The hate Dantoni gets on here isn't my jam. Excellent person, gets buy in and love from his players, has been an innovator. Would have 2 rings if not for an Horry body check and a CP hamstring. Deserves infinitely more respect than he gets. He was also driven off by a b**** owner that used unethical (and borderline illegal) public ageist comments to drive down his leverage instead of letting him go like a man. He had to go to the Nets because they took him. He's a legend id love to see him get a ring.
There seems to be a disconnect here. To be clear, Mike D'Antoni has far and away the greatest winning percentage of any Coach in Rockets history. He literally won .682% of the games he coached here. The idea that he was not a real Coach just baffles me. Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, wins at that high of a level without being very good at what they do. It doesn't matter who is on their team. If the talent doesn't buy into what they want to do they will not have these kind of results. By all means, let's celebrate Silas. He is doing a fantastic job under extremely challenging circumstances. But why in the world do we need to denigrate and dismiss the exceptional accomplishments of Mike D'Antoni to do that?
Harden plays a ton more pick and rolls like he did his first season when he lead the league in assists. He also shoots more catch and shoots because the other players actually are good enough to get Harden open and smart enough to pass him the ball when he is open. Harden is good enough to play anyway you want him to play. Offensively, there isn't anything he does inefficiently.
And that's fine. Perfectly acceptable. I disagree about ceiling and floor though, given that we really almost made the finals here and were facing the GOAT team during his tenure.
Taking a Harden led team with solid supporting cast to mid 50s wins doesn't impress me despite the media projections which were just wrong. Peewee level coach McHale did it twice. Did he beat media projections? Yes. Did he overachieve the teams talent level? Imo no.
Mike had an innovative offense in Phoenix that won a ton of regular season games through one of the best point guards in history; but those NY and LA years were abysmal. He utilized superstar Harden better than McHale, sure. Linsanity was short-lived and while maybe Lin could've only flourished under Dantoni's tutelage, that was still a losing team. He never proved that he could build success with a team lacking that generational talent at the point. He needs his GM wherever he is to do some heavy lifting because I'm not sure he's all that great at player development. I'll always be thankful we had a championship squad with CP3/Harden, but at the end of the day MDA just isn't all that spectacular. Notice how he didn't land a head coaching gig after us. He's charismatic and insightful; certainly helped us win. But he had some glaring flaws. I'm more comfortable with Silas at the helm, especially post-Harden
Did he? McHale won 54 and 56 games with Harden, imagine if you put cp3 on those teams, and no one is arguing that he's a good coach.
I think there was reason why other teams didn't want to pay the price tag for Mike, but they didn't have offensive piece like Houston had, so rockets were willing to pay to look, but of course Jordan said it wouldn't work either cause James is a ball hog, and started jacking up bs shots then Sulked half the time like he didn't want to be there. Mike system gets exposed deep in the playoffs, heck they probably called up Pop and others on how to beat it easy.
LMAO Pee wee level Mchale didnt do it in the KD Warriors era? Did we ever have a flame out and make the 8th seed with everyone hating each other with Pee wee Mchale. It doesnt impress because you have a preconceived notion about his coaching. Our beat writer has posted his plays many times. Our beat writer has said that he has adjusted many times with the Rockets even after Mike was gone. He freaking led the league in out of time out play(efficiency wise) just last year. And this is a stupid argument to begin with because no team achieves anything without talent. We were number top level offensive efficiency every year he was here.
What the hell does kd led GSW have to do with our overall season win total, that's just one team. And Dantoni did lead a flame out with everyone ending up hating eachother. The team we just had that ended up blowing up with everyone traded. Nice job there.
He wasnt seen that way until Mike utilized him that way. Nash would even tell you that. Amare got injured and Melo never bought in. You dont win in this league without talent on your team. Greg POP constantly had multiple HOF on his team and where he is he now? Before melo got there actually. The Knicks were playing very well. When Melo got there it all went to crap. We never had time for player dev because we were always in win now mode. The only player that I regret leaving here is Gary...mabye. Yes he is, he literally changed the NBA and is going to the HOF. MDA would have gotten that Philly job if Doc had not of gotten fired. And honestly, I dont know that it was the correct decision.
