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. This coach narrowly missed out on his first NBA finals appearance after his team missed (*) 27 consecutive threes. Playing Russell Westbrook at center and installing an isolation-heavy offense for Chris Paul and James Harden were two of the stylistic 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■
ANSWER: Mike D'Antoni [or Michael Andrew D'Antoni] (The first sentence refers to D'Antoni's FIBA Korać Cup win with Olimpia Milano.)
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