After appearing for most of the weekend as if they were on track for a reunion with former head coach Phil Jackson, the Lakers pulled off a shocker late last night, announcing that Mike D'Antoni would be Mike Brown's successor in Los Angeles. With reactions continuing to flood in, we'll round up some of the early takes right here:
- D'Antoni may not be able to match Jackson's Hall of Fame credentials, but he'll be a fine fit for the Lakers, opines Ken Berger of CBS Sports.
- Jarrod Rudolph of RealGM.com doesn't believe that D'Antoni is a "championship coach," arguing that the Lakers would've been better off hiring any of the other reported candidates (Sulia links).
- Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times tweets that D'Antoni will fit better in L.A. than in New York, where he didn't have the point guard talent necessary for his system.
- Kobe Bryant let the Lakers know he was fine with the team hiring D'Antoni, according to J.A. Adande of ESPN.com (via Twitter). However, in a piece for ESPN's Daily Dime, Adande writes that D'Antoni's fit with Dwight Howard will be even more crucial for the Lakers.
- If nothing else, D'Antoni will make the Lakers a much more fun team to watch, says Doug Smith of the Toronto Star.
- Billy Witz of FOX Sports thinks the Lakers will regret not getting a deal done with Jackson.
- Jackson was the popular choice among Lakers fans, but they may come around on D'Antoni, writes Sam Amick of USA Today.
- Also at USA Today, Adi Joseph examines how individual players on the Lakers will mesh with D'Antoni.
- D'Antoni will be motivated to prove that he can win a title and to prove that he deserved the Lakers job more than Jackson, says Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register.
- According to Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, D'Antoni is just a one-dimensional as Brown, and the Lakers' roster is too old for his style of play.
- Tom Ziller of SBNation.com looks at a few ways the marriage of D'Antoni and the Lakers could go wrong.