You keep mentioning last season playoffs. That was only against the sample size of two teams. One team we could completely leave one of their starters open, and we still barely beat them. The other team demolished us.
Can we also have memes of what OP is thinking? The "I think D'Antoni is X" is old and boring. We need new material and I think OP's brain is a good candidate.
McHale won 54 and 56 games with harden. Mike won 55. The exact same. Improved diddly squat. He won 65 after adding cp3, then fell right back to the 50s range like McHale, before being run out of town.
LOL he won 4 games with him in 2016. Not 54. Not 44. 4. 12 months later, Mike improved by +51 wins and was runaway winner for Coach of the Year, due to his exceeding of lowered expectations - in other words: overachieve intransitive verbTo perform better or achieve more success than expected.
Coach of the year? Aren't those usually fired within a year or two? Damn. I must have missed that. 4-78. Hope we got a superstar out of that tank job.
The MDA Harden era was interesting to say the least. MDA’s system was simple. Space the floor with shooters, play High screen and roll and let the most dominant offensive force in the league operate. It was unbearable to watch but it was effective and efficient. It won games. But in the end it was flawed. MDA essentially made Harden. The monster numbers, the accolades (and jeers), the fame was conceived and shaped in large part by MDA’s system. Harden knows this and that’s why he has so much adoration and affinity for him. I miss that era as it was exciting and fun for what it was at the time but relieved that we have something new to build on with the potential to add more stars and firepower. The future is bright with these subtractions (MDA, Morey, harden) More with less.
FWIW - you list me with your ‘title’. We can discuss his flaws and whatevers, but we cannot ignore the hand he was dealt: James Harden. Harden did MDA well, but he did it primarily JEHj’s way. Back to my original point, subject titles like yours are flat sophomoric silliness.
We've been top 10 since we went small ball. And Dantoni took over the defense, try again. The Lakers demolished everyone. Anthony Davis had his lowest TS% against us. The Lakers had their lowest offensive rating against....DING DING DING, us in the playoffs. Keep trying to lie, Tillman stooge.
You trying to discredit COTY shows how freaking garbage your argument is. LOL must have missed those playoffs where we lost in the first round and all the point differentials that were better than his 2014-2015 run. Must have missed the lower competition he lost to in the playoffs, multiple times. Pathetic arguments.
And not to mention Mchale won those 50 plus games with Dwight Howard still on the roster and Mike's point differential was STILL better LOL.
The Rockets had best D during the entirety of the bubble. Small sample size, true but still entirely accurate. And you will notice that the leader of the HOUnds, PJ and EGo, were critical for that style of D as well as the success of the current defense.
It's funny how the narrative changes when players, coaches, GMs leave. MDA was an incredible coach here. The team was always amongst the best in the league. It's really amazing how people take winning basketball for granted just because it didn't produce a ring.
You are going to look so stupid when Silas wins COTY. Your arguments have no logical substance or support so you choose to demean and disparage via subjectiveness and pettiness.
I didn't like MDA as the selection at first, but I don't get the bitterness. I guess it's because "we had a chance to win it all" as opposed to the more realistic expectations we have now? MDA gave us a chance against the 73 win juggernaut that the rest of the league ran away from. Also unlocked a shooting guard into one of the most dominant offensive performances in NBA history. Tough crowd. With supporters like that, not sure how Silas can sleep at night. I mean if we want to point fingers as disappointment, Murry had the same cap flex opportunity as GS. Won with Gordon and flopped with Ryno. That was the difference maker of that damn series...
Mixed feelings about MDA. But I'll give it to him that his system really did help star players go on steroids offensively. What made 2017-2018 was that management made some good moves to supply capable 3&D guys, and another elite playmaker to go alongside it. He was an important part of making that season so competitive and our best team in recent history. Not a week goes by where I don't somehow watch a highlight from that team straight dominating everyone. However, the main thing that annoys me about MDA is his single-minded stubbornness, some of which I think he passed down to Harden. I still remember when MDA was coaching the knicks and Chuckwagon locked up amare in a regular season game and MDA shrugged it off and said "he still got 25 right?" while blatantly ignoring how many shots it took for him to get there. And when he came to the Rockets, those kind of trite sayings got old fast ... The good thing is he stuck up for our stars, but the bad thing is he never seemed to challenge them. Like ever. And who could forget his interviews??? Reporter: "What needs to change on defense (having given up a ton by halftime)?" MDA: "Nothing. We just gotta continue to play hard." *facepalm* All in all, best of luck to him. I'd take him over Mchale lol. Images of terrence jones getting destroyed by LMA and switching our pgs to guard dirk still haunt me.
So 68% wasn't good enough. What would have sufficed? 75%? 80%? I'll add that 68% is also Phil Jackson's winning percentage with the Lakers. Maybe they should have gotten a real Coach.
