Mike D’Antoni Poll

Dammit man! Why do I have to start with a 1 and overrate this coach?

This survey is rigged…..again! Not even a ZERO! Shame Shame Shame!

Ive been killing Mike all season because of his in my opinion not too concerned with defense attitude and I really dont like the 7SOL. I gave him a 6 with talent because with Steve Nash running his show, he was a hip check away from the Finals.

I still wonder without a Steve Nash caliber player (BTW who is that in the NBA) can he suceeed? Remember his short stint in Denver?

He must bring in a defensive coach because his current crew dont know how to teach it or do they try?

Im feeling generous (its spring) so I gave him a 3

Btu seriously.. I was all set to give the “coach” a pass on the past two years RECORD WISE..

But i was expecting to see the 7SOL for two years no matter what the record.. At least we would get an idea of What he will bring and we’d see if it really was the players or the “system”

Did Duhon’s suckitude blow that? perhaps..

But over the course of the last two years I’ve seen things that are independent of his “system”./

Running an incredibly short rotation,
lack of ANY defensive schemes
NO end of game play calling
Inconsistencies in how he treats players
Outright Lying to pretty much everyone (Donnie/Media/Fans/Players)

so i’ve lost what little faith I had in him when he came here. I was expecting a Pat Riley type coach who would adapt to the culture of NYC and bring exciting ball that focuses on defense but still runs and guns..

But let’s get him the superstars who dont need coaching he needs to run his system and call him a genius..

If he can recruit Lebron and LBJ does a presser in radio City Music Hall and says the reason he came here was b/c of D’Antoni Ill take it all back and admit i was wrong.

then let’s go out and win 6 chips.

I feel pretty much any coach can win with talent. The pertinent question is how much can he win? He’s already proven he ‘s a good regular season coach when he has talent to work with. My problem with him is his total lack of emphasis on defense. The guy seems to have a disdain for it. As far as the poll goes i’d give him 8 as far as winning with talent in the regular season and a 3 as far as winning a championship with his run and gun to hell with the defense philosophy.

I gave him a 1. Actually, the knicks have had worse coaches, but I’d have gone for a zero with them.

I gave him a 3. I would have given him an 8 or 9 this season, pretty much up until that miserable Kings game where Wilson Chandler was going nuts and couldn’t touch the ball as the team collapsed down the stretch.

But, thats been the story of this entire season. Terrible game plans and lack of any playcalls. I tired a long time ago of watching Al Harrington Chuck and Chris Duhon Suck(hey nice rhyme). But because they were “respected veteran leaders”, they were never held accountable like they should have been.

The only time this season that I liked Dantoni was after he benched Nate Robinson and we followed with one of our best stretches of bball in a long time. I only wish that he followed that up by benching bums like Duhon, Harrington, and Lee.

Plus, his refusal to play rookies may have hurt this team really badly. Who knows how much value there would be or whether Jordan Hill could have stuck if he actually got a chance? Same goes for Doug, if He was playing all year maybe he showed more pg skills by now and we feel more comfortable about his future here.

Miserable, miserable season that made me lose pretty much all my trust in a coach that I really respected and trusted coming into this season. He better begin to show major improvement next year, because I imagine I like a lot of other people will begin calling for his head pretty early into the season if things aren’t going too well.

D’Antoni may be a great person, but he’s a terrible coach. If you look at what he did in Denver with better players in the strike season of ’99, you’ll see that he caught “magic in a bottle’ in Phoenix. I predict next season will be his last. He’s too thin-skinned for New York.

I gave him a 2.

Furthermore Alvin Gentry is winning with Steve Nash.

Nuff said.

This coach is a fraud.

I don’t think you need a great coach to succed when you have enough talent. I do know if you want to win a championship you are going to compete with some really good coaches in the post season. In the playoffs you have to make adjustments on defense. Its more like chess. We can get away with Mike D and some talent in the reagular season because its like playing checkers and very simple for Mike. I think Coach Mike D is good enough to get us to the playoffs and the team will be fun to watch but he will come up short when he meets a real coach. I gave him a 6.

He gets an 8 for me, a 10 for his system. I’ll wait to see if who he chooses to play and everything annoys me next year. We need to get a ton of shooters and athletes to run this system right.

On a side note (re: the system), can I say that, with having the right talent for the tempo of the system, Sergio really still intrigues me, even with his insane amount of turnovers? His court vision is unreal; he sees cuts and seams that his own teammates don’t, which leads to a lot of those same turnovers. But I don’t know…

@traps9: Sergio really still intrigues me, even with his insane amount of turnovers? His court vision is unreal; he sees cuts and seams that his own teammates don’t, which leads to a lot of those same turnovers

I concur with you about Sergio, some had said he was a bust but I disagree. I like how he attacks the hoop and he is a willing passer. Last night if Baron was a little more atheletic and had a better IQ Serg had him setup for a nice alley hoop. I’d like to keep him for another year and during his final talk with coach he should be told to work on his jumper and defense…oops Mike wont mention defense

I gave him a seven. he really built a very good team in Phoenix. Hopefully with some talent he can do more here. The knicks are now puddy in he and Walsh’s hands. Great opportunity.

Gentry said he is running a carbon copy of MD’s system. When Porter went away from it last year, they were not good.

I gave him a 7-8. It’s a players league, and he needs the personnel. Again, as I’ve stated before, I believe in his system. Games against PHX used to scare me to death. That said, I DO think he needs to bring in an elite Defensive coordinator. I think there are things that he could learn. He’s a little too sensitive for NY, and I don’t necessarily like the way he deals with adversity with his players. Banishing them and not telling them why isn’t what I would consider to be a stand up approach. Riley/Van Gundy/ even Larry Brown at least would have told you, you suck and you’re going to the bench until you sort it out., Mike D just leaves you on the bench wondering what happened, I don’t like that. I don’t know how he’s gonna react when the pressure is really on in this town. I get the feeling he’s gonna be a little testy when the heat comes.

My point is that Nash, Amare and Hill is on that team and that is why they are winning.

Mike had very minimal coaching to do for them to win the games they won.

I am NOT confident in this “coach”.

I gave him a 2 because I belive Lebron is coming. He is going to make the system work and he will demand defense from his teammates.

I believe a good coach gets the best out his players regardless of contract years or rebuilding process.

If in the worse case scenerio, LBJ stays in the state of Ohio, then no matter who we get (Joe Johnson, Bosh, Amare, Boozer) this guy should be fired because we’ll never win a ring with him.

exactly

I give him a 7. I think his system is great on the offensive side of things. The guy has no clue about defensive assignments IMO.

Gallo on Deron Williams?
Gallo On Nash?
Duhon on Melo?

switching switching switching… playing SF as centers? The guy needs a defensive coach badly…

If he gets his players his ass should be on the hot seat. The excuse has been he doesn’t have the talent well $33M should get him what he wants.

Lebron, No Lebron in 2010 we will be a better team then this team.

Those players were on the team last year when they were playing mediocre ball under Porter’s system.

I gave him an 8 based on “with talent”. I’d give myself a 5 if I coached a team with talent, so that’s not saying much. He got his old team close enough to be considered a favorite by many to win before their non-fight. Many coaches had talent and never put them in position to win it all, or even be given a chance to do it. So I give him an 8 for now, he’ll be a 10 when he wins it all, and if he screws up he can sit at a desk somewhere with a 5 like me.

Forget about porter man.

Let me make it simple.

Gentry = D’Antoni with talented players.

