coach or cheerleader? someone with insider?

[myrondizzo]

can someone with insider post this article?

 

[Kolo]

can someone with insider post this article?

Here you go:


D'Antoni's method to his mildnessBy John Hollinger
ESPN Insider
Archive

What is great coaching?

When most fans think of a great coach, they picture a martinet like Bobby Knight or a control freak like Larry Brown. Obsessing over minute details on every play, telling players exactly how to get from point A to point B – that's our idea of coaching. That's not the only style that works, but that's the one that tends to get the most credit because fans can easily see the coach's impact.

Then there's Mike D'Antoni's approach. The Phoenix Suns' head coach has his team playing a wide-open, high-scoring style. He rarely uses set plays and encourages his team to improvise on the rare occasions he calls one. Because of this, the perception among many is that D'Antoni isn't doing anything. But nothing could be further from the truth.

D'Antoni's relaxed demeanor only reinforces the notion that he is more camp counselor than coach.
Hindsight is always 20/20, so it's easy to say now that moves like shifting Amare Stoudemire to center were simple. But D'Antoni's moves were anything but obvious at the time.

Phoenix is winning largely because D'Antoni had the cojones to play Amare Stoudemire defensively at center and Shawn Marion at power forward. I can't emphasize this enough – 98 percent of NBA coaches would have said something like, "We need more size in the middle," started Jake Voskuhl at center, and ruined the whole party before it started. Nobody would have called him out for it, either. They would have said, "Well, he's doing a good job considering he doesn't have a center."

The same thing goes for the offense. The Suns rarely run set plays because D'Antoni is smart enough to get out of the way. This is incredibly tough for pro coaches to do – considering their life expectancy nowadays, most consider it borderline suicidal to turn the play calling over to the players. But with such a quick offense and an experienced point guard in Steve Nash, D'Antoni saw that an improvisational offense would be far more effective than any set plays he called.

The reason D'Antoni didn't go the conventional route has a lot to do with his European background. D'Antoni coached for several years in Italy, and with the more wide-open, 3-point-happy European style, he learned that he didn't need to play traditional post players all the time to have success. Moreover, if his players were good enough, teams would have to match up to his lineup rather than vice versa. That's exactly what Phoenix's opponents ended up doing this year – many teams went to smaller lineups against the Suns rather than see Marion and Stoudemire blaze past them for dunks.

Because D'Antoni had seen this work in Europe, he was on board with all the Suns' moves that set this system up. Going after Nash was the most important, obviously, but other moves fit in as well. Rather than sign a traditional center, the Suns signed another perimeter player in Quentin Richardson, cementing the rapid-fire starting five. And when the Suns did add a center, it wasn't a 280-pound banger. It was the athletic Steven Hunter, who fit in much better with the team's run-and-react strategy.

Another thing that hurts D'Antoni's reputation is the idea that the Suns don't play defense. People see that Phoenix led the league in points allowed and assume the coach cares only about offense. But that stat is a mirage created by the Suns' fast pace. In reality the Suns' defense wasn't bad. Phoenix ranked 15th in the league in Defensive Efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions), which is more "average" than bad. It's also a big improvement on the year before, when the Suns ranked 23rd.

Additionally, he has set up the defense to be of maximum benefit to the Suns' playing style. D'Antoni has two goals in every game: Push the pace as fast as possible to take advantage of his team's quickness, and have the starters play as many minutes as possible to mask his weak bench.

The Suns' defense helps accomplish both of those goals, because Phoenix commits the fewest fouls in the league. A lot fewer, in fact – Phoenix had 150 fewer than any other team, and was 16 percent below the league average. Because of the infrequent fouling, his starters rarely get in foul trouble and can stay on the court all game. Additionally, it creates fewer stoppages in play, so Nash et al can run the opponent ragged.

Obviously, D'Antoni had one huge benefit that he couldn't have counted on – the rules interpretation changes reducing contact on the perimeter. With those changes, Nash became impossible to keep out of the paint and Amare Stoudemire became downright unguardable. That magnified the impact of his moves, but they would have worked well regardless of how refs were interpreting foul rules.

So while our image of "great coaching" pictures a general elaborately scripting every step in the dance, sometimes the best thing a coach can do is relinquish control and let the players boogie. D'Antoni deserves the award because he saw the potential of playing the smaller lineup when few others did. By playing small, letting the team improvise, and tailoring the defensive strategy to his maximum advantage, D'Antoni guided a roster with many flaws to the league's best record. Despite several other great coaching jobs this year (by Scott Skiles, Rick Carlisle, George Karl, et al.), there's no doubt in my mind that D'Antoni is the Coach of the Year.

John Hollinger, author of "Pro Basketball Forecast 2004-05," is a regular contributor to ESPN Insider. Click here to contact John.

 

[The Commish]

Great article

 

[myrondizzo]

thanks