playstation
Selfless Service
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23540049/how-mike-dantoni-learned-embrace-iso-why-stop-now-nba
Avery Johnson threw D'Antoni a curveball in Game 2 of the 2005 Western Conference semifinals.
Johnson instructed his Dallas Mavericks to switch every screen, a bold strategy back then and something Nash hadn't seen while leading the Suns to 62 wins and earning the MVP that season.
It worked that night, as the Mavs pulled off a 108-106 victory in Phoenix to even the series after being blown out in the opener.
"I remember management and coaches saying, 'What are we gonna do? They're switching everything, and Steve's going one-on-one?'" D'Antoni said. "I said, 'Well, let me think. So their philosophy is to give us a 15-foot shot with the best shooter in the world? We're going to do that every time.'"
Don Nelson, as Nash's coach when he played in Dallas, often yelled at the pass-first point guard to be more aggressive looking for his shot. This was Johnson, Nash's former teammate before he became an assistant under Nelson, gambling that Nash wouldn't fire away.
Nash, with pushing from D'Antoni, accepted the dare and averaged 37 points and 11.5 assists the rest of the series. The Suns eliminated the Mavs in six games. That, in some respects, was foreshadowing of D'Antoni's future with the Rockets: force a switch and let an All-NBA guard go.
In hindsight, D'Antoni wishes it had been a sign of things to come with the Suns.
"Here's what we do. We do it well, we win. We don't, we lose. But they're not stopping it. Nobody's stopping it."
As great as Nash was during their four seasons together, winning a pair of MVPs and twice taking the Suns to the West finals, D'Antoni believes he could have been more dominant if he hadn't been so determined to be a traditional point guard.
"Oh, without a doubt, I screwed that up," D'Antoni said. "Nash was a purist. Steve's a Hall of Fame point guard. He was unbelievably good. I just think instead of averaging 15 or 16 [points], he could have averaged 30 for us. He was that good of a shooter, and I don't think it would have screwed the team up."
Nash averaged 12.4 field goal attempts and 4.1 3-point attempts per game during his four seasons with D'Antoni. By contrast, Harden averaged 20.1 field goal attempts and launched 10.0 3s per game this season, when he led the league in scoring with 30.4 points per game.
They are certainly different players, with the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Harden about two inches taller and 25 pounds heavier than Nash, making him much better suited to withstand the physical toll of creating one-on-one looks. But D'Antoni is convinced that the Suns would have been even more successful if Nash ran all those pick-and-rolls with a shoot-first mindset.
"If they even give a hint of going under [the screen], just whap it," D'Antoni said. Nash, now a player-development consultant for the Warriors who sees Stephen Curry shredding defenses with his jump shot, agrees with his old coach.
"We know better now," Nash said. "The math's been validated, and I think that's why point guards are so aggressive. It makes sense. We stuck to our traditional values, and that allowed me to stick to my personality, whereas I should have come further and further out of my personality.
"Yeah, I should have probably shot the ball 20 times a game. It probably would have made a lot more sense, but at the time, we weren't ready for that league-wide. Everyone was telling us that you can't win shooting all those 3s, and now we realize that we didn't shoot enough, especially when we were playing small. So, yeah, I think Mike's right. I regret it, too.
"But it really wasn't my personality and the culture of the game wasn't ready for that. So it was like a bridge too far, so to speak, at the time."
Nash referenced another of D'Antoni's regrets: that the Suns didn't shoot even more 3s. The criticism that they shot too many, which came externally from the media and internally from the front office, seems cute in hindsight.
The most 3s the Suns attempted during D'Antoni's tenure was 25.6 per game in 2005-06, an unheard of number at the time. That would have ranked 25th in the NBA this season, when D'Antoni's Rockets shot 42.3 3s per night, breaking the league record they set last season.
"If we'd shoot 30-something 3s back then, it was like, 'Oh my gosh!'" D'Antoni said. "That was like stepping out of the box back then. But that was like putting our toes in the water. I should have dove in, and I really regret that."
D'Antoni attempted to use the available analytics during his Phoenix days to convince the front office -- including, in his final season with the Suns, a general manager named Steve Kerr -- that his offensive philosophy offered the best path to playoff success.
