How is Mike Doing?

[George O'Brien]

When Mike D’Antoni was promoted, there were concerns that he would simply continue doing what Frank Johnson was doing. The question was: "If Mike had the answers, why didn't he tell Frank?"

While the results have not been especially impressive (only one win and it was a steal), it is clear that Mike has made a number of positive changes.

1. Big Lineup: FJ continued to the small lineup even when it was clear it was not working. Mike has used one of the centers at forward enough to give the team a much different feel. Scott Williams is probably better at PF than at center anyway.

2. Simplify the Sets: The Suns players used to look perpetuatlly confused. Now they only look confused in the last few minutes of the game.

3. Fewer Three Point Shots: They only took 9 of them against Portland. Most of the Suns are bad shooters from that range and it looks like Mike may be turning off the green light.

4. More Focus on Matchups: The Suns posted up the smallish Portland guards with some success. Stephon admitted that his was something FJ never wanted them to do.

5. Alley Oop: The Suns are letting Penny throw alley oop passes to Marion with great success. This was not part of the offense under FJ.

6. Reduced Double Teaming: There is still too much bad double teaming, but they seem to be sticking to their man defense much more than before.

Considering all, I think the overall impact has been positive - just not enough to win games yet.

 

[Chaplin]

I have to agree, it has been pretty positive.

Mike is definitely a good gauge to determine if one of our biggest problems was coaching when FJ was around--as so many of us speculated. So far, I see some noticable improvements, although we have yet to win with regularity.

 

[slinslin]

They need to get a real coach in the offseason. Don't fool yourself.

It is the same thing they did over and over again. Promote an assistant, give him a longer contract, he wears off quickly because he wasn't very good to begin with and they promote the next assistant.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by slinslin
They need to get a real coach in the offseason. Don't fool yourself.

It is the same thing they did over and over again. Promote an assistant, give him a longer contract, he wears off quickly because he wasn't very good to begin with and they promote the next assistant.

Sorry slin, but you have no idea what you are talking about. For someone who claims to watch every single game, you must be blind or something.

 

[slinslin]

You don't even see Penny's lazy turnover so I don't think I would have to take you serious when you talk about something like that.

You are falling for the same crap again. Suns hire an assistant coach instead of bringing in a new well respected coach, most people feel like there is an improvement although it doesn't show in the scores and within a short time he is replaced by the next assistant.

D'Antoni will not coach more than a full season before they show him the door, book it.

This is Danny Ainge, Scott Skiles, Frank Johnson Part IV.

You can only hope that D'Antoni is a short term solution until the Suns sign a real coach at the beginning of the next offseason so he has time to prepare his new team instead of burning him out quickly because of hiring him during the season in a difficult situation.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by slinslin
You don't even see Penny's lazy turnover so I don't think I would have to take you serious when you talk about something like that.

You are falling for the same crap again. Suns hire an assistant coach instead of bringing in a new well respected coach, most people feel like there is an improvement although it doesn't show in the scores and within a short time he is replaced by the next assistant.

D'Antoni will not coach more than a full season before they show him the door, book it.

This is Danny Ainge, Scott Skiles, Frank Johnson Part IV.

You can only hope that D'Antoni is a short term solution until the Suns sign a real coach at the beginning of the next offseason so he has time to prepare his new team instead of burning him out quickly because of hiring him during the season in a difficult situation.

And who is your idea of a real coach? George Karl? Right. Pat Riley? You mean GM of the Heat who quit because he was tired of coaching Pat Riley?

Oh yeah, I forgot, you're the guy that likes that "real" head coach Eddie Johnson. Just because he says some good things on the radio.

You don't even watch the games--if you can't see the improvement, you are indeed blind. Lazy turnover? Again, you didn't see the game, obviously.

 

[slinslin]

All I can say is blablabla Chaplin.

Twist it like you wish I don't care about your opinion anyways. First you talk about games then "the game"...

The bottom line is wins and D'Antoni didn't improve that at all.

There are a lot of coaches on the market that the Suns need to talk to. First of all Rudy Tomjanovic and Pat Riley of course but there are a lot more coaches available. Fratello, Karl, Rivers are just a few.

 

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by Chaplin
Sorry slin, but you have no idea what you are talking about. For someone who claims to watch every single game, you must be blind or something.

Couldn't agree more. This team has been much better under D'Antoni, and he is in some coach that was brought up under the Phoenix Suns organization. He is not Danny Ainge. He isn't a Scott Skiles. He isn't a Frank Johnson.

I have no doubt in my mind that this current Phoenix Suns would beat Orlando, Miami, and possibly New Jersey. Unfortunately under D'Antoni they've had to play much better teams without two thirds of the forward rotation.

Slin, who do you really want for a head coach anyhow?

Joe Mama

 

[Chaz]

So far I have been very pleased with D'Antoni's coaching.

I like the fact he is changing things if they are not successful. The W's have not been coming yet but they have improved from being blown out againt Miami.

 

[slinslin]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
Couldn't agree more. This team has been much better under D'Antoni, and he is in some coach that was brought up under the Phoenix Suns organization. He is not Danny Ainge. He isn't a Scott Skiles. He isn't a Frank Johnson.

Joe Mama

You could say the same things about Frank Johnson.

He is not a Danny Ainge, he is not a Scott Skiles, he is not a D'Antoni.

D'Antoni may be good for a short term success like Johnson or Skiles. But we can either wait 2 seasons until he is also fired or we can once and for all get a coach who already proved himself and hold onto him.

D'Antoni might be the right coach for a team that is rebuilding and not expecting anything but when you want to contend for something in the future you need to have a really good coach and not someone who has never had success before and is learning the buisness himself.

Who do you think gets more respect from his players or even officials? Rudy Tomjanovic or Mike D'Antoni.

 

[slinslin]

If we still had Johnson I would expect that we beat Miami as well if we played them again.

When we played against Miami we lost Amare on the same road trip so Johnson didn't have nearly as much time as D'Antoni to prepare for that situation.

We also played our 2nd of back to back road games in Miami against an athletic team.

Also it looked like the team quit on Frank Johnson. They underachieved big time and it is not like D'Antoni changed that, they are still underachieving.

In 2001/2002 we also didn't have Amare but we were not this bad.

 

[scotsman13]

hey slin give them a brake. without amare and zarko this team will keep having a very hard time playing. scott williams is a nice back up but he doesnt have the quickness to match up with a lot of the power forwards in the nba. and marion and jj dont have the size to really do a good job defensive in a lot of these cases.

 

[George O'Brien]

I don't really care if Mike is the long term solution or not. I think the team is playing better and working on stuff that FJ seemed unable to deal with.

Realistically, Amare is second only to Stephon in importance to the team's success. Remove Duncan from the Spurs, Garnett from the Wolves, O'Neal from the Pacers, etc. and those teams struggle. We cannot really pass judgment on Mike until Amare and Zarko are healthy.

After that, Mike will have to win most of the time if he is going to stay.

 

[frdbtr]

Lets give the guy a chance to succeed or fail. He is already under contract until the end of next season so lets give him the rest of this one and all of next before we pass judgement. Big name coaches have to start somewhere and this guy has been very successfull in Europe.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Originally posted by slinslin
But we can either wait 2 seasons until he is also fired or we can once and for all get a coach who already proved himself and hold onto him.

He has proved himself all of Europe I thought.

D'Antoni might be the right coach for a team that is rebuilding and not expecting anything but when you want to contend for something in the future you need to have a really good coach and not someone who has never had success before and is learning the buisness himself.

Who do you think gets more respect from his players or even officials? Rudy Tomjanovic or Mike D'Antoni.

He knows the NBA business. He was an assistant here for a few years, and also had one stint as a head coach. He had undeniable success in Europe. If there was a good set of coaches to choose from this summer, then I would be all for picking them up. However, that happened last summer, and I am almost positive that none of them will be available again this summer. There isn't a better alternative at the moment.

