Mike D’Antoni Rumors | Hoops Rumors

NBA Reveals Award Finalists

May 19th, 2017 at 7:05pm CST by Austin Kent

The NBA is in the process of revealing its finalists for each of the major year-end awards on TNT, the winners of which will be announced at the official award show on June 26.

Below is an ongoing list that we’ll update as the NBA on TNT crew reveals more.

Most Improved Player of the Year
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Rudy Gobert
Nikola Jokic

Hoops Rumors Analysis: MIP

Sixth Man of the Year
Eric Gordon
Andre Iguodala
Lou Williams

Hoops Rumors Analysis: Sixth Man

Rookie of the Year
Malcolm Brogdon
Joel Embiid
Dario Saric

Hoops Rumors Analysis: ROY

Coach of the Year
Mike D’Antoni
Gregg Popovich
Erik Spoelstra

Hoops Rumors Analysis: COTY

Defensive Player of the Year
Rudy Gobert
Draymond Green
Kawhi Leonard

Hoops Rumors Analysis: DPOY

Most Valuable Player of the Year
James Harden
Kawhi Leonard
Russell Westbrook

Hoops Rumors Analysis: MVP

Southwest Notes: Green, Gentry, Harden

May 12th, 2017 at 6:05pm CST by Austin Kent

The Grizzlies may have to choose between Zach Randolph and JaMychal Green, Michael Wallace of Grind City Media writes. The scribe details Green’s first season as a starter in Memphis and what could come next as the offseason nears.

Given that Green is a restricted free agent this summer, the Grizzlies will have the option to match any offers he can scrounge up on the market. This, of course, means that teams like the Nets, Magic and Sixers with plenty of cap space can sign the forward to a lofty deal in hopes that Memphis doesn’t match.

Green’s defensive versatility, coupled with his three-ball make him a particularly appealing asset for a Grizzlies team with an aging core but foul trouble and a quick temper limited his impact.

If, as Wallace suggests, the team truly has an either/or situation on their hands, general manager Chris Wallace will need to choose between the intriguing 26-year-old hybrid forward and a Grizzlies legend.

There’s more from the Southwest:

Although the Pelicans never quite turned their season around with DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis like many expected, head coach Alvin Gentry believes he’ll be back with the club to give it another shot in 2017/18. Scott Kushner of the New Orleans Advocate relays the comments from a podcast at The Vertical.
The Spurs may have achieved sporting immortality, J.A. Adande of ESPN writes. The feature highlights what Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford have built in San Antonio and how it transcends any individual player or players.
After their season ended Thursday, Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that one way he could look to improve upon Houston’s 55-win season is to better understand James Harden‘s limitations. “All great players think they can do everything,” D’Antoni said. “Maybe he does need to take a game off here and there. ‘Hey, you’re nicked up a little bit, don’t play, maybe.’ Something to talk about, but that’s also his greatness, too. So it’s hard. It’s very delicate.“

D’Antoni, Spoelstra Share New Coaching Award

May 7th, 2017 at 11:05am CST by Arthur Hill

Houston’s Mike D’Antoni and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra have been announced as co-recipients of the NBA Coaches Association’s first Coach of the Year Award, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The award is determined by a vote of NBA coaches and is named for Michael H. Goldberg, the longtime director of the organization.

D’Antoni led the Rockets to a 55-27 record and the third seed in the West in his first year in Houston. He turned James Harden into a point guard and unleashed a powerful offense that set a record for most 3-pointers made in a season.

Spoelstra rallied the Heat after a terrible start and led them to a 41-41 record, just missing a playoff berth on a tie-breaker. He was able to reconfigure the lineup in Miami after the loss of Dwyane Wade to free agency and Chris Bosh to a blood clot condition.

The media’s choice for Coach of the Year will be announced at the NBA’s awards show on June 26th.

Mike D’Antoni Talks Lakers’ Failures, Rockets’ Success

April 19th, 2017 at 6:15pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Mike D’Antoni knew he wanted to coach again following his departure from the Lakers, but he was simply waiting for the right spot, as he tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. D’Antoni found success with the Rockets this season, but he admits that prior to arriving in Houston, he had concerns about the fit.

“I knew that they liked to play the way that I liked to play. I didn’t know [James Harden], and I didn’t know the other guys on the team,” the coach said. “So, there was always that moment of, will this fit? Will this work? Will James accept being point guard? Will [Patrick Beverley] accept being the 2-guard instead of the 1-guard? Will [Eric Gordon] accept coming off the bench? That’s where you run into problems with coaching. But when everybody said “yeah, this is great,” and then we started off pretty quick, that was an easier sell. Then, management, ownership, they all want the same thing. Then it’s that your star player wants the same thing, then now it becomes just coaching and doing what you do.”

