As if This Needs to Be Posted

First of all, I don’t think the folks who run this blog are obligated to post anything.

Second of all, what “knick” players laughed when asked if Mike D coaches defense? I bet it wasn’t anyone who’s gonna be a knick next year.

I’ve said it b4 and i’ll say it again… D’antoni was forced with a team that wasn’t built to win and couldn’t even run his system. I believe he was asked to do what he can til help arrives in 2010.

And I am not trying to make excuses for his actions, simply saying it’s unfair to judge whether or not he can coach a championship team off of the past 2 years.

Tommy, The Knicks need to go out and find the best talent out there period. If the best player out there is a walk the ball up/post type of big man then go get him. If we get LBJ well then fine, he can play any system. I say go get the best talent and if D’Antoni is either too stubborn to coach them or they don’t fit his system then he should go coach in college where he would be able to hand pick his own talent. We already blew the draft a couple of years ago drafting Galinari (who I do like) but I’m sorry, a guy like Brook Lopez is harder to find and more valuable. Secondly he was begging for Duhon who might be the worst pg ever to have a regular starting job in NBA history! This dude deserves to coach a real roster but he ain’t gonna ever be able to coach the ’04 Suns again so you gotta be able to adjust or be Phil Jackson and wait for somebody else to mold your talent then you come in and take them over the top!

And I believe I’ve seen D’Antoni go over defensive match ups on the video board in the locker room before games captured by MSG cameras as part of the pre game show. That D’Antoni goes over defensive match ups on video before games is all well and good but if he’s only paying lip service to it what good is it? If he doesn’t preach it, prioritize it, beat it into his teams head on a consistent basis it’s not good enough as far as i’m concerned.

Still Mr DAntoni should welcome any defensive expert to his coaching staff, lets at least try to look like we’re trying to adjust for next year.

If the cavs lose in this series i feel very good as a knicks fan.

What some people don’t get is that most of this stuff is a gamble. people say that we through away picks and good players for 2010 and NOT 2011, so therefore if we don’t get lebron/wade/bosh, it is “epic fail” (what a dumb term.) What those people don’t get is that they are correct, it was for 2010, and it was to give us the best chance possible. Now if lebron loses he has the option to come here and play with chris bosh… he wouldn’t have had that option without trading JJ. So, IF he does come, you might even be able to say that was the reason.

But even more interesting is this: imagine if we didn’t do that trade, and lebron didn’t come. Then we could say “we didn’t clear enough cap space. If we had enough room for another max we could’ve had him maybe, but now we will never know what could have been. epic fail” haha.

Anyway my point is that lebron is about to lose on a team that won’t be changing any time soon, and we can offer him about 28 million dollars of free agents to put NEXT TO him over the next couple years. And more importantly, a max guy to put next to him imediately, which might be the deciding factor. That’s potentially LeBron, bosh, and CP3. or LeBron Joe Johnson and Melo.

IF he comes, that offer is going to be the reason why (in addition to the NY city stuff, which isn’t going to be the deciding factor.) Now that i see he is about to lose, this all has become much clearer. It was definitely worth the risk. we’re talking about a realistic shot at the best player in the world, in his prime, guys.

Even if he doesn’t come, and we just improve moderately over the next couple seasons and become a perrennial playoff team (a young, relatively cheap one), how can you call it an epic fail? the only failure would be if we spend all the money and still suck, and somehow i doubt that.

i don’t dispute D’Antoni coaches defense…..I just don’t think his defensive philosophy is working….i think we need to bring in celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau who is probably the best defensive mind in the game today…i say try and pry him from boston, and make him the highest paid assistant in the league….

i think that’s the stubbornness us fans are talking about….will d’antoni even open up to the idea of bringing in a defensive mind like Tom’s??? he didn’t in PHX(and Thibodeau was the guy Kerr was trying to bring in), thus the reason why he’s not coaching there today….i jus hoped that humbled him some….which i dn’t believe it did one bit….i think he’s even more stubborn in his ways, cause they give him allll the freedom in the world unlike Kerr would in PHX….

http://reeltalkblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/did-lebron-play-his-last-game-at.html

i agree that MD has his fair share of the blame for the teams woes…i also want to see how he does w/ a more talented, stable, and committed roster…
ALSO and more importantly i do believe that MD pays NOOOO attention to Defense based on comments made by Amere & Barnes in publications and radio shows…plus its obvious the Suns made a new commitment to D this year…
i think MD should adjust and incorporate D to his style and i think he can be a fantastic coach.

