In this segment from the Thinking Basketball podcast, Mike D’Antoni explains the origins of Phoenix’s Seven Seconds or Less offense that revolutionized the league, the idea of multiple “point guards” on the court, and the tradeoff of playing Amar’e Stoudemire at the center in Steve Nash’s 2005 MVP season.

Full video episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lgQfav761g&list=PLNZ1orB7ZoKbyijW61KSL5rqudrFj5aLx&index=2
Full episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/75uz6IutKUnwVLRwdMjKl6

Support at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Basketball-Ben-Taylor/dp/1532968175
Podcast: https://player.fm/series/thinking-basketball or at https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ben-taylor/thinking-basketball-podcast
Website: https://www.backpicks.com
Twitter: @elgee35

Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.

Stats courtesy:
http://www.pbpstats.com @bballport
https://www.basketball-reference.com
https://stats.nba.com
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Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for critique and education.

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47 Comments

  1. But will it result in a championship? Unless your name is Curry, small ball doesn’t win.

  2. The NBA is what it is arguably primarily because of Mike D'Antoni

  3. I found Mike’s perspective on point guards to be very interesting . I don’t think he wants all his players to be literal points guards but he wants them to be able to organize an offense and be the coach on the floor.

  4. Imagine If Jokic was his Point Guard….I wonder how well if that Offense will be the same or different

  5. I feel this is the exact philosophy that sam presti is following with his build of okc: playmaking is key

  6. You what I hear loudest here; “Dallas didn’t offer him a contract”, in the context of the Luka conversation this is just further cause for concern.

  7. I'd loved to have seen what could have happened if Stackhouse didn't break Joe Johnson's eyeball socket in '05.

  8. "Small ball" goes way back. UCLA won back to back national championships with no player over 6'5". The Knicks won two championships with no player over 6'8". Height is overrated, especially with the three point line and the no-offensive foul line.

  9. back during SSOL rate stats and efficiency stats were still poorly understood and far less used. They got a lot of unfair criticism over bad defense because it was always discussed without context of pace, but SSOL defense was actually decent to serviceable.

  10. DEFENCE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!

    Dellavdova harassing Curry
    LeBron block on Iggy
    MJ stealing the ball from MJ

    OF COURSE loser offensive guy blames "calls going your way"… WEAKNESS!!!
    Play some defence!!

    ALL shots are "big".
    Or none are.
    PERFORMING IN PUBLIC IS HARD

  11. As a fan who got very into the game in the early 2000s I very much enjoyed watching this evolution. Steve Nash is still my favorite all time player and I'm not even a Suns fan. The guy played with so much control but so freely at the same time.

  12. Imagine if D'antoni would've said screw it, and coached in the NCAA. He'd have plenty of jewelry to show for his unique offensive philosophy..

  13. 📌I have to admit, I'm a Lakers fan but I was cheering for Phoenix every time my team doesn't play. That team really captured my imagination. Watching them play is top class entertainment.

  14. Really interesting interview. As a NBA / Dallas Mavs fan (since Luka was drafted) it is wild that the Mavs had a young Dirk (top 5 PF of all time) and Steve Nash (would go on to be 2 time MVP) and didn't resign Nash! What was the front office on during those times? If only twitter / Shams was around during those times!

  15. This was my favorite team growing up. There was nothing like them at the time and they were electric. So fast, so athletic, such great shooting. They were also very frustrating at times with the bad defense which really hurt them in the playoffs. They got so close to going all the way a couple times. Steve Nash is probably my favorite player of all time besides MJ just because of those crazy Phoenix teams. God, to go back and see just one more game with that Nash/Marion/Amare squad. It was beautiful.

  16. Did you ask him to apologize for putting PJ Tucker at the 5?
    That let a genie out of a bottle that is still causing chaos.

  17. Mike’s perspective on ball movement and positional it’s sounds exactly like what OKC is trying to build.

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