Rockets @ Suns game thread 1-12-18

[Cheesebeef]

You have lost all credibility when you think that Gentry is a better coach than MDA. I like Gentry as a person but he is a marginal coach at best and has been fired multiple times and will get fired this off season if not sooner with a pretty good roster in New Orleans.

If Amare had stayed healthy after Shaq was acquired for Marion, who knows what might have happened that first year. We were nearly unbeatable with a healthy Amare and Shaq together. Then Amare got hurt again. Gentry's main success was with a healthy Amare in a contract year along with several other players having career years.

The biggest problems then and now in Phoenix is our management group.

You lose all credibility when you don’t even know the facts you’re using to prove your point. Amare was COMPLETELY healthy in DA’s last year when we got routed by the Spurs in five games IN THE FIRST ROUND.

Hard to discuss any issue with someone who doesn’t even have a grasp of the facts he’s arguing.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/stoudam01.html

2007-8: 79 games, 25 ppg and 9 rebounds.

 

[Raindog]

A genius knows how to adjust. DA doesn’t.

Not to mention he’s never even been to a Finals, much less won one.

He’s a good coach, straddling on the fence of being very good, but genius? No.

This is exactly my beef with D'Antoni - he went beyond having a philosophy to being a down right obstinate egomaniac. Those Suns teams easily should and could have won one or two championships... if DA's ego hadn't gotten in the way.

It was always apparent to anyone who was paying attention as to why he stuck to his guns on his system the way he did, even when it became obvious to everyone else it wouldn't work in playoff crunch time - namely, it was what worked when he played and coached in Europe, and he was insistent on proving to everyone that it would beat the conventional approach that always won in the NBA.

Except it didn't, it can't, and it won't. DA could have had his cake and eaten it too, if he had just been a tiny bit less obsessed with being 100% right and had been willing to compromise just a bit. The Warriors have proven that... and the Suns could have been every bit as successful, if DA hadn't been such a stubborn fool... again and again.

What's more, I think any number of coaches - less obstinate ones - could have taken the talent on those Suns teams further. I am also sure Knicks and Lakers fans will differ on his qualifications as a coaching "genius."

And I won't even get into the terrible damage he did personnel wise when Sarver stupidly let him act as de facto GM.

Those pretty much sum up all the reasons I don't have much love lost for D'Antoni.

 

[Hoop Head]

If D'Antoni wouldn't have been so stubborn in regards to rookies the Suns might not be dealing with the worst stretch in franchise history, which followed one of the best runs in franchise history. They didn't add any youth to those D'Antoni teams though so it was bound to come to a screeching halt when Nash's time was up. It's not like talent wasn't available when the Suns drafted, a number of the players they sold off went on to have great careers elsewhere. There is only so much that could be done when D'Antoni left and Gentry did his best to win what was leftover, overachieving if anything, and then when Stoudemire left and Nash started to decline noticeably they were left with nothing to restock their talent. They should have had a few guys entering their primes to help us through the dark times but instead the Suns went out and spent big money on unproven castoffs from elsewhere in an effort to rebuild. We still haven't recovered completely but it looks like we're trending in the right direction now.

 

[3rdside]

A genius knows how to adjust. DA doesn’t.

Not to mention he’s never even been to a Finals, much less won one.

He’s a good coach, straddling on the fence of being very good, but genius? No.

In one sense, of course he was. Pulling off what he pulled off, when he pulled it off...he was way ahead of his time and that’s a kind of genius.

The overall package may have been a touch short, but from one angle...no doubt.





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[MaoTosiFanClub]

I've watched a couple Rockets games this year and they'll lose again big come playoff time. D'Antoni's sets are just way too predictable to score enough points in the playoffs when guys are actually engaged defensively.

I like the guy to win more games than he should with fringe talent but don't think he can take a championship-caliber squad and elevate them over the hump. We saw that here come playoff time when we would struggle against teams we were leaps and bounds more talented than.

 

[BC867]

I like the guy to win more games than he should with fringe talent but don't think he can take a championship-caliber squad and elevate them over the hump. We saw that here come playoff time when we would struggle against teams we were leaps and bounds more talented than.

And teams who knew how to keep their players refreshed for the long run. He was not just seven-seconds-or-less, he was seven-players-or-less. Style over substance catches up with you.