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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.
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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”?
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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…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/honoring-hall-fame-inductee-former-124735555.html
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Publish date : 2026-08-16 12:47:00
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