I might not always agree with Mike D'Antoni's rotations -- i.e., the way he plays so much small ball and leaves centers sitting on the bench, or how Capela plays so few minutes -- but one of the things he is unquestionably excellent at is being consciously aware of the game. For example, I don't think Gerald Green would have taken that game winner tonight if D'Antoni wasn't aware he was shooting it well from 3 aka had the hot hand . . . it was a play drawn up for Green. I don't think that was a last resort like it may have appeared. Harden took the triple team, and Green was meant to shoot. I've noticed throughout the year that Mike is always fully aware of the stats, who is playing well and who isn't. This can be observed through is rotations, how many minutes they play, etc. I'd also like to add while I'm here that I'm probably at least partially responsible for this game-winner this evening after I criticized our inbounds play in a ClutchFans thread I created. You can criticize my threads all you want, but my GM reads and agrees. That's just the way it is.
MDA's great at showing confidence for damn near everyone on the team. Ever since we signed Gerald, MDA just let him go out there and ball. If he was missing a lot, he never got yanked right away. Gerald is one of those guys who depends on knowing that he's important to his team. He'll never find a better situation than the one he's in right now.* * Except maybe during the parade, of course.
