The One Where Tommy Holds Himself Accountable

by Tommy Dee on November 8th, 2009 at 9:08 am

I feel like I should apologize based on the fact that watching this team during camp and preseason led me to believe that they were working on building something.

Talking to players and coaches, it seemed that everyone was on the same page and motivated.

They aren’t.

I’m not dumb, but this team so far has made me feel that way because the energy and effort in practice and the togetherness seemed genuine.

This is not the coach’s fault or management’s. The direction of the franchise is clear and most all of you reading the site were down with the plan. At that point any plan would have done, but they have to protect everything about 2010. Coach D’Antoni has coached defense in practice, and when someone like Chris Broussard of ESPN talks about the league laughing at the Knicks and their coach because defense isn’t stressed. Actually, that joke is on him. Where were you during training camp and early in the season, Chris? Not in the gym that’s for sure. But in fairness, the Knicks are the laughing stock of the league and not one veteran, it seems,  has the pride to want to change that.

What we have here is a team where no one has any interest in leading. Instead they run and hide and pretend to play with passion for the city. Like they care. They are all paid, and need to act like professionals. not professional phonies.

Or else play the young kids, heck if you’re going to lose, get them some experience.

This is about the players, this is about the people who have to execute on the floor. It’s not about the coach yelling or Rudy-esque motivational speeches. We’re way past that, and players don’t need those. Ever see Phil Jackson’s pregame chats? ZZZZzzzz.

It’s unreal how big the basket seems for the other team. I mean Jodie Meeks?  Good college player, but come on. Ridenour? And on and on.

This is the NBA, with REAL NBA players who have the ability to expose and capitalize on confidence. It seems that every team sees the Knicks as a W and the bad teams can’t let those precious opportunities pass this early in the season.

Except the Knicks, of course.

This doesn’t mean, by any stretch, that I’m giving up on the season. I just hope that the players somehow show the fans that they haven’t already.
  • DatNewYorker

    HOW CAN U BELIEVE THIS COACH KNOWS WHAT DEFENSE MEANS. WHEN HE STARTS A 6’9″ POWER FORWARD AT CENTER AND STARTS WILSON CHANDLER AT POWER FORWARD. HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO PLAY DEFENSE WITH THIS LINE UP. HE HAS ATTEMPTED TO OUT SCORE TEAMS BY OUT RUNNING OTHER TEAMS. HE NEVER PLANNED ON DEFENDING TEAMS THIS YEAR. I REALLY DONT WANT TO SEE THIS GUY HERE NEXT YEAR.

  • Its The Kid

    The realest thing you’ve ever wrote ha… Honestly though, I agree… But its hard to really have pride in the team, when as a player you know you arent in the future plans…The writing is spray painted on the wall… I’m sure many players secretly resent Gallo, and the MSG campaigns to paint him out to be the Savior… Or the main player worth watching… I’m sure they dont dig the 2010 fan fair either… As unprofessional as that is, I believe it’s true… We all hoped that this 2010 plan would create the perfect storm, where players under contract and players fighting for a new one would all exceed expectations… The storm doesnt look like it’s on the way…

  • http://theKnicksBlog.com Tommy Dee

    Simply not true. They worked on defense and it translated in preseason. I saw it.

    Defense is effort and you are getting zero from Lee, Duhon etc etc,

    league execs are taking notice too…these guys’ efforts could really cost them.

  • Its The Kid

    By the way…. I guess the winning without Nate days, have come to an end… I’d bench Duhon as soon as Nate gets back… It’s the only possible chance we have to salvage this season…
    I’d start:
    Nate
    Hughes
    Gallo
    Chandler or Harrington
    and Lee

    Put the best five on the court and hope for the best…

  • http://none knicks2win

    Dolan and Walsh are playing deaf and blind.

  • Section 40

    Are you kidding me?!? How can you give the coach a pass here.

    So if Dantoni wins 58 games he’s a great coach, but if his team stinks it’s on the players. Please…this blog is getting out of control. How can you say this isn’t the coaches failure too….really?

    These are real games now, not training camps. You’ve got to hold everyone accountable for these failures. It’s too early to even begin to give up on the season, but Dantoni must be held responsible for this horrible play. It’s not just the players.

