I’m reading: Daily News and Oakley: “I’m Putting it on the Players”

by Tommy Dee on November 15th, 2009 at 10:42 am

Via Isola:

“…There is no communication on defense,” Oakley, the former Knicks power forward, said Saturday over the telephone. “They don’t dive on the floor for the ball. They should be getting five to six charges a night. But I don’t see that.

“I’m going to put this on the players because it’s up to them to fight every night. The coach can’t fight for you. You can’t just let teams get layup after layup.”

When Oakley was reminded that most of the Knicks are in the last year of their respective contracts and probably won’t be around next season, Oakley said that should give the team more incentive to play hard. “They’re getting paid, right?” Oakley said. “My thing is, if they want a contract next season they should start playing for one right now.”

Oakley has made it clear that he’d like to coach in the NBA. There were preliminary talks between Oakley and Walsh about a possible position but nothing ever materialized. Oakley is considering running a big man’s camp during the offseason because “I feel I can help. It’s not for the money.”

Nothing materialized because the organization loves Herb Williams, who caught the brunt of a Nate Robinson tirade the other day on the sideline.

Here’s my deal. Oak is my favorite All-Time Knick. Bar none. As a kid, he lived around the corner from my buddy who was the team’s ball boy and whose family used to car sit for him. He had a sick souped-up Explorer (and a benz) with a remote control for the stereo. I had never seen that before. I met him a dozen times and he watched some of my high school team’s summer league games. He once complemented me on an alley oop i threw while we were eating pizza.

My hesitation to get after D’Antoni’s system at this point is because I don’t want to make this about the 1990s Knicks. They couldn’t score in the half court at times and stood around far too often watching Ewing get deep in the shot clock. But defensively, you, as a fan, had as much pride as they did. No one was coming into our house and pushing us around.

But it was a different era then, I’d I think it’s essential that fans understand that the game has changed. Yes, defense is still a staple and I can understand if there are reservations about D’Antoni, I’m just not ready to give up on him because I want the Riley and Van Gundy days back.
  • BiggieSmalls

    Part of this disaster has to be on the players but the other part HAS TO BE on the coaching.

    If D’Antoni and Walsh are serious on competing this year D’Antoni should be flexible enough to adapt his “system” to the talent around him. After all most of these players wont be around next year as well all know so nothing will be lost if MDA coaches the players around him and stops trying to fit square pegs in round holes.

    Now I know last year MDA modified his offense somewhat to fit the players but he doesnt seem to be going far enough.

    Playing Lee at the 5 is becoming a league wide joke. When you have someone like Darko on the bench getting NO minutes who can be an enforcer in the middle.

    And I LOVE Herb personally — in fact one of my boys used to live next door to him in Stamford and he was always a very cool dude — but enough is enough. I dont see him doing much to improve the big man play and the defense sucks as we all know. Move him upstairs to work with Donnie and bring in Oak to handle the big guys.

    We arent getting any player movement until Dec 15th when 2009 contracts can be traded and it is a long slog until then. I dont see many winnable games in the next 2 weeks unfortunately since we are past the “easy part” of the early schedule.

  • jaknicksfan

    Great Post Biggie, I agree completely. I like Herb but you get the feeling he’s soft with the players. He should go upstairs and get Oak or Ewing as assistant coach. Bring back some of the Old Knicks!

  • joetheknick

    D’Antoni is passionate in his belief that ball movement and taking a lot of open shots win games. It worked in Phoenix. He is coaching a bunch of players who cannot move the ball and who cannot make open shots. How is gong to change that. I just don’t see where being flexible enters into the conversation. Last year he allowed Harrington and Robinson take many bad shots in most games. Is that being flexible. Another coach might have benched them. This is going to be the year of Gallinari, Chandler, Hill and Douglas. Give them a little time and this team will get its share of wins. It is just a beginning. Apparently my favorite player Charles Oakley isn’t much of a salesman.

  • donnie walsh

    Sure Dantoni’s style of play isnt necessarily tough, but honestly its on the players. I have never seen a compilation of such unmotivated punk players. Just look at the face of a Knicks player when he throws the ball away. Outside of Gallinari, does a single player take the blame for it? Or do they make a face as if to say somebody ran the wrong way. There is zero accountability on the team, they are punks. And yeah Lee at the 5 is brutal on D. But Lee at the 4 is brutal on D is brutal, he couldn’t guard a talented highschool power forward, he has no heart on D.

    I wish Oakley would come on board solely to bitchslap David Lee everytime he doesnt play D/ whines at his teammates/ whines at the ref.

  • BiggieSmalls

    i dont give a shit about D’antoni’s style of play”

    Pat Riley had a “style of play” in LA when he coached the Lakers that was diametrically opposed to the style of play he implemented in NY.. The style of Play Riley implemented in Miami was different than both the NYK style and LAkers fast break style.

    A good coach adapts to the players. I dont care about his “beliefs” or “style”. His belief should be about winning games.

    If he has the slowest point guard int he league and no consistent outside shooters WHY in the world is he trying to play a speed ball style????