There is a lot of blame going towards the Coaching staff. I believe the coaching staff is constantly advising D’antoni on defensive strategies. The problem is that D’Antoni runs the show and he makes the decisions. If a defensive scheme gets in the way of his offensive system, he will not adopt it. I’m sure the coaching staff has advised him of the same problems on defiense and of the use of the roster that we have mention all year. D’Antoni has admitted to heated arguments with his coaching staff. So unless Walsh puts his foot down and insist that he works with a defensive minded assistant that Walsh not a friend of D’Antoni appoints, We will be looking at another poor defensive team. Teams have averaged over 45% field goal persentage against this well coached team.

Carbon Copy wouldnt be accurate.

Hasn’t Gentry said he has modified the “system” from the original 7SOL?

i think you can succeed in the regular season with great players..

but the playoffs is all about adjustments and strategy.

i agree with your comments..

the Poll question is poorly framed..

it should be simply

i. And how comfortable you are with him moving forward.

Huh? Porter had those “talented players,” but Gentry is making the most of their talent by using a D’Antoni-like system.

I’m really really REALLY tired of people complaining about how MDA does not worry about defense. So please help me understand this:

ALL MDA’s Phoenix teams were statistically better defensively than the one currently in the playoffs

The current Phoenix team’s skill in defense corresponds exactly to Amare finally deciding that he should play some

Amare is in a contract year

Everyone in the NBA, or who follows the NBA except, apparently, for Knicks fans, are aware of the fact that EVERYONE of those old Phoenix teams practically begged Amare to play defense, you know, every now and then, to help the team.

Those old Phoenix teams had basically given up on Amare playing D, which was the core reason they went and Shaq, who was old and fat and completely self-absorbed and STILL played better D than Amare.

Amare has apparently heard the rumors all over the NBA that he never plays D, so he decided to play some this year. Oh, and it’s a contract year for him. What a coincidence.

Bottom line: Our best defensive player, Jared Jeffries, said it best: MDA preaches all the time. But if the team does not have talented defensive players, then they will not be a talented defensive team. Just like you can preach “make your shots” as much as you want, but if the team does not have talented shooters, they will not be a talented offensive team. Larry Brown, arguably one of the top 2 or 3 defensive coaches in the league, asked Zeke and Dolan to overhaul the entire roster to bring in better defensive players. When he went to Charlotte, um, they overhauled the roster to bring in better defensive players. Then they brought in Stephen Jackson to help the offense, and THEN they went to the playoffs.

So for all our sophistication as Knicks fans in NY, why are we overlooking the basic premise that EVERYONE else in the NBA saw at the beginning of the season: the Knicks have a bad roster of players?

And how many players on this team have a PER above the league average? How many have a PER even close to the league average? These guys play in a system that inflates stats AND THEY STILL CAN’T BREAK INTO LEAGUE AVERAGE IN PER.

And by the way, even with all that, the team went 9-6 in December because a) Chris Duhon discovered how to make a jump shot and b) the system worked, even with all these mediocre players.

Look, MDA is not perfect. He stuck with his veterans, for whatever reason waaaay too long, probably fearing a mutiny if he played the rooks too soon. But to say he is a bad coach… this is all a little confusing to me.

lightning in a botttle

6.5

The lack of accountability was disgusting, Al Harrington and David Lee should’ve been benched long ago. I think Nate Robinson’s 14-game banishment was too severe and he should’ve played Jordan Hill to raise his trade value before the trade deadline. Mike D’Antoni has also made WAAAAAY TOO MANY mistakes from a pure basketball standpoint IMO.

I still think Mike D’Antoni’s a pretty good coach though. David Lee was trash defensively but the fact that Mike D’Antoni made him a point center was pure genius offensively. The fact that Jared Jeffries actually played well in December = pure genius. He was such an x-factor defensively and I think the coach used him very well offensively (when he wasn’t taking 3-point shots) because HE was the glue guy (setting screens etc). Wilson Chandler’s development has been great under Mike D’Antoni and Danilo Gallinari’s game has expanded. The fact that both guys try to play defense is also encouraging.

Disappointing season from Mike D’Antoni. I still believe that he’s a competent coach but he’ll have to prove it next season because he didn’t do it this year.

