Rockets better fit for ’Melo
D’Antoni and Anthony paired again in NBA
Houston coach Mike D’Antoni, who walked away from the Knicks post because of Carmelo Anthony, now will welcome him onto his Rockets team that needs their sordid past to be, well, just that.
No more hard feelings over their infamous split in March 2012, when D’Antoni was so tired of trying to persuade Anthony to play power forward that he resigned with more than a month left in the regular season. No more dissecting how it all went down, as D’Antoni has several times in recent years by sharing that it was Anthony’s ultimatum to Knicks management that inspired his exit.
As D’Antoni talked with USA TODAY, this is a new landscape. The Rockets, who came so close to unseating the back-to-back NBA champion Warriors in the Western Conference finals, need ’Melo to be at his best.
Yet after his one season in Oklahoma City, where Anthony posted career lows in scoring (16.7 points per game) and field goal percentage (40.4) while struggling to mesh with Russell Westbrook and Paul George, it remains to be seen if he can augment this Rockets operation that is led by James Harden, Chris Paul and Eric Gordon.
Q: You’ve talked before about how it’s water under the bridge between you and ’Melo, but it’s a different thing when you’re working together again. So what’s your perspective here?
A: Well, at different points of people’s careers or lives or circumstances, things are different. … In New York, when they gave away half the team (to Denver in the February 2011 trade that brought Anthony to the Knicks) and everybody expected us to win a championship, it really wasn’t realistic. It put a lot of pressure on everybody, and it kind of burst the pipes. I think this is totally different. We’ve got a team that is a whole bunch of veterans that really — we’ve got one thing in mind, and that’s to win a championship, and we have the possibility. We never had a blow-up before, so it’s not he wanted to play a certain way and I kind of wanted to coach another way.
Back then, there wasn’t even analytics. I was going by my gut, and he was going by (his) gut, and it’s just, you know, styles clash. And I think now, things have changed and everybody is playing the same way. I think it’s a lot better fit, and I think we have a really good chance to be really good.
Q: How do you see him fitting in?
A: The style that we want to play, and we go through that process, it kind of sorts itself out. It’s like USA Basketball. If you’re committed to doing it, and committed to, “OK, this is how we’re playing, and then when it’s your turn it’s your turn, but if it isn’t then we’re still within these guidelines.” Then the more talent you can have, the better the guys are, the better the team is going to be. Look at Golden State, how they had all those guys and you fit in (Kevin) Durant. I mean, if you are committed to a certain style, and everybody is committed to the team, it works itself out. ...
It’s like having Chris and James together (last season). It was relatively non-eventful … and I think it’ll be the same thing. ... We’ve just got to make sure we don’t get too far away from taking threes and layups and foul shots. It’ll be a little bit of a learning process. But again, if everybody is committed, then I have no doubt it can work. Whether we can all get it to work? We’ll see.
Q: You mentioned Team USA, and his role on the national team has always been the thing people pointed to when they debated the best version of ’Melo. I know he might not like that narrative, but there’s obviously some truth there.*
(Note: Anthony was part of the 2004 team that took bronze in the Athens Olympics, then went on to win Olympic gold in 2008, 2012 and 2016, with D’Antoni serving as an assistant for the 2012 London Games. D’Antoni also was head coach of the 2006 team that included Anthony and won bronze in the FIBA World Championship.)
A: Yeah, and again, it’s all relative. And I don’t know how it’s all going to work out. We’ve got eight or nine players that fit in, pieces that we’re going to try to win a championship (with). I can’t tell you today how that’s going to look. But again, if we have everybody on board, pulling in the same direction, it’ll be better than what we had.
Q: People assume that when you lose Trevor (Ariza in free agency to Phoenix), and you have someone with ’Melo’s resume at that spot, you slide him into the starting job. But you have options there. How do you see the rotation?
A: I don’t know, and that’s something that we’ll have to work out. All I know is that we’ll try different combos — preseason, early season, and the good thing is that with analytics and with gut feelings and coaches and players, we’ll figure out what is the best way to play. And again, if everybody is on board, then it’ll be, “Hey, this is where we’re the best. This is how we can win the championship.” I don’t know yet, but we’ll make sure we get it right as good as we can.