As for D’Antoni… It’s true, he doesn’t ‘emphasize’ defense, i can admit that. But i feel like he emphasizes all the things that need to be emphasized for L:eBron. (things mike brown refuses to even acknowledge) We have all seen how stagnant the cavs offense is, and how it completely takes away from everything lebron is ridiculously good at. D’Antoni’s system would put LeBron in a spot to do everything nash did as a distributer and play maker, but also everything LeBron can do as a scorer and rebounder. Plus, add about 20 more posessions per game.

And if you have him, bosh, tony douglas, and chandler, something tells me the defense will be just fine. The system thrives on playing tight defense and causing deflections and missed shots, and with those players and the mission in mind, the defense would be stifling. But i honestly believe in d’antoni’s philosophy that if you have a good enough offense, you can beat anyone. The problem is that it only holds true if you have the best transition player OF ALL TIME. So IF we get lebron, that’s why i think dantoni is the perfect coach. If we were going to rebuild by slowly drafting and developing young players, than dantoni is a bad coach; i admit that. But that’s not the plan.

There is only one thing the coach needs to change if we get lebron. Once our bench thickens, he has to be willing to broaden the rotation. That is the one thing that is necessary that up to this point, he hasn’t done.

Next year our bench will be much thinnner than this year (believe it or not) because of all the second rounders and minimum contracts the Knicks will have to dish out unless the team moves Curry. We may have no choice but to go with a short rotation next year.

Regardless of who we sign in the offseason, if we pick up the tempo look for Billy “Sky” Walker to really improve… the dude has talent and as his ‘rookie’ mistakes disappear more and more, he’s gonna be good money off the bench.

I feel ppl are worried about defense too much. Granted, we need to improve our interior D, and tho I like Earl “The Squirrel” Barron, he probably isn’t the answer (though with Bosh, i think he’s an adequate starter esp. if he can give us 10 and 10) But those two, Gallo, Wil, TD all show at least interest in playing D.

let’s get us some allstars and a shot blocker and solidify this team!

very true.. but i’m not worried about a short rotation because our guys are young.. a lot of minutes could actually help them learn quicker and improve.

Yeah when you have superstars on the team, th team is expected to reach the playoffs and the stars can’t be run down by thetime they start. The knicks will be good and deep enough that they wont have t play a LBJ th whole game with a rotation of 6-7. When you develop the bench you get trade value and you know who can do what when the playoffs start. The knicks will very likely have LBJ and Bosh or Joe J. so both stars wont have to be in the game together the whole game to win games. Towards seasons end you can really rest LBJ and play him like 25 mins a game for the last 10 games or so because Bosh or Joe J can win you those games for the knicks without much help frm the LBJ. This alone is an allure for LBJ in tha he doesn’t have t work as hard. Imagine if the Cavs did that.

Hold it down on Friday HaS. I can’t wait man, should be a true old school WWE interview!! Make sure you are well versed on D’Antoni’s coaching record in Europe, Denver, Phx, and New York and the potential salary cap ramifications this year vs. next on signing two max free agents (Tommy’s a tricky one).

As for Tommy, thanks for posting the article. I actually agree with you about D’Antoni, I don’t think he completely ignores defense and don’t want him fired but I do think he needs to emphasize it a lot more. The reason I felt the article/blog was so important to post was because it lends credence to the conspiracy theorists who claim defense is not emphasized in practice. Perhaps you know differently, but Isola is claiming that some Knicks (although unamed) laugh at the idea that defense is emphasized. This view is not unprecedented as Amare said the same thing and it appears Grant Hill recently alluded to it. I also remember reading somewhere that Steve Kerr hinted that he was unhappy with D’Antoni’s emphasis on defense in practice and in games.

It is a valid point of discusssion.

+1,000,000,000

Excellent Post!!!!!!

If it weren’t for defense, I would never have gotten on the court. Still I can’t over-emphasize that defense doesn’t win championships, points win championships. When the Reed/Frazier teams won, they played hard defense and scored more points than the other team. Every member of the starting five on the second championship team could average 20-25 points a night if they needed to. The points were there, so all they had to do was defend. The Ewing teams never had that. Riley and Van Gundy knew it, so they made up for with defensive effort what the team couldn’t accomplish with offensive skill. The HAD to play defense to compete… they knew it and relished it.

