OFFICIAL: Mike D'Antoni will be the next coach of the Lakers.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by MemphisX

Oh they will find plenty for him when the Lakers flop.

Keeping hope alive, eh, MemphisX?

You just keep on rooting against the LakeShow more than rooting for your Grizzlies, and we'll all watch together and see what happens.

[e-monk]

Jerry Buss is a classless clown and the worst owner in the history of the association!

some people have about as much long term memory and sense of proportion as a piece of vermecilli

Jerry Buss is the best owner in the history of the association, no debate, period - but I'm sure you guys all know better

[King Sancho Fantastic]

This struck me as more of a Jerry move than a Jim one. Jim will just get more of the flack for it.

[Knicks4life]

I think it's safe to say that Jerry was the driving force behind the firing of Brown and the hiring of D'Antoni because he wants a uptempo offense. I don't think Phil ever had a real shot at the job, the Lakers probably just interviewed him because it would have been bad PR if they didn't. It was probably D'Antoni's job before Brown's firing, Brown and D'Antoni share the same agent so the Lakers probably killed two birds with one stone.

[MemphisX]

Originally Posted by Ron

Keeping hope alive, eh, MemphisX?

You just keep on rooting against the LakeShow more than rooting for your Grizzlies, and we'll all watch together and see what happens.

Lol...please. My thoughts are only on the Grizzlies trying to sneak a title in Pistons style.

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Knicks4life

I think it's safe to say that Jerry was the driving force behind the firing of Brown and the hiring of D'Antoni because he wants a uptempo offense. I don't think Phil ever had a real shot at the job, the Lakers probably just interviewed him because it would have been bad PR if they didn't. It was probably D'Antoni's job before Brown's firing, Brown and D'Antoni share the same agent so the Lakers probably killed two birds with one stone.

I think you're wrong. Have you read Adrian Wojnawoeiwsdjfski's article? His sources are pretty good, and he says there was a period of time when Phil was the only one they wanted.

[Knicks4life]

Originally Posted by Jace

I think you're wrong. Have you read Adrian Wojnawoeiwsdjfski's article? His sources are pretty good, and he says there was a period of time when Phil was the only one they wanted.

Sources 99% of the time have ulterior motives when they share information and tell lies and half truths to get their agendas across. Not saying it could not have went the way Woj said it did in his article I just don't believe that the way it happened.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Ron

Excuse for what?

When did he ask for an excuse?

What in God's name are you talking about?

An excuse for being bad. With Mike Brown it was, 'The coach isn't utilizing him properly.' How the hell is D'Antoni not going to know how to utilize Nash? So he should have no excuse this time when he fails. Is the lack of NHL affecting your brain?

[e-monk]

Originally Posted by Knicks4life

Sources 99% of the time have ulterior motives when they share information and tell lies and half truths to get their agendas across. Not saying it could not have went the way Woj said it did in his article I just don't believe that the way it happened.

in addition to this Woj has been slanting negative since before the firing, hated the firing itself and generally has always been a Jimmy critic

I've actually read a couple articles where Buss the elder is specified as the guy who made the call

[Knicks4life]

‏@KevinDing
Just talked to Mitch Kupchak, who said Lakers decided they could overcome PR situation of not hiring Phil and pick coach they wanted more.

It boiled down to how much more use Mike D'Antoni could get out of Nash and Howard despite "enormous pressure" to hire Phil, Kupchak said.

I asked Kupchak about whether Phil had a vision for using Nash in the triangle. Kupchak said: "Obviously I wasn't convinced."

Kupchak confirmed Lakers initially did not expect Phil to be interested. Mitch also didn't mean to give Phil impression job was his to lose.

Decision to pick D'Antoni made around 5:30 pm Sunday. Kupchak said he did want to notify Phil before he maybe said Monday he did want job.

...

[Knicks4life]

Jerry West: D’Antoni benefits Howard and Nash

Not that what Jerry West (or Angels star Mike Trout earlier) had to say on “The Dan Patrick Show” could be any more interesting and revelatory than what I personally had to say in my segment of the show Tuesday morning (ha-ha), but West offered his own surprise that Phil Jackson didn’t get the Lakers’ job again.

