Then again, hiring could add some ‘oomph’ to L.A.

An excerpt from Doug Smith’s blog:

So, Mike D’Antoni it is.

Woke up this morning after a nice relaxing eve to find out that no, Phil Jackson will not be the next coach of the Lakers but that Mike D’Antoni got a four-year deal to do the job. Let the fun begin. This is going to be great, I think. D’Antoni is just the kind of hands-off coach the veteran Lakers need. He’ll put an offensive system in place that relies on a lot of freelancing and high screen and roll and I know that Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard will thrive in it.

Say what you want about D’Antoni, and I’m sure there are those in New York who weren’t entirely enthralled by him, but his teams are fun to watch. They get up and down the floor quickly, there’s a lot of threepointers and hard rolls to the basket and, really, this has a chance to be the closest thing to Showtime since the halcyon days of Magic and Kareem and the lads.

It’s going to be fun to watch and it really puts some “oomph” into the Lakers. Even with that Hall of Fame-studded lineup — at least from the feeling I got being around them for four days and from the games I saw this year — there didn’t seem to be much joy. . . . You watch them play now. They will be giggling it’ll be so much fun just to unleash their creativity and talents without many restrictions. Cannot wait.