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Chicago Bulls Hire Mike D’Antoni - Fantasy Impact

by Stephen Kersey on May 6th, 2008

If the Chicago Bulls were to hire Mike D’Antoni as their head coach, how would that affect the fantasy basketball world? The short answer is that wherever D’Antoni ends up, expect the players on his new team to become very good fantasy basketball players.

While D’Antoni’s days with the Phoenix Suns appear to be numbered, there are a number of teams that are interested in him. The team that reportedly has the most interest is the Bulls, however the New York Knicks are also said to be interested.

With the Suns, D’Antoni had a very successful run. Not only did the Suns win a lot of regular season games, he ushered a fast-pace, high scoring era into the NBA. Now teams across the league are looking to score a lot of points, rather than just depend on their defense to win games.

D’Antoni’s Suns teams also produced great fantasy players. From Steve Nash to Shawn Marion to Amare Stoudemire, they all become stud fantasy players under D’Antoni. If he ends up with the Bulls, he automatically raises the stocks of everybody on Chicago’s team.

The player who will likely see his stock rise the highest is Kirk Hinrich. Hinrich struggled last season but if D’Antoni comes on board, you can expect D’Antoni to try to turn Hinrich into a Chicago’s version of Nash. D’Antoni will give Hinrich freedom to lead the team and run, shoot and score as much as he wants.

Other players who will feel a positive impact include Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that D’Antoni can turn Deng into a Marion type player and Gordon into a Leandro Barbosa type player, while allowing Thomas and Noah to reach their full potential on both ends of the court.

Photo: Newscom

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POSTED IN: NBA News, Player Analysis