Houston Rockets: 5 candidates to replace Mike D’Antoni as head coach

2. Billy Donovan

Billy Donovan is one of the more coveted head coaching candidates around the league for a reason, and as a team that needs to win now, the Rockets can be reassured by the fact that he’s already experienced playoff success at both the professional and collegiate levels.

Perhaps just as important, he had the singular experience of coaching Westbrook during his MVP season, and the Oklahoma City Thunder came within one of the NBA Finals during his first year at the helm. He’s proven he can win with elite talent, and the only thing that prevented him from perhaps having championship experience was an all-time great rally from an all-time great Warriors team.

Another benefit to hiring Donovan is that although no one can truly “rein in” Westbrook, the former Thunder coach may stand the best chance of doing so. Russ was an unmitigated disaster in the Lakers series as he tried to work himself into a groove; having someone he was more familiar with to help redirect all that energy in a more productive way might have made a difference.

The biggest obstacles to this potential pairing are A) the fact that Donovan’s teams typically don’t shoot many 3s, and B) his departure from the Thunder means he’s ready to contend now. Harden and Russ are already in their 30s and ready to contend, but will that still be the case in 2-3 years?