No team will ever win without defense, but in the end you have to score more than the other team. Riley got tough guys, taught defense, and tried to win a championship. He tried, he failed, but they entertained. D’Antoni is taking the opposite approach. He wants to get athletic guys, teach offense, and win a championship. If he wins one, he’ll have one more than Riley and VanGundy. If he doesn’t he will have the same amount. I love defense, but we had a defense first team for a decade AND IT DIDN’T WORK!!!! So I’m going to give him a chance to do it his way. If it doesn’t work, we can do it the way the other Van Gundy is doing it in Orlando.. get some shooters and focus on defense. That always seems to work.

Young or not that many minutes leads to injuries and fatigue around 3/4 of the season and on.

Donnie has a lot of great cap people around him though. Maybe they know something I don’t and they’ll figure out a way to somehow make this team deeper than 7-8 players next year.

Right now, in an ideal world, I see LBJ, Bosh, Gallo, Chandler, Douglas, 2nd round pick, 2nd round pick, and a bunch of minimum contracts next year. Not too deep a team.

I actually want them to hold on to Curry (expiring) and trade Chandler next year (for a PG on a rookie contract) so the team has additional cap space in 2011 for Melo and can then use the 2011 pick for a center. Again, this is only in an ideal world, but LBJ (2-guard), Melo (SF), Bosh(PF/C), Gallo(SF/PF), PG X (Rubio?), is pretty young, amazingly talented, and should be a dynasty for at least another six to seven years. Veteran players (remember Malone and Payton to the LAL) would flock to win championships with them.

Now I need to do a Spike Lee in School Dayz and WAKE UP!!

True indeed Knicks4life.
What’s funny though is people are acting like the Suns have validated their firing of D’Antoni because they’ve reached the Western Conference Finals.
How many did D’Antoni lead them to? He took them to 2.
Let’s see what they say when the Suns get swept or lose in 5 to the Lakers.

For the most part you are right Dwane.

However, I will point you to the Detroit Pistons recent championship team and say that team won almost exculsively with defense. Yes Rip and Billups could score when needed, but man that team’s goal was to stop you from scoring and it led to fast breaks and then ran a methodical half court offense. Their goal was not to outscore you.

Stil can’t believe the job they did on that unbelievable Lakers team.

What’s really funny is the fact that D’Antoni has lost 50 games or more in the past 2 seasons….yet he’s still 50 games over 500 for his coaching career.

Funny how people think we shouldn’t have hired this guy.
They would’ve hired Avery Johnson or Mark Jackson lol.

Doubt the Suns get swept. They have always been a tough matchup for the Lakers because of their style of play and the Lakers don’t have the premiter defenders at the PG position to stop Nash. Remember the Suns play a similar up and down style to the Thunder which gave the Lakers fits, plus the Suns have Amare who is playing out of his mind. The Suns are also more of a veteran team who won’t fold under pressure like Utah and OKL did at the end of games.

I think the Lakers win in a very tough six games if Bynum and Kobe are healthy. If they aren’t, I would not be surprised at all if the Suns win in six.

lol @ that starting 5… such a dream but the funny thing is it’s ‘possible’.

I think alot of other teams find value in players that you may not project as a major contributor.. but given with Walker aNd Barron did at the end of the season, don’t sleep on them.

Yes, folks of Theknicksblog.com and frequent commentors.. I will be the constant supporter of what “Sky” and “The Squirrel” can do… simply because I watch a lot of basketball and they do the things that role players on playoff teams get praised for. I def believe those guys as the bench (along with TD/S-Rod, etc) will give the depth we need. Just need to sign a big ole shot blockin’ type bruiser and we good money!

he may have had that option.. Via a sign and trade using the expiring JJ contracts, Hill and the first rounders — Just like Houston is now thinking about using OUR picks and Hill to lure Bosh to Houston via sign and trade…

not sure where the 28 million available AFTER lebron signs for 16.8 comes from..

but i do agree with the premise of your post that we are better positioned than the Cavs and look better given their current circumstances.

But Donnie needs to close the deal.

The Lakers absolutely destroy the Suns whenever they play them.
The Lakers are to deep and to BIG for the Suns to give any type of challenge. Just go back and look at the results of the games they have played each other since the Lakers acquired Gasol. It’s not even close.
Jason Richardson is a non factor against the Lakers because he’s worrying about guarding Kobe. He averages 8 points per game against the Lakers.
The Suns are good but they are not better than the D’Antoni teams IMO.

