As a professional basketball coach in Italy, Mike D'Antoni developed two critical insights:
D'Antoni's team began the '92-'93 season playing like everyone else. Their record was mediocre. With little to lose, D'Antoni implemented his insights. The team won 23 of their next 24 games.
Because of his record in Italy, D'Antoni was hired as head coach of the Denver Nuggets in 1997. Hesitant in his new role, he coached in the traditional style of play, got average results, and was fired.
He got another shot as an NBA head coach with the Phoenix Suns in 2004. He went "all-in" on his insights (now referred to as the "pace and space" offense). That season, the Suns earned the best record in the NBA (62-20) and D'Antoni won NBA coach of the year.
The team led the league in offense for the next 5 years.
Steve Kerr was General Manager of D'Antoni's Suns. When he took the head coach job for the Golden State Warriors in 2015, he took D'Antoni's insights with him and became the NBA's leading practitioner of "pace and space."
His Warriors won 3 of the next 4 NBA championships.
D'Antoni was right. Almost every NBA champion or contender since 2005 has been a leader in using his insights. The rest of the league has followed, doubling the overall share of 3-point shots.
League offensive efficiency has increased by 7.5%--more than the typical 7.4% gap between average teams and NBA champions.