  • bartnyk

    Lets be real Donnie Walsh needs to blow this team up its not gonna work, these guys dont care about this season. Like i said they will shoot 30 threes a night collect there checks and have fun win or lose they dont care. The rest of the season should be mass trades trying to get rid of Curry and Jefferies and bringing in players that will be here past this season.

  • Dave the Rave

    The team already was blown up. This is not a team. It’s an expiring rent-a-scrub roster. They have no center, power forward, point guard or hope. They are demoralized by the looming turnover next summer and are playing as well as they can. No other NBA roster is as full of holes. DW had to do this to clear the terrible contracts IT gave out and start over. DW knows how to build a team — he proved that. This year’s “team” will be lucky to win 12 games.

    Get NBA TV and watch other games. The NBA is alive but the Knicks are now dead.

    DTR

  • Dave the Rave

    Agreed, but I doubt if DW can do much till June.

  • EQ1217

    How is this not Donnie’s fault? He’s the one who failed to upgrade the PG position, whose draft record on NY looks weak so far, who has failed to take advantage of Nate & Lee’s value to trade for valuable assets.

    I’m still in the D’antoni bandwagon, despite some obviously questionable coaching decisions.

  • traps9

    A decent upgrade at the 1 is not worth taking cap space away from ’10. We’re not aiming for decent here. Until July, he’ll have to try as best he can to deal contracts and get back stuff that won’t affect the future.

  • http://www.KnicksFanaticsBlog.com IGMKNICKS

    Tommy,

    Good of you to man up, sorta, kinda. There have been a few of us trying to tell you and others that Donnie was selling this team down the river since he’s been here. Duhon for $7 Million was the most important decision he’s made and it was terrible when he made it. Folks were fooling themselves to think his assists exhibitions off the pick and roll were evidence that he could effectively run point in the D’;Antoni system. You folks were looking at the game blind if you could not see the offense change to a half-court one immediately after Crawford and Randolph left. Duhon pick was a throwaway just to make sure that Marbury could be isolated and ostracized as opposed to just plain bought out. This was inevitable because of the first dumb move by management. DUMB and I said it when it happened.

    I understand the pass you want to give Walsh and D’Antoni. I imagine you spend enough time around them that it is hard to be honestly critical of this mess they have molded. However, I don’t understand how you can call anything you’ve seen defense, even in pre-season. In the pre-season their defensive principles were better, but most of their games were against the Nets and D-Leaguers and second stringers. Furthermore, pronouncing defense and teaching defensive schemes are two different things. Were you one of the ones who tried to cover for D’Antoni last year when he said that he taught defense although this year he admits that now he is preaching defense. He doesn’t have a clue about defense and wouldn’t know one if if blocked him from getting past the three point arc.

  • Bob

    tommy,teams are built defense first,but D’antoni decided to wait a full year before saying”we gotta defend” like defense was an after thought.what you saw in training camp was the KNICKS playing defense against themselves.anyone can look like theyre playing dee,if its the knicks they are defending.This year is a total throwaway,and walsh knows it.alls he has to do is hide under his desk until july.if he thought that this team could compete,then he just a lousy judge of talent,and should be shipped outta here right away!maybe he is too old for this job.Jordan Hill may be an athlete,but we need basketball players

  • Bob

    Donnie and Mike just wanted to make it look like they were not throwing the season away.but they had no idea that they were gonna be THIS bad.Now Donnie the genius looks embarrassed,cuz like i said above,how could a man with such a rep for talent evaluation have been so wrong?

  • DatNewYorker

    Okay maybe Dantoni attempted to input a defensive system. Maybe he stressed defense to his players. But I really don’t believe David Lee is giving zero effort on defense, He is guarding 7″ centers all night. Andrew Bogut dominated the paint. He scored a season high 22 points on David Lee. Who is better to guard Andrew Bogut? Milicic or David Lee? I bashed Lee all summer because I know he is not a defensive player. He only had 22 blocked shots all last year. He only has 98 blocked shots for his career. Darko has 415 career blocks and he had 51 blocks in 20 less games then David Lee played last year. Also he played less then half the minutes David played. He is clearly a better defender. DO THE MATH. 415 TO DAVID LEE’S 98. DAVID LEE HAS PLAYED 3000 MORE MINUTES IN HIS CAREER. THAT IS A FACT. I’m not trying to put down David Lee but it is what it is. Put a shot blocker on the floor with your best players and you will get better results.

