Their two best players were great offensive players, but bad defensively, so I don't know if a different style would have gotten more out of that team.Charlie Smithy! wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 6:28 pmBob,The Bobster wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 5:54 pmThere are those who would point to his all-time record and say he's one of the best ever based on his team's results.Superbone wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 4:12 pmWho called him the greatest coach?The Bobster wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 3:33 pmIf we're calling him the greatest coach when they win the championship, I guess we are.
I don't happen to agree, I think he's pretty good, and their bottoming out this year doesn't indicate his true ability.
He's somewhere in between. Like most of the coaches with all-time great won-lost records it has a lot to do with personnel. I think we would all agree on that. Sustaining that level and getting the most out of a less talented roster are the real indications of coaching ability.
You know, I admittedly haven't kept up with D'Antoni since he's been coaching the Rockets; I assume he's improved since he was with us,
But, I'll always wonder if we had had a better/more well-rounded coach than him if we wouldn't have at least made it to the Finals. I'm not trying to be disparaging, but his system, to me, was pretty much solely embodied by one Steve Nash. The Nash/D'Antoni Era will always be bittersweet to me for two reasons: we never made the Finals, and the team unceremoniously fell apart every single time Nash left the floor. That, in particular, drove me bonkers back in the day.
Maybe I'm being unfair/revisionist, but 2010 with Gentry, although we were eliminated in the conference finals, was somehow more satisfactory to me (and I don't think it's just cuz we swept the Spurs, though I'm sure that figured in) than all of the D'Antoni years put together.
Your thoughts?
Now, to see the whole league go in that direction with the "shoot and fall down" mentality added to it? No, I don;t want to see that. But for that collection of personnel, yes, that was probably the way to go in hindsight.