News broke out of Houston earlier on Thursday that Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni turned down a contract extension offer from the team.
Coming off yet another stellar season, D’Antoni will now coach out the 2019-20 campaign as a lame duck.
According to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, there seems to be a good reason why D’Antoni turned the offer down.
“The Rockets had offered only a one-year extension, heavily based on incentives, according to a person with knowledge of the offer,” the Rockets’ insider noted. “D’Antoni told Rockets general manager Daryl Morey and owner Tilman Fertitta that he would like to coach for three more years, but was willing to have just one season added to his current contract.”
Houston’s owner also said that the deal was for $5 million over one season with some incentives.
As mentioned above, this would have put D’Antoni behind the likes of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts and Dwane Casey of the Detroit Pistons.
Needless to say, D’Antoni has had more success than those two coaches. He’s a total of 100 games over .500 in three seasons with the Rockets.
This comes on the heels of reports that the Rockets have put everyone on their roster on the trade block.
Changes are indeed coming in Houston. But as it relates to D’Antoni, that likely won’t happen until following the 2019-20 season.