In the aftermath of the Houston Rockets quarterfinal loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the first domino has fallen as head coach Mike D’Antoni has informed the team he will not return next season.
According to ESPN, D’Antoni who’s contract expired at the end of Houston’s season turned down any extension offers this off-season and will be highly considered for many of the head coaching vacancies most highly for the Philadelphia 76ers position.
There are also rumors the Indiana Pacers are highly interested and justifying so cause one thing D’Antoni has shown is he can coach.
Since entering the league in 2003, he has been an offensive innovator putting the Phoenix Suns on the map with the likes of the high-flying Steve Nash, Amare Stoudamaire, Grant Hill and more.
He then tried to salvage the hot mess that is the New York Knicks franchise to no avail despite having the likes of Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith among others.
From there he went to the Los Angeles Lakers joining the likes of superstars Steve Nash and Dwight Howard but Howard proved to be a head-case and Kobe Bryant never could quite recover from his Achilles injury.
In 2016, he joined the Houston Rockets and superstar James Harden where he went 217-102 advancing once to the Western Conference finals and three times to the Conference Finals with the highest winning percentage in the Western Conference over the past four seasons.
The 76ers who have continuously underperformed with superstars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons or Pacers with the oft-injured Victor Oladipo and Malcolm Brogdon are each in desperate need of leadership, accountability and offensive innovation and D’Antoni would be an excellent fit at either spot.
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