No. 1: Report: D’Antoni set to join Brown’s staff in Philadelphia — The extreme franchise makeover in Philadelphia that began with the hiring of Jerry Colangelo as chairman of basketball operations earlier this week could get another high-profile addition, and soon. The Sixers are reportedly in talks with Mike D’Antoni to join Brett Brown‘s staff as an assistant coach. Brown’s two-year contract extension was announced Friday afternoon and soon after word of the possibility of D’Antoni coming on board began circulating. Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer provides some context:
It turns out that Jerry Colangelo doesn’t have to be in Philadelphia to have an influence on the 76ers.
The team’s recently hired chairman of basketball operations is in talks with Mike D’Antoni to become an associate head coach with the Sixers, according to Yahoo Sports. The website said that Colangelo and coach have spoken to D’Antoni about a role on the Sixers bench that could be filled in late December.
The Sixers introduced Colangelo as chairman on Monday. The former four-team executive of the year for the Phoenix Suns flew back to Phoenix on Tuesday.
D’Antoni and Colangelo have a relationship that dates backs to the Suns and USA basketball. The 64-year-old spent five seasons as the Suns head coach.Colangelo owned the Suns when D’Antoni was named their coach in 2003. he coached four teams in a total of 12 seasons.
More from Scott Howard-Cooper:
There was no indication in the Friday report whether a deal was imminent. But the timing is obviously connected to Philadelphia hiring Jerry Colangelo as chairman of basketball operations four days earlier, with Colangelo and D’Antoni having worked together with the Suns and USA Basketball.
News about D’Antoni possibly joining the 76ers came hours after Brown’s two-year extension became public, indicating D’Antoni was not being brought in to replace Brown as Philly goes through another painful season as part of a rebuilding plan showing little to no sign of real progress.
Fran Blineburry on Brown’s mentor:
SAN ANTONIO — Four nights after his team handed the 76ers a 51-point beating in Philadelphia, Spurs boss Gregg Popovich was tossing bouquets at the Philadelphia organization for signing Brett Brown to atwo-year extension as head coach.
“It’s thrilling to see an ownership make a decision like that because they know the qualities of the individual and don’t just look at the record,” Popovich said Friday before the Lakers played the Spurs at the AT&T Center. “They know what he’s about. They know what he’s worth. They know what he’s made up of and what he’s done and contributed already.”
The 54-year-old Brown was an assistant on Popovich’s staff for six seasons before taking over as head coach of the Sixers in 2013 as part of one of the most audacious rebuilding projects in NBA history. While stripping down the roster and accumulating young players and draft choice assets, the Sixers have compiled a 38-149 record under Brown, including a pair of losing streaks of at least 26 games. Philadelphia took a 1-22 record into Friday’s game against the Pistons.
Popovich nodded his head and even cracked the trace of a smile at word of the commitment made by the Sixers’ front office to Brown.
“That doesn’t happen very often,” Popovich said. “It’s very, very rare. So they deserve a lot of credit for seeing that and acting on it. It’s pretty spectacular.”
No. 2: Aldridge finding his groove with Spurs — Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge needed a little time adjust to life in an ensemble cast in San Antonio. But now that he’s comfortable, the rest of the league will have to deal with him. And that’s a daunting challenge, as the Los Angeles Lakers (one of his many suitors during free agency over the summer) found out Friday night and the Atlanta Hawks will find out tonight (8 p.m. ET, League Pass) at Philips Arena when the Spurs battle their Eastern Conference doppelgänger. Our very own Fran Blinebury examines Aldridge’s all-business adjustment:
Aldridge scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and did not play the fourth quarter in the Spurs 107-89 win over the Lakers on Friday night.
“I’m getting into a rhythm now and feeling more comfortable,” Aldridge said. “I’m starting to feel like myself.”
The Spurs keep cruising along with the second-best record in the NBA, while the Lakers are now 3-20 and left to wonder how things might look if they’d have landed Aldridge to be the key cog in their offensive attack.
“It is a big what-if,” said Lakers coach Byron Scott.
Scott said the Lakers received the same feedback after their first meeting with Aldridge last summer and changed their strategy when given a second chance.
“The second meeting was just myself and (general manager) Mitch (Kupchak)…It was all basketball,” Scott said. “I think the first presentation, I think we probably looked at it more as a business presentation more than basketball and that’s probably where we made our mistake.”
Right from the start, the Spurs’ approach that eventually landed Aldridge to a four-year, $84-million contract couldn’t have been more different than L.A.’s.
“We don’t try to convince people, very honestly,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. “I think it’s overblown, like we’re going to have some kind of salesman deal. We tried to sell Jason Kidd (2003) and it didn’t work. We had mariachis and everything. We had all kinds of stuff and after that I decided never again. If they come, they come. If they don’t, I don’t care.
“It’s as simple as that, especially for a guy that’s been in the league for nine years. You know what he can do. You know what he can’t do. You know what you like. You know what you don’t like. Whatever it might be.
“But more importantly, he knows who you are and he knows what team he would like to go to for whatever reason. So everything is pretty much out there on the table. If a guy had been in the league for a split second and then he had to make some decisions, it’s different. But he’s seen a lot. He’s been around a long time and we just did the polite thing. We met with him. Our guys talked to him. He talked to us and asked a few questions, he and his agents and that was that.”
Aldridge came into Friday’s game averaging 15.4 points, lowest since his rookie season. He’s also struggled with his shot, making a career-low 45.5 percent. But the Spurs aren’t making a peep of complaint.
“He’s been great,” Popovich said. “It’s a totally new system. When you’re playing with a whole group of new players, it takes time to understand where your place is. Sometimes I think he’s deferred too much because he’s trying to fit in and usually that’s the right thing to do when you enter an organization. Any of us who has a new job defers in the beginning and tries to fit.”
