5 reasons Mike D’Antoni fits with the Houston Rockets
By John Buhler
Mike D’Antoni’s name has been thrown into the ring to be the next head coach of the Houston Rockets. Here are five reasons he’ll fit well with Houston.
In all honesty, the Houston Rockets will not likely promote interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff to head coach for the 2016-17. Sure, Bickerstaff did a respectable job leading a very chaotic team in the 2015-16 Rockets after the shocking early season firing of then head coach Kevin McHale, but the young Bickerstaff likely needs another year or two as a top assistant before being fully ready to be a strong head coach in the NBA.
Houston, a team that earned the No. 2 overall seed in the 2015 Western Conference playoffs only a year ago, plummeted to .500 at 41-41 in 2015-16, good enough to steal one game away from the top-seeded Golden State Warriors in the first round before an expected departure in five games.
Do the Rockets have talent on their roster to be better than a No. 8 seed in the West next season? Absolutely, but they will need the right head coach to get them out of their on-court chemistry experiment gone awry in 2015-16.
One candidate that could very well be the next head coach of the Rockets is former NBA head coach Mike D’Antoni, currently a top assistant on Brett Brown’s staff with the Philadelphia 76ers.
D’Antoni is arguably one of the most influential offensive coaches of his era. His Steve Nash-led Phoenix Suns teams in the mid-2000s were the prototypes for the small ball era that has now swept the NBA. Here are five reasons that D’Antoni could end up being the next head coach in Houston.
Next: 5. He's coached in chaotic situations before.