The Los Angeles Lakers have a new head coach, and it isn't their old one. As was first reported last night, the Lakers passed on former head coach Phil Jackson, and have agreed on a 3-year deal with Mike D'Antoni. So far, the move has been met with mixed reactions, although I'm hearing more negative reviews than positive. ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, Steve Kerr and Chris Broussard have all crushed the signing. Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke jumped in as well, saying only Phil Jackson could "salvage the season" for the Lakers.
One of the big factors in the negative reaction seems to be D'Antoni's lack of a championship on his resume. Phil Jackson, of course, has enough championship rings to cover all 10 fingers (plus one more), and D'Antoni has never even coached in the Finals. To some that proves D'Antoni lacks a championship pedigree. That logic is terribly flawed, though. A championship does not signify a great coach. George Karl has never won a title, and he is definitely one of the premier coaches in the NBA. You can look at it the other way, as well. Outside of Jackson, there are only two people alive and currently out of the league who have coached a team to an NBA title: Rudy Tomjanovich and Larry Brown. Just because they have the hardware, doesn't mean they are better options than D'Antoni. If having a championship was the key factor in getting the Lakers gig, it would pretty much be Jackson or bust, and that's no way to search for a head coach.
The other big factor going against coach D'Antoni is his reputation of being an inept defensive coach. Again, this seems to be a bit of a flawed premise. While he is definitely an offense-first coach, his teams have never been horrible defensively. For example, throughout his Phoenix Suns tenure, D'Antoni's teams consistently fell in the middle of the league in terms of points allowed per 100 possessions, according to Basketball Reference. The Lakers probably won't improve dramatically on defense under D'Antoni, sure. But they weren't going to be an amazing defensive squad no matter who was coaching. Their perimeter guys are still old and slow, so I really don't buy the theory that the D'Antoni hiring dramatically hurts the Lakers defensively going forward (plus, the Lakers should just be trying to funnel everything towards Dwight Howard on defense anyway).
Anyone who has watched Lakers games so far this season has surely noticed how pathetic they have looked on offense. Former coach Mike Brown tried to install the Princeton offense, and it was just a mess on the court. Guys didn't know where to go, the spacing was terrible, and the team struggled. I mean, that failed system was what got him fired in the end. D'Antoni's offense will likely look nothing like Brown's though, which has to be a good thing for L.A. Granted, the personnel in L.A. isn't a perfect fit for D'Antoni's pick-and-roll heavy offense. But a coach as smart as D'Antoni should be able to figure out how to make the pieces fit together. A shot in the arm will do this team some good, and I expect the Lakers to put up a bunch of points in this new system.
What really makes the signing look bad to some is that D'Antoni was one of only two options... and the other was arguably the greatest coach of all time. Obviously, anyone is going to look bad when compared to the absolute best. But D'Antoni is one hell of a coach, and his two best players (Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash) have already signed off on the hiring, so you'd think the rest of the team is going to buy in to their new coach.
My prediction for L.A. the rest of the way? The Lakers will be one of the best teams in the Western Conference heading into the playoffs. By that time, it'll be hard to imagine that people wrote off the Lakers just 7 games into the season.
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