Peachtree Hoops: Worlds Collide: Mike Woodson and Mike D'Antoni?

[Hawksquawk]

Too tasty to pass up----but the latest out of New York is that former Hawks coach Mike Woodson, he who sniffed nary a coaches seat last season and wasn't hired for a head coaching position despite improving his team every season from 2004 to 2010, may be headed for the top assistant's chair in the Big Apple.

It's an interesting pairing----Woodson's Hawks teams were notoriously laborious getting up and down the court, always staking claim to the bottom third of the league's Pace category despite being a team loaded with young, athletic, swingmen who could fly.

Compare that with D'Antoni, who believes in the Seven Seconds or Less philosophy, which might have made Woodson croak in Philips Arena had it been attempted in the ironically nicknamed "Highlight Factory".

And if Woodson was brought in to improve defensive measures, one might consider two notes. One, under Larry Drew, a supposed offensive coach, the Hawks stayed about the same even without Woodson, remaining 13th in the league in defensive efficiency. Two, Woodson was known for his radical approach to defense in switching on every defensive screen in Atlanta, causing mismatches galore (Al Horford on point guards!) and could pose a problem if a team isn't built the same as the Hawks with similarly styled players.

Still, it's an assistant's spot and, as much as we gone to great lengths to make every specialty role on and off the court seem important in some way, it likely doesn't matter much in the great scheme of things. Still, it makes an interesting pairing for sure, if it all goes down.

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