I’ve always been a sergio supporter. I think he has good court vision, excellent handle and like you guys said he pushes constantly (a la Nash). I know his criticts are going to say he is to prone but remember that he is only 23 24? I think that if something BIG come up in the trade market for a PG he should definitly be on the list.

However I heard that he is thinking about going back to spain where he’ll get a contract that will pay him WAAAAYYY much more than here. We’ll see what happens.

D’Antoni must change his ways. He needs to put his ego to the side and acknowledge that defensive basketball is not this forte. To that end, he has to bring in a qualified assistant who thinks “defense first”, and allow for such individual to have a significant role on the coaching staff. Will D’Antoni do that? It’s fair to have doubts. The problem with D’Antoni is not a lack of intelligence-it’s his massive ego. This is what has caused him to alienate a number of different players since he’s been here; and why his approach over the last two years has never changed, despite the team’s obvious lack of success.

Confidence wise, I give him a 2. But to be fair, since these last two years were supposedly a “pass”, D’Antoni’s grade should really be an “incomplete”. He will never be ultimately successful in New York, however, regardless of what players they bring in, unless he changes his attitude (e.g. Tom Coughlin). Hopefully D’Antoni will see the light.

coach

I believe he said he did a little, yes.

I read that in some comments around here but haven’t found an article on that. I wouldn’t blame Serg, honestly.

I gave Coach a 7, just because we were dumping salaries. So he gets a new slate. Like biggie i was looking to see a preview to the coming season by running his system, didnt see that. First twenty games were terrible,( gave many fans heart attacks) %$#@$%^% Here are a few things I didnt like, lack of discipling in games,( not control freak) not playing enough guys and yes DEFENSE. So i look forward to the NEW KNICKS . KNICKS forever.

Damn. Bravo.

how confident am I that he’ll win WITH more talented players? about a 4 … if the objective was to wait till year 3 until we judge the coach, we s/h hired Mark Jackson who would have 2 yrs experience by now AND would have communicated better with players because he’s only a few years away from playing …

and if Gentry had Amare the rest of last year once he took over (he missed 30+ games with the eye) , the Suns would have probably made the playoffs …

but all indications are that D’ant & Stats didn’t get along that well & the Knicks won’t pursue him hard … BIG mistake … they should correct the biggest error of the last 10 yrs by signing him & Camby … a twosome they could have had when Scott Layden screwed up HUGETIME on draft-night 2002 … Camby’s still blocking shots & boarding and every time you see an Amare highlight he’s dunking ferociously on some poor soul … it’s ironic that the Camby & draft pick trade debacle also included Mark ….

I gave the coach an 8. I think he can win with talent. Make us a 50 win team and get us to the conference finals. Than like Phil did with Doug Collins, bring a coach in here who can bring us to the promised land. Not sure who that person is yet.

It was mentioned in yesterdays game by Breen.

just for the record i gave him a 5

wow, I have a completely different view than you guys. I think Sergio’s been awful since he’s been here.

His court vision has been inconsistent, and that’s putting it lightly. He can make some amazing passes that few guards in the league can make, but he does not make simple passes that pgs need to, and more often then not plays out of control.

He’s an absolute turnover machine who plays horrible defense. Whats worse, is that in the past 2 weeks or so, he really began looking for his own shot more than passing. He takes more “heat checks” than Chris Duhon used to take. He pulls up when he shouldn’t, he runs into the middle of the lane with no plan or regard for anything not unlike Al harrington.

The sequence that perfectly illustrated this was in the Washington game at the garden. (He actually had a good overall game) But anyway, Gallo was coming off 9 points on 3 straight possessions. He set a pick for Sergio, on which Gallo’s man inexplicably followed Sergio so that Sergio was doubled. Gallo was wide open for a 3, and instead of making a simple pass back Sergio forced a ridiculously bad shot with 2 guys draped all over him on a pull up jumper from like 15 feet. It was terrible.

Anyway, that play was pretty indicative of his time with the Knicks and his career so far. He can’t make simple passes that all pgs should be able to make, ones that even Douglas makes with consistency, and instead either looks for his own shot or makes crazy passes that most often result in turnovers.

I gave him a 7 (couldn’t decide between a 6 and 7 so I just got optimistic). I agree that Al should have gotten benched, but I don’t think Lee should have. I think he should have been held accountable for his lack of defense, but at least Lee scored efficiently and could pass the ball. Harrington was just a black hole where the ball would come in and then just get fired at the hoop immediately.

I know this was a bad year and filled with controversy concerning D’Ant’s methods, but I do look at his old PHX teams and, with a real PG, or LeBron (would love to see him play in this system), I think we can be very, very dangerous. Even with some second tier FA’s like Gay, etc. I think we could be fairly dangerous. I think it would definitely definitely help though to bring on a defensive minded assistant. Also, can I say that I would love to have Patrick Ewing back involved with this team at any cost. I want him as an assistant coach, I want him sitting on the sidelines at the Garden again.

Just for the record a five? Man if I went just by the record it would be way lower than a 5 haha.

depends on your standards, with talent he can create a 50 win team but he’s not a championship caliber coach cause he doesn’t stress defense, if your comfortable with a perennial second rounder than he’s a great coach, but by that same rationale there should be no complaints with acquiring Joe Johnson and Bosh as our franchise, if thats the standard.

i ment by record saying i rated him a 5
not by the season record
i gave him a 5 overall even after he gets better players..

“Gentry said he is running a carbon copy of MD’s system.”

Not really true.

First of all, Stoudemire was his center and Marion was his power forward. Now Amar’e is at the 4 and Lopez is his center. Big difference.

Secondly, his rotations are not 7POL he uses a true “second unit” which has Nash rested for the playoffs.

These two differences are probably my biggest gripes with this “coach” outside of his obvious obssession with the three ball.

“I gave him a seven. he really built a very good team in Phoenix.”

He was coach and GM in Phoenix? I never knew that.

“Expectation leads to anticipated resentment”

Im giving MDA a pass- give him the players,get him a D coordinator -1st 9 game loosing streak and he’s gone..hope not..its still going to be a little rough next year..but not as bad IMHO.

we’ve known from the start that DW got guys that were expirings.And knew they expiring this year.. EVERYONE- the players were ALL bench guys. IMO TD was the only one who played like a 94-99 Knick. I also like when there was a hard foul to give- someone gave (sergio,B Walk) it.Like the old days-
Get MD’A some shooters like Morrow & Korver- some drivers like Livingston & CB3- Camby (all is forgiven) in the middle & a 2nd round draft pick ugly tough scary MF’er that has a jump shot too and Barron. Im going to be patient- I like what Biggie said about No DLee-being seen at Nobu w his model girlfriend..haha! Let him take his no D ass to NJ and when they continue to lose ,they’ll blame him for his lack of D- Wall or no Wall. I wonder if DW is planning on buying a 1st round draft pick..say from Minny?
I wonder is this plan for cap space to get this free agent class DW’s or was originally Isiah’s and grandfathered in when DW took over with him just making better trade and biz decisions? Hmm,i guess we’ll never know?

Granted it’s a bad roster, but playing defense is also about effort and planning. Too often that is missing, which is why D’Antoni receives the criticism that he does. I could maybe buy into your point somewhat if we saw even a modicum of defensive intensity with the Knicks this year, but frankly that aspect of the team has become beyond embarrassing. As for Phoenix, I’ll admit to not being completely familiar with the inner workings of that team during D’Antoni’s tenure, but from afar it certainly didn’t seem as if Amare was the only player who didn’t care about guardng his man.

He is a bad coach.

2.

thanks for saying what i meant

the problem is the “coach” in PHX didnt demand defense from his player (Amar’e) through accountability and consequences..

Amar’e would get the ball and get his minutes regardles sof whether he played defense or not..

Now (presumably) there is some accountability so he is playing defense..

goes to my previous point that there are really very very few “bad” defenders in the NBA just coaches who dont want to demand it and players who dont want to put in the efffort.

yea HAS b4 kerr don’t u remember?

lmao…

I definitely want a bigger rotation. I don’t understand what D’Ant’s been doing with these 8 man rotations with only guards off the bench (granted we don’t really have any big men). And yea a real center makes a big difference.

Yea it’s kinda hard to say he has great court vision when he commits so many turnovers. He always tries to go for the prettiest and often toughest pass and just turns the ball over. He gets ahead of himself a lot, and tries to be a bit too flashy at times. He needs to learn to just see the floor and be patient, he forces passes way too often. I can see him developing and maturing with the right coaching/veteran leadership, but right now his price tag is too high to bring him back for his talent level.

Wasn’t Nash awful on defense as well?

“goes to my previous point that there are really very very few “bad” defenders in the NBA just coaches who dont want to demand it and players who dont want to put in the efffort.”

Agreed. Players start to think so highly of themselves they tihnk they don’t need to play defense, which sucks, but GM’s keep justifying it with contracts. Lots of coaches (including D’Ant) don’t hold them accountable because of their star status and offensive achievement.

That being said, I haven’t really watched the Suns a lot this year, but I love Amare’s offensive game the guy’s a beast and I would love him on the Knicks, but has his defensive efforts changed at all?

oh haha my bad…i was gonna say…

Yep, I hear ya! But a 2? That’s 2 many!

6.

I’m definitely expected better. There were some poor late game decisions, stubbornly short rotations and communication issues. Squandering Hill’s value and over-benching Nate are probably my biggest qualms.

At the same time, D’antoni was dealt a lousy hand, even by cap saving standards:

- A roster full of lame ducks
- $20million tied up in inactive players (Mobley and Curry)
- Only one (lousy) PG
- Super thin at the 5
- Few good individual defenders
- The Jeffries showcase showdown
- No on-court leader
- No legit first (or 2nd) options
- On-going subtraction of talent from the roster
- Injury bug the last month of the season
- The stigma of a deep seeded losing culture

Those are not easy things for a coach to over come. I think elite coaches might have squeezed 40 wins out of this roster, but the number of elite coaches in the NBA can be counted on one hand. D’antoni is just not an elite coach, but I think he is a good coach and was one of the best options available at the time.

Overall, the Knicks could have done helluva lot worse. The way the team is built, the they could have easily challenged the Nets for worst record.

However, his leash will be a lot shorter next year.

I really think the reason Gallo was put on those guys was a learning experience.

He only started doing it after we lost JJ and the season was way over.

Love these scores.

Seems that the knick-teaParty is just obnoxiously loud in the forum, and the average TKB reader has some sense and patience.

I gave him an 8.

The players he had were really, really bad. Some may not even be in the league next year.

He did stick with his vets longer then I would have, but in the end… i dont think he had much of a choice. People here (mostly the ones who hate Mike D) always harped about how the treatment of Starbury was giving the knicks a negative image among the league players… and I think benching all the vets too early would actually have that effect. I dont think anyone really cared about marbury.

I also questioned the really short rotation, but with the players he had, I will hold off judgment on that until I see him coach a real team.

I was excited when we signed him because of what I read about him. I was not going to judge him on the 1st two years, so I am gonna stick with that and hold off on my final opinion until after next season.

start of slow clap.

awesome. well said.

Geez, a lot of throwing under the bus here…..

MD’s system is pivotal to have certain ingredients in order to succeed.

Point Guard , athletic players and great shooters

NY had no PG

Had inconsistent shooters

He does not have the players and thats not a secret.

They wasted a pick on Hill. Should have drafted Jennings or Holiday.

So , how can we judge this guy with out seeing hi have the players that he needs ?

Come on. Next year is the year but what if Donnie strikes out ? Is that Mike’s fault ?