Woj Vertical Podcast with Mike D'Antoni

This will be interesting.

 

Rockets/Suns/Lakers/Knicks-related:

What have you learned about what [James] wants in a coach, what's important to him, the kind of partnership you can have?

To be successful, you have to have a very good partnership. Gotta be a partnership. Can't be coach/players. Nowadays, especially your best players but everybody, they want to be coached but also have a partnership with them. They have to understand the trust there. I was tellin' someone the other day, it's like James & I have a rope. Sometimes I'll pull to the right and he's resistant & has to go along with me a little bit and then he'll pull to the left and I'm resistant and I'll go along. Main thing, we're not dropping the rope. What I've learned, he communicates very well. He has opinions on players. He's a part of the process & should be. He knows he's in a position now where his future is what he does in the game. Not money, not fame, he has all that. He's in a spot in his life, the most important thing now is winning. Most players will tell you that early and it's not the case but if you can find guys at the right spot, I think he's there. He wants to win. I'm looking forward to getting in with him and figuring out how do we do this. He knows he has to up his defense. I'm trying to figure out can he be a playmaker? Can we do a hybrid thing? How much does he need the ball in his hands? How much does the ball move? We'll try to figure it out together.

You've always loved to innovate, never afraid to fail. Some don't want to go out of their comfort zone. Do you look at James and say "His talents are unique to something I've always wanted to try or something we can do with him that wouldn't have worked with another player." Does he have your imagination?

I think so. He's more than throw me the ball, iso, let me go one on one, and let me create a quick shot for myself. He's at the point where I think we can move him over. Now I don't know yet, and we'll experiment & talk about it, does he bring it up every time? Does that wear him out? We have to figure out his rhythm of the game. He has a nice pace. He can see the floor. He's an undervalued passer. He averaged 7-8 assists last year. I'd love to see 12-13. I'd love to see where he starts the offense and the ball maybe gets back to him but after the ball is moved around 2-3 times. We'll have to see. Not cut & dry where you have Steve Nash in, that's what he does. We'll see what we can do & what hybrid offense we can have. One thing you do know with guys like him & Kobe, they're gonna score. How can we be efficient? To his defense, he's already efficient. I don't want to screw things up. They were like 8th/9th in offensive efficiency. I want to be in the top 5 but also don't want to be 15th. I have to be careful to go away from what they were doing but add little things to move up the efficiency ranks.

What did you learn coming from LA & NY?

You have to communicate more with them. I'm a little quiet in my down time. I'm thinking, they don't want to hear from me. Actually, they probably do. Be more open, talk. I needed to initiate it more and pull them closer to what I want. There was resistance in NY & LA. Didn't have the same vision I had. That created some problems. We had a lot of injuries too. I can have a vision and if we can't execute it, they won't believe in it after awhile. Injuries in LA, we could have overcome that but without Steve Nash & Steve Blake... We were spiraling out of control. Nash never came back. Blake came back. We end up 28-12, make the playoffs & got hurt again. There are things I can do differently. Whether that's a different outcome? I don't know. I'll try different approaches with James & make sure we're going down this road together. Luckily, the front office, myself have played this way. The players have the same vision. We have to tweak it but they're ok spreading the floor. Maybe Ariza maybe goes down to the four sometimes and we play that way. I had a hard time at first. Melo resisted going to the four. That was a problem. But I had Amar'e there at the four and Chandler at the five so I couldn't move Amar'e out. It's not working. It spirals out of control. There was friction. It got to the point we couldn't & didn't co-exist. Funny enough, after I resign, Amar'e gets hurt and they move Melo to the four. They exploded. We don't have a bad relationship but I had one vision, he wanted to go the other way. I couldn't get him to my way and then injuries and we weren't winning complicated everything.

Linsanity run. How much resentment from Carmelo or other players that lingered?

I have a hard time saying how much because I'm not in their mind.

Did you sense it?

