Mike D’Antoni vs. Steve Kerr: An Old-fashioned Western Stand-off!
May 6th, 2008 – Dr. Dime
After averaging 57 wins over his past four seasons as the Head Coach of the high octane Phoenix Suns, Mike D’Antoni is now in a position to have his pick of the litter for the teams with vacant head coaching positions. I haven’t seen a Coach demand this kind of attention on the open market since the Lakers rolled out the red carpet for Phil Jackson (the first and second time), or when the Knicks somehow wooed Larry Brown into his New York nightmare. The current leading candidate for the services of D’Antoni: The Chicago Bulls.
The strangest thing about the Bulls making a push to acquire D’Antoni is the fact that Bulls GM John Paxson is a long-time friend of Suns GM Steve Kerr from their running days with the Jordan era Chicago Bulls.
All reports are indicating that the majority of the tension between D’Antoni and the front office in Phoenix stems from his strained relationship with Suns GM Steve Kerr. D’Antoni felt throughout the latter half of the regular season and into the playoffs that Kerr was meddling too much into his handling of the team’s playing style (Kerr wanting a stronger defensive presence), and player relations. Kerr, not so quietly let D’Antoni know he wanted him to be a little more firm with the young stars, Amare Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa. Given D’Antoni’s preference for an offensive run and gun style of play, and his track record for keeping a very democratic relationship with his players, no wonder he is looking to high tail it out of Phoenix.
After the news broke that Dallas Head Coach Avery Johnson was fired following the Mavericks playoff ousting. The buzz started circulating among NBA analysts that maybe D’Antoni was next. We even reported as such here at The Hoop Doctors. What is starting to now unfold is quite the opposite. With all the latest news of NBA General Manager’s firing their Head Coaches, who would have ever thought that with 2 years and $8.5 million left on his contract, it would be Suns Coach Mike D’Antoni looking to get an early exit out of Phoenix.
Part of me was a bit curious as to why Steve Kerr would grant Mike D’Antoni his request to begin talks with other NBA teams regarding their coaching vacancies. Then I realized D’Antoni in his exit interview with the Suns Owner and General Manager must have made a lasting impression that his heart was no longer with the Phoenix Suns. And once a coach loses that passion and commitment to his team, Kerr probably realized he would be better off elsewhere. But with 8.5 million left on Mike D’Antoni’s contract, and Kerr now clearly hoping for D’Antoni to take another job and be forced into accepting a minimal buy-out from the Suns, what we will witness over the next month or so will be an old fashioned western stand-off. But who will shoot first, D’Antoni or Kerr?
D’Antoni should forget the 8.5 million and go to the Raptors where he has a Nash replica in Jose Calderon and a bunch of good shooters around Bosh. His system in Toronto, would work to perfection if they can get rid of TJ Ford.
I agree that D’Antoni’s system would work great in Toronto, and he already has that good personal relationship with the Colangelo’s.
However, i’d like to see D’Antoni Coach one full season with Shaq and give him a legit chance to prove what kind of offensive schemes he can come up with to capitalize on the defensive attention Shaq draws.
I like the first idea, except how about this….D’Antoni hightails out of Phoenix and takes Nash with him….Then the Raptors get rid of the “black hole” known as Carlos Delfino and replace him with Barbosa. If only it could happen!!
I hear ya Jimmy! Unfortunately that’s about as likely as Michael Jordan coming out of retirement to play for the Raps.
Have you ever seen a Delfino interview close up? Is it just me or does it look like Delfino wears make up and plucks his eyebrows?
Steve Kerr needs to get out of coaching and start doing his job. D’Antoni didn’t stand a chance with Shaq coming in the middle of the season. No time to get the team working together. Mike is a great coach and the powers that be are air heads.
I agree with MD on that. Too many ex-players are being hired as GM’s nowadays. A GM should be an experienced businessman trying to make the best fiscal choices for the franchise. Let the damn Coach do the Coaching! Mike is one of the best in the business.
D’Antoni’s main problem the past few years was that Amare didn’t play defense, didn’t progress at all defensively, and didn’t even seem interested in defense much of the time. If Amare played for Phil, Sloan, or Popovich, he’d be pulled out of games and screamed at for doing what he does…. With his speed and strength, Amare should be competing with Dwight Howard and Tyson Chandler for defensive awards, but instead he is viewed as the #1 defensive liability on his team, and, in my opinion, that is the major reason for the talent-laden Suns never getting to the finals.
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