re: Mike D'Antoni hired as Lakers Head Coach

But Stephen A. Smith said there was a 90% chance they would hire Phil Jackson...

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weren't too excited with him not traveling to away games.

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yeah .. that concession struck me as rather odd .. i didn't see how that one was going to play out and wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the major sticking points ... that kind of defeats the purpose of bringing a coach in if they are only going to coach the home games .. he also wanted to limit his attendance at shoot arounds on non game days too .. from everything you read, jackson is a huge ego nut .. he rode jordan's back to his first six titles .. then shaq and kobe's to his next five .. for all the fans that say he can manage the big egos, the shaq/kobe drama happened on his watch .. then he gave the lakers the "it's either me or kobe" ultimatum at the end of his first tenure ...

ESPN article says that they weren't convinced this team could handle the triangle since they couldn't grasp the Princeton. Kobe and Gasol would have no problem, but Nash and Howard would more than likely struggle. D'Antoni was a better fit for the personnel ITO.

I am very surprised. I thought it was a lock that Phil Jackson was going there.

I'm surprised too. But management saying the triangle would be too difficult to implement since the season already started makes sense. This way, at least they'll score some points.

Yeah he did

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Lakers' Jim Buss says Mike Brown "works too hard for this to be happening."

"You don't start 0-3 for the first time since we've owned the franchise without being on top of it."

"You have to give it time to understand [what's going on]."

"I don't know if there's a game total that would make me impatient. I know if we're 1-15, I don't think that would be very good. I'm sure that would be a panic button."

"But at this time, I'm fine with what's going on. As long as everybody is on the same page, I think we're fine."

"So either the system is flawed or something's going on. Or, like the Triangle, it's very hard to pick up and understand."

"I'm not a basketball mind like he is or the players are, and the players are fine with it, so I just have to be patient."

"Kobe and I have a relationship where he can just look at me and say, 'Everything's cool. So yesterday during practice, I gave Kobe a quick glance, and everything was cool."

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yeah I always thought Jim's ascension had been kind of interesting. not the Lakers fan I once was though, so I haven't paid as much attention to the dynamics as I used to.

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Do you really think it has anything to do with guys not being able to run the triangle?

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not at all. Phil has shown some flexibility with some pick and roll stuff over the yrs, I'm sure he could have come up with something to get everybody comfortable on offense.

Could feel this happening with Nash's remarks the other day...

"Obviously everyone knows how much I love Mike," Nash said "If he were the coach it would be seamless and terrific for me and for the team as well. These are things that will be decided pretty soon so there's not much point speculating."

The Lakers brought in Nash for a reason. To use him. Let him be Nash.

If Kobe was down with it, it makes sense.