D’Antoni OKs what he hears of potential
Mike D’Antoni understands the doubts, the questions the Rockets’ addition of 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony on Monday raised with many.
D’Antoni had questions, too. But to the Rockets coach, they have been answered.
Anthony was a free agent when he decided to join the Rockets, signing his oneyear, $2.4 million contract Monday. He chose to accept the kind of role he could find with the Rockets, largely playing as a power forward, possibly coming off the bench, certainly in support of other stars rather than the No. 1 option he had been through most of his career.
His willingness to not just accept, but to choose his place in the Rockets’ mix was all D’Antoni needed to hear.
“I understand some of the naysayers,” D’Antoni said. “I understand the question marks going into it. I would be worried about it if there were no conversations. But
those have been answered sufficiently. Now, we’ll have to adjust. I’ll have to adjust a few things to get the best out of Melo and he’ll have to adjust his game to play with us the best he can. That’s normal things it took Chris (Paul) and James (Harden) about an hour and half to get solved.
“I go back to the Olympic experience and they want to play for the team, the name on the front of the jersey instead of the name on the back. That makes it easy, when you have talented players. You can’t make something out of nothing. We can make something out of something. These guys got something.”
An Olympic stalwart
Anthony, 34, is the most successful Olympic basketball player, the all-time leading U.S. scorer and rebounder and a threetime gold medalist, including one season when D’Antoni was an assistant coach since they were unable to make their partnership with the Knicks work.
D’Antoni stepped down in New York because he was unable to get Anthony to buy in to his style, including playing Anthony at power forward and taking him out of the low post, where he had been a prolific one-on-one scorer. By signing with the Rockets, Anthony had chosen to play in that style, though without the burdens of carrying a team that he had in New York after the blockbuster trade that brought him in from Denver.
“We never had a blowup,” D’Antoni said. “We never had hard feelings. Melo’s a good guy. He just didn’t want to play my vision. He came from Denver in the middle of the year. You put New York pressure on him and we gave up half our team to get him. We didn’t have enough resources to win immediately. With the pressure, me wanting to play a different way that he was accustomed to and had been successful at, we just clashed. We couldn’t get over the hump. The best thing I could do is resign at that point because you can’t have it both ways. It wouldn’t work the other way.
“Since then, we (were in) the Olympics together. Let’s try to make this work. He’s an enormous talent and I think we can make this work.”
D’Antoni said he is convinced it will work because of Anthony’s varied offensive talents and determination to fit in with the Rockets’ rotation and style. Anthony, 6-8, made 37.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s last season with the Thunder and 41.8 percent of his catch-and-shoot attempts from the 3-point line in his final season with the Knicks.
The Rockets create more spotup 3s than any team in NBA history, but they also seemed to need another scorer who can create shots for himself and around him in the Western Conference finals against the Warriors, averaging eight points per 100 possessions fewer in the series even before Paul’s injury than they had in the regular season.
Adjustments needed
“He’s a good shooter,” D’Antoni said. “He can spot-up from 3, like Chris did with James. He can do that with those two, easily. He’ll play a lot of four. He’ll play some three. We have defensive guys like Eric Gordon. He’s not going anywhere. He has a certain skill set that at times will be very valuable. When we don’t need that skill set, he can catch and shoot and play hard, like anybody else.”
D’Antoni also cited the defensive abilities of James Ennis III, a potential successor to Trevor Ariza at small forward. Ennis would be the most likely starter if Anthony comes off the bench. D’Antoni said that’s yet to be determined, but Anthony made it clear he would be fine with either place in the rotation.
“Nothing’s been decided,” D’Antoni said. “He, like everyone else on the team, like Eric Gordon, ‘if that’s what’s best for the team, that’s what I’ll do.’
“We’ll see what performs best. What makes the best rotation and how to get the best out of them. Whether he starts or doesn’t start, and he said it, is a moot point. We’ll make that decision as we go forward. Maybe he starts the game, maybe he doesn’t.
“We had to make sure that everybody’s on the same page and he definitely, definitely is. We all have the same vision and want to get this thing done and beat probably the best team in NBA history. We can’t afford a misstep or take things for granted and say ‘we’ll work things out.’ When we talked about his vision and our vision and it matched up.”
With that, D’Antoni called adding Anthony “a no-brainer.” The questions might have been valid, but more than a month before training camp will begin, D’Antoni considered them answered.