IMO the first thing he needs to do is tell Marbury to start getting down the court and making himself available for outlet passes when they grab a rebound. For too often he stands there on the defensive end waiting for the basketball. It absolutely kills it open court game. - Joe Mama
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/1211dantoniside1211.html
New coach won't hold team back
Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 11, 2003 12:00 AM
If you believe that Mike D'Antoni is just a fill-in until Jerry Colangelo can go find a big-name coach, think again.
The Suns hired D'Antoni, 52, to serve as an assistant to Frank Johnson knowing that he was a hot prospect in coaching circles, even if his one season as head coach of the Denver Nuggets may not have provided much evidence of it.
"Mike D'Antoni was a heck of a player," the Suns chairman said. "He established himself in the European marketplace as one of the best Americans to ever play in Italy.
"He had an outstanding career and did a terrific coaching job in Italy. I've been around him enough to know his basketball acumen is terrific."
Later, D'Antoni laughed at Colangelo's characterization of his playing days.
"You know what's good about it? As you get older, you become a helluva lot better player," he said.
But D'Antoni did spend 13 years as a playmaking guard in Italy with Olympia Milano, a team he compared to a European version of the Boston Celtics for its tradition and success. And he coached the club for four seasons after retiring as a player at age 39.
Now, he's hoping to bring the same up-tempo, high-scoring style of play he championed overseas to America West Arena.
It's a style that would be familiar to Dallas Mavericks fans - if D'Antoni and the Suns can pull it off - featuring long, athletic players in a wide-open game.
Of course, D'Antoni won't have two key components of that - rookie Zarko Cabarkapa and second-year forward Amare Stoudemire - for another month because of injuries.
"We basically have a lot of talent and a lot of good guys," D'Antoni said. "There is no reason for it not to work. It's our job to figure this out and get it back on track as soon as we can.
"One thing we can do is make it exciting for the fans. We've got to get some excitement in the arena. Sometimes this year it seemed kind of down, like we're waiting for the piano to fall on our head. Like, when are we going to mess up so everybody can talk bad about us?
"We need to change that, and then we need to win some. That always helps."
D'Antoni said he believes in letting stars be stars, and he believes the Suns have some star players and more in the making.
"We're running," he said. "We're getting up and down. There will be some adjusting. There will be some bad shots going up, I'm going to tell you that right now. And it will take awhile to get that out of their system.
"But I'm not going to pull the reins back on them.
"I want our stars to be able to do what they do best, not tell them how to play.
"We're going to go, right or wrong. It should be exciting the first couple of nights. The ball should be flying around. We'll try not to hurt anybody."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/1211dantoniside1211.html
New coach won't hold team back
Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 11, 2003 12:00 AM
If you believe that Mike D'Antoni is just a fill-in until Jerry Colangelo can go find a big-name coach, think again.
The Suns hired D'Antoni, 52, to serve as an assistant to Frank Johnson knowing that he was a hot prospect in coaching circles, even if his one season as head coach of the Denver Nuggets may not have provided much evidence of it.
"Mike D'Antoni was a heck of a player," the Suns chairman said. "He established himself in the European marketplace as one of the best Americans to ever play in Italy.
"He had an outstanding career and did a terrific coaching job in Italy. I've been around him enough to know his basketball acumen is terrific."
Later, D'Antoni laughed at Colangelo's characterization of his playing days.
"You know what's good about it? As you get older, you become a helluva lot better player," he said.
But D'Antoni did spend 13 years as a playmaking guard in Italy with Olympia Milano, a team he compared to a European version of the Boston Celtics for its tradition and success. And he coached the club for four seasons after retiring as a player at age 39.
Now, he's hoping to bring the same up-tempo, high-scoring style of play he championed overseas to America West Arena.
It's a style that would be familiar to Dallas Mavericks fans - if D'Antoni and the Suns can pull it off - featuring long, athletic players in a wide-open game.
Of course, D'Antoni won't have two key components of that - rookie Zarko Cabarkapa and second-year forward Amare Stoudemire - for another month because of injuries.
"We basically have a lot of talent and a lot of good guys," D'Antoni said. "There is no reason for it not to work. It's our job to figure this out and get it back on track as soon as we can.
"One thing we can do is make it exciting for the fans. We've got to get some excitement in the arena. Sometimes this year it seemed kind of down, like we're waiting for the piano to fall on our head. Like, when are we going to mess up so everybody can talk bad about us?
"We need to change that, and then we need to win some. That always helps."
D'Antoni said he believes in letting stars be stars, and he believes the Suns have some star players and more in the making.
"We're running," he said. "We're getting up and down. There will be some adjusting. There will be some bad shots going up, I'm going to tell you that right now. And it will take awhile to get that out of their system.
"But I'm not going to pull the reins back on them.
"I want our stars to be able to do what they do best, not tell them how to play.
"We're going to go, right or wrong. It should be exciting the first couple of nights. The ball should be flying around. We'll try not to hurt anybody."
