I would think that Mike D had a pretty good amount of input into what personnel changes went on in Phoenix up until Steve Kerr was hired. (When that happened you could tell that the organization started heading in a different direction). Mike as GM probably couldn't do all the things he wanted though, because it's well known that Suns owner Rob Sarver cares more about not paying a lot of money than he does about winning a championship or producing a competitive team.
Still, I think the roster was for the most part the way Mike wanted it. I remember him saying that seven seconds or less ball is the way he likes to play, and that he believes you can win a championship that way despite popular belief.
http://www.insidehoops.com/dantoni-interview-060106.shtml
Q. On the reputation of his team’s style:
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: I think we have a confidence that if we are on our A-game that nobody can beat us. I really believe that. You know it’s funny. You can talk about other teams being really good defensively, but when they play against us we score 110 points. Everybody says, ‘well that’s because you’re so good offensively’. Well, that counts. We don’t think any good defensive team can stop us and if they can’t stop us we’re winning. We have that confidence. Now, whether that’s completely true—that’s our thinking. I understand the flip-side of it.
Q. On how championship teams impose their defensive will:
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: Well, we will impose our will, it’s just on the other side of the floor. There are two ends of the floor and we’re doing it on the other end. We think we can play good enough defense. We can play better defense against you than you can play against us because of our offense—if that makes sense. Now that’s what we think and that’s the mentality that we can win with.
A lot of people say that Mike D is a contrarian. Just because people say you can't win it all that way, to him doesn't mean it's true, and he'll probably try to prove that here.
http://coachtoddsimon.blogspot.com/2008/05/mike-dantoni-great-contrarian.html
“There was the debate that we couldn’t do what we did in Phoenix, it wouldn’t last half a season,” he said. “Then when it lasted half a season, then, ‘You can’t do it all year.’ Then we did it all year. And then, ‘You can’t win in the playoffs.’ Well, we get to the conference finals two years. ‘Well, you can’t win the championship.’ And they’re right so far. It finally got to the point where they’re right.”
Walsh will most likely support him in that, since Walsh strikes me as the kind of GM who supports his coach, and doesn't clash with him. He even let Isiah handle the drafting while he was the coach at Indiana. (that sort of show of support is probably how Walsh convinced Mike to come here over the Bulls in the first place)
He did, however say that he can adjust to some degree to fit the roster (Although, I'm not sure to how great of a degree that will turn out to be), but he always said that he wants to play as close as possible to the way he did in his first 2 years in phoenix.
http://www.greenwichtime.com/knicks/ci_9244811
"I will adapt what I do. Now I like to play fast, move the ball and all that stuff, and we'll try to do that as best as we can," D'Antoni said Tuesday. "Obviously you're going to be a little slower than (the Suns), but at the same time there's no reason why you can't run, be exciting and have good ball movement."
To sum things up, I don't think it's very prudent to expect Mike to change the way he coaches very much when starts to coach here. He likes the style of play he coached in Phoenix, and believes you can even win a championship using it, despite everyone and their grandmother saying otherwise.
Wait a minute. I just realized that this thready originally had nothing to do with D'antoni. I Don't know how it turned into being about him. This thread was supposed to be about a propose draft day trade.
6/18/2008 3:14 PM