With the way things have ended the last five seasons, almost nobody is going to accuse the Denver Nuggets of being visionaries.
After all, anybody who claims to be a visionary, by definition, has vision. Having vision on a basketball court means the willingness to pass and I think we know how the Nuggets feel about passing the basketball.
That said, give the Nuggets credit for being the first team to discover the man who would change the way the NBA plays basketballl and the fans better-late-than never reassmilitation to a game that used to proclaim itself as "fantastic".
That word---fantastic---might be the way to describe the resume of Mike D'Antoni. The word that is the opposite of "fantastic" might be a good way to describe his tenure with the Nuggets.
The strike-shortened 1999 season in Denver was the first NBA head coaching experience for a man who on Saturday agreed to a $24 million contract to coach the New York Knicks. Anybody who was around in 1999 would have put the odds on D'Antoni landing that deal about as long as this current Nuggets squad playing defense.
He lasted one year. He was 14-36 and on the day before his second season was about to begin, Dan Issel decided he could do better and put himself on the bench. Nine years later, D'Antoni left Denver for the desert, won an average of 58 games over the last four years, and went to two Western Conference Finals. Oh, yeah, and that $24 million contract. Issel? He resigned under controversial circumstances. He was replaced by Mike Evans, Jeff Bzdelik, Michael Thompson, and George Karl. That worked out out pretty well, huh? Well, at least it did for D'Antoni.
The biggest knock on D'Antoni is his playoff record. They were 26-25 in his tenure in the Valley of the Sun. The Nuggets in that same span? They were 3-16 in the Playoffs. Never stretching a series longer than five games. Never out of the first round.
With all that, give the Nuggets some credit. They saw the abilities of D'Antoni before anybody, but weren't willing to be patient enough to see it through. Considering that, how strange is it that these current Nuggets wanted more than anything to play the offense popularized by the Suns...coached until last week by, yeah, D'Antoni.
Coincidence?
Have a wonderful Monday.
-"z"