“I always think you have someone in mind,” West said of the Lakers during Mike Brown’ s struggles, “and it looked like Phil Jackson was going to be the coach, and for whatever reason, it didn’t work out that way. … I sort of thought that was Phil’s job to have if he wanted to coach.”

As I detailed in my column about how Jackson was left feeling mistreated and misled by the Lakers, it boiled down to the Lakers prioritizing the guy with no titles over the one with 11 — whether right or wrong. West said it might be right based on how well Steve Nash will do in his old offense, aside from how Mike D’Antoni’s pick-and-roll system will “benefit Dwight Howard a lot (because) he doesn’t have the skill set of (Kareem) Abdul-Jabbar or Shaquille O’Neal or someone like that.”

“I do think they need a style that will let Steve Nash be Steve Nash,” West said.

“Otherwise, I think you put him out there and I don’t see what he’s able to accomplish as a player without the ball in his hands.”

D’Antoni has firmed up plans to fly to Los Angeles on Wednesday. His introductory news conference will be Thursday afternoon, and he has yet to determine when his first game as head coach will be.

West lives in Los Angeles and despite his work as a Golden State Warriors consultant said he watches the Lakers “with interest.” West’s son Ryan is now assistant director of scouting for the Lakers, whom Jerry led as a player and executive for so many years.

Patrick mentioned to West how I’d said earlier on the show that the Lakers’ expectation is absolutely nothing short of a championship this season — particularly in light of how they have this season and next before cutting payroll for luxury-tax purposes — and West said he thinks expectations are “way too high” for these Lakers.

“To me, I like this team,” West said. “They’ve not names. Names don’t win championships. Teams do. As I say, when I look at their team, I see flaws in this team. … I don’t think this is a perfect team at all.”

West did note the Lakers played “with enthusiasm” in their first two games without Brown. West said he wasn’t surprised Brown was fired just five games into the season.

“”Frankly, it didn’t shock me at all the way things were going,” West said. “It didn’t look like they had a whole lot of energy when they were playing.”

[King Sancho Fantastic]

Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, VP Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak collectively came to the decision to hire Mike D'Antoni on Sunday night at about 5 p.m.

On Tuesday morning, Kupchak met with selected reporters to address the coaching hire, discussing why D'Antoni got the job and explaining the process the team went through with former coach Phil Jackson.

In short, the Lakers felt that D'Antoni's style of play is what will most benefit the personnel on the roster.

Below is a summary of Kupchak's comments:

Q: On what took place with Phil Jackson: Kupchak: Much has been made of the perceived agreement to wait until Monday. The actual way it took place after a basketball discussion was, 'Where are we now?,' and Phil said he needed more time. I asked him how much more time, and he said he'd get back to (us) on Monday. I said, 'Phil, I have a job to do and I'm going to have to continue my search and interview candidates.' He nodded that he understood. Maybe herein lies a little bit of the misunderstanding. As it was reported, we never offered a job, and he never indicated he would coach the team. It was a basketball discussion revolving around a lot of questions. So we did what I indicated we would do, which is when I left Phil's house, I began discussions with Mike D'Antoni on Saturday afternoon, and we also set up an interview with another candidate for Sunday. All day Sunday, Jim and I and Dr. Buss (from another location) continued to discuss what the (best move) would be. After multiple phone calls with Mike D'Antoni on Sunday afternoon, at 5 or 6 o'clock on Sunday, we made the decision that Mike D'Antoni was going to be the next coach of the Lakers. It revolved almost completely around the personnel that we have on the team and the style of play we saw going forward for the team. Of course we took into consideration a structured offense, which is what we went through with Mike Brown. We looked at our personnel – without going into great detail, some of our guys I don't think would be successful in the triangle, (and) some of our new players might take a long time to learn the triangle. So we decided Mike would (be the coach).