We’ll see what happens…should be interesting.

well danni boy coaching credibility has took some hard hits over the past two years.the roster wasn’t good but danni boy just didn’t care the knicks could if hired any1 the past to seasons instead they thought danni boy would attract free agents=lmao
mayb b4 these past 2 season but as of rite now he isn’t going to attract jack shit with how bad he has coach…

July 1, 2010 is going to beginning of a new era in Knick history. Everyone in the organization top to bottom has a clean slate, it should be a really fun summer.

Hopefully, If we get LeBron there will be no more talk of D’antoni or Lee’s lack of D, Gallo’s back, Will lack of IQ or TD lack of PG skills. Winning cures everything.

he hasn’t done anything the past two seasons but collect a check
he has been top 5 worse coaches in the league the past 2 seasons in the league they could of hired any1 to lose..lmao..

That is a good point. It is not as if D’Antoni had some special leverage out in Phoenix. He played the same game and in the same league. He simply had better players and players willing to buy into his system.

He has done an awful job over the last two years, but he was the right man for the job at the time he was hired.

agree wit you

if the suns play like they played the spurs the lakers got a tough series coming an if lopez can give them some minutes in the middle that will only make them tougher..

D’Antoni responding to Amar’e no D comment

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/66505/20100511/dantoni_playoff_runs_of_magic_suns_validate_my_system/

So if you are connecting the dots at home; Amar’e is not on NY’s radar screen this summer and visa versa.

suns have no chance. lakers are winning this in 4, 5 if the suns are lucky.

yessir!

Some one want to break it to Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard that they are playing “Mike D’Antoni’s style” of defense?

Wait Wait Wait…..did I just read some place where Lebron in his post game interview said “I spoil a lot of people with my play” ?

I’m not a professional translator but I would take that to mean he thinks his team don’t got it.

Agreed. He was hired with 2010 in mind so we need to give him the opportunity to coach in 2010. While the last two years have been miserable and his coaching has not been that good, he deserves 2010.

that article is amazing i couldn’t believe it.
i don’t see orlando running anything like his system but shooting alot of 3′s..

I think he’s talking about the run-and-gun, P&R spread offense the magic run. When you have the right players, it’s basketball at its best.
About defense — it’s very easy to coach D when you got Howard.

“Cleveland’s supporting cast members aren’t good enough to create plays on their own without LeBron first creating an advantage for them — everybody knows this. But too often Tuesday night, a play ended with somebody like Anthony Parker or Delonte West trying to score one-on-one against a set defense.”

That was from John Hollinger of ESPN:

My question to Knicks fans. Is that something you could say about the players we have? Would Wilson Chandler have an issue creating on his own? Nope, in fact hes Lebron James light attacking the basket. Would Gallo have a problem creating for himself? Not a chance, and he would be the best shooter Lebron ever played with. I know this has been pounded to death, but the Knicks have better players than the Cavs and the ability to get even better.

lmao
so i guess casper was coaching…..
i bet danni boy wouldn’t even win the big wun in rucker park he will fall short.lol.

Yeah but with this roster, not much he could have done. Nobody wanted to be there because they knew they were only roster spots taking up space.

The notion that Mike D’Antoni doesn’t emphasize defense is naive in my opinion. The fact that the young players (Danilo Gallinari, Toney Douglas, Wilson Chandler) – who are more impressionable – played defense shows that Mike D’Antoni does care about defense. But he desperately needs a defensive expert a la Thibodeau and he needs to put MORE emphasis on D. He doesn’t hold every player accountable for defense, and his reluctance to play two big men at the same time is ridiculous! Mike D’Antoni has to make some adjustments.

“…Young or not that many minutes leads to injuries and fatigue around 3/4 of the season and on…”

completely baseless statement with no factual credence whatsoever.

how can anyone defend that silly statement by the “Coach”

Orlando’s success reaffirming his blueprint on how to play..

does anyone really believe the reason the magic are where they are is because they run and gun and pick and roll?

they are where they are because of Dwight Howards presence in the middle, Jameer nelson orchestrating and a few good defensive wings.

Well I think Mike Brown AND LeBron James have done a very poor job from this perspective. Mike Brown’s 1-on-5 strategy is not only weak from a pure basketball standpoint, but the other players can’t play through their mistakes and learn to create their own offense. The only guy who’s capable of creating for himself is Shaquille O’Neal who’s 38 years old.

And LeBron James needs to change the way he approaches the game. The Cavaliers are clearly LeBron’s 12 apostles and they were clearly not focused enough during the 2009 playoffs. He doesn’t really lead by example. I think he needs to take the game more seriously.

“…Young or not that many minutes leads to injuries and fatigue around 3/4 of the season and on…”

“completely baseless statement with no factual credence whatsoever.”

If that wasn’t the case, then why don’t teams just play all there starters 48 minutes a night? Why do teams value bench so much?

then most of the Suns who played for him and made public comments and the knicks players who laughed at the thought of a defensive emphasis are naive.

I disagree, Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis have never been good defenders. But it shows that you can build a strong defensive system even if you have weak defenders and I think Mike D’Antoni needs to make some adjustments and hire a defensive assistant.

SVG’s success shows that you can run D’Antoni’s system AND play great defense. Mike D’Antoni just doesn’t know how to coach great defense. But SVG’s offense looks a lot like the 05-08 Phoenix Suns.

+1

Listen Gallinari wants to play defense, Wilson Chandler wants to play defense, Toney Douglas wants to play defense. Only self-centered and hypocritical players like David Lee, Tracy McGrady and Al Harrington didn’t want to do it. We don’t even know who Isola’s source is – maybe it’s David Lee LMAO!!! Come on Biggie.

I’m not a Mike D’Antoni fan because he doesn’t put enough emphasis on defense. But to say that Mike D’Antoni’s allergic to defense is… naive in my opinion.

D’Antoni’s ego is out of this world.

The Magic actually get their 3′s via inside-out basketball, not running and jacking them up. And Mike neglected to mention one detail regarding the Magic – they were the TOP team in the league in opp. FG %.

i dont think we can draw a direct lineage between the “mike D’Antoni system” and what the Magic run.

Do the magic use pick and rolls and employ three point shooters? yes.. so does every team in the league to some extent.

I think SVG is getting effort from Lewis on the defensive end. Vinsanity is another story.. but was referring to Matt barnes as the wing defender…

Also, Van Gundy’s 10/11 man rotation gives him the ability to play at a higher pace (occasionally) and have his players fresh for the fourth quarter and to play defense.

I could argue that if SVG went 7.5 deep like MD there would be no way to maintain the defensive intensity for 48 minutes

BUT YOU CAN’T TEACH EFFORT…..defense is about giving 110% effort on every play, on every loose ball etc….no1 besides raja bell and prb matt barnes on phx showed any type of effort…and besides chandler, douglas, and gallo, noooo1 on these knicks gave any kind of effort on defense….

it’s also communication, look how kg communicates to his teammates on defense…he’s allllways talking, and getting ppl in the right positions…we don’t have that, neither did mike in phx…..

w/ a leader like lebron, and ppl like gallo and td, the knicks will be a much much better defensive team next yr….

Tommy–

you said yourself in the Versus TV video that Nash is fresher and playing better in teh playoffs because Gentry was able to moderate his minutes with a longer bench in the regular season..

Lol. Ok Tommy.

Are you claiming that short rotations of 6-7 players for 82 games and extended minutes do not lead to injury/fatigue? Do you want me to link articles which discuss the pro/cons of a short rotation?

To me your retort was baseless.

Pietrus is damn good wing defender as well.

Yup. That’s what I’ve been saying.. with the infusion of 2 more players who have solid defense we can have a good defensive squad. A shot blocker would be really nice, but sometimes the best defense IS a good offense (word to the mid 2000′s indianaplis colts).

I know football is a different sport, but still!!

I was talking about the injuries.

And Big I didn’t credit Gentry for giving nash less minutes, he’s playing less bc they have dragic who is better than Marcus Banks.

And i take that back. Nash played the same amount of minutes as he did in 2006…near 2700.

look it up.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/PHO/2010.html

Obviously their success is tied to Howard’s presence. But we’re talking about the broader scope. SVG approaches offense the same way Dantoni does.

One of the few teams that don’t do isos and 1on1 play. Orlando’s strength is that they don’t need Howard or Carter to score 25 to win. Passing/finding the open guy is what Dantoni stresses.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/g62173j6731143r2/

Fatigue-Related Injuries in Athletes

and i think for a shot blocker the knicks need to do everything they can to swap heavy curry for tyson chandler….LB lov’d curry in ny and made him the focal point of the offense, and tyson played dwight reallly well in that series, even tho LB kept putting nazr and ratliff on him instead of ty……

so i think LB would certainly sign off on that trade…..

and lastly Tyson would be a perfect fit, and the weakside defender/shot blocker we need….not to mention how well he use to run the pick and roll w/ cp3 in NO….might make it intriguing for paul to come to ny next yr as well……

SVG’s one of my favorite coaches in the NBA. Mike D’Antoni isn’t. So I can agree with you (btw I’m not a fan of MD’s short rotations either).

I’m just saying that Orlando’s offense looks a lot like the old Suns offense. The only difference is really Steve Nash who plays with the ball in his hands – the Magic’s success is based on ball movement. But both teams put emphasis on the pick-and-roll with a dominant big man and 3-point shooting. . “so does every team in the league to some extent”? To some extent? Come on Big, of course every team is going to run the pick-and-roll and hit a couple of 3′s at some point – but the Magic and the Suns relied on these aspects of the game a lot more than any other team.

i did.. 5 less games back then

do you take it back that Nash is playing less minutes this year?

he was 35 plus a night in 06/07
this year he was under 33 on average..

I’m not so sure.

The Suns are deeper and if Richardson plays well I think the Suns have a chance.

I doubt Gortat and Anderson get much if any PT in real games. You’ll see more of an 8 man rotation in the next round. And closer to 7 since Reddick’s minutes go up and down depending on the game.

But both teams put emphasis on the pick-and-roll with a dominant big man and 3-point shooting.

who was the dominant big man in PHX (or NY)?

Amar’e played center and he doesnt play a style similar to D12. And we can not ignore the defensive effort that SVG demands.. as part of HIS success running HIS brand of ball..

i get that they shoot three’s a lot.. but that does not in any way translate to saying that the Magic’s success vindicates D’Antoni’s style of play..

in my opinion.

If you say it does more power to ya.

But for D’Antoni to even hint it is the height of arrogance.

go ask SVG is his success vindicates D’Antoni’s style of play..

I bet he’d laugh out loud.

D’Antoni’s style of play is defined more by short rotations (he has supported this many many times in the press) and a lack of defensive focus (by his current and past players) ..

His 7SOL offensive philosophy is to score more than the opponent..and get a good shot in SEVEN SECONDS OR LESS.

I doubt this is the basis for SVG’s philosophy.

Every team that runs a little (with a quality point guard) and shoots some threes is NOT emulating D’Antoni’s style of play..

+ 1 Jeff C..Thank you..Good Post…

VC and Lewis average 30 minutes a game..

barnes gets 25 or so..

Pietrus/Reddick get 23 off the bench.. J Will gets 21
and Gortat and Anderson average 14 in teh regular season

that’s ten.. Of course i was referring more to the REGULAR season rotation that the playoff rotation when everyone tightens it up..

We all remember this coach going with 6 or 7 (plus another getting 4) in December and January.. He did the same with the Suns when he was there and openly admits to preferring to play a “tight” rotation..

Short rotations and defense = off-topic Biggie… no offense. We’re talking about OFFENSE.

OFFENSIVELY Mike D’Antoni’s philosophy and SVG’s philosophy are very similar.

The Magic don’t just “run a little” and “shoot some three’s” like every other team… They shoot a HUGE amount of 3 pointers – like the Suns under D’Antoni – and they run the pick-and-roll on a consistent basis – like the Suns under D’Antoni. And they both have/had a dominant big man surrounded with shooters.

Do the D’Antoni haters around here take any stock in the fact that the beloved Knick Nate Robinson, only gets off the bench in Boston in blowouts?

The most succesful former Knic, Jamal Crawford, is the 6th man on a team that just got massacred by the Orlando Magic?

How’s Marbury doing?

This roster he’s had to work with has been awwwwwwwwwwwwful.

Walsh said from day 1 that the plan was to win championships, and the only way to win championships is with STARS, and the easiest way to get said star(s) is to gut the roster and give it a shot in 2010 and beyond.

What the hell else do you want?

You just don’t want to understand what I’m trying to say lol!

SVG’s style of play is different because he puts more emphasis on defense than Mike D’Antoni and he likes to play with large rotations. Two reasons why I believe that SVG’s a better coach!

But offensively they are very similar. And Amare Stoudemire was DOMINANT offensively back in the days man. Mike D’Antoni didn’t hold him accountable for his defense but he was one of the most dominant players in the NBA on the offensive end.

Mike D’Antoni’s system can be conductive to winning OFFENSIVELY – SVG runs the same type of offense and wins. But you need to play great defense to win a championship and SVG’s a better coach defensively than Mike D’Antoni who desperately needs a defensive assistant – here’s the difference!

A team that plays hard on both ends of the floor, regardless of their talent-level.

this answer is such a BS cop-out.

the young kids played hard.

the veterans, who for the most part stunk and were brought here by Isiah Thomas, and who knew full well that in all likelyhood they wouldn’t be here after July 1, 2010… didn’t.

i don’t care if you had pat riley, phil jackson, dean smith or james nasmith… those guys weren’t going to get after it.

doc rivers and tom thibedou are now defensive “geniuses.” how good was the celtics defense before KG showed up?

you need the horses. the knicks haven’t had the horses since the 90′s.

is steve nash playing any harder on defense now than he was with d’antoni? no… he’s playing just as hard as he was then. he’s just not that good a defensive player.

the quote from D’Antoni is the topic..

He thinks his style of play is vindicated because the Magic have had success in the playoffs..

I say poppy cock.. and it sounds like you agree.

i getcha..
Amar’e was dominant but a very different style of player than Dwigth Howard.

I wouldnt call Amar’e style classic “big man” play..

D’Antoni’s system can be conducive to scoring a lot of points… not necessarily winning.. though he has won games in the regular season.

I dont see the Magic hoisting up the first shot that presents itself… as is a hall mark of the 7SOL.

Point taken.

But at the beginning of the season, Mike D certainly could have played the young kids, who actually do play hard on both ends of the floor (Douglas at PG, Hill at C), instead of forcing us to watch the Duhon debacle and our EZ Pass interior defense. The “vets” who stunk were namely Duhon, Hughes, and Harrington – not Isiah pick-ups.

Do you think Amare’s playing better D than ever? I do. He’s always been an occasional shot-blocker, but I’ve never seen the guy taking charges before this season.

and what if we dont improve moderately?what if this jackass drives the car off the cliff?you guys seem to think that next year,we will automaticly be in the playoffs.nobody gives you the playoffs,it takes good players and a good combination of players.On paper,the WIZARDS looked as if they were a playoff team.On paper a lot of teams in the NBA look as if they would make the playoffs every year ,but they dont.Last year the LAKERS won the ring,the year before the Celtics won.ON paper we have to have a team that looks better than GASOL,BRYANT,ARTEST,and BYNUM or ALLEN,PIERCE,and GARNETT and RONDO.Its not easy to even come close to that.The CAVS cant win,and they have the BEST player in the league

I think his system can be conductive to winning offensively – and Orlando’s success shows why. I think MDA’s right to a certain extent – but SVG’s a great coach both offensively AND DEFENSIVELY and that’s the difference.

MDA’s offense can win a championship. MDA’s defense can’t – and I think the biggest difference between MDA and SVG is the way they approach the game defensively.

That’s a great point – I think the Magic are more patient with the ball. It’s all about finding the open man – I can live with MDA’s approach if 7SOL’s a good way to find the open man. We’ll see what happens in 2010-2011, it will be a very interesting season. Believe me, I won’t hesitate to jump on the Fire MDA bandwagon (I’m not saying that you did) if the Knicks can’t win as much as they should next season.

that’s fair but yet to be proven..

in my opinion a “system” or “the way he wants to play” or D’Antoni’s “blueprint:”

(All words used in his direct quote below)

means more than pick and rolls and run and gun.. it means his PHILOSOPHY at it’s core. And that includes all the garbage that I’ve been railing on here for the past two years..

My point.. end of day.. is that NO WAY can you look at the Magic’s success and say D’Antoni can be successful because the Magic have had success.

Direct Quote:

What I’m really happy about is you see the way Orlando and Phoenix play, they’re arguably two of the best teams, and that’s how we need to play,” D’Antoni said.

“They’re reaffirming the blueprint that’ll get us to a championship. And that’s what we’ve got to do in New York.”

It’s the same as innings pitched. total NBA minutes on the body, to me, seems like the most significant number.

