Mike D'Antoni has been the head coach of the Houston Rockets for the last three seasons and in 2019-2020, he will be in the final year of his contract. In just three years, D'Antoni has helped make the Rockets one of the best teams in the Western Conference, and in 2018, they were one game away from the NBA Finals. The head coach also won a coach of the year award while with the Rockets but this year, they hit a wall in the playoffs as they didn't have it in them to beat the Golden State Warriors.
Some believe D'Antoni's offense isn't good enough for the Rockets but the coach was looking for a contract extension regardless. We reported that D'Antoni was looking for a 2-3 year extension but based on a new report from ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, it simply wasn't in the cards. Today, D'Antoni's agent Warren LeGarie told Rockets GM Daryl Morey that the head coach no longer wanted to talk about an extension. This means D'Antoni will play out the last year of his contract and then become a free agent in the summer of 2020.
With reports circulating that Chris Paul could be traded, it seems as though the Rockets are about to implode from within. Perhaps D'Antoni realizes this and feels as though it would be wiser to jump ship as soon as contractually possible.