5 candidates to replace Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson next season

1. Mike D’Antoni

Like Brett Brown, Mike D’Antoni still has a current gig to worry about. However, the Houston Rockets’ iffy commitment to Mr. Pringles is no secret, given that he’s in the last year of his contract and the two sides were unable to come to a contract extension before the season began.

This has led to increasing speculation that Mike D is in his last season with the Rockets unless he can engineer a championship out of the team’s latest revolutionary experiment. Houston shipped off Clint Capela at the trade deadline, bringing in Robert Covington and opting to go completely small, embracing the small-ball era like no team has before.

The Rockets have since added wings in that same 6’6″-6’8″ range like DeMarre Carroll and Jeff Green, and the early results have been promising, with D’Antoni’s squad going on a 7-4 spurt since the deadline.

However, if James Harden and Russell Westbrook are unable to turn all that spacing into a championship, or at least an NBA Finals appearance, Rockets management could see it as an opening to once again try something new. It’s unfair to D’Antoni and the team to not give this crazy experiment more time, but if they let him go, he’d easily be the best available candidate.

He has ties to Sean Marks, who played under D’Antoni as a member of the Phoenix Suns from 2006-08. Mike D’s 3-point heavy style requires a playmaking guard with shooting chops, as Harden and Steve Nash have proven, but there’d be too much talent at his disposal between Kyrie, KD, LeVert and Dinwiddie for it not to work somehow. D’Antoni has never been able to get over the hump despite being one of the game’s greatest minds. If the Rockets make the mistake of moving on, the Nets would be foolish not to inquire.