Houston, you have a problem. For some reason, the Houston Rockets are reportedly set to hire Mike D’Antoni to be the franchise’s new head coach. If nothing else proves to you that you can be set for life as an NBA coach once you get the gig once, what will?
The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, citing sources, reports the two sides are finalizing a contract, which is believed to be a pretty standard four-year deal. Wojnarowski adds the contract is valued at $16 million, and the Rockets will have a team option on the fourth year of the deal. If they are wise, they will take the option after one year, because nothing about this hire feels like a good, smart move for the floundering Rockets.
There was a time when D’Antoni was considered a good, quality coach. That was in a brief span between 2005 and 2008 when he coached the Phoenix Suns to a pair of conference finals before making earlier exits from the postseason the following two seasons. Since leaving the Suns for a chance to become the head coach of the New York Knicks, D’Antoni has compiled a record of 188-254, and he failed to coach his team to a playoff round victory between stops with the Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers.
D’Antoni was a complete mess of a head coach in two of the largest media markets in the country, for two of the NBA’s most storied franchises. The basketball world witnessed just how bad he turned out to be with just two winning seasons in six years after Phoenix in New York and L.A. Maybe there were other variables in play (the Knicks were a mess before and after D’Antoni, for example, and the Lakers didn’t just get the second overall pick in the NBA Draft by accident), but there was more than enough blame to be taken by D’Antoni over the years.
And yet, he continues to find work. After finishing 27-55 with the Lakers in the 2013-14 season, D’Antoni latched on with the Philadelphia 76ers to be an assistant coach. Now, after just months on the job in Philadelphia, which was very likely to be a pity opportunity to stay in the league from the 76ers as they were going nowhere, he lines up a $16 million, four-year job from the Rockets.
The same Rockets that could really use a boost in defensive ability, which just so happens to be one of D’Antoni’s weakest areas. The same D’Antoni who has failed time and time again to get the team’s star player to buy in to what he is trying to do. Maybe James Harden will be easier to work with than Carmelo Anthony or Dwight Howard (we’ll get to him in a moment). If he does, perhaps D’Antoni can survive the length of his contract. If not, we all know the NBA well enough to know star players will get the edge over coaches.
And yes, there is the whole Dwight Howard part of this conversation. Not for long though. The two did not see eye-to-eye when the two were forced together with the Lakers. With Howard having a player option, and speculation he was already heading out of Houston when the opportunity came, you are probably more likely to go 12 full rounds with Mike Tyson in his prime than seeing D’Antoni and Howard all of a sudden patch things up and make things smooth in Houston.
D’Antoni’s biggest selling point coming in is he has previous head coaching experience, which is apparently one of the key requirements or preferences Houston had during this coaching search. There was no real creativity with this coaching hire. It is just the latest in a long line of teams recycling head coaches simply because they have previous coaching experience.
Yes, D’Antoni did have some success as a head coach, but it was just about a decade ago when he was one of the top coaches in the game. A lot has happened since then, and it hasn’t been all that good for D’Antoni. As with most coaching hires though, the faces Houston puts around D’Antoni could be the difference between another absolute failure of a job by D’Antoni and the Rockets making it out of the first round of the playoffs.