“That’s where you run into problems with coaching. But when everybody said “yeah, this is great,” and then we started off pretty quick, that was an easier sell. Then, management, ownership, they all want the same thing. Then it’s that your star player wants the same thing, then now it becomes just coaching and doing what you do.”

Here’s more from Shelburne’s piece:

D’Antoni was never able to win a playoff series with the Lakers and he blames the team’s injuries as well as his player’s unwillingness to buy into his system. “There were just injuries, and people were pretty stubborn in their roles, and it’s like ‘sorry guys, this is not me. It’s not going to work right here,'” D’Antoni said of his time in Los Angeles. “So, things happen, and you coach, you learn, you go on and you hope for a better situation.”
D’Antoni applauds Harden’s determination to win, something that propelled the guard to consider switching positions. “I would have never got the job if his reaction was ‘No, I’m not playing point.’ So, let’s not kid ourselves. He was open to it, and it took a little, just showing him film and talking about it. James is willing to try anything to win.”
Harden was always meant to play the point guard position and his prior coaches weren’t using him correctly, according to D’Antoni. “He was spending a lot of time off the ball, and he was spending a lot of energy trying to get the ball. It’s like, why go through all that? Just give it to him,” D’Antoni said.
D’Antoni believes most Coach of the Year winners receive the award because they’ve overachieved and that sometimes comes with consequences. “That’s why most Coach of the Years get fired the next year. You overperform, then you come back to normal and they fire you,” D’Antoni said. You can check out Hoops Rumors’ picks for the COY award here.

Lakers Rumors: Brewer, D’Antoni, Zubac, Pelinka

March 16th, 2017 at 9:24pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Veteran swingman Corey Brewer hasn’t been sulking over the trade last month that sent him from the contending Rockets to the lowly Lakers, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Coach Luke Walton credits Brewer for being a positive locker-room presence and helpful hand during film sessions despite losing out on a chance to play in the postseason. “He just has a great energy about him,” Walton told Feigen. “He makes the locker room a more enjoyable place to be. He’s been very pleasant to have around since the trade.”

In other news involving the Lakers:

Former coach and current Rockets head man Mike D’Antoni has only good feelings toward former GM Mitch Kupchak and previous executive vice president Jim Buss, Mark Medina of the Orange County Register writes. D’Antoni said Kupchak and Buss were fully supportive of him during the two seasons he coached the team, Medina continues. “They did everything for me they could possibly do. There’s nothing else to ask of them,” D’Antoni told Medina. “It was a tough time. We had to deal with a transition period and injuries.”
Rookie center Ivica Zubac has been one of the season’s few bright spots and he’ll remain in the starting lineup the rest of the season, Medina reports in a separate piece. Zubac, 19, posted a career-high 25 points and 11 rebounds in his third start on Monday against the Nuggets. The team is thrilled with his development, Medina adds. “Zu is a very skilled player,” Walton told the assembled media. “It doesn’t surprise me when he has nights where he’s making shots.”
Rockets GM Daryl Morey believes president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka will be a formidable duo in the Lakers’ front office, Medina relays in another story. Morey was impressed how Johnson conducted himself as they negotiated the deadline deal that brought Lou Williams to Houston. He also felt Pelinka, who represented James Harden, Trevor Ariza and Eric Gordon, was one of the league’s top agents. “When you come from different backgrounds, sometimes that gives you an edge as you come in a new role,” Morey told Medina. “I like the concept. Magic did the smart thing in pairing up with him. I think it’s going to be a good team.”
Pelinka told the players that he will be open about the franchise’s direction and ask for their input during individual meetings after the regular season ends, Medina notes in a story posted by the Los Angeles Daily News. “They want us to know what their plan is for the future,” Zubac told Medina. “Whatever we want to find out, good or bad things, we’ll find out when we speak to him. That’s really good we’re involved with him.”

Lakers Notes: Johnson, Russell, D’Antoni

March 4th, 2017 at 9:05am CST by Austin Kent

There are plenty of benefits to having an individual of Magic Johnson‘s stature calling the shots for the Lakers, writes Sam Amick of USA Today but there is no consensus on whether or not that will be enough to push the franchise back to its former heights.

“If you have a free agent sitdown with a superstar, and Magic Johnson is in the room, that’s going to move the needle as far as getting that guy serious about wanting to come here,” says former player Dell Curry of the Lakers icon. “[…] He built his way up, built his brand once he got here. Being in LA, having Magic and all the doors he can open for you off the floor, that’s even more incentive for superstars to want to come here.”

