Will D'Antoni make us better than the Spurs, OKC, and Golden State?

People need to stop bashing Mike D'Antoni. Even though we're already champions, Mike D'Antoni will lead us to another championchip only fake fans talk negatively against their team and I don't wanna see NONE of that anymore.

Rockets are doing everything right, the coaching process was slow and smart and Les chose the best coach available. you can't turn down a former Coach of the Year . We have the best SG in the league in James Harden and the best center in Dwight Howard. This is a team that is built to win and that's what Rockets basketball is - winning. Houston is a HUGE FA destination and we will be in play for Durant/Conley/Hoford and even Harrison Barnes. Rockets future is better than any other team in the league. Go Rockets!!!!!!

 

You are freaking deluded.

But you are right, "only fake fans talk negatively". If you see your team making poor decisions you are a traitor to speak out against it.

Sincerely,
Bush's Iraq war and Freedom Fries

 

Came in to say Spurs got exposed, embarrassed and Popovich was convincingly outcoached

 

the coaching process was slow and smart only to pick the absolute worst coach possible

 

Come on Aruba, you're a smarter poster than this crap.

The only reason you'd want to be a Minnesota fan at this moment is because there's some glimmer of hope after year after year after year of horrible records and high draft picks. You really would rather have been a Minnesota fan going through that? Minnesota hasn't had a winning record since the 2004-2005 season. They've only won 40 games 1 time in that span. Since that season they've only won 30 games 4 times. Milwaukee has pretty much been a crappy or .500 team since the turn of the century.

I'm not a huge fan of D'Antoni, but the fact of the matter is, there really weren't a ton of choices out there. If you hire a rookie coach or ones with little experience, half of the fans would complain asking "who?". If you hire the coach with experience, he's labeled a "re-tread".

I know there's this movement to impeach Morey (full disclosure : while I do like Morey, and he's done a lot more good for this team than not, he's definitely not faultless.) because he doesn't think coaches matter. I don't know when he said that, but treyk3 in another thread posted a link to the 2015 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference where D'Antoni, Battier, and others were part of a panel discussing uptempo basketball. It's a good video, if you haven't watched it already. One of the statements that Battier made is that when he played for Hubie Brown, he had one of the best statements about coaching philosophy when he was talking to coaches. He said Hubie went up and the first thing he said was "I'm going to teach you the most important thing about coaching... the most important thing about basketball. Write this down." He goes to the chalkboard and writes down "if you do not have good players, you will not win". Ultimately, I think this may be more important, or at least equally as important as the head coach. Think about it, McHale was fired last season after being considered a good coach the previous season. What changed? I'm still of the opinion, it's the players. Something fell apart - be it age, personalities, etc. This team needs to be reconstructed or re-taught or something. The best teams in the league have players that put the team above all. Lebron is willing to take a step back, but he has people that can take up the ballhandling, scoring, and rebounding. Curry may be MVP (sorry, but I disagree, but that's another argument), but he has Klay, Draymond, and a slew of role players that play great D and execute on O. They were playing well during Mark Jackson's last season, with Kerr, and without Kerr while Walton was coaching them. The OKC Thunder have Durant and Westbrook along with quality big man play with Adams and Ibaka among others. Scott Brooks or Billy Donovan... doesn't matter... they are a good team.

Harden needs to back up a bit from the limelight and this team somehow needs another 1 or 2 studs for them to compete. I hope Harden isn't the issue that causes this team to collapse. Les doesn't want the team to tank, so it won't be through a high first round pick that they get that player. I don't even know if we'll have a winning record this season because there's no telling what will happen to this team during the offseason. But this team has seen far darker days in the past than this and we're surely not on a Minnesota Timberwolves level of futility... at least not yet.

 

Good post; you make some fair points.

To be clear, I'm saying that I think the wolves and Bucks' futures look brighter than ours. I want no part of their franchise histories.