  • BobbyFromBK

    Agreed. Like I said before, all D’Antoni had to do in Phoenix was fill out the “Lineup” card. Nash, Stoudemire, Marion and the other players did the rest. Nash was the real coach, Not MD. Now, he has to really coach and motivate borderline players wthout a true point guard, and he looks like a deer in the headlights.
    And Walsh, passing on Brandon Jennings, as well as Brook Lopez last year proves the game has passed you by. Retire already and let some new blood take over. Yeah, I’m giving up on this season. The Knicks are done.

  • BobbyFromBK

    Tommy, Bro–No offense. Just because defense is “stressed” in training camp doesn’t mean it would translate to the start of the season. The problem is Bad management, bad coaching, and the wrong type of players for this system and this city. Walsh had a few cheap choices to upgrade the poing guard position this summer but chose not to. D’Antoni looks like he doesn’t have clue how to motivate and use the right mixture of players, and it looks like it’s already causing resentment. Like Frank Isola said in The News this morning, it already seems like he’s losing the team. And the players seem like they know management only cares about 2010 and is throwing away this season, so they are playing like “why should I bust my butt when I’ll probably be shpped outtta here next summer.

    So from top to bottom, the Knicks are a mess and the laughingstock of the NBA–Again!

  • Mucha

    Like Van Gundy said, the Knicks are a jumpshooting team with poor jumpshooters. And they’re supposed to run with a point guard who’s not able/willing to push the tempo, the Knicks are in fact one of the slowest teams in the NBA.

    At one point, we were trailing by more than 30 points in the “points in the paint” category against the Milwaukee Bucks. I think we have the worst dunks per game statistic in the NBA – And Charles Barkley’s right, you can’t win if you can’t get easy buckets, it is what it is.

    The lack of defense is frustrating… but I’m in fact more concerned about the offense. At least they were fun to watch last year.

  • joetheknick

    I think we were all expecting smen improvement from last year. The clue was in DW attempting to get Jason Kidd and/or Andre Miller. Management might have realized that Duhon was not the guy to helo the team improve. Alan Hahn is talking about Iverson. Maybe Nate will step up? Help must be on the way.

  • italian stallion

    Tommy,

    The problems is that other than Lee, all the players are terrible.

    So far, Gallo is only a very good prospect. He scores efficiently, but doesn’t fill out the stat sheet well enough to even be considered an AVERAGE starting SF.

    Chandler not only didn’t make progress, he got worse. He’s pretty much terrible.

    Harrington is HORRIBLE!!!!!! He has athletic talent and can score, but doesn’t do half the things a good PF should do well. He commits way too many turnovers, can’t rebound as well as PF should, and is a black hole once the ball goes to him. He’s not even a good player off the bench.

    Duhon is a below average PG.

    Hughes is about average or a tad below as a starting SG.

    How can you win if your players suck?

    Good intentions, working on defense, good chemistry etc… it’s all important in trying to make a very good team great, but we SUCK!

    Walsh did a great job clearing space, but he hasn’t done a good job identifying talent and improving the team. It’s that simple.

  • Knicks4lyfe8

    It’s unreal how big the basket seems for the other team. I mean Jodie Meeks? Good college player, but come on

    HAHAHAHAHA. THATS SUCH A BAD COMMENT. JODIE MEEKS IS THE STEAL OF THE SECOND ROUND.

