Fire D'Antoni!

[cly2tw]

Today's game showed that DA was still capable to finally realize the obvious: you can't have energy to play defense if you keep running your own hurt players into ground by sticking to your "philosophy"!

In the win over Spurs, we didn't push the speed as we normally do and kept defensive intensity throughout the game and had enough energy left to execute offensively to gut out a grind-out win.

 

[TucsonDevil]

Bump...

, sorry... but we all saw this coming. Regardless of whether we win Game 3 and even game 4... This clown has to leave town at the end of the season*


*only thing that can stay the execution is a championship.

 

[IBleedPurpleAndOrange]

d'antoni will never win a championship, too much talent is being wasted by having him coach. he needs to be fired after we lose this season.

 

[mojorizen7]

Like i said, we will not hear Mike D'Antoni admit to making mistakes, or give any real insight as to what himself or his team REALLY lacks or needs to do to get better until his final press-conference after elimination. He tell's us "we're fine" and "we've just got to play better", or "we're the better team", or "if we make our shot's we win that game" all year long every year until there are no more games to play and then...only then do we get Mike speaking without rhetoric and excuses.

 

[Covert Rain]

First off let me say I am not jumping on any fire D'Antoni bandwagon. Since last season, I have said that if D'Antoni doesn't win it all this year, he should be fired. That was before the season started. I repeated that view this year.

So just because we are about to get bounced has no impact on me saying...it's time for him to go. I am sticking by my statement all year long. This team has had way to much talent and not enough emphasis on things like Defense, rebounding, bench rotation and adjustments.

If D'Antoni by some miracle gets us the title this year then I we keep him. If not, it's time to move on.

 

[Bufalay]

who the hell are they going to hire?

 

[mojorizen7]

who the hell are they going to hire?

I don't know but personel-wise it looks as though we'll be extremely limited in our options for the next 2 years so maybe Kerr slides in as HC next year and rides it out until(hopefully) we can bring in a proven,defensive minded guy....and at the same time have the cap flexability to add some defensive minded studs to the core of this team(Stoudemire).
A lot of if's.
A 2-year plan.

 

[dodie53]

I.t.!!!

 

[Mr Bottomtooth]

I agree. Fire D'Antoni.

 

[BC867]

Defense isn't even in his vocabulary

...until(hopefully) we can bring in a proven,defensive minded guy...

I caught a few minutes of Dave Burns on KTAR sports tonite and he was interviewing Mike D'Antoni.

Burnsie asked him a question about defense. 'Antoni gave an answer about running the ball (offense).

Burnsie immediately rephrased his question about defense. 'Antoni gave an answer about offense.

Burnsie asked a third straight question about defense. 'Antoni answered about the offense.

Under@*#@*#believable! The man isn't even aware of the concept of defense. He can't even discuss it.

Is it any wonder that it manifests itself in the team? The Spurs smothered the Suns in Game 2.

What a waste of team talent. D'Antoni the former GM. D'Antoni the Coach.

Maybe the solution is for Kerr (already on the payroll) to take over as Coach for awhile after we're eliminated. Or perhaps Eddie Johnson. Either way, joined by a big man who can work with the Centers and Forwards.

Then I'll hope for Mike and Dan D'Antoni to get jobs with another team and make Diaw part of the package. Now that would be a nice Christmas present.

'Can't even respond to a question about defense. Under@*#@*#believable.

 

[mojorizen7]

I heard that BC.
To Mike's credit....at least he did say at one point during his Politically correct interview that...."we blew it."

 

[goldseraph]

+1 for firing D'Antoni. I'd love to see JVG!

 

[Mulletino]

Please! Its the first game of the season! What a bunch of sad fans in this state. Have a little loyalty to one of the best coaches we have had here in along time.

How can you say he's one of the best coaches n the league if he c an't deliver a championship?

 

[95pro]

How can you say he's one of the best coaches n the league if he c an't deliver a championship?

from nashman's direct quote, he didnt say in the league.
he said one of the better suns coaches in a while. dont attempt to twist words.

 

[Mulletino]

from nashman's direct quote, he didnt say in the league.
he said one of the better suns coaches in a while. dont attempt to twist words.

Fire Di'Antoni and hire Avery. Maybe he can make a run to the Finals. He seems to be the only coach who can handle the Spurs.

 

[GO SPURS GO]

we cant be handled

 

[mojorizen7]

we cant be handled

You can. You know this.

 

[OldDirtMcGirt]

This should be very simple. We've had one of the best teams in the league for these past four years, and I believe had the best team from a talent standpoint last year. Not only have we not won a championship, but the biggest killer for this team has been lack of focus and lapses of concentration, as well as excruciatingly poor defensive rotations. Both of those point to the head coach. If D'Antoni doesn't win a championship, we need to usher in the Larry Brown era for the Phoenix Suns.