Also, he is an out of house hire. It would be interesting to see what he would do with a full training camp, not to mention a full roster. What about all the other unexperienced coaches who are learning the business? Eric Musselman, Jeff Bzdelick, wasn't Jim Obrian an assistant hire? Eddie Jordan.

All I am saying is unless there is a clear cut front runner for the job this summer, let him play out his contract and see how he does next year.

He is definitely changing all the problems that we have been complaining about for the entire season. Most of them are solved or are being worked on and he hasn't even coach 10 games yet.

 

[Joe Mama]

This current Phoenix Suns team is better than the 2001-02 team. Remember after that team started hot they faded quickly. They also had a little bit forward depth unlike this team right now. Before the trade for JJ they had Rodney Rogers, Bo Outlaw, and John Wallace. Somewhere along the line Tom Gugliotta join that group. While that's a pretty pathetic power forward rotation it beats what the Suns have now with these injuries.

Since D'Antoni took over the Suns have played five teams with a combined 67-50 (57.3%) record. The Clippers are better than their record also. Since Elton Brand returned to the lineup they are 4-1... the one loss coming in Sacramento the first game he was back. The entire NBA and the Western Conference in particular is much, much better from top to bottom than it was a couple of years ago.

Originally posted by slinslin

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Joe Mama
Couldn't agree more. This team has been much better under D'Antoni, and he isn't some coach that was brought up under the Phoenix Suns organization. He is not Danny Ainge. He isn't a Scott Skiles. He isn't a Frank Johnson.

Joe Mama
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



You could say the same things about Frank Johnson.

He is not a Danny Ainge, he is not a Scott Skiles, he is not a D'Antoni.

No you could not say the same thing about Frank Johnson. He was brought up as an assistant coach in the Phoenix Suns organization. Mike D'Antoni was not. He has experience as a head coach both in the NBA and in Europe.

Again, who would you prefer?

Joe Mama

 

[PhiLLmattiC]

I think penny has benefited a lot from D'Antoni. He seems too have more freedom on offense and he's also playing more point. When he's in the game they actually run plays for him. I don't think that was happening under frank johnson. Maybe D'Antoni will start playing him in the 4th more. D'Antoni is smart enuff to put him against the zone rather than JJ. Joe Johnsoin is also playing better. He's drving more. I don't understand how he misses so many jumpers tho. It looks nice. I saw him make them in practice on NBA fastbreak. They just don't go in.

 

[sunsfn]

So far I like what Mike D'Antoni is doing as coach of the suns!

He has changed some things that have been discussed here, mainly playing big instead of always small ball.

I believe the way the team is playing says a lot for just how important the inside presence of Amare is to this team, and he is in the learning stage yet.

The last part of this season will be a fun time to watch with Amare and Zarko back and playing.

We can only hope a big man (center) is available next draft or through a trade this off season..........

 

[Skkorpion]

How is Mike doing?

He's losing during his honeymoon period but is without two key players. Will the team continue to play hard until Stoudemire and Cabarkapa return? Don't know.

Will Amare cure our 4th quarter melt downs? Highly unlikely but Cabarkapa might help.

Bob Young said today that the team makeup and chemistry is bad and the Bo Outlaw trade was a disaster. Is he right? I don't know.

 

[sly fly]

Originally posted by Skkorpion
Bob Young said today that the team makeup and chemistry is bad and the Bo Outlaw trade was a disaster. Is he right? I don't know.

I agree with Bob Young.

The chemistry looked ok last night, but that's few and far between.

Mike D'Antoni is doing what he can to get them to play to his standards. I saw him really get on Marion after he didn't give help from the backside. Never saw that with FJ.

All FJ did was turn his head and walk away from the players. Perhaps Mike D'Antoni can imprint his own type of ball with these guys. But, that's asking a lot from players who choose to turn it on and off.

Intangibles are so important in the NBA. Use Bo Outlaw as a case in point. Never put up gaudy numbers, but there were some games where you told yourself that PHX had no business winning if it were not for Bo Outlaw.

I haven't seen a game this year in which a role player has definitely decided the outcome of a game (maybe, perhaps Jake Voskuhl).

