Looks like Texas just got a little bigger.
As first reported by USA Today, Dwight Howard has chosen to join the Houston Rockets. Howard had met with the Rockets earlier this week and also several other teams vying for the affection of Dwight. Howard now joins James Harden and Jeremy Lin in hopes of bringing a championship back to Houston.
This might not be the only star player the Rockets get. Houston and Atlanta might make a sign-and-trade deal involving sending Josh Smith to the Rockets in exchange for Omer Asik who doesn't want to play with Dwight Howard.
A huge day for the Rockets as their bar has been raised to championship highs and instantly with this news. It's probably fair to expect a championship now that Howard is on the team but unless they can get Josh Smith as well, I'm not sure whether they are the best team in the West. OKC is still strong with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, San Antonio has proven to never count them out, and even Golden State can surprise you.
As for the Lakers, they are apparently still in denial. It's a first that an all time great player has walked away from the Lakers. Though to be fair, the Lakers sort of drove Howard away. While Dwight and Kobe might've never gotten along anyway, the Lakers hurt their chances of keeping Howard long term when they hired Mike D'Antoni as head coach. Combine that with how everything else went in LA during Howard's one year there and how do you expect him stay?
The Rockets now look like title contenders while the Lakers just look like another borderline playoff team at best. Oh what a difference a year makes.
Showing posts with label Mike D'Antoni. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike D'Antoni. Show all posts
Friday, July 5, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Howard Still in LA and No Major Trades Done
The trade deadline in the NBA has passed and no major deal has been done. Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks, who was cited several times as the most likely player to move, is staying in place despite all the offers that the team received for him. The Hawks will take their chances with Smith in the summer. Josh, on the other hand, might end up somewhere else anyway with max money on his mind.
Dwight Howard was another player not traded away, not that many expected him to be traded from the incompetent Los Angeles Lakers. GM Mitch Kupchak has stressed that Howard is indeed the future of the Lakers despite the fact that Howard can walk for nothing this summer. There is a little hope considering that the Lakers won an emotional game against the Celtics last night 113-99. Howard scored 24 points and got 12 rebounds in the win.
There were a number of smaller trades around the NBA. The most notable player among them was J.J. Redick who was traded to Milwaukee as part of a 6 player deal between the Bucks and the Magic. And no, Redick looks nothing like Josh Reddick (I wish). There were 8 deals in all on Thursday.
Not great non-moves from the Hawks or the Lakers. Both teams are taking huge risks in hoping that their players will come back to them for another contract. Without them committing long term means a bleak future for those organizations.
That goes double for the Lakers who are putting their entire future on Dwight Howard. Nothing has really gone right in LA so far that would convince Dwight to stay long term: they hired Mike D'Antoni over Phil Jackson, he and Kobe Bryant don't get along, and the Lakers are not even over .500. To add on to that, Howard never wanted to go to LA in the first place. Likelihood is that this summer he will still want to skip town and head for either Brooklyn or Dallas.
I do have to give credit to Dwight Howard. For a guy that wants to be liked, he sure knows how to cause unrest wherever he goes.
Dwight Howard was another player not traded away, not that many expected him to be traded from the incompetent Los Angeles Lakers. GM Mitch Kupchak has stressed that Howard is indeed the future of the Lakers despite the fact that Howard can walk for nothing this summer. There is a little hope considering that the Lakers won an emotional game against the Celtics last night 113-99. Howard scored 24 points and got 12 rebounds in the win.
There were a number of smaller trades around the NBA. The most notable player among them was J.J. Redick who was traded to Milwaukee as part of a 6 player deal between the Bucks and the Magic. And no, Redick looks nothing like Josh Reddick (I wish). There were 8 deals in all on Thursday.
Not great non-moves from the Hawks or the Lakers. Both teams are taking huge risks in hoping that their players will come back to them for another contract. Without them committing long term means a bleak future for those organizations.
That goes double for the Lakers who are putting their entire future on Dwight Howard. Nothing has really gone right in LA so far that would convince Dwight to stay long term: they hired Mike D'Antoni over Phil Jackson, he and Kobe Bryant don't get along, and the Lakers are not even over .500. To add on to that, Howard never wanted to go to LA in the first place. Likelihood is that this summer he will still want to skip town and head for either Brooklyn or Dallas.
I do have to give credit to Dwight Howard. For a guy that wants to be liked, he sure knows how to cause unrest wherever he goes.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Lakers 7 Games Under .500 at Halfway Point
Okay, I was wrong about the Lakers. So was Dwight Howard.
The LA Lakers have been well below par up to this point with last night being another example of that. They were on the road as they played the Bulls and they were actually keeping pace with Chicago, despite sloppiness, that is until the 4th quarter. The Bulls managed a 18-4 run and would win by twelve 95-83. This marks the Lakers sixth straight road loss and their third straight loss.