 

[Mulletino]

we cant be handled

You're right. Mavs have not competed with the Spurs this year. Mavs are a joke.

 

[TucsonDevil]

You're right. Mavs have not competed with the Spurs this year. Mavs are a joke.

The moment the Mavs got torched by the Heat, the team needed some new blood. In hindsight, that would have been the best time for the Jason Kidd trade. (TucsonDevil, you don't know what you are talking about, they had the best record in the league the very next year!) Without that, the Mavs continued down the road of, "well, we almost made it. Let's stay the course and expect different results." The very next playoff series, they crumbled underneath the pressure of the Warriors. This year, the deterioration has continued. They are done. Their leader is done - he was done before he got that MVP trophy, Dirk will never be the same. The Jason Kidd trade came much too late.

BTW, kinda similar to the Suns and last years debacle with the Spurs... major changes were needed then, mainly in coaching philosophy. That is why I have been against D'Antoni all year. He got Grant Hill and plugged him on the 3-pt line right away, how ridiculous was that? He is the champion of "Well, we almost made it. Let's stay the course and expect different results." That is the formula for frustration and failure. Shaq was a nice addition (a much needed change), but like Kidd, did he come too late? I hope not.

If the Suns fail to win the next two games, D'Antoni needs to be shown the door. It's not personal, its just business.

 

[OldDirtMcGirt]

The moment the Mavs got torched by the Heat, the team needed some new blood. In hindsight, that would have been the best time for the Jason Kidd trade. (TucsonDevil, you don't know what you are talking about, they had the best record in the league the very next year!) Without that, the Mavs continued down the road of, "well, we almost made it. Let's stay the course and expect different results." The very next playoff series, they crumbled underneath the pressure of the Warriors. This year, the deterioration has continued. They are done. Their leader is done - he was done before he got that MVP trophy, Dirk will never be the same. The Jason Kidd trade came much too late.

BTW, kinda similar to the Suns and last years debacle with the Spurs... major changes were needed then, mainly in coaching philosophy. That is why I have been against D'Antoni all year. He got Grant Hill and plugged him on the 3-pt line right away, how ridiculous was that? He is the champion of "Well, we almost made it. Let's stay the course and expect different results." That is the formula for frustration and failure. Shaq was a nice addition (a much needed change), but like Kidd, did he come too late? I hope not.

If the Suns fail to win the next two games, D'Antoni needs to be shown the door. It's not personal, its just business.

Excellent post. It is not enough that we changed personnell; it is clear that the new personnell needs a whole new style and attitude. Right now we're just running a bastardized version of the old system. That was painfully obvious in the second half of game two, we just couldn't execute in the half court despite that we have many players (Nash, Shaq, Grant, and to some extent Amare) that would be great for a half court style of ball. Instead we settle for some crappy jumpers and haphazard last second drives. For an "offensive genious" D'Antoni sure looked lost.

Now which coach we choose is even more important then just booting out D'Antoni. Larry Brown is probably the best fit for what we're trying to accomplish. Shaq has a tendency to dominate coaches who haven't proven themselves in the NBA, and can really be a burden if something is off. With Brown, you've got a guy with championship experience at multiple levels, which is sure to appease the big fella. Brown can coach a mean half court offensive games, and his teams are always defensive stalwarts when he's got the players. His downfall is his inability to coach younger players, but that obviously won't be a problem on a veteran laden Suns team.

 

[nowagimp]

Fire Di'Antoni and hire Avery. Maybe he can make a run to the Finals. He seems to be the only coach who can handle the Spurs.

Yeah then the suns would be owned by the warriors, or any team nellie coaches. The student cannot be better than the master, and avery is still owned by nellie. One day perhaps avery will graduate, but he's still a student.

 

[Highpointer]

The goal of the coach is to lead his team to the championship

I guess Jerry Sloan should be fired in Utah as well.

I follow the Utah Jazz and I think that Sloan should have been fired a long time ago. He has coached the Jazz for 20 years and has never won a championship. If a coach doesn't win a championship after a reasonable amount of time, then he should be let go. It's a simple as that. Coaches like Greg Popovich, Pat Riley, and Phil Jackson can win multiple championships, so why can't coaches like Sloan and D'Antoni do the same?

 

[Highpointer]

All in all D'Antoni has done an awful lot in a relatively short time. I don't understand why he would be replaced with anyone short of Phil Jackson, and I don't like Phil Jackson.

How could you not like a coach with nine championships?

 

[The Man In Black]

Jerry Sloan is an awesome coach. He is in the class of those 3 that have won titles but has never had the quality of players that those guys have had but you can guarantee that his teams would leave it everything on the court and that they would have shot ALL OF THEIR BULLETS in an all-out attempt to get the W. That is coaching.