Unlike other players who’ve returned to manage the teams that they played with, Johnson has a high profile in both the basketball and business world. Only Michael Jordan rivals Johnson’s total package but he faces the tougher task of drawing players to small market North Carolina whereas the city of Los Angeles is practically a selling feature in itself.

Still, Johnson’s contributions will eventually be measured in the amount of star players he’s able to recruit to the Lakers, Amick writes. If he airballs as the recent front office has with players like Carmelo Anthony, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant, he’ll be little more than yet another former player learning on the job.

There’s more out of Los Angeles:

A recent uptick in D’Angelo Russell‘s production can be traced back to improved work habits coming out of the All-Star Break, writes Mark Medina of the Orange County Register. “Sometimes when you get away for a week, especially when you’re young, you come back rejuvenated a little bit and a little more fresh than when you’re in the dog days leading up to All-Star,” says head coach Luke Walton.
It’s hard for anybody to resist the temptations of college basketball this time of year and for Lakers head coach Luke Walton, that’s no different. Don’t think that Walton is already setting his sights ahead on the draft, however, as Mark Medina for the Los Angeles Daily News writes. “We have a whole scouting department that has been watching them all year,” Walton explained. “We got European scouts. When the time comes, we’ll take the appropriate amount of time to sit down and actually watch it from more of a scout’s view.”
The fact that the Lakers haven’t gone out of their way to credit former general Mitch Kupchak for his contributions during his three decades with the organization is petty, says Anthony Irwin of SB Nation’s Silver Screen and Roll. The scribe explores Mike D’Antoni‘s recent comments that Kupchak and Jim Buss (also recently dismissed) “were not the problem” during his time in Los Angeles.

Southwest Notes: Wright, Randolph, Ferrell

January 29th, 2017 at 7:52pm CST by Austin Kent

The Grizzlies are expecting injured power forward Brandan Wright back on Monday, tweets ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. Wright has been sidelined recovering from an ankle issue that ultimately required surgery. He hasn’t played at all in 2016/17.

The 29-year-old hasn’t done much since signing a three-year contract with Memphis during the summer of 2015, playing in only 12 games for the Grizzlies during the 2015/16 campaign on account of a knee injury.

After emerging as an intriguing reserve with the Mavericks between 2011 and 2014, Wright bounced around with the Suns and Celtics in 2014/15. With the Grizzlies, however, Wright could establish himself as a reliable source of frontcourt help heading into the final stretch.

There’s more out of the Southwest Division:

Though the plan was to reduce his workload, the Grizzlies have turned to veteran big man Zach Randolph more and more often of late. Randolph is averaging 27.9 minutes per game in January, writes MacMahon in an article for ESPN, compared to his season average of 24.2. The forward has filled a sixth-man role for the club but has been as efficient with his minutes as ever.
Before he signed on to lead the Rockets to new heights in 2016/17, Mike D’Antoni worked alongside Brett Brown with the Sixers. Brian Seltzer of the Sixers’ official site spoke with the Rockets bench boss about his time in Philadelphia.
Less than 24 hours after signing his 10-day contract with the Mavs, point guard Yogi Ferrell has moved into the team’s starting lineup, tweets team play-by-play man Mark Followill.

Southwest Notes: Gasol, Ajinca, D’Antoni

January 21st, 2017 at 9:10am CST by Austin Kent

The Spurs are once again the No. 2 team in the Western Conference and a given to qualify for and contend in the playoffs. A recent hand injury to Pau Gasol, however, could change that. Ben Alamar of ESPN has explored the impact that Gasol’s absence will have in San Antonio, citing the big man’s staggering efficiency from mid-range as one of the biggest voids that the club will have to fill.

On the other side of the ball, Gasol has long-established himself as a heady defender capable of providing paint protection. This will now fall to reserves Dewyane Dedmon and David Lee. Though Dedmon and Lee have been respectable back ups this season, Alamar isn’t sure they’ll have the same impact as Gasol has with his ability to block shots and limit his fouls.

Gasol, Alamar writes, is second on the Spurs in defensive win shares behind only Kawhi Leonard.

The veteran was scheduled to undergo surgery to repair the hand fracture on Friday. No recovery timetable has yet been announced.

