Coach Mike D’Antoni knows what it means to see his vision for basketball realized.
He coached a Phoenix Suns team in the 2000s that ran a similar offense to what the current NBA structure promotes. The run-and-gun style of basketball he implemented was almost ahead of its time.
Since those years, D’Antoni hasn’t found a niche quite like what he once had – but he believes he has one now.
D’Antoni told the USA Today that he feels this current Houston Rockets team can accomplish things the way it plays out in his mind.
“We were able to upgrade our shooting — that’s something that’s been on me over the past few years, that for the style we play I don’t feel we’ve had enough shooting.”
The Rockets added a solid shooter at power forward to stretch the floor in Ryan Anderson, who is a career 37 percent shooter from beyond the arc.
James Harden and Eric Gordon are responsible for leading the offensive charge on the perimeter, and either player can get hot on a given night.
Not only is D’Antoni excited about his new roster, but so is general manager Daryl Morey.
“We’re very excited about what (D’Antoni) brings, (and) the fact the way Mr. (Leslie) Alexander, myself and the players want to play all fit into what he’s been honing for a very long coaching career, a very successful career.”
D’Antoni has a different type of relationship with the players on this Rockets team, and he’s able to effectively communicate his basketball ideas to both the team as a whole and players individually. In the past, that wasn’t something he felt was welcomed, and his methods of coaching were questioned far too often.
“I’ve been on a lot of teams, and the information we get is a lot. With some things you have gut feelings, and you would like to go that way, but you kind of tiptoe when you have hard data saying, ‘You know what, that’s what you should do,’ and it’s without hesitation. So hopefully, with all that data and information we get every day about players, about teams, about combos, about other players, about what the league’s best are doing in pick-and-roll, it gives us a lot more confidence.
“But better than even that, you can tell the players the same thing and they’ll be on the same page. They’re not questioning, ‘Well I had a coach in junior high that told me to do this.’ We’re showing them, ‘This is why we do this.'”
This time he believes the entire organization is on the same page and he loves the position he currently rests in.
“That’s why I love coming here. From the owner, to the general manager, to myself, to the players, we’re all on the same page — we want to play this way. And it’s been proven this way. The stats come in, and we say, ‘Hey, this is how we need to play.’ I don’t have to argue or talk or hope they believe it
The table is spread for D’Antoni now. He has the support of management, he has players excited to play under his guidance, and the rules of the NBA are perfectly fit for the style of basketball he loves to play.
It’s his time to get back to being one of the league's most respected basketball minds.
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