Written by Tim Cato at SB Nation.com
Mike D’Antoni has won 2017 NBA Coach of the Year, it was announced during the NBA’s live awards show on Monday. He beat out Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra, the two runners up for the award who were also present.
It was D’Antoni who took the Rockets from a boring 41-win team to an exciting 55-win team in just a season, performing one of the boldest basketball experiment in a decade. Houston set three-point records in makes and attempts while basically ignoring the mid-range, and it led to them having the third-best record in the league.
It’s his second Coach of the Year award, also winning one in 2005 with the Phoenix Suns. With the Rockets this season, D’Antoni immediately asked James Harden to take on the point guard role for his team, resulting in him tallying a league-leading and career-high 11.2 assists per game while still averaging 29.1 points. D’Antoni’s style, implemented vigorously in Houston, made the Rockets one of the most fascinating teams to watch all year.
Before Houston, D’Antoni’s last two stops had gone poorly, spending four seasons in New York with just one winning season and then struggling to lead the Lakers “superteam” with Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. With Houston, D’Antoni and the Rockets were both revitalized.
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