    Great coaches adapt to their resources at hand. THAT is all on Mike D’Antoni.

  • donnie walsh

    I am by no means a huge supporter of D’antoni or think hes a great coach. But the fact is the players are bad. They are not very good at basketball. In addition, they play with zero heart.

  • http://www.knicksfan.net/?p=2638 Don’t Fear The Rebuild (Or the Short-Sighted Fan Returns With A Vengeance) | The Knicks FanBlog

    [...] are the only ones capable of having pride in themselves. The coach can’t do that for them. Charles Oakley said, “I’m going to put this on the players because it’s up to them to fight every night. The [...]

  • DatNewYorker

    Oakley was supposed to be on the coaching staff. I remember reading that he was talking to Walsh. But I bet Dantoni had something to do with him not being on the coaching staff. Could you imagine Oakley on the coaching staff now? He would probably be fired by now because I’m sure he would have slapped the taste out of DAntoni’s mouth by now. He also would have soft David Lee in tears after he was done training him. We have only three good defensive players on this team. DAntoni just started giving two of the players playing time. The other is still on the bench. Hughes and Douglas are playing now but Milicic is still on the pine. Jeffries also can defend but his offense is just too horrible. Little by little DAntoni understands how the game should be played. I don’t see us taking threes every second and I actually seen them attempt to establish a low post game. Now we just need him to wake up and stop playing David Lee at center. He also needs to bench Duhon. The team has been struggling not only because of poor defensive effort it is also because of poor coaching and poor point guard play. I don’t mind losing if we are competing. The Nets are playing with only 2 of there starters and only suiting up 8 players. The difference between the Knicks and the Nets are that the Nets compete with every team. The Nets are well coached by Lawrence Frank. I feel sorry on how they lost to the Heat last night by one point. I’ll take Frank over D’Antoni any Day of the week.

  • BobbyFromBK

    I’ve been saying this from the jump. Besides Walsh bumbling just about every imortant move since he’s been here, D’Antoni has no clue how to actually coach and motivate. It’s obvious now that Nash was the real coach in Phoenix. MD is all smoke and mirrors and jokes. And now he actually is becoming a joke. This team is really what he called them Friday night: The N.Y. Zombies.

  • HaS

    _’antoni is not just a great coach, he is the best coach in the world!

  • Bob

    any good coach wouldve benched them….and they should be benched,maybe thats the only way thell start to listen,

  • Bob

    well if thats the case…why have a coach at all?why not just send the players out to coach themselves …”its all on the players ” is ridiculous..why is everyone tryin to give D’antoni a free pass?Nate screaming at herb,should result in “some” disipline from the coach….this is just like when zeke was the coach,and nate and randlolph went at it on the bench,reporters asked zeke “what happened”? and zeke pretended not to see it and said i dont know what your talking about

  • ohboy109

    When Isiah was coaching it was on him, now with Dantoni it’s the players, come on Dantoni has to be held accountable too! praising Duhon to justify dissing Marbury after he did what he was told and came i shape..there is alot I can go into with Danphony…
    I’m tired of the media not exposing Dantoni, it seems like Berman, is the only one and maybe Isola, who realize that this guy can’t coach without allstars, it’s simple when you don’t have enough talent on your team, as a coach you have to preach defense it’s only chance you have of being competitive. But Dantoni is a hard head and wants things his way, sooner or later it will catch up to him and he will be gone!
    Remember he was a disaster with the nuggets!

  • ohboy109

    When Isiah was coaching it was on him, now with Dantoni it’s the players, come on Dantoni has to be held accountable too! praising Duhon to justify dissing Marbury after he did what he was told and came i shape..there is alot I can go into with Danphony, like hiring Oak as an assiatant was wrong also..
    I’m tired of the media not exposing Dantoni, it seems like Berman, is the only one and maybe Isola, who realize that this guy can’t coach without allstars, it’s simple when you don’t have enough talent on your team, as a coach you have to preach defense it’s only chance you have of being competitive. But Dantoni is a hard head and wants things his way, sooner or later it will catch up to him and he will be gone!
    Remember he was a disaster with the nuggets!

  • joetheknick

    Great history lesson for the impatient fans among us. Quick fixes for the past 10 years got us into this mess. It was not the coaches. For the first time in years management realizes you got to break it down to build it up. This is the team you wind up with when you break it down. Does anyone really believe a coach can tell Nate the Great or Al Harrington how to play this game of basketball? Not going to happen.

  • joetheknick

    Where do you get the idea the fans give the coach a pass. The fans were critical of Chaney, Wilkens, Williams, Brown, Thomas and now D”antoni. Could it be none of these coaches were all hard heads who did not know what they were doing. If you think D’Antoni cannot get it done, who can with this team?

  • Mal

    The real MD, without Nash he is going to have to prove he can coach or is it just smoke and mirrors as some have suggested

    D’Antoni’s NBA head coaching career began the following year, when he led the Nuggets to a 14-36 mark in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign.