The Sacramento Kings search for a new head coach is in full swing, with candidates announced and interviews expected to begin this week. With seven candidates named so far, it seems only fitting to take some time to break down each candidate.
I’m joined by our good friend Jill Adge, who hosts The SportsEthos Sacramento Kings podcast. We highly recommend listening to Jill on any Kings topic, but specially when it comes to coaching searches. Jill has done overviews of candidates for the Kings next head coach, as well as deep dives on some of the candidates that I will link in their appropriate articles.
With that, let’s jump into our next candidate.
Mike D’Antoni
Age: 70 (turns 71 on May 8th)
Current Role: Coaching advisor, New Orleans Pelicans
Resume: NBA player from 1973-1976, started his career with the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, International player 1977-1990, International coach 1990-1997, NBA coach (as either assistant or head coach) from 1997-2021, 2x NBA Coach of the Year, 672 career wins as a head coach, career 56% winning percentage as a head coach, assistant coach for USA Basketball for two Olympic Gold Medals
From Jill:
Mike D’Antoni “The Mustache” is the oldest veteran of the group. He is an offensive savant and was one of the three finalists for the Portland job this last off-season. He now serves as the Coaching Consultant for Willie Green and the Pelicans. The two time coach of the year award winner might be looking for his last stop before he hangs up his whistle for good.
***
It’s easy to forget just how impressive a career Mike D’Antoni has had. D’Antoni hasn’t been perfect at every stop by any means. His Knicks tenure was bad, his Lakers tenure was worse, although I’m not sure any coaching could have succeeded in this situation. The Rockets got worse each of MDA’s four years in Houston, but some of that can be chalked up to the James Harden effect, and the Rockets still managed to win more than 60% of their game each year. The Rockets were also a Chris Paul injury away from toppling the Warriors in the 2017-18 Western Conference Finals.
The concern with D’Antoni is his age. How much longer will he have the fire to continue coaching? Will this be another George Karl situation where a Hall of Fame coach takes one last ill-fated job to add a couple more wins to the resume? I personally don’t worry that it would be nearly as bad or toxic as the Karl situation, but there’s still some concern that D’Antoni isn’t a long-term solution.
The other big concern is defense. D’Antoni is an offensive mastermind, and his 7-Seconds-Or-Less offense in Phoenix helped revolutionize the way the NBA looks today. But D’Antoni’s teams have never been known for their defense. We’ve watched the last few years how poorly it’s gone when the Kings subpar rosters tried to outscore opponents while never stopping them. Would hiring D’Antoni be simply hoping he could push the offense to an even higher level?
If the Kings hire D’Antoni, he arrives with a pre-established relationship with Kings GM Monte McNair. The common anecdote we heard when McNair was interviewing with the Kings was that McNair was the go-between who would translate analytics and gain buy-in from Mike D’Antoni to implement changes. The two worked closely for years. Monte McNair could hire MDA and have a very clear understanding of what that dynamic is going to be like between coach and front office. That would include all the good and all the bad that comes with any long term working relationship.
There are concerns about D’Antoni that are valid. But it’s encouraging to me that someone with MDA’s experience and success is considered someone in the middle or lower end of the candidate pool for the Kings. It speaks to the overall quality of candidates the Kings are interviewing. Mike D’Antoni wouldn’t be my first choice for the next coach of the Kings, but I won’t be dismayed if he gets the job. I’d be excited to see if he could unlock a new level for De’Aaron Fox, and I’d fully expect the team to make a real run at the postseason.
Up next: Mark Jackson
Previously: Darvin Ham
One way to make your roster look younger – hire an old coach!
But what about when you have to introduce the old folks to the new technology of today?
Kings’ defensive improvements:
Anyone else try to click “OK”?
I clicked on the link and it took me here.
Splashy name – check
Former King – check
Hates defense – check
Looks like he’s got all the makings of our next coach.
Mi rammarico per la mia preferenza di assumere il baffo.
Up next: Mark Jackson
Up right after that: My lunch!
Do you really think you’re qualified to critique Mark Jackson like that. He’s as competent as any of these candidates none of which will succeed without a roster. I refer you to George Karl’s career.
I don’t think anyone has critiqued his coaching. It’s his character, which is well documented, that is the concern.
Refer yourself to George Karl, he was physically unfit for the job. A job he stole. He then went way outside his lane in attempts to trade cousins without permission and essentially ignited a full scale bombing of “his team” and any remote chance they had at success. Never reference George Karl in any good light when referring to his time in sacramento. It was an absolute disgrace.
George Karl is a HOF coach, but he sure as hell wasn’t one in Sac.
I actually do think Rob (or most of us on this site, really) are qualified to critique Mark Jackson like that, yes. The guy is a walking douche bag, claimed Harrison Barnes had demons, alienated John Stockton from the Jazz organization, on and on (well documented stuff, feel free to google it.)