This was also the Lakers' 41st game of the season which means we are halfway through the pre-postseason. "The Lake Show" is the worst show to watch on TV and that includes "1600 Penn." They are 12-19 under Mike D'Antoni and are 17-24 overall. They might be scoring a lot of points averaging 102.6 per game but D'Antoni still doesn't knows what defense is. They are the 5th worst in the league in points with opponents averaging 101.4 points per game against them.
The worst case scenario for the Lakers used to be getting into the playoffs but not as one of the top 4 seeds. Instead, they are living out Washington's best case scenario and you know what? They are still 4 games back of the 8th seed.
Defense
Noun
Insanity
Noun
1. The state of being seriously mentally ill; madness.
ex. See Jim Buss.
2. Extreme foolishness or irrationality.
ex. Again, see Jim Buss.
The LA Lakers have been well below par up to this point with last night being another example of that. They were on the road as they played the Bulls and they were actually keeping pace with Chicago, despite sloppiness, that is until the 4th quarter. The Bulls managed a 18-4 run and would win by twelve 95-83. This marks the Lakers sixth straight road loss and their third straight loss.
This was also the Lakers' 41st game of the season which means we are halfway through the pre-postseason. "The Lake Show" is the worst show to watch on TV and that includes "1600 Penn." They are 12-19 under Mike D'Antoni and are 17-24 overall. They might be scoring a lot of points averaging 102.6 per game but D'Antoni still doesn't knows what defense is. They are the 5th worst in the league in points with opponents averaging 101.4 points per game against them.
The worst case scenario for the Lakers used to be getting into the playoffs but not as one of the top 4 seeds. Instead, they are living out Washington's best case scenario and you know what? They are still 4 games back of the 8th seed.
Defense
Noun
- The action of defending from or resisting attack.
- Attempted justification or vindication of something. Example: Jim Buss defended the move of hiring Mike D'Antoni saying "he fit the team the way we wanted to work it."
Insanity
Noun
1. The state of being seriously mentally ill; madness.
ex. See Jim Buss.
2. Extreme foolishness or irrationality.
ex. Again, see Jim Buss.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Knicks and Lakers Having Different Seasons So Far
This year in the NBA has been surprising for two teams that met last night at Madison Square Garden. First were the visiting LA Lakers who have started the season very poorly with either Mike Brown or Mike D'Antoni as head coach. The other were the New York Knicks who are doing so well and even fooling people into thinking they are for real.
As for the game itself, it was the Knicks starting off fast and keeping the Lakers at bay. Carmelo Anthony scored 30 points on the evening and might've gotten more if he didn't get a sprained ankle in the 3rd quarter. New York shot 12/25 from 3 point land hitting 48% from beyond the arc. The Lakers also had 12 three's but they also took 12 more 3 point shots. Kobe Bryant did score 31 points and the Lakers did get over a 100 but they still lost to the Knicks 116-107.
The Knicks get another win and improve to 17-5 while still remaining undefeated at home (9-0). This win against their old coach is also their 8th win in 9 games. Meanwhile, the Lakers fall to 9-14 and while they didn't have Pau Gasol or Steve Nash playing they still shouldn't be this bad.
We should still reserve the ultimate judgement on D'Antoni until Nash returns but the team is struggling, they don't play defense well (like any D'Antoni team), and Kobe has seeming spoken way too much about what is happening around the Lakers. I kind of like them like this.
P.S. Maybe I'll just watch the LA Clippers instead. HEY, I REMEMBERED THEIR TEAM NAME!!!!
As for the game itself, it was the Knicks starting off fast and keeping the Lakers at bay. Carmelo Anthony scored 30 points on the evening and might've gotten more if he didn't get a sprained ankle in the 3rd quarter. New York shot 12/25 from 3 point land hitting 48% from beyond the arc. The Lakers also had 12 three's but they also took 12 more 3 point shots. Kobe Bryant did score 31 points and the Lakers did get over a 100 but they still lost to the Knicks 116-107.
The Knicks get another win and improve to 17-5 while still remaining undefeated at home (9-0). This win against their old coach is also their 8th win in 9 games. Meanwhile, the Lakers fall to 9-14 and while they didn't have Pau Gasol or Steve Nash playing they still shouldn't be this bad.
We should still reserve the ultimate judgement on D'Antoni until Nash returns but the team is struggling, they don't play defense well (like any D'Antoni team), and Kobe has seeming spoken way too much about what is happening around the Lakers. I kind of like them like this.
P.S. Maybe I'll just watch the LA Clippers instead. HEY, I REMEMBERED THEIR TEAM NAME!!!!
Monday, November 12, 2012
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.
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.
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