The NBA coaching carousel is soon to begin.
Several jobs are opened right now, but we expect more to follow once the playoffs conclude.
An option for some of the coaching vacancies this offseason will be Mike D’Antoni.
D’Antoni is currently one of the assistant coaches for Steve Nash with the Brooklyn Nets.
Mike D’Antoni and Ime Udoka are joining Steve Nash’s staff on the Brooklyn Nets, per @wojespn pic.twitter.com/oJ8ovNMEJz
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 30, 2020
However, D’Antoni is not a young assistant wanting to get his feet wet as a head coach.
Instead he is a veteran of the game and has been a head coach at several places.
His resume is very long, but he still wants an NBA title to be a part of it.
D’Antoni will throw his name in for a bunch of these jobs, but some think he shouldn’t.
Nets' Mike D'Antoni interested in replacing Terry Stotts as Blazers head coach, per @sam_amick pic.twitter.com/tOncjSxqJn
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 10, 2021
Some people believe that his opportunity to be a winning head coach has passed.
After coming up short with the Houston Rockets, maybe it is time to be an assistant at the most.
Being the head man is not meant for him anymore.
We disagree.
D’Antoni can be a good coach in this league and deserves another shot.
He Is An Innovator
During the times of rugged basketball where the final scores were 70-67; D’Antoni was pushing something different.
With the Phoenix Suns, and his future staff member Nash, he changed the game of basketball.
He used small-ball lineups, emphasized transition basketball, and focused on shooting more threes than anyone else.
With the Suns and Rockets, we saw his vision of basketball.
Running and shooting threes was the motto for him.
He helped bring excitement back to the NBA and the rest of the league soon followed.
Then with the Rockets he focused even more on threes.
His team consistently led the league in all three-point categories.
Now the rest of the league loves to throw up threes.
D’Antoni isn’t a popular person it seems within the public, but his impact has been felt.
He is a pioneer who has gone unnoticed.
He Is Successful
D’Antoni has never made the NBA Finals, but he has been highly successful as an NBA coach throughout his career.
He has made the postseason 10 times and the Conference Finals three times.
Granted, he has never made the Finals, but that is a hard task for most NBA head coaches.
Only seven current NBA coaches have made it to the Finals before.
D’Antoni has been so close on a few occasions.
The Suns for two straight years were close, but hit unfortunate injury luck before the Conference Finals.
His Rockets were one game away, and one healthy Chris Paul away, from dethroning the Golden State Warriors.
The Suns and Rockets were his ultimate creation and were the ones that brought him the most success.
The more of a handling he had on a team, the better they were.
He deserves another chance to see if he can reinvent himself once again and win a title this go around.
His career is good compared to a lot of other candidates.
Yes, he is older and has some failures.
However, he has a lot of success and can bring a team back to contention like how he has done in the past.
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