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HOUSTON -- This might be the last best chance for the man with the West Virginia drawl who speaks fluent Italian. Houston Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni, who turned 65 in May and is best known for his Seven Seconds or Less teams in Phoenix, says he has reached an age where time can start running out. While seemingly everybody else is using a variation of D'Antoni's up-tempo offense to chase NBA titles, he feels it's his turn this season. Anyone who has watched an NBA game recently knows the offensive recipe -- find a point guard to push the tempo and plop a power forward at the 3-point line rather than in the post. D'Antoni's system utilizes pace and space, filling the court with shooters rather than worrying about standard definitions of positions. Some were critical of the game-changing offense when it debuted back in 2004. Now it's all the rage. "It gets buckets," James Harden said. "I've stole from it," first-year Memphis coach David Fizdale said. "He's the modern-day godfather of pace. Pace and space." D'Antoni once had two-time MVP Steve Nash, Amar'e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion and Leandro Barbosa running his dizzying schemes in the desert. Now he has Harden playing the role of Nash with Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza as the shooters. But the dream remains the same: win that elusive NBA title. D'Antoni feels the Rockets team that opens the season against the Lakers on Wednesday night in Los Angeles is the most talented group he has had in years. "Without a doubt, not even close," D'Antoni said. "Not even close." The path to a title is made even tougher because his own offensive principles are being used by several contenders. Golden State is the heavy favorite in the West after two straight trips to the NBA Finals, but San Antonio, the L.A. Clippers, Memphis and Portland all have teams expected to stand in the way of the Rockets, who made the playoffs last season as the West's No. 8 seed. Even younger teams such as Utah and Minnesota could push for middle-class status in the crowded Western Conference race. And who knows what New Orleans might be capable of doing with one of D'Antoni's assistant coaches, Alvin Gentry, using portions of the offense with a healthy Anthony Davis? Houston is coming off a disappointing 41-win season in which owner Leslie Alexander made what turned out to be a short-term coaching change early on before settling on D'Antoni this offseason. Seven Seconds or Less had left an impression on Alexander. "We wanted to play this way for years," Alexander said. Part of "this way" is using big men as shooters, something teams such as the Warriors, Clippers, Pelicans and Grizzlies are doing. In the East, Knicks second-year big man Kristaps Porzingis doesn't hesitate to take outside shots. "There were guys before him in the history of the game that played at a really high speed," Fizdale said. "He really brought back small ball, space and pace, organized chaos. He brought that to the forefront, and a lot of teams are really picking from his system to implement into theirs. "I have a lot of respect for Coach D'Antoni -- just one of the class acts of this league, willing to share, and he's had an impact in this league in a big way. I hate that I got to play against him." In the preseason, Houston led the league with 118.6 points per game and a 111.1 offensive rating. "Coaches do what they believe in and teach what they can teach," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We run motion because that's all I feel comfortable teaching, and [D'Antoni] is doing that and Golden State is doing what they do and Orlando is doing what they do, and everybody. We all borrow a little bit from each other -- it's kind of a copycat sort of deal. Teams are big teams [or] are small teams [or] are running teams [or] are holding the ball. It goes in phases. "Mike has been very consistent. He likes that pace and his teams do a great job of running it; [it's] hard to handle." The roster put together in Houston this season doesn't appear to have the issues his most recent teams had after he was fired in Phoenix, where he enjoyed a four-year stretch that included two 60-plus-win seasons, two 50-plus-win seasons and two Western Conference finals appearances. "Do I think he got credit for what he did? No," said Dan D'Antoni, Mike's older brother and the head coach at Marshall. "That's me personally -- that's not coming from him, that's me." The post-Suns years have been tough on Mike D'Antoni. In four seasons as coach of the New York Knicks, he made only one playoff appearance and couldn't get Carmelo Anthony to fully buy into the up-tempo offense. D'Antoni was able, however, to create a stir with the unexpected rise of Jeremy Lin. During an 11-game stretch in February 2012, Lin stunned the league and thrilled fans by averaging 23.9 points and 9.2 assists. But D'Antoni stepped down from the Knicks job in March 2012 as he was headed to a third losing season in four years. He followed that up with two years at the Lakers helm, teaming up with a still-feisty Kobe Bryant and reuniting with an older Nash. The Lakers also added Dwight Howard in what appeared to be a powerful team on paper. But Howard endured health problems and didn't mesh with Bryant, who tore his Achilles at the end of the 2012-13 season and played just six games in 2013-14. Nash missed 99 games in two seasons. D'Antoni won 40 games in his first season with the Lakers before a 27-win 2013-14 season ended his tenure. Taking the reins in Houston presents another chance for the game-changing coach, this time with a healthy star, Harden, who is in his prime. And while the clock might be ticking, D'Antoni also knows that's life in the NBA. "Every coach is the same," D'Antoni said. "You can be in a big market or a little market; you put a lot of pressure on yourself and the franchise and everything. You want to do well for the fans, the players. I've got a lot of players who want to have career years. The pressure is always there -- that's just part of coaching. "It's what you deal with and it gets you out of bed in the morning, it gets you going. It's fun, the battle to compete."
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