It's clear that Mike D'Antoni is a coach who can create magic, and he has brought out two mvp Steve Nash, "Lin Crazy" Jeremy Lin and other phenomenal players, and the most recent one is James Harden. Under his rule, Harden quickly jumped to the top of the MVP list this season, and the Rockets also played a far more than expected performance.
"Seven seconds running" is the label of Coach D'Antoni, and his tactical system was seen as deviant 13 years ago, but now, the whole league is imitating his style of play. His initial goal has been accomplished, the NBA's past offensive system has been largely abandoned, and each team has more or less added a running element.
In Harden, D'Antoni found a new inspiration for running. Harden is a taller, stronger, offensively more aggressive guard than Nash, and when he appears in the number one position, he can not only create scoring opportunities for teammates like Nash, but he can also take more points — by speeding up the pace and opening up space, the Rockets can average 14.9 three-pointers per game, scoring the second-most 114.6 points in the league.
If anyone says he could think of D'Antoni early in the season that he would give the Rockets the strength to compete with the Warriors and Spurs, he must be lying. The Rockets lost Dwight Howard in the offseason, they are the only one who can rank in the top 50 of the league, their second-leading scorer has missed 37 games this season, and the main center Capela has been injured, but it is this lineup that the Rockets have almost completed the counterattack against the super-strong teams.
This is where Coach D'Antoni's greatest ability lies.
Let the bullets fly
When the rest of the league faces the Rockets, it's impossible not to pay attention to the team's offensive firepower — with the exception of the Warriors, who have their Tsunami brothers, the Rockets are the league's best team for offensive efficiency and average points per game. Somewhat similar to the Warriors, the Rockets' offensive efficiency is approaching the best level in NBA history.
"When I got the job, there was good news, and that was that James Harden coincided with my coaching philosophy. Shooting more three-pointers, hitting more shots, and creating fouls, our basketball philosophy is very similar. D'Antoni said.
The Rockets are the team with the most shots and three-pointers in the league, and they are also in the league's top ten in terms of free throws per game, and they are also the fourth fastest-paced team in the offensive. Correspondingly, this team barely shoots long-distance two-pointers, and they are the team with the fewest two-point shots in the league.
Harden is the second-most free throw player in the league and the fourth-most hit three-pointer, with his teammate Eric Gordon at number one and his teammates in sixth and seventh place, Ryan Anderson and Trevo Ariza. Harden is also the player with the most assists per game and the third most points per game in the league, and his offensive victory contribution value ranks first in the league... All this was expected by D'Antoni.
After Harden became a point guard, he was like Nash and Kobe Bryant 10 years ago: with both top-notch individual attacking ability and top-notch pass assist ability. If the Warriors are a team offense based on the four superstars, then the Rockets are a team offense based on Harden alone.
Just a few months ago, the Rockets were sitting on two superstars, one inside and one outside, but they failed to play an efficient offense.
Dwight Howard wants to attack more with the ball at the low post, but his offense isn't efficient. Harden wants to be able to block more, but Howard is not a master of blocking. The Rockets are like a big ship, but with two dissenting captains, the end result is that their offensive efficiency is only seventh in the league.
Obviously, from the perspective of style of play, Harden is a player who is more suitable for D'Antoni's style of play. Harden is one of the most efficient players in the league in the process of offensive and defensive conversion, and D'Antoni's "running bomb system" is best at finding opportunities in fast attacks. Harden is also a great player in blocking offense, he can create fouls and can also help his teammates score. Of course, the most suitable part is the three-point shot.
This offseason, the Rockets brought in Anderson and Gordon, two players who became key factors on the Rockets' offensive end. They became the rocket's second and third score points outside of Harden, respectively, and Gordon surpassed Curry to become the player with the most three-point shots in the league. Last season, the Rockets' three-point shooting percentage was only 34.7 percent, ranking 19th in the league, and now the Rockets' three-point shooting rate has reached 37.4 percent, ranking sixth in the league.