  • akdrum

    Couple of things

    I agree- they know they’re not coming back so why play?
    Why should they risk injury to decrease their value( LOL)?.
    Bottom line-David Lee is terrible. He shoots like he’s from 1950-He got the big dough because he kept hismouth shut.
    BUT:When he’s off the court that’s when they
    knid of spark & start winning When he’s on, that’s when they start to lose.Bad defense
    It’s going to be weird next year when they will all be gone. GONE!!
    I mean “store empty” gone. Were all going through it together- Dolan DOES feels our pain and is embarressed by his basketball biz decisions. Imgoing to stick with his choice of DW-Players (and their agents)WILL come here out of pity first(and the dough) – then once the rest of the league sees progress,THEN productive players will want to be part of it. TD23 is great – Marcus L is great- keep playing the young ones !- MDA is going nowhere,poor guy- look at that sad face on timeouts- however,the clock is on him when they get a new team of players and they still lose.
    JVG said Knick fans have to be patient- DW feels your pain- he “might” have messed up on the draft- OR perhaps he knows something that we don’t about some of these PG’s- is he spinning it as an oversight? maybe? there could be more to this-
    let’s just get through the loses and hope MDA doesn’t have a nervous breakdown!
    I “DECLARE” this season another disaster.
    Oh BTW the players DO read this blog
    “so you millionare contract players enjoy your fun, I would find another business to go in, cuz ain’t no- one going to hire your sorry asses DAVID LEE, HARRINGTON ,Sleepy uh..i mean CHANDLER
    DECLARE!

  • akdrum

    David Lee is terrible. He shoots like he’s from 1950-He got the big dough because he kept his mouth shut.
    During the game when he’s off the court that’s when they
    kind of spark & start winning When he’s on, that’s when they start to lose.Bad defense.

  • italian stallion

    Lee is an above average scorer relative to the typical starting PF and also scores more efficiently. He’s a also very above average rebounder. Those are two thing you want from your PF – rebounding and efficient scoring around the basket.

    It’s true that he’s not a very good defender, but that’s being exaggerated by the fact that he’s being asked to play C and is always overmatched.

    Overall, Lee is the only above average player on the team

  • JLS125

    From Day 1 of the Walsh/D’Antoni era the plan was to create cap space so that they could bring in more talented and competitive players. None of the players who are on this current Knick team can be considered assets other than those players that the Walsh regime has drafted. There is no conceivable way that we as fans could think that the team as it was constituted with Crawford, Randolph, Marbury and Richardson were going to bring back any assets other than cap space. They all had serious flaws whether it was based on talent or personality. The 2010 plan was a way to try and rebuild this team with better talent. The first step was in hiring D’Antoni who’s system has produced results as far with regards to wins and losses.

    The team needs so many pieces including leadership, talent, and the will to win. This roster doesn’t has any of these qualities. So what’s D’Antoni supposed to do? These are grown men he’s talking to. If they need something extra to perform then, I don’t know how long these guys are going to last in the league. To be honest, I feel that a majority of these players won’t be in the league much longer anyway. Curry, Robinson, Jeffries, Milicic, Chandler and the bench won’t be in the NBA that long mostly because of their lack of talent, acumen or desire to win.

    The Knicks are a huge part of my childhood so of course, I’m upset about the product I’m seeing night in and night out. But the plan is 2010. I’m hoping that all but the rookies and Gallinari will be let go by the team and we can get quality players in this FA class.

  • JLS125

    …This team needs to be blown up.

  • BMan

    I think we’ve seen some stretches of defensive tenacity during this season, but the lack of consistency is is stunning, and there are large periods of time where certain guys seem clueless on defense.

    At this point the only starters I see giving consistent and intelligent defensive efforts are Hughes and Gallinari, and I think that all the things Gallo is trying to do on defense hurts his offensive production, especially sagging inside to provide help in the middle, where we seem so vulnerable. and then having to come back out to challenge his man when he is shooting.

    Give the “starters” a few more games, and if this kind of play continues, start Douglas and give him 25-30 MPG, give Hill 25+ MPG, and work Landry into the mix as well. Those 3, along with Gallo and Chandler should be getting a lot of time on the court at the expense of some of the vets. Let Hughes split his time at the 1 and 2.

    …And I can’t believe that I am going to say it, but we should look into dealing with Memphis for Iverson. I say give him a shot over here.

  • Qaspec

    Agree 100%

    This is just my opinion but Miliic should start at center and Lee should move over to the power forward. Gallo plays the 3 with Hughes and Douglas in the backcourt. You have shotblocking and rebounding with Darko and Lee you have to guys in the frontcourt that can defend and are streak scorers. Honestly even if Douglas plays bad offensivley he can stay in front of his man. This sets up and clearly defines Gallo as the go to guy who should get the most touches. No more freezing him out for stretches. Good shooters need a good rythm.