Avery Johnson threw D'Antoni a curveball in Game 2 of the 2005 Western Conference semifinals.
Johnson instructed his Dallas Mavericks to switch every screen, a bold strategy back then and something Nash hadn't seen while leading the Suns to 62 wins and earning the MVP that season.
It worked that night, as the Mavs pulled off a 108-106 victory in Phoenix to even the series after being blown out in the opener.
"I remember management and coaches saying, 'What are we gonna do? They're switching everything, and Steve's going one-on-one?'" D'Antoni said. "I said, 'Well, let me think. So their philosophy is to give us a 15-foot shot with the best shooter in the world? We're going to do that every time.'"
Don Nelson, as Nash's coach when he played in Dallas, often yelled at the pass-first point guard to be more aggressive looking for his shot. This was Johnson, Nash's former teammate before he became an assistant under Nelson, gambling that Nash wouldn't fire away.
Nash, with pushing from D'Antoni, accepted the dare and averaged 37 points and 11.5 assists the rest of the series. The Suns eliminated the Mavs in six games. That, in some respects, was foreshadowing of D'Antoni's future with the Rockets: force a switch and let an All-NBA guard go.
In hindsight, D'Antoni wishes it had been a sign of things to come with the Suns.
"Here's what we do. We do it well, we win. We don't, we lose. But they're not stopping it. Nobody's stopping it."
As great as Nash was during their four seasons together, winning a pair of MVPs and twice taking the Suns to the West finals, D'Antoni believes he could have been more dominant if he hadn't been so determined to be a traditional point guard.
"Oh, without a doubt, I screwed that up," D'Antoni said. "Nash was a purist. Steve's a Hall of Fame point guard. He was unbelievably good. I just think instead of averaging 15 or 16 [points], he could have averaged 30 for us. He was that good of a shooter, and I don't think it would have screwed the team up."
Nash averaged 12.4 field goal attempts and 4.1 3-point attempts per game during his four seasons with D'Antoni. By contrast, Harden averaged 20.1 field goal attempts and launched 10.0 3s per game this season, when he led the league in scoring with 30.4 points per game.
They are certainly different players, with the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Harden about two inches taller and 25 pounds heavier than Nash, making him much better suited to withstand the physical toll of creating one-on-one looks. But D'Antoni is convinced that the Suns would have been even more successful if Nash ran all those pick-and-rolls with a shoot-first mindset.
"If they even give a hint of going under [the screen], just whap it," D'Antoni said. Nash, now a player-development consultant for the Warriors who sees Stephen Curry shredding defenses with his jump shot, agrees with his old coach.
"We know better now," Nash said. "The math's been validated, and I think that's why point guards are so aggressive. It makes sense. We stuck to our traditional values, and that allowed me to stick to my personality, whereas I should have come further and further out of my personality.
"Yeah, I should have probably shot the ball 20 times a game. It probably would have made a lot more sense, but at the time, we weren't ready for that league-wide. Everyone was telling us that you can't win shooting all those 3s, and now we realize that we didn't shoot enough, especially when we were playing small. So, yeah, I think Mike's right. I regret it, too.
"But it really wasn't my personality and the culture of the game wasn't ready for that. So it was like a bridge too far, so to speak, at the time."
Nash referenced another of D'Antoni's regrets: that the Suns didn't shoot even more 3s. The criticism that they shot too many, which came externally from the media and internally from the front office, seems cute in hindsight.
The most 3s the Suns attempted during D'Antoni's tenure was 25.6 per game in 2005-06, an unheard of number at the time. That would have ranked 25th in the NBA this season, when D'Antoni's Rockets shot 42.3 3s per night, breaking the league record they set last season.
"If we'd shoot 30-something 3s back then, it was like, 'Oh my gosh!'" D'Antoni said. "That was like stepping out of the box back then. But that was like putting our toes in the water. I should have dove in, and I really regret that."
D'Antoni attempted to use the available analytics during his Phoenix days to convince the front office -- including, in his final season with the Suns, a general manager named Steve Kerr -- that his offensive philosophy offered the best path to playoff success.
