, for all the firepower he brings, cannot be that guy. He's your "A to B guy."
Sorry Mike, but the whole Championship thing… it's not gonna happen for you. But in the meantime, it should be a blast for all of us – not only to watch D'Antoni's offense go crazy, but to watch the stars of the game go crazy against his defense.
Speaking of which, the Knicks travel to Golden State next Tuesday, so I'm thinking Wednesday might be a good time to talk about Stephen Jackson and Jamal Crawford. Hell, maybe even Corey Maggette.
I'm Kolsky, and I've said enough.
