On February 14, Beijing time, the famous NBA reporter Marc Stein wrote an article revealing that after philadelphia traded Harden, the coaching circle in the league generally believed that Philadelphia would hope to replace Doug Rivers with D'Antoni as the team's coach. But the news was quickly denied by Philadelphia reporter Kyle Neubeck, and according to this reporter, the philadelphia management currently trusts Rivers and has no idea of changing the coach.
Rumors that Philadelphia management wanted to replace Rivers with D'Antoni have been confirmed, but the news was immediately denied by multiple sources. They noted that in addition to Rivers' transformation of Embiid into an MVP-level player this season, his approach to multiple difficult situations for the team was also impressive. Kyle Neubeck wrote.
The reason why some people think that D'Antoni can replace Rivers is because D'Antoni is really good at coaching Harden. During the Rockets period, D'Antoni helped Harden get the regular season MVP, and the personal data was also very explosive, and harden's state declined this season, and many people believe that there is something to do with D'Antoni's departure.
Although Rivers is also a famous coach, his experience of being overturned in the playoffs 3-1 lead many times always makes people feel that he is unreliable. Because of this, many people feel that Philadelphia should change the coach in order to compete for the championship. But why do Philadelphia reporters think the team will never change coaches? This is probably determined by 4 reasons.
First, D'Antoni's tactical philosophy and magic ball system can indeed maximize Harden's strength, but the problem is that Philadelphia is not the Rockets, and the team's number one core is not Harden, but Embiid. And Embiid is obviously under Rivers' system, and certainly has a higher tactical status than in the magic ball system that D'Antoni and Harden like, in which case embiid will prefer Rivers or D'Antoni, it is not difficult to guess.
At the same time, Philadelphia's staffing, in line with Rivers' tactical needs, is not suitable for playing magic ball. In this case, if you have to forcibly find D'Antoni, I am afraid that there will be a situation where "it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice".
Second, Rivers has led the Philadelphia team to a good record this season in the absence of Simmons, and is even considered to be able to compete for the best head coach in the regular season this season. He did get reversed many times in the playoffs, but note that Rivers also led the Celtics to a championship in 2007-08, which is a proof of himself. On the other hand, D'Antoni, so far he has never led the team to win the championship, which is actually in a weak position compared to Rivers.
Third, many people criticize Rivers for only "pouring chicken soup" for players, lack of tactical settings and on-the-spot adaptability, but forget that Harden and Embiid are players with strong personal ability but shortcomings in mental attributes.
If it is said that coaching players with strong mental attributes such as James, Paul and Leonard, D'Antoni may be more suitable, but for harden, Embiid and other players who are prone to a sharp decline in competitive level due to low mood, they actually need a coach who can give them "chicken soup" and soothe their hearts. From this point of view, Rivers is actually a good fit to coach Harden and Embiid.
Fourth, after leaving the Clippers, Rivers signed a five-year contract with Philadelphia with an annual salary of up to $8 million, and this is now Rivers' second season in charge of Philadelphia, and from an economic point of view, Philadelphia will not easily change the coach.
So if there are fans who want to see Harden and D'Antoni join forces again, then the best way is to let Philadelphia hire D'Antoni to be Rivers' assistant coach, so that D'Antoni can be responsible for part of the tactical design and layout, and Rivers is responsible for solving Harden and Embiid's psychological problems, so that the two can cooperate with each other' strengths, which is the best solution to help Philadelphia fight for the championship.