D'ANTONI? REALLY?!?!?!

When you thought the next coach was going to be Phil again, some other guy comes out of the nosebleeds to shock the team.

When the Lakers fired Mike Brown for starting off the season 1-4, the thought was that the team would go to Phil Jackson (again) to be the head coach. After several days of rumors (and I'm sure discussions) Phil Jackson will not be coming out of retirement to coach the Lakers. The reason not to hire Phil back wasn't because they didn't want him or beg him to come back, it's because they would kiss his a** long enough (or to the equivalent of kissing his a** by giving in to contract demands of $10-15 million annually and the options to skip certain road trips).

Instead the Lakers decide to go with Bachelor #doesn'tbelieveindefense. Mike D'Antoni will be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Mike and the team agreed to a 4 year deal as head coach with the 4th year being a club option. D'Antoni was the former head coach of the Phoenix Suns which included Steve Nash who is now a Laker. After that, D'Antoni was head coach of the New York Knicks from 2008-2012 until he resigned in March earlier this year due to the teams performance.

New York worked so well with Melo and Amare so there is no reason why D'Antoni shouldn't work out in LA, right?

The thing about Mike D'Antoni is that he is an offensive coach and that's pretty much it. While that formula has shown to work well enough to get to the playoffs and a bit further, it has not won him a championship. Defense is needed to win titles. Plus, we don't know how his system will work with people not named Steve Nash, particularly Dwight Howard who could become a free agent at the end of this season.

It's definitely a risk hiring Mike D'Antoni as head coach but a glamorous looking one if the offense can perform at a high rate. Now I might be wrong about D'Antoni but so far his system hasn't won a title or gotten him to the NBA Finals. It might be put to the test for the last time in LA.