Despite being in the early days of their offseason, Mike D'Antoni is already planning on the adjustments he'll have to do to turn the Houston Rockets into championship material next season.
The veteran head coach talked about the need for his squad to be a top-10 defensive team to make them better, via Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. He also discussed the trust his players have with the coaching staff, but admitted that habits will take time to get used to before becoming second nature to them.
“Defensively is where we are going to make our most strides and, again, we are talking about being a top 10 (defense). That is the key. I guarantee we will get better.
“You are selling trust. We developed a bond between the players and the coaching staff. (Assistant coach) Jeff Bzdelik has done an incredible job. In case you hadn’t noticed, we aren’t a very defensive-minded team, but Jeff is creating habits and that takes a while. That’s our next big step, and we will get better at that next year.”
D'Antoni has not been known as a defensive-minded coach. His style is heavily focused on run-and-gun offense that relies on their ability to score by having more possessions. This season, the Rockets have been successful with this system, finishing third place in the Western Conference. Furthermore, everyone saw James Harden blossoming under D'Antoni's system.
It remains to be seen if Mike D'Antoni and the Rockets, especially Harden, can completely buy in to this new focus come next season. After all, their lack of commitment on defense is a hard habit to break.
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