D'Antoni excited to coach Harden: His game is 'just like, wow'
Mike D'Antoni is pumped about his new head coaching gig, especially because it affords him the opportunity to work with one of the NBA's top talents.
The bench boss raved about his Houston Rockets boasting "one of the best players in the league, if not the best" in James Harden.
"The way he shoots, the way he moves, the way he handles the ball, it's just like, wow," D'Antoni told Ian Thomsen of NBA.com.
"And then you watch film of his passes, and he's a passer with incredible vision. What he does is special. I'm really looking forward to coaching him. He's receptive and he's in a great state of his athleticism. This is going to be fun to coach because he wants to play the way I want to coach. That's what makes it great. There's no complex."
The 65-year-old has dealt with great players with complexes in the past. He admitted that certain stars he's coached over the years - like Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony - didn't buy into his system.
Now that the Golden State Warriors have proven a team can win a championship running a style that capitalizes on a fast pace and sharing the basketball - not unlike what D'Antoni implemented with the "Seven Seconds or Less" Phoenix Suns - he's as confident as ever and believes he's in a "much better situation" in Clutch City.
It's not hard to see why he's optimistic. With a 27-year-old Harden in his prime, and a solid supporting cast that includes the likes of offseason acquisitions Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon, the Rockets look like a better team - at least on paper - than last season when they finished at the .500 mark.
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In addition to personnel, one must account for what D'Antoni brings to the table. The 2004-05 NBA Coach of the Year is known for increasing the value of his players by putting them in position to maximize their skills.
That must be music to the ears of Harden, who's scored the most points in the NBA over the past two campaigns. The star shooting guard's now the undisputed leader of the team after his contract was extended this summer and Dwight Howard went to Atlanta.