SAN ANTONIO — The Nuggets were born to run, and nobody slams the pedal to the metal with a heavier lead foot than Mike D’Antoni, who told me Friday that he would have strong interest in becoming the local NBA team’s next coach.
While Denver was losing 120-111 on Friday night in San Antonio, D’Antoni was kicking back after an appearance as a panelist at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, where the nation’s brainiest stat geeks apply science to the art of winning. At age 63, D’Antoni is taking a season off from coaching after being dismissed by the Los Angeles Lakers, but he can’t stop watching the sport he loves on television, and he is itching to get back to work on an NBA bench.
“You get addicted,” said D’Antoni, chuckling at his dependence on the adrenaline rush only fast-paced hoops can provide him. “There’s some really good basketball being played in the league right now, from Golden State to Atlanta.”
Why did Brian Shaw get fired as coach of the Nuggets?
In terms of basketball, the timing made little sense for a franchise whose best hope for the future seems to be losing as many games as possible in order to give Denver the best shot at landing Duke center Jahlil Okafor or Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell in the NBA draft lottery.
I would argue dumping Shaw was a business decision, forced by a quiet revolt by Nuggets fans who increasingly refused to buy tickets or even show up to use seats already purchased, making the Pepsi Center a sad and lonely place on game nights.
It seems like more than a coincidence that Shaw was canned not long after renewal notices for the 2015-16 NBA season were sent to Nuggets season-ticket holders. Customers were irked by basketball both bad and boring. The franchise was wrestling with such a nasty bear market that Denver slashed prices nearly 40 percent on some tickets.
For example: Two seats in Section 144 that cost $6,888 a year ago are now being offered for renewal at the deeply discounted price of $4,200.
Get the picture? Nuggets president Josh Kroenke knows that his next coaching hire must not only infuse the locker room with a new energy, he must revitalize moribund basketball interest in the city of Denver.
Chauncey Billups is Mr. Big Shot in Colorado, and despite his repeatedly stated aspiration to become a front-office executive in the league, his ability to put a friendly face on the franchise might make it tempting for Kroenke to offer him a hefty sum to coach the Nuggets.
Mark Jackson, on the Golden State bench when the Warriors’ upset of Denver during the 2013 playoffs hastened the awkward divorce between Kroenke and coach of the year George Karl, could give the Nuggets a charismatic leader and tasty sound bites on the 10 o’clock TV news.
D’Antoni, whose NBA coaching career began with a single-season stint with the Nuggets in the late 1990s, took Phoenix to the Western Conference Finals twice from 2003-08 with a frenetic offensive style that made the 24-second shot clock irrelevant.
To the credit of interim coach Melvin Hunt, the Nuggets seem bent on disproving the Shaw theory that the roster no longer had the right personnel to get out and run. “Push it, push it!” Hunt constantly exhorted whatever point guard was dribbling the ball up the floor against San Antonio.
During the three games Hunt has been in charge, the Nuggets have scored at least 100 points in three straight games for the first time in two months. Perhaps more telling, however, is the enthusiasm that has reappeared on the faces of Denver players, who hopped the first team bus to the arena in San Antonio, rather than waiting as late as possible to depart the hotel for a road game, as had become their habit during the latter stages of Shaw’s tenure.
“By moving the ball up the court and with quick ball movement, you have better odds of winning. That goes hand-in-hand with Denver. You need to be fast, and being fast when you play games at altitude really makes sense,” said D’Antoni, who has had no direct contact with Nuggets management. He expects the team’s coaching search to be extensive and deliberate, with no decision expected until after the regular season concludes in April.
During his stint as coach of the New York Knicks, D’Antoni developed the talent of current Denver starters Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari. D’Antoni insisted there’s “no doubt” in his mind Gallinari will fully recover from the knee injury that sidetracked the 26-year-old forward’s career.
While D’Antoni admitted the Western Conference is stacked with strong competition, he’s bullish on the Nuggets’ future.
“Denver is a great city with a strong basketball tradition and there’s a lot positive to sell,” he said. “You can make a quick turnaround if you exploit the running game. It won’t be easy. Nothing’s easy in the West. But it’s not impossible.”
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or