You don’t need any credentials to critique, by the way. Its like pooping; everyone does it.
Here we stay.
Please list your qualifications to disqualify people who clearly qualify to comment here on this open forum where people are qualified with a free login.
I’m sure I have more coaching and playing experience than most. If you want to listen to people who have never played or coached, that’s your prerogative but I’m happy to compare qualifications if that’s what you’re asking. I’d love to hear the qualifications from those you say are clearly qualified. You’ll notice they’ll never list their playing or coaching experience.
Everyone here qualifies because they have a username and a password. That is the qualification.
Save your list of coaching and playing experience please. It doesn’t matter here.
First of all, he’s very low on my list for lots of reasons. Pass.
That being said, if he were hired, how would he mesh with Sabonis and his skillset? Has MDA ever coached a team with a playmaking big like Sabonis? It seems he has really only had success with shot making guards, two of which were MVP’s in Nash and Harden.
i think that is 100% the biggest question mark.
You can argue whether or not Amare Stoudamire was a playmaking big, but those suns teams saw plenty of success with him in the paint. Sure, Nash ran point and Shawn Marion was a nice 3rd “star” but without Amare those suns teams wouldn’t have been nearly as successful.
Obviously Bones is a different kind of big, but I don’t think its a stretch to suggest that Mike D. would be able to implement a game plan that takes advantage of a teams strengths, regardless of what those strengths may be.
One thing I’m stuck on with this one though, as brought up by the article, is that McNair and Mike D. have some good history. The problem I have with that is that it came using small ball lineups and Monte seems to have a penchant for being guard-heavy. I just don’t think you can win at the highest level that way, and that’s my only concern here. Can teams like that win? All regular season long, but in the post season its a different story.
Right, lets worry about getting to the post season first…
In today’s NBA the top teams are incorporating a talented, mobile big into their small ball line ups (e.g. Jokic and Embiid). I think McNair has recognized this trend and is why he traded for Sabonis.
How was Amare a playmaking big? The guy averaged about an 1 assist per game for his career. He was a rim running threat thanks to Nash’s deft passing.
You seem focused on the Amare / playmaking big part. I’ll reiterate;
Obviously Bones is a different kind of big, but I don’t think its a stretch to suggest that Mike D. would be able to implement a game plan that takes advantage of a teams strengths, regardless of what those strengths may be.
Two points:
2 – That’s just, like, your opinion, man…
While I like D’Antoni for a certain roster construction and franchise, this is not the right roster or franchise for his skillset and system. The fast pace would work but current lack of strong shooters and piss poor defense would make this a disaster. Hard no on Mike.
The more we look at these coaching candidate profiles the more you will see there successes and failures are a direct correlation to the rosters they have. All of these candidates are capable but the marginal difference between all of them is virtually non-existent. Let’s talk about how we obtain a competent roster because when you get to that point you’ll have a competent coach.
On another note, I’m a proponent for trading Fox for the right deal but do you remember these bloggers were proposing Fox and 2 first rounders for Ben Simmons. You think we have a mess on our hands now.
Not sure if you noticed the headline, but these are “Coaching Profiles”, so they’re going to talk mostly about coaches. And their profiles. Not our current roster.
Hope that clears things up a bit…
Were you the one who referred to Amare as a playmaking big?
Nope.
MDA is no dummy: Butter up Vivek, get a 4-year deal, get fired in 18 months, retire and get a full paycheck for 2.5 years. Smart guy…
Off topic: But holy shit. Is CBS really mocking TyTy to us? What possible justification could there be for that?
Is that any worse than proposing Fox and 2023 and 2024 first round picks for Ben Simmons. We don’t know what TyTy will become but we know what Simmons has become.
Wow. Those are completely different conversations that have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
Who offered Fox and two firsts for Simmons?
Fox for Simmons straight up makes a good team.
Sports Illustrated as well. Could be because Monte had drafted 2 PGs in 2 previous drafts so why not make it a hat trick and go with TyTy Washington this year!
The SI article is just linking the CBS one. They reference the same mock draft.
Yeah, no.
If this refers to the opinions of fans, I’d say that it rings true, but that’s not clear, and I’d be surprised if the organization’s view aligned with my own, or many commenters.
I’d prefer a new, or at least fresh face running the show. I have no objections to MDA joining the new coach’s staff in some capacity, but I don’t feel that having him as head coach is best in the larger scheme of things.
I doubt D’Antoni knows how to spell defense, let alone the definition of the word. Neeeext.
With De’Aaron Fox running point Mike D. could write a new book titled “5 Seconds or Less”
Old.
Retread.
No.
Having MDA come in to give his opinion on how to build an offense around Fox and Domas is a worthwhile exercise. He wouldn’t be at the top of my list for hiring candidates.
Badge Legend