Lakers hire Mike D’Antoni
Like a thief in the night, the news of Mike D’Antoni being hired as the next coach of the Los Angeles Lakers caught folks off guard.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that D’Antoni has been signed to a four-year deal (three guaranteed) to replace recently ousted Mike Brown.
D’Antoni’s last head coaching job was with the New York Knicks, but he quit after the 2011 season. He also coached the Phoenix Suns from 2003-2008 and shares great rapport with Steve Nash.
Phil Jackson quickly became the lead candidate to (re)fill the position, but his rumored salary and management requests, and travel stipulations (basically, he wasn’t for all that flying around for road games) must have lead Lakers ownership (read: Jim Buss) to go the way of D’Antoni.
The buzz of a Jackson rehire had Lakers fans all abuzz with excitement and delight, but now they have to wrap their brains around a coach who should be better than the one who was just fired, but still might not cut it for the championship chase.
D’Antoni’s teams are known for exciting offense, but deficient defense. Well, wasn’t that part of the problem under Brown, that they were stinking it up defensively?
Also, how will D’Antoni handle Kobe Bryant? Or should I ask, how will Kobe handle him? This isn’t USA Basketball. Supposedly, KB was cool with D’Antoni as a coaching option if negotiations didn’t work out with the Zen Master. As for Dwight Howard, I think he would have benefitted from Phil Jackson’s tutelage and now we might never know what THAT could have been.
What do you think? Was this a god move by the Lakers?
