For all Phil's faults, his teams played defense. For all of D'Antonis greatness (green font) his teams don't. Defense wins titles.
This is great. Apparently Phil was "stunned" when they called back and told him they'd hired D'Antoni. This was a pout move by the (male) Busses. It's THEIR team, goddamnit, he can't have ANY of it. I think I know who public opinion will be with, particularly if the team struggles.
The speculation on Friday from one talk show was that with the Lakers new Cable Contact they needed to be fun to watch. The last few years they have been boring. The Clippers are stealing their thunder and Buss wants showtime back. I think it will be a disaster with this group. Maybe D'Antoni will "adjust" his offense to adapt to these players.
Doesn't it expire at the end of the season? That might make it more palatable. But what shooters are out there?
Fuck me, this is garbage. We are too old for his offense. We don't have the shooters for the offense. This is going to end up ugly. Its the offensive-minded Mike Brown. As for the travel restrictions on Phil, all reports and leaks from both Phil's camp and the Lakers' camp say that his demands were not absurd and that there was no travel restriction. The Lakers' just felt that the triangle was too complex to learn. In other words, Jim Buss is still a fucking moron.
Well, I got that right. Elsewhere I said it should be D'Antoni. I can't really criticize myself for predicting Phil. Even he thought so. http://m.espn.go.com/wireless/story?storyId=8622878&city=losangeles
Classic ESPN and their amateur journalism, repeating rumors ad nauseam until they become accepted as fact.
Ken Berger @KBergCBS Mike D'Antoni expected to reach out to fellow USA assistant Nate McMillan as potential defensive assistant, league source tells :MARIS61:
John Schuhmann @johnschuhmann In 10 full seasons as coach, McMillan teams had an avg defensive rank of 19. In 8 full seasons, D'Antoni teams had an avg def. rank of 20.