Rudy Tomjanovich is the best coach in Houston Rockets history, but there’s a pretty good chance that the best skipper you ever saw run the team was Mike D’Antoni.
He’s the best coach I’ve watched lead the Rockets, and I’m 39. Although, fun fact, that is the exact average age of a human being in North America. So, using infallible math, we can deduce that 50.0% of you are older than me, and likely saw Rudy T in action.
Otherwise, D’Antoni is the guy. Now, he’s a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer. Jeff
VanGundy is unlikely to earn that distinction as a head coach. Rick Adleman (rest in peace) already has, and rightly so – but not for his work with the Rockets. Kevin McHale is the best player to ever coach the Rockets, which is meaningless. Oh, half a season of J.B. Bickerstaff.
Stephen Silas…exists. Ime Udoka is thus far a divisive figure, but he’s not in D’Antoni territory. There’s a brief, complete history of Houston Rockets head coaches after Don Chaney:
And D’Antoni stands above the rest.
Former Rockets head coach earns Hall of Fame nod
D’Antoni’s offense was like the best Lil Wayne punchlines (e.g.: “I’m colder than B-R, add another three Rs”): It was less “how did he think of that?”, and more “how has nobody else thought of that”?
D’Antoni’s revelation, reductively, was that a lead guard’s usage could be higher if they were good enough. It still sounds insane if you’re old enough, but he decided that you don’t really need plays beyond pick-and-roll and/or isolation if your ball-handler is Steve Nash or James Harden (or Jeremy Lin for a month), your big man can catch lobs, and your wings can hit threes.
And he was right.
In Phoenix with Nash, it was seven seconds or less. In time, with Harden, it became something closer to 17 seconds or more. It was a full-on metamorphosis. D’Antoni initially realized that there were more points per possession (PPP) to be found early in the clock, only to realize that when James Harden was in isolation, the points could come at any time.
So, the offense was built around Harden in isolation in unrivaled volume. In 2018-19, Harden recorded 1, 280 isolation possessions. The next leader in iso volume was Russell Westbrook, at 353.
There’s a story that I always liked about Kanye West (before the antisemitism) and Rick Rubin. When West was working on Yeezus, he was said to have brought Rubin into the studio to collaborate. He told Rubin not to add anything, but instead to take away anything he thought was gratuitous.
That’s basically what D’Antoni’s offense was. A dribble hand-off? Why, so we can get the ball into Harden’s hands? Why not just put it there in the first place? Why employ some marginal table-setting floor general type to get the ball to Harden, only to burn precious seconds off the clock when Harden could have had it anyway?
Now, those philosophies are widespread. Nobody keeps a Derek Fisher or Mario Chalmers in their starting lineup. Those are reserves.
D’Antoni was not perfect. Rockets fans can’t see the number 27 in print without having heart palpitations. When Chris Paul got hurt in the 2017-18 postseason, D’Antoni did not adjust. He ran pure Harden ball, which had not won before, and would not win then.
Although…
The second-best player on that Warriors team was either Kevin Durant or Steph Curry. In Paul’s absence, the second-best Rocket on the floor was one of P.J. Tucker, Clint Capela, or Eric Gordon. None of them would have been the third-best player on the Warriors (one of Draymond Green or Klay Thompson). Would any of them have been the fourth (Andre Iguodala)?
Run that simulation 100 times, and the Paul-less Rockets lose to the Warriors in 90+ outcomes. They just don’t miss 27 consecutive threes. Still, it is fair to say that D’Antoni refused to adjust, and that might have cost the Rockets the best possible chance to win the series.
But that’s what D’Antoni did – refuse to adjust. That stubbornness got him pretty far in his coaching career.
He’s the best Rockets coach I ever saw, anyway.
