http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writ...ex.html?eref=T1 <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>SAN ANTONIO -- Mike D'Antoni, the NBA's Coach of the Year for the 2004-05 season and the man credited with reinvigorating fast-break basketball in a league gone stale, will not be back to coach the Phoenix Suns for the 2008-09 season, SI.com has learned.</div> Keep in mind that a lot of people thought Iavaroni was a lock to coach the Raps then Smitch was re-signed.
I dont think we should or will go for him as our coach. The right time to make a coaching change was when Rick Adleman was available, now I'd rather just wait it out, try and improve the roster and make the change when a better coach comes around.
I don't think D'Antoni would accept to come to Toronto. Unless you make a blockbuster trade during the off season.
1) His not fired yet, 2) BC stated no coaching changes at this time, 3) D'antoni would go to bulls (go on the suns/bulls forum and see), 4) lastly im pretty sure BC aint gonna fire Smitch this year (or during the offseason) because he knows that raps had bad injuries, garbo was down, AB didnt play good, and we had the PG situation.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing @ Apr 30 2008, 01:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't think D'Antoni would accept to come to Toronto. Unless you make a blockbuster trade during the off season.</div> He's friends with BC. He knows he's a great GM. Why wouldn't he come? I don't want him here though. He's got no defense and we need defense.
One reason I could think of is Toronto will not one of the favorites to win it all and I'm sure D'Antoni doesn't want to go down from what he had in Phoenix. He'll go to a team which is ready to win next season. (if a team is available) Don't get me wrong though, Toronto is a very good team but not ready to win the championship yet.
We're getting linked to every coach on the market right now and, while most are better than Smitch, I'm not exactly sure if they're enough of a solution. I think we really have to wait for the right coach for this job, as opposed to finding marginal upgrades that come from "knee-jerk" reactions. I not a huge fan of D'Antoni and the way he coaches offense to the detriment of team defense. I have no problem continuing along with an offensive-oriented style, but there needs to be some semblance of a defense on this team going into the future. Additionally, I'm hesitant about another coach that is so dependent upon the pick-and-roll. There's nothing wrong with grounding our offense on that, but part of the reason so many of our players were underutilized is because we only had one way of generating offense. And, if the rumours of him being poor at adjustments/recognitions, then that's really just bringing back what we already have in Sam. Avery Johnson might be able to instill that defensive mentality, much like he did in Dallas. But he might bring what I find to be the most frustrating problem with Smitch: an inability to properly develop players. There's already been talk of how he hindered the development of Devin Harris and tried to transform Dirk into a player that he wasn't, and I don't want something like that anywhere near most of our roster (Bargnani, in particular).