Also, everybody is pinning there hopes on the return of Z. He's going to be a fine addition... but he still has a long ways to go. His frame can not withstand the night to night punishment. Just ask Barbosa (who I love).

 

[Joe Mama]

Wait a second. How the hell do we know that Bo Outlaw trade was a disaster? They traded Outlaw because they felt he was expendable after Zarko Cabarkapa was drafted and looked promising in the summer. Then he had a hernia surgery. Once he recovered Frank Johnson wouldn't put him in the game with any regularity for some reason. Once he did play some decent minutes it was obvious he was going to be a key contributor. Of course then Danny Freaking Fortson pushed Zarko, so he's out again.

There are times when Bo Outlaw would be nice to have, but I think he is mainly missed because of our current lack of depth. I don't believe the team necessarily misses what he did for them.

Isn't Bob Young the same guy who wrote this...

CHEERS

To Shawn Marion for his defense on Rasheed Wallace and a big third quarter offensively.

Did he watched the game last night. Shawn Marion put forth a good effort, but he was completely overmatched by Wallace. It was the double-team that Wallace's scoring down, but it also opened up the offense for the rest of the Portland Trail Blazers. There's a reason they went to him every time down the stretch.

No, Frank Johnson does not deserve all of the blame for the early-season struggles. But he does deserve a good part of that. His game plan flat out sucked on most nights.

Joe Mama

 

[Errntknght]

Bob Young? Sheesh, in years I've never read one insightful comment from him. As far as team make-up goes, thats a meaningless thing to talk about if you don't give the particulars. Maybe it means he's finally noticed we don't have a first class center. The team chemistry looks better to me than it was... in fact, I thought the team started the year with a mistaken idea that they were close to the 'elite' status, based mainly on a couple of fluke wins in the playoffs. It's healthy for them to learn that they have to play much better as a team to capitalize on the talent they have. It was true last year, too, but it just wasn't driven home enough...

 

[Forrestham]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
Wait a second. How the hell do we know that Bo Outlaw trade was a disaster? They traded Outlaw because they felt he was expendable after Zarko Cabarkapa was drafted and looked promising in the summer. Then he had a hernia surgery. Once he recovered Frank Johnson wouldn't put him in the game with any regularity for some reason. Once he did play some decent minutes it was obvious he was going to be a key contributor. Of course then Danny Freaking Fortson pushed Zarko, so he's out again.

There are times when Bo Outlaw would be nice to have, but I think he is mainly missed because of our current lack of depth. I don't believe the team necessarily misses what he did for them.

Isn't Bob Young the same guy who wrote this...

CHEERS

To Shawn Marion for his defense on Rasheed Wallace and a big third quarter offensively.

Did he watched the game last night. Shawn Marion put forth a good effort, but he was completely overmatched by Wallace. It was the double-team that Wallace's scoring down, but it also opened up the offense for the rest of the Portland Trail Blazers. There's a reason they went to him every time down the stretch.

No, Frank Johnson does not deserve all of the blame for the early-season struggles. But he does deserve a good part of that. His game plan flat out sucked on most nights.

Joe Mama

I couldn't agree with you more. The team looks more organized. We badly miss Amare and Zarko. If Fortson would not have done that cheap shot, Z could probably hold down the fort better than any of the current players. Gald that Gugliotta is on the bench. He simply can't play anymore. We cant get a true read on coach D until we get back Amare and Zarko. We had them with FJ as coach when we were losing to 2nd division teams. Now we are in the bad part of the schedule. Hope it wont be too late by the time they get back. When are they supposed to get back?

 

[jbeecham]

Mid-January

 

[SirStefan32]

I've only seen two games under the new coach, and I really think it is very difficult to say, "He is doing well, or "He stinks."

I somewhat agree with Slin in wanting a REAL experienced head coach (two coaches I had in mind are gone- Dunleavy and JVG.

Having said that, I agree with Chap and others who point out that Mike is not just another "Ainge, Skiles, FJ," he has some experience, and I am seeing some positive things happening. Once Amare and Z return, we will see how good Mike is.