That is reflected throughout the media and particularly on the radio talk shows where hosts actually say they are awaiting to be shown if the newcomers – and that includes Dwight Howard – are good enough to have the right to wear the Lakers uniform.
Right now, the fans like the possibilities. They like the quicker, faster-paced offense. They are a little troubled by the defense (hey, did you hear the one about the guy whose name is really Coach Antoni because his teams play no D – yuk, yuk). But this D’Antoni seems to be a good enough guy – he even kept all of Brown’s assistants when a major shakeup was expected.
“They’re good coaches,” D’Antoni said to reporters in L.A. “I know almost all of them anyway. They work extremely hard. I just felt like, ‘They’re here, they’re good, why change it?'”
If D’Antoni seems to lack the pomposity made famous by previous Lakers coaches – no names mentioned – he made it clear early that he doesn’t lack the toughness. In the fourth quarter of a loss to Memphis on Friday, D’Antoni sat Pau Gasol for the entire fourth quarter.
Gasol had several good games after Brown departed. In the victory over Houston, he had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
But he struggled in losses to Sacramento and the Grizzlies, hitting only 6-of-18 shots from the field with 14 points and 13 rebounds in the two games. For that, he was sentenced to the bench at crunch time in Memphis.
And why?
“I was thinking I’d like to win this game,” D’Antoni said.
Of course, we’ll get the real test of toughness if or when D’Antoni and Kobe Bryant might have a clash of philosophies, although Bryant played on several USA Basketball teams with D’Antoni as the assistant coach and offensive guru and Bryant has expressed admiration for D’Antoni.
Besides the obvious boost Nash will give the Lakers with his passing and leadership when he is healthy, he also will help in another area. The Lakers are one of only three teams in the NBA to make less than 70 percent of their free throws. Nash is one of the great shooters in NBA history with a career percentage of .904, so that team statistic will improve.
Howard is still a disaster with a percentage of .497 this season, which has lowered his career free throwing shooting to .585. But his defense (three-time defensive player of the year) is impeccable, and it is unlikely that he will be less of a defender in D’Antoni’s system. With Howard anchoring the middle, Kobe Bryant still one of the premier defenders in the league, and the always-manic Metta World Peace on the floor, there is no way the Lakers will not be effective defensively.
Much of the criticism of D’Antoni’s defense has been faulty, anyway.
As a sign he once had in his Suns office once revealed, the team with the most points at the end of the game was the best defensive team on that night. D’Antoni’s teams have always played at such a quick pace, which leads to more possessions for both teams. If a team is hitting between 40 and 50 percent of its shots, more possessions are going to lead to more points.
A good example of D’Antoni’s system can be found in the 2004-05 season when the Suns won 62 games. Golden State attempted the most shots in the league with 7,039 and the Suns were second at 7,018. But the Suns averaged 110.4 points a game while the Warriors averaged 98.7. There was no comparison of offensive efficiency.
The Suns did allow the most points in the league at 103.3 a game. But 10 other teams also allowed more than 100 points a game and another permitted 99.9. The Suns’ defense may not look good on paper, but if the stats are analyzed, it’s never been as bad as advertised.
That fact is becoming evident to Lakers fans, who may be fashionably late to games but are as passionate and obsessed as any in sport. D’Antoni, Nash & Crew have much to prove in L.A. and they will be scrutinized fanatically.
But that’s to be expected because Los Angeles has been, is and will always be a Lakers town.
Jan Hubbard has written about basketball since 1976 and worked in the NBA league office for eight years in between media stints. Follow him on Twitter at @whyhub.