Former U.S. men's basketball head coach K. Old also praised D'Antoni's offensive philosophy. 'If your players are good and healthy enough to open up space on the pitch, to share the ball and to be good at fast attacking, then these will give them the opportunity to successfully execute their tactics." Coach K said.
It's clear that D'Antoni's tactical system has won the trust of everyone on the Rockets, from the boss to the players. In fact, Rockets general manager Morey has always admired Coach D'Antoni and his advanced offensive system — the latter's use of speed and space that laid the foundation for modern basketball in the NBA.
Today, the 65-year-old manager, the 44-year-old general manager and their 27-year-old core players have become year-round friends. Against the backdrop of constant wins, they were in the best of team history with rocket fans.
Best Coach
Coach D'Antoni has already won the best coach once, and in 2005 he led the Suns with the best 62 wins in team history, and they swept the league with a whirlwind of fast-blowing, just as they did this year.
Because of the Rockets' ten-game winning streak, D'Antoni won the December Coach of the Month — a title he hadn't won in four years, though it didn't seem like he cared.
"The best coach of the season winners are generally fired, and I don't know what the best coach of the month will do, let's wait and see." D'Antoni said jokingly.
If there's any reason D'Antoni was fired, it could be defense. As we all know, D'Antoni's teams tend to be less defensive — nine of the last 10 championship teams have been balanced in attack and defense, and their offensive and defensive efficiency has ranked at least in the league's top ten.
But D'Antoni's side never did. The closest one, the Suns' defensive efficiency in 2007, was the closest team to a championship in 2007, and it was also the closest D'Antoni's team had to a championship on paper, when they lost to eventual champion Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals.
The Rockets' current defensive efficiency ranks 17th in the league, which is not ideal, but by D'Antoni's standards, that's pretty good. In the offseason, D'Antoni joined His assistant coaching team with Bouzdrick, who has a good track record of defending — he was a defensive assistant coach for Pat Riley and helped Dave Jogel build the Grizzlies' fierce and tough defense.
The Rockets don't have a shortage of good defensive players. Capela, Ariza and Beverly are all excellent defensive players, especially Beverly, who has become a favorite of Coach D'Antoni as he is one of the most hated counterparts of all star point guards in the league. Not only that, but D'Antoni encouraged Harden to play better defense — Rockets' historical superstars Olajuwon and Malone are excellent defensive players, and if Harden can play above the level of defense, he will be mvp level players.
"Harden has done a lot of things off the court to make the team more united and I think he learned a lot from his experience last season. He told me that a bad team atmosphere doesn't make you a good result, and it's hard to win in that atmosphere. Instead of wasting your career, why not try to be the best you can and enjoy it at the same time? D'Antoni's expectations of Harden were very high, even higher than his previous expectations for Nash and Kobe.
D'Antoni's coaching career has met many star players, but Nash and Kobe Bryant only came to his command in the middle and late stages of their careers, Merleau and his system are not safe, and Jeremy Lin's talent is obviously far from the previous few... Only Harden, who was in his own right years, was the superstar that the old coach most expected to cultivate.
Obviously, Harden can't be a Kobe-level defender, and he won't score 33 points in a single quarter like Melon or give 15 assists at halftime like Nash. But Harden has something to offer, when he's the team's organizer, he's able to help his teammates score points easily, and when he needs to be a scorer, he's able to score efficiently.
"Compared to when he was with the Lakers, D'Antoni brought more to this team. I think it's because the players under him are not very consistent. They've outnumbered expectations, they've played well and I think their chemistry has been good, but that's overlooked. Great chemistry combined with great talent always gets great results, which is why they achieve this. Coach Doug Rivers said as he analyzed the Rockets.
Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors have proven that the run-and-boom style of play can be a huge success, and for D'Antoni, the "godfather of running-bombing," it's time to continue practicing his theory.