Rockets @ Suns 12-21-16
- Thread starter Mainstreet
- Start date
D'Antoni hasn't done anything since leaving town. He has gutted every team defensively. Houston is shooting lights out but one of the worst defensively giving up points.
Your definition of "remarkable" is different than mine. D'Antoni has proven he can create a "fun" team and put this teams in position to shoot better. It's what I see he is doing with the Rockets...again.
He still won't ever get a title IMO, will end up getting out coached when it counts and the Rockets won't get stops when they are needed in the playoffs. Bank on it.
If your definition of remarkable is to make a team look good offensively I am with you.
OP
OP
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2003
- Posts
- 119,967
- Reaction score
- 60,521
I think Suns fans would gladly take this scenario, being in the playoffs or even having a winning record.
DA is playing some players with the Rockets I never though he would embrace such as Harrell, Beverly and Capela.
He has adapted.
3rdside
Hall of Famer
17th to 4th in less than a season and a coaching system that increases Harden's assist average by >6 (six!) over his career average meaning he's the outright NBA assist leader this season by a pretty comfortable margin, he's probably also the league MVP (Westbrook is not making the players around him much better cause they're not winning like Houston is, and OKC arguably have a better squad)....if that's not remarkable I don't know what is.
And it's not just that they look good, it's that they're winning also.
Last edited:
3rdside
Hall of Famer
Seriously.... let's take the moral high ground cause MDA only looks good; what a loser he is!
Man I wasn't even involved in this years long debate until two days ago and look at me now.
OP
OP
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2003
- Posts
- 119,967
- Reaction score
- 60,521
Careful, this debate will eat you alive. It never ends.
It has been going on since DA left.
I am sure some would. I for one don't want the team to continue to be on the list of the most successful franchises without a title. I know from where things seem now it's tempting but it wouldn't take long for fans to start vomiting again if we started fielding "fun" teams again that have no chance of progressing beyond that.
This is by far the most success the guy has had since he left here. How about we wait to see if he can even win a playoff game as a coach again or do anything with a team in the playoffs before see if he is anything but what he has always been.
3rdside
Hall of Famer
Careful, this debate will eat you alive. It never ends.
It has been going on since DA left.
Ha.
I'm gonna end it right here:
MDA can coach and I know I'm right cause MDA in Houston is proving it.
He's not without his flaws - Covert Rain is right about his defensive question marks - but he can clearly coach; you just can't fluke what he's doing in Houston and what he did for us.
To be clear, I have never said what D'Antoni does for offenses is a fluke. I think he can improve teams on that side of the ball. However, that's only one part of the entire package at being a coach and it's the rest of what comes with the guy that has always bugged me.
I have no problem giving the guy credit for how that team is playing offensively.
3rdside
Hall of Famer
Oh brother.
We progressed pretty far with MDA and were a fractured Joe Johnson eye socket and a dodgy two player suspension from a shot at winning it all, so let's see how Houston gets on.
I would swap places with them from where we stand now any day of the week and two thousand times on Sunday.
slinslin
Welcome to Amareca
Houston has at best a 1% chance to get out of the Western Conference, Golden State would have to fall apart for that to happen.
Chaplin
Better off silent
Oh brother is right. You are IGNORING just how big a role Steve Nash played in those teams. You are FAR undervaluing Nash and FAR overvaluing D'Antoni.
Duh. All offense and no defense is perfectly fine in the regular season as long as you have at least one transcendent talent. But he has continually failed in the playoffs with that philosophy.
Which team am I describing? The Rockets or the Suns? Because that fits with both.
Never said he wasn't entertaining. I just think he's not this great coach you think he is.
You would swap what? The players we had then with what we have now? DUH! Who wouldn't do that?
That doesn't mean I would want those players again with D'Antoni as coach. That is completely different.
3rdside
Hall of Famer
Of course they're not the favourites but it's a whole lot better than a 1% shot that they make it out of the West:
Houston may be in their first year under the MDA / Harden combo but GSW are a new team altogether with Durant in the mix, and Harden is playing like the MVP so who knows what he's capable of.
As for San Antonio, if it wasn't for 16% 3pt shooting the other day Houston would have cleaned them up.
3rdside
Hall of Famer
Lol - if you'd read my post Kingdad you could have told me I was wrong, twice. Houston finished in 8th place / 16th overall last year.
3rdside
Hall of Famer
No I agree that Nash was the most important person but... he wasn't doing what he was doing with the Suns in Dallas, so he had to have a facilitator, and that was MDA. It's what I alluded to before about 1 + 1 = 3.
And again, I agree he needed (or needs) to focus more on defense but the Joe Johnson and Diaw / Stoudemire incidents were freak of nature stuff that had either of them not happened we could well be NBA champs, rendering arguments against MDA's lack of defense irrelevant.
3rdside
Hall of Famer
No I mean Houston - it's like you're so against MDA that you wouldn't touch him with a barge pole, yet Houston are winning, winning pretty and the future is bright.
We totally suck, on the other hand.
I am so against what? Why do I have to recognize where his talent lies but can't criticize him for what he doesn't do well? Why can't I recognize what he does well and still not want him as our coach based on what he had done since he left here?
So, he is doing well with Houston at the moment. We already know what you get with D'Antoni. My goal as a life long Suns fan is a title. End of story. I don't think D'Antoni ever gets you that. Not sure why that is so controversial based on his record.
Last edited:
Chaplin
Better off silent
It's been 8 years since he was our coach. 8 years! And still people want him back? What has he done outside of the past month in the 8 years that merits a return? Mind-boggling!
StreetTruckinTitan
You talkin' to me?
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2014
- Posts
- 3,211
- Reaction score
- 1,815
Your just banging your head against the wall with some of these "Non-Mike Believers." Better you than me though. I cant stomach it. This is why my wife keeps me out of sports bars. Some knucklehead always says the wrong thing.
Chaplin
Better off silent
LOL "Non-Mike Believers" That's a good one.
3rdside
Hall of Famer
Okay maybe it's the wrong tone that I'm picking up but I think I understand it better - you don't want him, period, because you don't think he can win a title, period.
Fair enough.
I disagree with that because of what Gentry said after GSW won it all, the two freak of nature events that prevented us winning it all, and that surely (surely) MDA will have learned a thing or two from coaching us to near success all those years ago (but I'm now repeating myself ;-).
Let's see what happens in the playoffs (go Houston
).
Exactly. I get it. Some people are D'Antoni fans. I have no problem with that. However, you can't make up stuff when it comes to D'Antoni's track record. His record, his defenses since he left here are a matter of record and not fact. Houston is one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA. Fact.
I don't begrudge folks for being D'Antoni fans but I prefer to base my opinion on his own track record and our experiences with him here. He is not a title caliber coach. I am done with "fun" teams. I want a title...... period and I don't think D'Antoni ever gets there.
That's not an unreasonable position based on facts. If D'Antoni fans want to have a discussion based on "gut" that's a difference scenario. If you don't care about a title and what a "fun" team...OK.
Last edited:
Chaplin
Better off silent
I'm not sure you are directing this towards me. I'm not a D'Antoni fan. He's at best an average coach.
It was a general statement which I fixed after I realized it sounded like I was saying you...but really wasn't saying..."you".
