[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 So far the D’Antoni- Houston experiment is going better than anyone could have imagined. The team is shooting and making 3s at a record pace, harden is putting up historic level numbers and may be the frontrunner for MVP, and most importantly, they are currently on pace to win around 60 games and finish with a top 3 seed in the West.

This isn’t a team with a ton of individual talent but they play to their strengths beautifully. They rely on harden’s brilliance at creating shots and superb 3 point shooting. They are going to give up a lot of points but just rely on the fact that they will be able to score more than the other team.

It seems like we’ve seen this story before with dantoni coached teams. In Phoenix they took the league by storm in the regular season. However, they could never lock in and get the stops needed to win in the playoffs. Teams were able to adjust to their style of play and they weren’t able to make the necessary adjustments to counter.

My question is, will things be different this time for D’Antoni in Houston? Do they have the personnel to seriously challenge the warriors, spurs or Cavs in a seven game series or are the just destined to be a great regular season team that fades in the playoffs? Are they a serious contender or just a feel good story?

 

 

 

[EspressoParticipant]

 I am such a big fan of dantoni, but his system always seems to fail in the playoffs… teams are simply gonna close out harder on those 3pt shots and prevent easy fastbreak buckets. In the end, playoffs come down to half court execution and defense. There will be a whole lot of pressure on Harden to create time and time again, but defenses won’t be sagging off of 3pt shooters so those easy points will no longer be there.

 

One thing I can say is, while D’antoni had one of the  best playmakers ever in Nash, he never had a go-to scorer like Harden…. who can get buckets by his lonesome.

 

 

 

 

[Hype Machine]

 I dont think so. But credit for trying since they had even less chance with any other style.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

Reminds me of those Cavs teams with LeBron dominating the ball/playing hero ball and surrounded by role players/shooters, etc. They always won 50+ games, but couldn’t seem to beat the elite teams in the playoffs. Eventually those jumpshots stopped falling and people said LeBron’s teammates were garbage.

I see a similar fate for HOU. Harden will get his numbers and fill the stat sheets playing hero ball, but eventually those jumpshots Gordon, Ariza, Anderson, Beverly, etc are shooting are going to stop falling with harder closeouts. 

You can’t beat elite teams playing this kinda hero ball IMO. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Author]

Posts