Renowned snake-oil salesman Mike D'Antoni did what a Colorado prosecutor, Shaq, and a $75 million divorce settlement could not: broke Kobe Bryant. Like he did while coaching the Knicks and playing Amare absurd minutes (eventually ruining his career in the process, a D'Antoni specialty), Mike D'Antoni played Kobe more than 45 minutes a game this month, and in the process made the Mamba much more susceptible to injury. D'Antoni is the anti-Popovich: the latter plays his stars (and his non-stars) reduced minutes all season long to make sure they are fresh and healthy for the playoffs, while the former is not a good enough coach to succeed without treating his stars like beasts of burden and working them to the brink (and often past the brink) of collapse.
Because Popovich has 3 great players and is such a good teacher/coach, his team glides to the playoffs with ease. Parker and Ginobili have both missed large chunks of the season, as has Stephen Jackson, and it hasn't mattered. Meanwhile the Lakers, with 4 Hall of Famers, have been average at best all year, thus requiring D'Antoni to play his favorite card: doing whatever it takes to overcome his coaching shortcomings by simply keeping his best player on the court the entire game. Sadly for D'Antoni, this isn't a video game in which you can simply turn injuries on or off.
When you combine Kobe's regular season, playoff, and Olympic minutes, he has played more than 54,000 minutes, or 20.5 seasons. As a general rule, if a coach has to play an aging, blood-doping enhanced 34 year year old superstar with 20+ seasons under his belt insane minutes, then something is wrong. How is it that Gasol was able to get his team to the playoffs as the go-to guy (with Memphis), Nash got his team within a win of the Finals, and Dwight got his team to the Finals, yet D'Antoni has not figured out what to do to get the Lakers above the Jazz, who have not a single Hall of Famer on their roster?
Certainly, Kobe's petulance, unwillingness to be a good teammate, and propensity to be a ballhog have not helped. That being said, D'Antoni has proved to be more of a problem than a solution. He managed to destroy Pau's confidence, throw everyone under the bus, and not maximize the specific talents of the team. Instead of posting up Gasol (a much more efficient post player than Dwight, whose offensive game basically extends to dunks and the occasional hook shot), he used the Spaniard as a stretch 4, which basically turned a HOFer into a marginal starter.
D'Antoni has of course blamed injuries for the team's woes. Injuries are an inevitable part of every sport, at least contact ones (so baseball doesn't count). The good teams work around the injuries, tighten up their schemes, and do more with less. D'Antoni has shown himself incapable of making the kinds of coaching adjustments necessary to make the Lakers a serious threat. When I watched the Bulls end the Heat's 27 game winning streak several weeks ago, I couldn't help but think of the incredible zeal with which Chicago plays despite a lack of talent. The Bulls, with no Rose, no Noah, and no Hamilton, beat a team with the best player since Shaq (I am not ready to say LeBron is better than Shaq), another top 10 player (Wade), a top 50 player in Bosh, and a slew of quality role players. The Bulls have been so well-coached defensively, and play with the kind of passion that is a clear reflection of their coach. The Lakers, meanwhile, look old, slow, and disinterested on defense. There has been no sense of urgency, and for that, D'Antoni is to blame.
Given that I loathe Kobe, I hope the Lakers now win the title. That being said, D'Antoni deserves no such success. His entire reputation is built off of coaching the best point guard of a generation and 3 other All-Stars all in their primes. Despite all that talent, he still was never able to get a team to the Finals. This year would have been no different even if karma hadn't caught up to Kobe.
No comments:
Post a Comment