To make matters worse, Steve Nash is still not back from injury, someone who will be a key piece to this D’Antoni offense. We will not be able to get a complete picture of this Lakers team and decide whether or not the choice to hire D’Antoni was the correct one until Nash gets back on the court.
In the mean time, the other Lakers need to make an effort to improve themselves, something that will be a process. D’Antoni understands that there is a lot of pressure while in Los Angeles and he will face the same scrutiny as Mike Brown did. The current Lakers coach spoke to 790 The Ticket in Miami on The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz and talked about the firing of his predecessor.
Was it fair what the Lakers did to Mike Brown?
“No. No. It’s never fair. But it’s our business and our business is not fair. That’s the basis of it and that’s the way it goes. I think when you sign on the dotted line, and they pay you a lot of money to do that, it’s part of the business. A lot of it isn’t fair and it’s not a reflection on who you are as a head coach and who you are as a person, but that’s part of the game and otherwise don’t get into coaching ’cause that’s the way it is.”
The Lakers fired Brown five games into the 2012-13 season as the team was a disappointing 1-4, not to mention 0-8 in the preseason. Brown implemented parts of the Princeton offense this season, but it turned out that that system was not the correct one for this team.
Mike D’Antoni will run a much different offense than the Princeton, and everyone in Los Angeles is hoping that he can help turn this struggling team around.