There's an undercurrent to every team. It was there. It's real. Problem we had, for Jeremy to be really good, he had to play a certain way. It was hard for him to adapt. Amar'e, Melo whatever had their certain way to be really good. They could co-exist if Melo went to the four and Amar'e was a backup to Tyson. Neither wanted to do that. We could see how to go and I didn't know how to get there. With losing again, you're trying to prod them with all the coach speak. Communication deteriorated. Then you would see faces of the guys who went through Linsanity. They can see what we can do. We're not doing it.

Did you feel at the time you resigned that if I'm gonna continue to coach NY, I'm gonna compromise myself and I'm not gonna compromise myself? Is that what it came down to?

It did. I didn't see a way out. Because of where it was, if I step back and let you guys go, then the focus will be on the something else other than me and the focus will be on the right place. They'll have to play harder & take responsibility because I'm not there. Woody more or less did what we did. I thought if they can get a pop and if we get a pop, we can make the playoffs. We were good enough to make the playoffs. I thought it was the right thing to do for the organization. Relationships deteriorated where I couldn't get the most out of people. Take me away and they'll up their game.

Phoenix, a young Amar'e, Marion, when you signed Nash, what did you think you were getting?

It started the year before. Experimenting a little bit. I wanted to play different. Marion at the four, Amar'e at the five. We had a nice team. I remember other coaches I respect were against this. They thought I would destroy Marion's career at the four and Amar'e would get killed. I tried it & liked it. I didn't insist on it. Then the next year, Nash is available. We knew he was good & would help. We didn't know the NBA would change rules & they did. We didn't know at age 30, ...I've heard different opinions, Dallas did not really offer him a contract. When they did, I heard they gave him one last chance to...if we have to offer him one, we'll give him $27. We're offering $66. That wasn't gonna fly. So we got him. We can figure this out. This is where the Colangelo's are great. You got Nash, these guys, how are you gonna play? I'm going back & forth and not sure. Jerry & Bryan said play the guys you want to and play the way you want, don't deviate. That just gave me a license...I hadn't won in the NBA yet. They said do it. I said we're doing it. I got lucky. When we started, we thought we could sneak in the 8th seed. We start off the season, the method we were doing, on and on, we start 31-4. We're at halftime, we're giggling because we're up 20 everyday. Are you kiddin' me? I walked into Bryan's office & we start laughing. We didn't think we would be this good. We were killing people. Then Nash & Barbosa go down with injuries, we lose 6 in a row and then start winning again. We ended up with 62 wins, easily could have won 66 games if healthy. So a little luck, a little Dallas underestimating Steve.

End in Phoenix, you & Kerr have looked back and reflected on it. Do you look back at the Suns and say we could have kept going with it or did it reach the end of the line?

We could have made it work. We did have a bump here & there. It got old. We tried, we tried, we tried. Traded for Shaq and went away from... We got to a point, we didn't have any success that you could win a championship that way. Everyone said you can't. I don't know if we believed in it 1000%. Maybe 800%. We just got to a point where I'm tired. Tried to get over the hump, couldn't get over the hump. Some friction happened. We changed courses. If I had the analytic stuff we have now, knowing this is the right way to go, we would have kept going and tinkered some place else. It was Duncan in the way. It wasn't what we were doing.

It's the "Do we need to adjust to who they are or keep doing what we're doing?"

That's the question. Sometimes you blink.

You believed in your vision stronger than him? Was that the push/pull between you & Steve?

Could have been. I lost my cockiness. You go the fourth year, it felt stale. It felt like we won't get over the hump. You think Shaq is the piece - the guy to guard the rim. We needed that. Nothing against Amar'e, couldn't quite guard the rim as we needed it. So I'm thinking, maybe we can and we couldn't. It was better I moved on. It was the right time to do it. Stale, friction, let's go to NY. Know what I shouldn't have done? Leave Steve Nash. That's life & you learn from it.