There’s more out of the Southwest Division:

Though not shy about expressing his frustration with a lack of playing time, Alexis Ajinca has reportedly not requested a trade from the Pelicans, tweets Justin Verrier of ESPN. Ajinca has racked up 11 DNP-CDs since his last legitimate taste of action on December 23 and has played just three minutes total in January.
Offseason addition Mike D’Antoni has made a serious case for Coach of the Year, writes Chris Mannix of The Vertical. His decision to move James Harden to the point has been one of the highlights of his brief tenure. “I watched a lot of tape of him,” D’Antoni told Mannix. “His skills are enormous. Point guard made sense. He was that anyway. We just cut the fat off. The way he plays now, he’s making an impact every minute. So we can play him less minutes. And he’s fresher.”
The 2016/17 campaign won’t go down in history for the Mavs, at least not in a good way. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas News has come up with a list of things that have officially gone wrong, chief among them significant injuries to Dirk Nowitzki, Andrew Bogut, Devin Harris, Deron Williams and J.J. Barea (again).
For the first time this season, the Spurs featured Dejounte Murray prominently in their rotation and the rookie guard responded with a career-high, 24-point showing. “I felt like I had a rhythm the whole game,” Murray told Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News. “I was confident even before he Gregg Popovich told me I was starting. I always stay ready. … My teammates, when they heard I was starting, they cheered me up tried to keep my confidence high.”

Southwest Notes: D’Antoni, Beverley, Frazier, Mavs

December 16th, 2016 at 11:06am CST by Arthur Hill

The Rockets‘ Mike D’Antoni is the early favorite to be named Coach of the Year, according to Marc Stein of ESPN. D’Antoni’s up-tempo attack has turned James Harden into an MVP candidate and has made Houston a contender in the West. The Rockets are off to a 19-7 start after a disappointing 41-41 season under Kevin McHale and J.B. Bickerstaff. Stein says a close runner-up to D’Antoni is new Grizzlies coach David Fizdale, whose team is 18-9 despite an injury-filled start to the season.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

The Rockets are 13-2 since Patrick Beverley‘s return from injury and he may be in the running for Defensive Player of the Year, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Houston has improved to 17th in defensive efficiency since it got Beverley back in the lineup, and he has a shot at becoming the first guard to win the award in 20 years. “I feel like I am the best defensive player in the league right now,” Beverley said. “I hope the whole world sees it. If we win games, more and more people see it. But the last guard to get the Defensive Player of the Year award was Gary Payton. Why not me? I have the same type of killer mindset that he had, the lateral quickness and quick hands. The swagger also. That’s one of my goals, my biggest goal. If I can get a goal like that, I will put my team in a position to win a lot of games.”
Pelicans point guard Tim Frazier will be sidelined with a contusion on a bone in his wrist, tweets Scott Kushner of The Advocate. Frazier estimates his recovery time at a week to 10 days.
Harrison Barnes has been a pleasant surprise in a dreadful season for the Mavericks, states Tim Cowlishaw of The Dallas Morning News. After joining the team on a max contract this summer, Barnes has responded by averaging 20.4 points per game. In his weekly chat, Cowlishaw also addresses possible trades involving Wesley Matthews, Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut, as well as the potential consequences of shutting down Dirk Nowitzki for the rest of the season.

‘Issues’ Remain With Donatas Motiejunas

December 12th, 2016 at 10:44am CST by Arthur Hill

DECEMBER 12, 10:44am: Although the Rockets and Motiejunas agreed to a new contract on Friday, the deal hit a snag with the forward’s physical on Saturday, per Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter links). According to Feigen, GM Daryl Morey said today that he and the Rockets are in “active discussions” with Motiejunas’ reps and the league, but it’s not clear whether or not the 26-year-old will officially join the team.

DECEMBER 10, 6:46pm: Houston’s front office wants more medical information on Motiejunas before it permits him to return to the team, Watkins tweets. Motiejunas tells ESPN that he did report to tonight’s game. “I was there,” he said. “They told me to go home.” (Twitter link).

5:58pm: The Rockets appeared to have their situation with Donatas Motiejunas resolved when they agreed to re-sign him to a four-year contact on Friday. However, the fifth-year big man wasn’t on hand for the start of tonight’s game with Dallas, and coach Mike D’Antoni said there are still “some issues” with his availability, tweets ESPN’s Calvin Watkins.

D’Antoni didn’t elaborate on what the issues involved, but added that he had expected Motiejunas to be at the game, and “he’s not.”

Motiejunas had been without a contract since becoming a restricted free agent on July 1st. He received an offer sheet from Brooklyn last week, which the Rockets matched on Monday. However, they matched just the salary part of the deal and not the incentives that the Nets included. Motiejunas’ agent, B.J. Armstrong, had a brief standoff with the team before a new deal was reached. That contract contains incentives, but pushes the team option on the final three seasons back to July 15th of each year.

Whatever issue caused Motiejunas not to be on hand for the game, D’Antoni expects to have it resolved later tonight, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle.