Mike D is going to show players what a radioactive accident is like. The best player on the team is given powers that are beyond their imaginations. Their choice is what they do with them. The best case results have been Icarian flights that flirt with titles as opposed to the sun, but this process has yet to produce a championship. Whether that is due to bad luck or an unfair burden falling on one player is a matter of opinion. It is a fascinating coaching tactic that is great in the hands of players who use it correctly, and dangerous for those who don't.
The transformation is hard to reverse because it is dependent on one guy and maybe a sidekick. I don't believe that LaMelo Ball needs that kind of onus put on him because he is so unique as a facilitator that making him a ball stop would disrupt his altruistic way in which he plays.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, D Antoni, a free agent coach, is a serious candidate for the Hornets, but the last thing the team needs is a coach who gives it to his best player and gets out of the way. Ball is good enough to be the main ball handler and offensive threat on a team, like James Harden or Steve Nash. I don't think it's necessary for a squad that has already scored 115 points a game.
Charlotte had the fourth best scoring offense in the league and led all others in assists per game. Ball finished in the top 10 in the league among assist men, but he wasn't dribbling in circles looking for Miles Bridges or dribbling between his legs for half the shot clock before taking a stepback 3 or setting up a teammate. According to Second Spectrum, the only player in the top 10 who held the rock for less time per touch than Ball was Nikola Joki.
The soon-to-be third-year guard is setting up his teammates without pounding the shit out of the ball. Ball's passing is rare and his dribbling is rare. The way he moves the ball is infectious, and it leads to teammates cutting instead of standing around staring because they know they're going to be found if they get open. It tells teammates that they will never see the ball again and that they can keep the ball moving.
The main reason Ball fell was because teams were worried that he would be a diva. The guy scored 92 points in a high school game. It seemed like Lavar had created a monster.
That wasn't the case, and despite Lavar's worst efforts, LaMelo doesn't come off like a me-first player at all on the court. He's not afraid of self-promotion off of it. It's not subtle to date models who once dated Real Madrid's Karim Benzema and show up for a game in a bitter lemon car with a matching outfit.
I don't want to say which side of the D Antoni roof Ball would roll down if set atop, because that taste of power is hard to give up. There isn't a lot of room for error in the playoffs, and there isn't much room for improvement. It becomes easier to defend after seeing an offense in a couple of games.
It's hard for a player to take his game up a notch when he's already maximized.
Thankfully for Ball, the Hornets aren't pursuing Jackson, despite reports that Ball wants the same coach. Curry and Thompson credit Jackson with instilling defense in them. Charlotte, who already knows how to score, learns to play defense under Jackson in a bizarro Golden State where she already knows how to score. A guy who can barely break down what he sees while calling a game is a disadvantage.
The Warriors, Mavs, Sean Sweeney, and Darvin Ham were the other three candidates. The only one with head coaching experience is Atkinson. The Hornets don't have to grind out sets in order to score because he is a more grating Steve Clifford.
Sweeney seems like a qualified coaching candidate, but Ham's patience under Mike Budenholzer, respect on a title team, and NBA coaching and playing experience make him the ideal selection. Milwaukee attributes its improvement on defense last year to Ham.
Defense and player development? It sounds like a perfect match for a young team that doesn't play defense and has an up-and-coming super star.
D Antoni's potential is as transfixing as it would be for LaMelo. While empowering the Hornets star guard could give him a lot of numbers, it isn't worth the trouble.
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