D'Antoni coached team's league rank in opponent's PPG:
1998 Den 28th (of 29 teams)
2003 Phx 26th (of 29 teams)
2004 Phx 30th
2005 Phx 28th
2006 Phx 23rd
2007 Phx 25th
2008 NYK 28th
2009 NYK 28th
2010 NYK 28th

Most people don't even look at PPG anymore... do you still use RBIs as the determining factor on who is the best hitter in baseball?

Magic hasn't done shit for the Lakers since 1992.

The Lakers gave him his ownership interest well after that. They gave it to him as nothing more than a good will gesture. There was no additional consideration for it.

It's the Lakers that made the fool move of doling out ownership stakes for poops and grins. They set the precedent, they shouldn't be surprised when the guy that brought them 5 championships asks for a cut as well.

Phil's done far more for the franchise than the average Laker fan wants to admit and it's not at all unreasonable for him to demand a seat at the table in exchange for returning to the pressure cooker of LA.

Kobe, Pau and Artest know it well enough to be the major components to the flow of the offense. Nash is a genius, he'd have picked it up. The only question is Howard and frankly Howard is a good enough rebounder/garbage man that he'd be effective in any system. He's also proven to be a fairly adept passer. I think he'd have fit into the Tri exceptionally well and would've learned his role in it quickly enough.

I'd imagine the bench would really struggle with it, though. I'll concede that. They'd have a second unit with very little cohesion. They could really never take Kobe and Pau off the floor at the same time. If they did, they'd have to have Nash out there to just run some playground sets and try to keep the game close.

Good point. D'toni's scheme is built around winning by scoring more, not by limiting opponent's score.

Thanks. I watched Tex & Phil install the triangle with the Bulls and it did not happen overnight.
Without Tex, with two new starters, on a team that has only a year maybe two because of age, it just seems to me that the triangle is a better long term solution but D'toni fits a team with this small of a window better.
:shrug:

You don't have to be a genius to learn the triangle but the triangle makes a pg irrelevant. We'd have arguably the best PG in the game the last 15 years standing around wishing he was in Toronto.

I like Nash a lot, one of the only reasons I've watched any NBA for the last 10 years or so.
But he was a shell of his former self here in PHX the last 2 years. His back is almost gone.

The Tri can make the PG irrelevant, but doesn't have to.

All you do is essentially use Kobe in a SF role, rather than have him bringing the ball up. If you have Nash as the primary facilitator in the tri, you'd have a very dangerous setup with Kobe in wings cutting without the ball.

The only reason PG was irrelevant under the Triangle as we know it, is we know it as being run by Kobe and Jordan; guys that dominated the ball. That offense would absolutely work well with Nash facilitating and Kobe flashing through the wings.

That's not the triangle that's the Princeton which we just got rid of

Dwight will be garbage under Mike. His philosophy with the center is to be in position to get out on the fast break, not protect the rim. He'll keep him out on the wing chucking threes. That's how he likes his big men.

The Triangle takes many of the same principles of the Princeton and actually develops them.

The Tri is an evolutionary Princeton concept. It's what the Princeton should be but isn't (because slow, unathletic, part-time athletes were the guys that used it in the past).

It's a watered down triangle, so to speak. When you take the best athletes in the world, with nothing but basketball to do all day and have them run the Princeton, it's giving Wolfgang Puck the task of grilling hot dogs.

The Triangle, on the other hand, is a Filet. It can absolutely utilize the PG position if you have guys that believe in it. The Lakers didn't believe in the Princeton system because it was a massive step back for the holdovers. Moreover, it's easily diagnosed and defended. I'm not even convinced that the Lakers 'didn't get it'; I think it's just too easy a system for this level and it was exposed as such.

Are we talking Hebrew National/Nathan's or Ball Park?

he has not been the best PG in the game the last 15 years

lol

Dwight Howard could also end up as Shawn Marion on Hulk juice.

Sure, there's a chance it goes poorly, I won't deny it. But it could also go extremely well. Anyone that claims to know either way is just guessing.

We've never seen D'Antoni use a guy with Howards athleticism.

And for the record, Stoudamire shot a total of 66 3-pointers in 364 games under D'Antoni (31 of them in Stoudamire's last year, when he was just being a petulant shit and chucking for giggles) while in PHX. Howard's going to be used in a substantially similar fashion, I would imagine. If you'll recall, Stoudamire was a force under the hoop for several years. Hell, Amare was even putting up 25 PPG in NY for a season when he was a shell of his PHX self.

Howard has more ability than Stoudamire ever did.

Dial it down a bit, sport. I feel like you're just something of a jilted Knicks fan at this point.

I think this is a mediocre hire at best, but only because the option was a much better one. Had Phil Jackson declined all interest in the Lakers, D'Antoni would have been seen as a nice replacement for Brown.

He's not Phil Jackson, but D'Antoni is still among the better basketball coaches out there.