NBA Rumors: Mike D’Antoni interested in Nuggets job
Former Suns and Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni is reportedly interested in the newly vacant Nuggets job
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Well, that didn’t take long.
The Denver Nuggets’ coaching job has been open only a couple of hours, but Mike D’Antoni, the former Suns and Lakers coach, has already expressed interest in the job.
USA Today’s Sam Amick reported that D’Antoni is “definitely” interested:
With George Karl having recently been hired in Sacramento, D’Antoni is probably the biggest name without a job right now in terms of NBA coaches. That, however, doesn’t necessarily mean he’d be a good fit, but we will be hearing his name connected with a lot of openings.
D’Antoni, 63, rose to prominence as head coach of the Phoenix Suns in the mid-2000s, where he pioneered the “seven seconds or less” offensive system, led by Steve Nash. Those Suns were great, but like the Jazz of the late ’90s they were never quite good enough to win the championship, close as they came.
In his subsequent stops, D’Antoni has failed to recapture the magic of his Suns tenure. D’Antoni left the Suns for the Knicks in 2008. He posted just one winning season in his three and a half years in New York, despite the presence of Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, and resigned midway through the 2012 season. The next year, he was hired to coach the Lakers after the quick firing of Mike Brown; he lasted just two years in L.A., where his system never caught on and he frequently clashed with Kobe Bryant.
Many may not remember, however, that his first NBA head coaching job was actually a one-year stint with the Nuggets back in 1999, where he went 14-36 in a lockout-shortened season. He was fired after just the one year, but now he may want to come full circle with the team that gave him his first head coaching opportunity.
It remains to be seen whether the interest is mutual between the Nuggets and D’Antoni. It all depends on what direction the team decides to take after this season; D’Antoni may not be the best fit for a rebuilding situation, and he himself may prefer to go to a team closer to contention. Then again, D’Antoni may not have as many choices as he might like; his last two jobs have been high-profile flameouts with star-studded teams, and though he’ll always have those Suns years, he’s no longer considered the coaching genius he was back then, and teams may be wary of giving him yet another chance.
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