I watched the Sloan video, plus another one with jvg, Morey, and Battier. Good stuff, and I agree with the Hubie quote. I'm more furious about where the roster is at than the coaching hire; it's all the same to me because it's all part of what I see as a big front office fail. I worry that Harden doesn't have the right mentality to lead a team or make others better and I don't see any possibility of getting the foundational pieces we need to be champions again anytime this decade. So I'm upset. The MDA hire was just the cherry on top of a poop sunday.

I'm always gonna be a fan, but I can't help but think that something has really changed with our organization. we are rebuilding without rebuilding; again. And this time we don't have many assets to work with. I think we are seriously in decline as a franchise and it's hard to watch.

 

Understood. And all I'm saying is that you can't have their future without living through their past. It's the same predicament Morey has to face while juggling salaries and contracts every year. He can't rely on tanking and sucking like so many other teams are willing to do. He's been given the commandment to not tank, so every year he has to try and make a better team and get his studs via free agency and trades.

And this is what I have yet to get an explanation of... what happened? Nobody in the organization or the fanbase expected this team to perform like they did. Not after they played like they did last season. And for those that say "they lucked out"... you don't luck out into 56 freakin' wins. Then people say that we have a bunch of players that can't hit a 3. Nobody was screaming that last year while we were winning and shooting the 3 at almost exactly the same percentage. I've said it before and I'll say it again - where this team fell off a cliff is defensively. I don't know what causes that.. old age? Lack of effort? If it's lack of effort, I don't know caused that. Either this team needs to be slapped upside the head or there's a cancer on the team. There didn't seem to be one on the team last year when everybody was a "brother" on the team. This has easily been the most confusing season ever for me.

As for D'Antoni, he was probably as good a choice as any out there. His philosophy of 3's, layups, and free throws is basically what the Rockets believe. I have a lot of concerns that what he requires from his players are things the Rockets' players don't seem to possess... at least not consistently.

Read the following ESPN article and it gives you an idea of what his beliefs are. There are some very interesting points and some that are downright scary in there. I keep thinking the Rockets are going to have to do some roster changes to facilitate this offense the way he wants it. I just hope it doesn't end up like the Carmello situation where Harden chooses not to "buy in".

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/51996/the-book-on-mike-dantoni

In the meantime, I'm going to sit back and wait to see how the offseason goes, who we pick up, etc. This season has the potential to be surprisingly good or a disaster. And by "disaster", I'm talking about making this past season look like a firecracker to a volcanic eruption... as a fan, all I can do is wait.

 

He benched Gasol for earl Clark because it "fit his system". Very scary.

 

Morey is the one it all falls down to, coach can't do jack when the roster is flawed.

 

How did the coach do jack last year with pretty much the same roster? Maybe you can answer what no one else has been able to answer.

 

Stotts took a average Blazers team into the 2nd round, when they were expected to be in the lottery. There is no doubt that our Houston Rockets need many changes in the roster, but D'Antoni is not likely to get the best out of them.

 

It doesn't feel like any coach or GM can realistically alter our trajectory at this point. We are headed back into the scratching and clawing, limbo territory with the likes of the Jazz, Kings, Hornets etc. Not good enough to sniff any hope for the second round of the playoffs. Not bad enough to sniff any hope for a top 5 pick.

And this will probably go on until Les is no longer the owner. What are the chances Morey can pull another rabbit out of his hat like Harden, while working on the mandate to never have a losing season?

 

Tinman, you got the poll options wrong. Easy mistake to make.

You meant to have the options

Naw

or

Hell Naw

 

Yes, but this is in direct conflict with detractors who say winning percentage is somehow important. His winning percentage is less than D'Antoni's as is his playoff winning percentage. This guy hasn't even won half the games he's coached. Uh oh. I guess at the beginning of the season you would've laughed at him coaching the Rockets. Now what?

 

That's not our goal. Leslie has the inside track: Warriors will keep getting protection from the league for the next 5 years so he figured, let's just entertain the fans because we ain't competing. I actually wouldn't blame an owner if he realized there's only a small chance his team will win that trophy like this so might as well enjoy the years scoring.

 

no no no