Q: On calling Phil Jackson at midnight to relay the decision: Kupchak: Our feeling was, the worst thing we can do – since we already made our decision – was to wait until Monday. I could (have) gotten a call from Phil on Monday morning saying he thought about it, and he would like to be the coach and let's start negotiations. To say at the point that we'd decided to go in a different direction, our feeling was that would be even worse than what we did on Sunday night. Our feeling was there was no agreement to wait for (Jackson's) response on Monday. He told us that’s when he would get back to us. I could see where he might interpret that as 'You guys would wait for me,' but I thought when I said I had to interview other candidates it was clear that we had a job to do. I could have waited until Monday morning to call Phil – I didn't look forward to calling somebody at midnight to tell him he's not going to get a job he might or might not accept, but the only other thing I could do was wait until Monday morning and that would have been worse, because (the news had gotten out).

Editor's Note: From Lakers spokesman John Black: It took from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. until a contract with D'Antoni was negotiated and completed, being faxed back and forth and so on from D'Antoni's house outside of New York City. The reason Kupchak didn't call Jackson until around midnight was that the deal with D'Antoni was not completed until that time. It was an attempted courtesy, though Jackson clearly thought that he would have a chance to discuss it again on Monday. Kupchak acknowledged that if Jackson had made it clear he wanted the job on Saturday, the process may have gone differently.

Q: On Phil's reaction: Kupchak: I believe I woke him up. He's always a little cryptic on the phone, but I did wake him up, and in those kinds of situations, there is not a lot of small talk. We did talk about the team a little bit, and Mike D'Antoni and how he runs the team. (Jackson) was very complimentary of Mike under the circumstances. I just told (Jackson), almost verbatim, what our release was. We just felt that the present make up of the team and the kind of basketball we wanted to play going forward, we just thought that Mike D'Antoni was the choice.

On what was discussed in the meeting with Jackson: Kupchak: There was no discussion of salary in the meeting. I don't know why there would be. The job wasn't offered, and he didn't say he wanted the job. We touched briefly on personnel input, which he would hope that he'd have more input. And we talked about the rigors of travel in the NBA. But there was no demands or in depth discussion about missing games. Missing games because of travel was not discussed.

On the conversations he had with D'Antoni that convinced him to make the decision: Kupchak: I've been around so long that there aren't too many veteran coaches that I don't know and know well, and I've known Mike for quite some time. We played against them in all those series in Phoenix. I know what he does. I know what his perceived deficiencies are. But on Saturday, I had several conversations by myself (with Mike) and then on Sunday there were several with Jim and I that lasted an hour or two in total, asking those types of questions. Obviously (I was convinced). I don't think it's a surprise that he looks at our team and likes our team. In his mind, he has it figured out exactly how he wants to play. We discussed his defensive philosophy, going behind the picks, showing on picks, it's going to be a little bit different from what Mike Brown does. Which direction he pushes the defender or the offensive player.

He plays the way we see this team playing and our personnel executing, the guys that we have on this team. We didn't feel with Mike Brown and the Princeton offense that we were getting the most out of the players we brought in this summer. We looked for a coach that could get the most out of the players we brought in this summer, and on top of that the existing players. So clearly it was a huge factor.

Q: On there being belief on Saturday that Phil Jackson would be the coach: Kupchak: When we decided to make the change and we talked about a couple of possibilities, Phil was not lumped in as one of the possibilities that we thought would be a reality. He had retired on his own a year and a half ago, and he told me two months ago that he never wanted to coach again, he was done coaching, but he wanted to stay involved in basketball in one (aspect). That wasn't a surprise to me. And when we made the change, we discussed in advance, although we don't think he wants to be a part of it and we're not looking to go in that direction, there's going to be a firestorm of support. And of course, on Friday, that started. By Friday night, I was talking with ownership about (Phil being) something we had to consider. The decision was made Saturday morning to meet with Phil, to see his take on it, what his condition was, his mental and physical approach, and that's what we did. I'd say up until that point, it remained percentage wise more of a possibility that we'd ask him that he'd say yes, although it never got there. The groundswell of support – there was a lot of pressure to seriously consider bringing Phil back, or asking him to consider to come back.

Other Notes:

I asked Kupchak how much of the decision had to do with Dwight Howard not just for this season, but given that he can be a free agent after the season. His answer: "Significant. We look at Dwight as a cornerstone for this franchise going forward. Right now, it's Kobe Bryant, and right there are Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, but the cornerstone for this franchise based on talent and age is Dwight Howard going forward. Certainly, a big part of getting the most out of Dwight was important in the search."