    Bringing Harrington, Chandler and Robinson (when he gets back) off the bench would be an offensive spark and change of pace against other teams second units that could be hard for opposing defenses to cope with.

  • Qaspec

    It is….hence the whole 2010 plan.

  • traps9

    Anyone think we can pry Deron Williams from Utah if we offer up Lee/Curry/Duhon/Chandler for Williams/Harpring/Korver? They’re gonna have two lottery picks, unfortunately, and they won’t have to re-sign Boozer next year with Curry (and if they wanna pick up Lee).

  • HaS

    “Overall, Lee is the only above average player on the team”

    When your +/- is as bad as his is (probably mostly due to his defense), does it even matter?

  • Jeff Cykiert

    I don’t know why people are looking for someone to blame. The coach, the GM, the owner, the players…

    Isn’t this obvious? like someone said above, this isn’t a team, its a compilation of expiring stop gap rent-a-sucky-players. We start Duhon at the PG (the most important position), who probably couldn’t clock more than 20 minutes on ANY other team in the league.

    We start chandler who might be athletic and have potential but the level that he’s playing at would leave him out of any rotation in the league, pretty much, besides ours.

    We play Jeffries for significant minutes… enough said

    We have NO center. We have NO power forward (lee is playing center), and we sure as hell have NO point guard; and we’re still experimenting with larry hughes at the SG. I mean, what on earth do you expect to happen right now? There is no system the fits these players, DW and MD know as well as most of us do that this season is a waist, and it is pretty depressing but it is what it is.

    The coach is supposed to find a system that caters to these guys? Haha, c’mon there is no system that caters to these guys.

    We all knew we were throwing this season, and while some of us, including myself, thought that this crappy team could maybe catch a spark and make the season relatively interesting, it turns out we can’t.

    Nobody is the blame, you just have to accept that we have no players right now.

  • http://theKnicksBlog.com Tommy Dee

    Dude, don’t insult me by saying something as elementary as

    “just because defense is “stressed” in training camp doesn’t mean it would translate to the start of the season.”

    No kidding…I’ve been through plenty of training camps, not just with the knicks. I know defense is a fragile mentality.

    it just seemed like they cared more and they were together on a journey.

    togetherness is what defense is…

  • http://theKnicksBlog.com Tommy Dee

    They’ve molded this mess?

    Duhon was a bridge…and played well last year. if you can’t see that you just don’t like duhon.

    they knew what they were getting into…2010 freedom. If they are 1-6 next year then you can be overly critical.

    not now.

  • http://theKnicksBlog.com Tommy Dee

    getting nahsayers to “accept” anything in NY is impossible Jeff…

  • MrFurious

    Agree 100%. This team was detonated LAST year. This is just the rump. I can certainly see someone blaming D’Antoni and walsh for this fiasco but lets face it. This is not an NBA caliber team from both a talent perspective and more importantly from an effort perspective. These MEN (a term I use loosely) are losers, D Lee, Robinson, Jefferies, Duhon, and the lot. They show zero effort other than shooting. D’antoni bears responsibility in this as does Walsh but we’ve already played our 2010 hand, and so we wait. The next exciting thing will be trade deadline rumors about who we ship out.

  • MrFurious

    I think Lee has internalized that a certain amount of losing is acceptable. That said, if you are watching the games, his game improves. He is developing a fairly consistent “J”. On an individual level that “J” if it remains consistent for the year represents big money for him next year. Long term 8-10 mil.

  • http://www.KnicksFanaticsBlog.com IGMKNICKS

    And therein lies the first problem. . . .no one willing to accept responsibility for this mess. . .

    Hopefully, the naysayers have a bit more discretion than to accept this on-court disaster just because it is the natural result of managerial incompetence or what is called the 2010 plan.

    I said it last year and I am happy to repeat it again — you do not build a winner this way. If you want to know hoe winners are built for endurance look at the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers. This gut the team and buy a star model does not fit in the NBA because it is about so much more than money and the imagined allure of midtown Manhattan and crazy pitchmen.

    When are the Yes-sayers going to accept the truth about this mess.