Could Mike D’Antoni find his way back to New York with the Brooklyn Nets?

The Brooklyn Nets are still searching for a coach that will lead them to a championship. With Mike D’Antoni potentially out in Houston, could he be the guy?

Mike D’Antoni is in the final year of his contract with the Houston Rockets, and even though he owns the best winning percentage in the regular season and postseason in franchise history, he hasn’t been offered a contract extension and could be on the outs; leaving the Brooklyn Nets with a very solid coaching option.

D’Antoni is best known for his run as head coach with the Phoenix Suns in the mid-2000s with back-to-back MVP Steve Nash running the show.

Although that team never won a championship, they were considered ahead of their time with their Seven Seconds Or Less offense that pushed the ball in transition and set up easy looks at the rim or from behind-the-arc, as it led to them being at the top of the league in team scoring all those years.

In order for that offense to work to fully click, it required Amar’e Stoudemire to move to center and Shawn Marion to move to power forward to provide more athleticism at positions that were always considered slow.

D’Antoni was ahead of his time in a lot of respects, as he’s always embraced analytics and will always look for ways to make his team the best offensive team it can ever be.

Their suspect defense, however, couldn’t get them past other talented teams in the playoffs such as the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks.

Although D’Antoni has been criticized for not emphasizing defense enough throughout his coaching career, he has earned the respect of superstar players such as James Harden for giving them the green light to do what they do best.

"“Playing for coach, he gives not only myself, but the entire team a lot of freedom,” Harden said. “He doesn’t really yell; he just lets you go out there and play. All you have to do is go out there and do your job, play extremely hard, and play within your role. That’s all that matters. I know a lot of coaches have strict rules and players aren’t allowed to do certain things on the court, but he just lets you go out there and play free. That’s one thing I love about him. He’s a real players coach.”"

That trait is definitely an important one for the Nets to consider in their coaching search, as Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant both love to have the freedom to get their shots up from anywhere on the court including the mid-range and inside the paint.

The problem is, however, is that D’Antoni’s Rockets have been last in the league in two-point field goal attempts for the past few seasons, as they prefer to move the ball around the three-point line, as evidenced by the fact that they rank first in three-point field goal attempts.

This seems to have the makings of another Kenny Atkinson type of hire. After all, Atkinson is a disciple of D’Antoni, as Atkinson was on D’Antoni’s staff when D’Antoni was coaching the New York Knicks.

Furthermore, Harden’s lack of diversity in the mid-range game plays well into D’Antoni’s system, as 10.9 of his 22.3 field-goal attempts per game come from 25-29 feet from the basket, and seven of them come from within five feet.

Harden’s high volume of three-point attempts helps the ball hop around the three-point line, and it also gives Russell Westbrook a chance to do what he does best, which is to get half of his shot attempts within five feet and make 60.2 percent of them.

To D’Antoni’s credit, he knows his personnel, and that is why the Rockets are second in the league in points per game and have been a huge threat these past few seasons in the very tough Western Conference.

Irving’s all-around game, in comparison to Houston’s backcourt, is a whole lot more diverse, as he attempts at least two of his 20.7 shot attempts a game from any range on the court.

While Harden is a better scorer than Irving, Irving’s ball-handling skills allows him to create a lot of space and make him a threat anywhere on the court. Irving’s quickness off the dribble also allows him to break down defenders and pull-up at any time to hit jump-shots from anywhere on the floor or pass it off to the wide-open man for an easy bucket.

A concern I personally have is that D’Antoni is going to try and up Irving’s three-point attempts to the number Harden attempts, which will take away a lot of what Kyrie can do with the basketball in his hands.

Whenever Irving drives to the rim or isolates on his defender, that is going to attract the attention of multiple defenders and naturally open up other opportunities for his teammates.

It could create catch-and-shoot opportunities for Durant and Joe Harris, open up the floor for Caris LeVert to get his looks in the mid-range or behind-the-arc, set up easy dunks and layups inside for DeAndre Jordan and Jarrett Allen, or he could either simply take it in himself for layups inside or stop on a dime and hit a pull-up jumper.

Durant also loves to get his shots from 10-19 feet, as he was second in the league during the 2018-19 season in attempts from that range.

Breaking down Durant’s mid-range game even further, in the 2018-19 season, 256 of his 322 made pull-up jump shots were two-pointers, so if you try and take him away from his sweet spots as well, then all of a sudden, this team will become a lot less dangerous.

Most, if not all basketball fans know that Durant relies heavily on the pull-up mid-range jumper without even looking at the numbers, which is a shot that D’Antoni has known to hate. Heck, it’s hard to imagine thinking about KD without his signature pull-up jumper off the dribble.

D’Antoni undoubtedly has the pedigree to help take this team to the next level and seemingly has a vote of confidence from Harden, but the personnel he’ll be working with in Brooklyn may not be the right group for him. But if he takes the same hands-off approach with KD and Kyrie that he did with Harden and lets them do their thing, then there might be a fit for him back in the Big Apple.