This coach benched Riccardo Pittis and led a young Antonio Davis and Sasha Djordjevic to a cup win in his first coaching role. A book by Jack McCallum chronicles a season in which, despite early-season microfracture surgery for his star big man, this coach still made the Western Conference Finals by playing Kurt Thomas and moving Boris Diaw to center. (15[1]-5[3])This coach narrowly missed out on his first NBA finals appearance after his team missed (*) 27 consecutive threes. (10[1])Playing Russell Westbrook at center and installing an isolation-heavy offense for Chris Paul and James Harden were two of the stylistic (-5[1])innovations this coach made while running the late 2010s Rockets. For 10 points, what Italian-American coached Amar'e Stoudemire and Steve Nash on the “Seven Seconds or Less” 2000s Suns? ■END■ (0[1])