I hate to say this because I like Mike D'Antoni. He's a nice, personable guy who, as he proved with the Phoenix Suns, can be a very successful NBA coach given the right personnel.
But with the Los Angeles Lakers, he doesn't have the right personnel. He has great personnel -- the best center in the league, one of the best power forwards in the league, an all-time great shooting guard and a terrific, albeit older, playmaking point guard -- but it's personnel that fits neither his coaching philosophy nor his coaching strategy.
It has been a disaster from day one, or maybe we should say night one, when a bum fax machine stalled contract negotiations between D'Antoni and the Lakers in November. Regardless of the lineup -- whether Steve Nash has played or not, whether Dwight Howard has played or not, whether Pau Gasol has played or not -- D'Antoni and these Lakers have been a terrible fit.