Losing Mike D’Antoni Would Only Expose the Rockets as a Mickey Mouse Organization — Tilman Fertitta Must Resist Bad Advice

Mike D’Antoni is not the problem with the Houston Rockets. He’s taken the flawed rosters Daryl Morey’s handed him farther than they had any right to go, making many think the Rockets are more talented than they actually are. Need proof?

How about Lakers 11th man Talen Horton-Tucker outscoring key Rocket Eric Gordon 10-5 in a series ending Game 5?

It’s James Harden, Russell Westbrook and a whole lot of uncertainty for the Houston Rockets. That uncertainty should not extend to Mike D’Antoni. Firing — or more accurately, not working out a new deal for D’Antoni, whose current contract ends with this season — would only expose the Rockets as a Mickey Mouse organization.

Tilman Fertitta is better than that. And the Houston billionaire should instead jettison anyone who tries to sell him on the lie that D’Antoni is the problem.

Rockets superstar James Harden seems to know the truth. After all, D’Antoni is the coach who fully unleashed Harden on the NBA, turning him into a point guard and an MVP.

“Of course. Of course,” Harden says in his postgame Zoom when asked if he wants D’Antoni to come back next season. “Mike has done some unbelievable things here. It hasn’t ended yet.”

It will if the Rockets do not show they really want him to return. D’Antoni is going to have other NBA suitors if his Rockets tenure ends after the four best seasons the team has had since the championship days of Rudy Tomjanovich. Knowledgeable NBA fans would love to see what D’Antoni could do with the Philadelphia 76ers’ talent. Or Zion Williamson in New Orleans.

The Indiana Pacers are already reportedly interested in trying to lure D’Antoni to one of the NBA’s smaller markets, too.

Still, D’Antoni and his wife Laurel have embraced Houston and enjoyed making it their home. You get the sense that D’Antoni feels there is unfinished business with this iteration of the Rockets, too. It’s been largely glossed over by a Houston media more concerned with haughtily demanding championships, but Russell Westbrook caught COVID-19 before he ever got to the Disney Orlando bubble and hurt his quad while in it.

The Rockets never saw the best of Westbrook these playoffs. D’Antoni is talking like a man who’d like to experience what a difference that could make.

“Obviously, I’ve got to let this sink in a little bit,” D’Antoni says after the Rockets season ends with four straight losses to the Lakers, the first four game losing streak of his entire Houston tenure. “But we’ve got a great organization, great city, great team.

“Couldn’t ask for a greater four years. Hopefully, it continues.”

If the Rockets are smart as an organization, it will. Of course, how the Rockets have handled the Daniel House Jr. bubble debacle so far may put that organizational intelligence into some doubt. Rather than come out and rebuke House for putting himself above the team for bringing an unauthorized female guest into his hotel room according to the results of an NBA investigation, the Rockets have stayed silent.

Anyone trying to advance some fantastical counter narrative about the Rockets being targeted (as if NBA commissioner Adam Silver relishes the idea of possible coronavirus breaches piercing this painstakingly put together, crazy expensive bubble) should be embarrassed. In fact, it conjures up memories of the report the Rockets put together auditing the officiating in Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals, which claimed they were robbed of the title. That also came under GM Daryl Morey.

The Rockets are building a reputation as an organization that makes excuses rather than seeks accountability.

The Rockets’ House Problem Doesn’t Include D’Antoni

House’s actions clearly helped cripple the Rockets’ chances of challenging the Lakers. He should never play for Houston again. It’s pretty simple. And it shouldn’t be taking this long for the Rockets to get there.

These Houston Rockets have a number of issues to address after meekly bowing out of the playoffs, never holding the lead for even a second in Game 4 or Game 5 against the Lakers. But getting a new coach should not be one of them. D’Antoni has made the Rockets better than their mismatched parts, even somehow successfully pivoting the Rockets to Morey’s extreme small ball vision with the in-season dumping of talented young big man Clint Capela.

Harden is right that the Rockets need another “piece.” But they also need the same coach to have any chance of staying relevant with 31-year-old linchpins Harden and Westbrook.

“You know, I don’t get into contracts, coaches,” Westbrook says. “But one thing I do know about Mike — he’s a hell of a person.”

Mike D’Antoni makes the Rockets so much better in so many ways. Losing him would be another huge step back for a franchise that often seems unable to find the right direction.