- Had Phil Jackson expressed definitive interest to take the job during the Saturday meeting, Kupchak said and Jim Buss would have "immediately" huddled with Dr. Buss, and "decided what we were going to do." When that didn't happen, Kupchak called two other candidates, starting with Mike D'Antoni, and became more and more convinced as they spoke to D'Antoni further. Kupchak said that ultimately, they had to "come to grips with" saying no to Phil Jackson, which was not easy, especially since there was such a groundswell of support for the Hall of Famer, even extending to chants during games.
- Kupchak acknowledged that of course D'Antoni saw all the reports that it was Phil's job to lose. But that wasn't actually the case, so Kupchak tried to explain to D'Antoni – without giving anything away – that what was reportedly likely to happen wasn't necessarily going to happen.

- Kupchak said the team's chances to win a title this season are better with D'Antoni as the coach than they were with Mike Brown as the coach. Obviously, that belief is why they made the change. "What Mike (D'Antoni's) going to run better suits the team."

- Kupchak said the defensive numbers for D'Antoni's past teams don't support the idea that he couldn't or didn't coach defense, when adjusted for pace of play. Also: "Mike D'Antoni never had Dwight Howard, Metta (World Peace) and another 7-footer (Pau Gasol) in back of (Howard) either." Kupchak went on to explain that Dr. Buss has always preferred an up-tempo, free offense. The triangle wasn't his favorite system as it wasn't up and down, but since the team was winning it was all good. They also had the personnel to support the triangle offense when Jackson installed it, both times.

- Kupchak was asked if Phil gave him a vision of how he'd be able to take the personnel and win with it: "We talked about it … I know the triangle. Obviously I wasn't convinced … We just didn't feel the players we had on this team, the players we brought in would fit the triangle offense as well as what Mike D'Antoni would do. We made huge commitments to players this summer either via free agency or trade, and we just didn't feel the fit was as good as what Mike D'Antoni runs."

Kupchak added that there will be "a lot more opportunities for every player" in D'Antoni's system. You won't see 16 to 19 seconds on the shot clock before getting a shot. There will be more shot attempts, if more turnovers, but Kupchak thinks it's easier to get a guy to run down on offense than it is on D. And guys are more willing to run back on D after the score, generally.

- Can L.A.'s players run with the collective age of the team? Yes, Kupchak said, but he clarified that they aren't asking the players to run sprints from end line to end line. "We do have young speed and savvy players that can play up tempo. We're not talking about run and gun, we're talking about up tempo, and putting the ball in the hands of a guy to do what he does best. (Steve Nash) isn't going to win sprints, but he knows how to control tempo, and our pace of play will be faster and less deliberate.

http://www.nba.com/lakers/#/story/fe...ching-decision

[XxIrvingxX]

Originally Posted by King Sancho Fantastic

http://www.nba.com/lakers/#/story/fe...ching-decision

I could read this, but I honestly don't care anymore. Lakers are screwed regardless, so there's no real reason for me to care.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by XxIrvingxX

I could read this, but I honestly don't care anymore. Lakers are screwed regardless, so there's no real reason for me to care.

Who are you trying to convince, besides yourself?

I guess if you repeat it enough times, you yourself will come to believe it. ¿Que no?

[Ron]

Decision to pick D'Antoni made around 5:30 pm Sunday. Kupchak said he did want to notify Phil before he maybe said Monday he did want job.

Oh, I get it now...

Make the decision at dinner time...don't want to interrupt Phil's dinner, I can understand that.

Of course, can't make the call during the game. So I guess we wait until 9:00 p.m., when the game is over.

Oh, but wait...we said we will give Phil until Monday to decide whether he wants the job. However, we already offered to 'Antoni (no D) and he already signed the contract! What to do, what to do...

We sweated it out for 3 hours and 1 minute, then rousted him from a deep slumber to kick him to the curb.

Nice going, Mitch. I know you were the sacrificial lamb; after all, the Buss' only own the ****ing team. Damn nice of you to be the errand boy, once again, and treat a coach that won you five titles in this pathetic manner.

Lakers just aren't the classy club they used to be. Very disappointed in them.