Alykhan Bijani: Coach D’Antoni and P.J. Tucker together again. For those who don’t know, D’Antoni and Tucker have a very strong bond and close relationship. #Rockets pic.twitter.com/DGZNGEBsTl
Mike D’Antoni Rumors
If you ask D’Antoni, he points to the players. “The main reason why everyone’s so efficient now is the skill level,” D’Antoni tells TrueHoop. Under Steve Nash in Brooklyn, D’Antoni sees Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden daily. And systems have evolved. “Coaches have figured out how spacing is. Now, you can not only shoot with your toe just behind the line, but even three feet behind it. Now you have more court to work with. And players are bigger, faster, stronger.”
Looking back, D’Antoni wishes there had been more math in Phoenix. “I’ve told Steve (Nash) a thousand times—we didn’t go far enough with our approach because we didn’t have analytics,” D’Antoni says. “Everybody was killing us about how we were playing. Too many threes, they said. Live by the 3, die by the 3, blah blah blah. If I hear that one more time, I’m going to throw up.”
The Brooklyn Nets assistant coach turns 70 next month, and loves his current role. “I sleep so much better,” D’Antoni says laughing. “I tell Steve (Nash) all the time: I hate it when we lose, but I’m gonna go home and go to bed. You need to worry about this shit for tomorrow.”
