Houston Rockets move toward formal offer to Mike D'Antoni

Dwight out. D'antoni in. Lin in. Harden to the bench.

 

At least the Rockets will have some sort of identity. As opposed to McHale and JB with their "gotta give some effort" style of play, MDA comes in with real technical philosophy...the assistant can hound them to stay true defensively.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fans Rightfully Turning On Leslie Alexander <a href="https://t.co/T2GZIbUt3E">https://t.co/T2GZIbUt3E</a></p>&mdash; House Of Houston (@HouseOfHouston) <a href="https://twitter.com/HouseOfHouston/status/733668636909506560">May 20, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Man, I hope you are right. I'd love to see five guys constantly moving and hustling and knocking down wide-open threes and dunks.

 

Well, I imagine with Dwight bouncing and D'Antoni likely to be our next HC...Whiteside + Conley seem to be obvious solutions given D'Antoni's Phoenix offense that Les seems so focused on.

I don't know if I'd hate that all that much.

 

Hypothetically: If some other team were offering Whiteside the same money the Rockets offer, he should probably look elsewhere. I'm not on Dwight's side, but the situation should give him pause; and D'Antoni's system screams "I don't like traditional centers!"

 

And who will play at the 4? I'm pretty sure we're going after a 4...i just cross my fingers cause i'm scared D'Antoni will push to sign Anderson.

 

SAS: I don't like it. I wanna be fair, because listen, I wasn't enamored with the job he did in NY. At the same time, he knows a thing or two about basketball. He averaged 58 wins in his 4 full years in Phoenix. It helped he had Steve Nash, Stoudemire & others. Nash was never league MVP until Mike D'Antoni was coaching him. He pushed tempo, helped revolutionize the game into the modern era. The D in his name needs to be taken out. The defense is non-existent. He walked away from New York. Woodson steps over and guides them to the playoffs. Woodson wins 54 games the next year. He can't get a look. Somehow, suspect in New York, highly questionable in LA,...Bickerstaff could have done a better job with the Lakers than Mike D'Antoni. ... You remember the quote: "We practiced defense for half an hour." That's what he said. This is the stuff he says. Houston, this was a team 25th defensively. Daryl Morey is on record saying we need to up the ante defensively and Mike D'Antoni is who you're looking at? Really? It doesn't make sense. It amazes me how some of these coaches get concessions made for them. If you could do it all, that's one thing. They're hiring D'Antoni but also putting together an appropriate staff. What did he do to get these concessions made for him other than what he did in Phoenix? That was prior to 2008. We are now in 2016. Coaches that won a couple of years ago can't get a job. He hasn't won in 8 years and folks are giving him 3rd interviews and making concessions for him. For what? ... He's the same guy coaching in Phoenix, when they acquired Jim Jackson, Jackson had a turnover. Jackson raced down to foul the guy who stole the ball from him. D'Antoni summoned him over, come here, come here, and said we don't do that here. We let him score, it keeps the pace up. I just don't understand.


Skip: His Phoenix mystique lives and lives on strongly. Did Nash or D'Antoni deserve more credit? ... Daryl Morey loves his teams to shoot threes. He'll be happy to have D'Antoni have them jack it up as quickly as possible. Phoenix - It was more about Nash than D'Antoni. You don't have 7 seconds or less without the quarterback Steve Nash penetrating and dishing. ... So what's going on now? Rex Kalamian. He was Scott Brooks lead assistant. Reportedly, Daryl Morey is looking to bring him in as associate head coach, maybe defensive coordinator. He was reportedly close with Harden & Durant.

SAS: Why not give him the job then?

Skip: I agree. There's mystique about D'Antoni's offensive genius Morey is drawn to. He wants to work with D'Antoni because they are like-minded.

SAS: Morey needs to be very, very careful. Our eyes need to be on Morey. He fired McHale 11 games in. He stated to Dwight you're not gonna be a part of the offense after giving him $88M. Because he's the architect & GM, he's responsible for the dysfunction that seeped through this organization like a virus. Not Tad Brown, not Leslie Alexander, Daryl Morey. He needs to be very, very careful about what he's doing here. D'Antoni is a nice guy. He's a salesman. You talk to him, it's hard to root against him. He's classy & knows a thing or two about offense but doesn't give two cents about defense. ... How is he being considered for a job ahead of Mike Woodson? I don't understand. ... If you're looking for an assistant to pair with the head coach, that's an indictment on the head coach. When you talk about a head coach, you trust a head coach to pick his staff. You're trying to formulate a staff for him. It's the NFL equivalent of hiring coordinators. You be the OC, you be the DC, you handle special teams. A head coach is supposed to be overseeing all that. Daryl Morey is. And it's a long way from Phoenix if you're Mike D'Antoni, ain't it? That's all Steve Kerr and them wanted him to do. They wanted Mike D'Antoni to bring in Tom Thibodeau as defensive assistant and D'Antoni refused. Now you're willing to do these things? Before, you didn't want to listen but you want to listen now. And he's still getting looks. Mike Woodson can't get a look. I'll repeat: Woodson succeeded D'Antoni and did a better job with the Knicks than he did recently and people are bypassing that to go 4-5 years earlier than that to what he did in Phoenix to justify him being a leading candidate today. Only in America. Only in America.

 

Yeah, good point since some low profile teams are probably going to sell him the argument "we want you to be our star bla bla...".

Also, he said in an interview a couple of months ago something like "teams which cut me in the past can suck it"

 

No, the reaction wasn't this strong because:

1. Mchale was known to be a strong character guy
2. There weren't available candidates


WTF is this ****? D'antoni? Really? You could have had JVG or Vogel and you choose D ****ing Antoni? The guy who 100% relied on steve nash to implement his system and couldn't do anything when he has normal players? I feel like I'm back in the draft and the Rockets choose MR. Baby Melo over Kawhi. The Rox are about to make the biggest mistake at a crucial time, I can totally see Harden walking away in FA.

 

Those guys are journalists...they're paid to be informed on what they're goin to talk so...they're just not good in what they're doing or they just want to clown Morey on purpose?

 

I had to stop reading JR's transcript of SAS because I could feel my IQ dropping with every word. What a load of hot garbage.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cynic in me thinks HOU leaked Silas being 'seriously considered' after all the bad press Les got yesterday and D'Antoni is still their guy.</p>&mdash; Red Nation Hoops (@RedNationHoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/RedNationHoops/status/733712179640291328">May 20, 2016</a></blockquote>
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I hope Pringles is what in the sales/negotiation world is called anchoring. You essentially put something out there so far fetched that everything else looks good compared to it.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Source: Despite having D'Antoni and Silas in their sights, Rockets don't expect a decision this weekend. Need more time.</p>&mdash; Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/733716236090114048">May 20, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Fine with that, no rush any more. The best options are gone. I'd like them to probe into the college ranks personally.

 

Getting this feeling too! It will be D'antoni and aside from the rant about Woodson and it all being on Morey, SAS is right. What did D'antoni do except for that job in Phoenix that makes the Rockets go all crazy over him? Him and Morey think alike. That's why I'm not really buying that D'antoni is all Leslie.

 

This dude is spot on.

 

http://www.espn975.com/houston-rockets-head-coach-candidates/

 

A negative Morey post from you

Shocking