Stephen Curry couldn’t get all the Warriors on his All-Star team — LeBron James selected Kevin Durant first. Curry did get Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
Curry could not get Steve Kerr, however.
The Warriors have the best record in the West but their coach headed up the All-Star team last year in New Orleans, so Kerr was ineligible this season — and had already booked his trip to Hawaii. He’s gone.
Mike D’Antoni of the Houston Rockets secured the second spot in the West at the cutoff date on Friday night, and he will coach Curry’s team. This is D’Antoni’s second All-Star coaching experience, he also coached the West in the 2007 NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas (when he was coaching the seven-seconds-or-less Suns).
As a reminder, Team Curry has the starters of Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks), DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors), Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers) and James Harden (Houston Rockets). For reserves, Curry chose Jimmy Butler (Minnesota Timberwolves), Draymond Green (Golden State), Al Horford (Boston), Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers), Kyle Lowry (Toronto), Klay Thompson (Golden State) and Karl-Anthony Towns (Minnesota).
D’Antoni’s free-wheeling, up-and-down style fits with the All-Star game. Not that there’s a lot of coaching here, his main job is to manage minutes, get the hot hand the rock a few more times, and set up a couple basic sets (floppy, etc.) that everyone knows so they run something occasionally. However, the All-Star game is more pickup style than organized basketball.
On the opposite sideline with Team LeBron will likely be Dwane Casey of Toronto. The Celtics are on top of the conference but Brad Stevens coached last season so he is ineligible. The second-seed Raptors are four games up on the third seed Cavaliers, it’s all but official that Casey gets his first All-Star coaching gig.