Before the Knicks, you talked with the Bulls. Were you hoping you had a Bulls offer in hand or do you still think you're taking the Knicks job?

I probably would have taken the Chicago job. The team was better in Chicago. Donnie Walsh told me we have two years of losing and then the big free agency. I'm cocky as a coach, thinking we'll hopefully make the playoffs and we'll be okay. Chicago was set up. When I go, I've already signed, they do get the #1 pick & Derrick Rose. My time in NY was great.

When they say 2 years, we'll get into that big FA class in 2010, 2 years of taking our lumps, do you misjudge...then you're star gets tarnished. He can't coach without Nash. No, we've gutted it. Then when those FAs come, I can't pick a losing program. Is that what you were up against?

A whole lot. Looking back, Miami, at the same time, won and then gutted it right before free agency and got three guys.

They had the one. You didn't. That makes it hard.

Teams have learned since then. "They'll come to NY or LA, just tell them." You can be a world figure from anywhere. It's nice but it's not important anymore. We shot ourselves in the foot. You learn from it.

You can never re-create anything. You want to win in Houston but if this is your last coaching job, what do you want to happen short of winning that will make you be at peace with how it goes that you didn't have in NY or LA?

Relationships always are at the top of my list. You get a feeling. We have to be relevant. We can overachieve. We can be better than people think. If so, that's successful. To make James a MVP type player, which he was already but to get him over the hump there. Develop players like Capela, who has big upside. Can we make him a NBA star? Can we get the best out of Beverley? Then I'm satisfied. It is what it is. Don't win a title, you'll get killed. I'm ok with that. As long as I'm doing my job the right way & players like me(respect me), I can live with the results.

Do you feel now that criticism bothers you less?

I have a harder shell for sure. You stick to what you do. I get snarly & cute. Pop can say it. I do have a smart mouth sometimes. Got myself in trouble in Phoenix, especially on the defensive end. I get criticized for not caring about defense. Every coach cares about defense. I know the reason we didn't win a title is because we weren't great defensively. We tried to but didn't. Snide remarks I can get better at but I am who I am and am comfortable in my skin. They pay us a lot of money. It's a great job. Take the criticism, be a big boy and hang in there and do your job and understand that's part of it.

 

He seems a little confused to me

 

Not confused, but maybe needs to be more assertive. Sounds like he knows it's a weakness and wants to address it. Hopefully he does.

 

Really good listen so far. Thanks!

 

I don't understand how JR can write all that down. How does he do it???


ANyway it was an interesting listen. He is a cool guy.

 

Sounds like the most important thing to success this season is everyone being willing to do whatever it takes to win games.

If that means Ariza has to play the four, then so be it.

If that means James has to bring the ball up the floor every time, then so be it.

If that means James has to play off the ball more and let the ball flow, then so be it.

Hopefully everyone buys in and wants to win. If it takes D'Antoni to do that, then awesome.

 

Someone quick! Photoshop MDA and Harden side by side with a rope between their wrists...

 

MDA talks the talk, that's for sure. He and Harden have been saying all the right things this summer, I'm hoping it's more than talk.

 

Around the 12:30 mark, he actually talks about using Harden as a PG and having him bring the ball up. Personally, I think Harden paired with a good-shooting SG makes more sense than him with a good-passing PG.
<BR>

 

Theres software for that

 

Yeah, it's a new feature of J.R. v2.0

 

Maybe we can find a guard who can play good defense and shoot 40% from 3 pt land.

 

Seems like MDA like to experiment and believe he has a good pulse on what works and what it takes. The one big negative is MDA can't get players with strong ego to buy-in or stay the course. Better start out winning or it could be a fast sinking ship.

 

Lot of dry snitching in that interview.

 

J.R. is Skynet.

 

Chris Paul averaged 10 assists but D'Antoni wants Harden to average 12-13.

 

I see what you did there..