If a guy throws 225 innings in 33 starts or 35 starts who cares.

but wait, pitchers who throw that many innings are glorified and managers who put them on pitch counts are vilified.

I do think that D’antoni tries to preach defense and have a defensive scheme. But he’s more focused on offense and here’s where that really comes into play: He will totally yank a player off the floor if they do something dumb or ill-advised on offense. But he doesn’t do the same thing when a guy has a defensive lapse. He just doesn’t take it as seriously. That’s not to say he’s not a good coach. I think a guy like Jeff Van Gundy, even Riley tried too much to micromanage what their team was doing on the floor offensively, and it only really works where there’s a strong willed point guard willing to take matters into his own hands (i.e. Magic Johnson).

D’antoni, on the other hand, wants the players to learn to figure it out and make decisions out there. I like that approach. On the other hand, he has little patience for mistakes. That’s unfortunate. We’ll see. It will take the right players, but D’antoni does get matchups in the sense that he understands you have to create something the other team can’t defend. And I think he is capable of thinking that way on defense too (the ‘switch on every pick with Jeffries quarterbacking’ plan), but in the end he’s just not as into defense.

Im struggling to remember ONE instance where the “Coach” yanked a player off the floor for an offensive lapse…

so if you run a 20 mile marathon in 5 hours its the same as running 5 miles a day for 4 days?

im not sure that anything in baseball translates to basketball.

YIKES! It amazing that some keep trying to make the case for LBJ coming here but fail to realize the following:

1. LBJ already has enough money to spend in several lifetimes so why would he come to NY without getting the job done in Cleveland with better talent?

2. LBJ should be about rings and building his legacy in comparison to the Kobe, MJ, Bird Magic and etc. Superstars like MJ, Bird, Magic, Kobe, Wade, Duncan and many others stayed with their team to help win a ring.

Yes Shaq didn’t get it done in Orlando (lol due to Nick Anderson making fun of MJ and not hitting those free throws and etc) However, Shaq left to play with a upcoming star in Kobe and won rings. Shaq even left LA to find a another upcoming star in Wade to win a ring.

So I ask ya, Who in the he-l-l is LBJ coming to play with in NY to win a ring? Imagine what LBJ’s legacy would be and the pressure he would have leaving his initial team to come to NY to win a ring with no PT, Shooting guard, center, good coach or star to play with. That would seal LBJ as not being o n par with the players I listed above.

LBJ is getting up in years and he doesn’t have a ring so there can be no comparison on greatest with the Kobe, MJ, Bird and etc. I’m sure LBJ knows this all to well.

Surely Duncan, MJ, Bird, Magic, kobe and etc never left their teams to pursue a ring that they couldn’t win one at all where they were. This tells ya who the real leaders are and who are accessories!

That’s totally b.s and even the PHX players have admitted it. It is always a challenge for ANY coach to get their teams to be on the same page and play good defense.

You obviously are not watching the game sin the playoffs with the Suns! Anyone with a brain can see the Suns are playing better defense and at least trying to defend.

It’s amazing that some of ya think players who get to this high level CAN”T play good team defense even when the NBA allows a form of zone now. YIKES! Most of these players played zones in college.

The Suns sweep the Spurs period. Get over it. We have a dumba-s-s coach that has a philosophy that can’t win a ring. Futhermore, our coach isn’t the best offensive mind anyway. Don Nelson is much better offense guru and he can’t win a ring using that philosophy.

When your teams don’t play defense, what do you call it?

A Strategic preference?

focus on college hoops and leave the grown men/flawed real life incentive to the NBA fans.

Biggie can’t you admit D’Antoni is the bull and you are a red cape? Nate Robinson got yanked dozens of times. Why do you think he was benched for a month? Get over it, D’Ant is the NYKnicks coach, he has won over 60+ games in more than one season, he has been to the conference finals as many times as any coach coaching that has not won it all…he is not a hypothetical coach with a hypothetical record (Thibodeau, Jackson, etc). He has never played with a take over the game superstar two way player like Magic, Jordan, Bird, Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, Garnett, but he is one of the best coaches on the planet that has never won it all. Give the criticism a rest. You pine for things that don’t exist, never happened, or are shots in the dark.

“Hold it down on Friday HaS. I can’t wait man, should be a true old school WWE interview!!”

Thanks man. Nah no WWE lol I don’t think me and Tommy are cool unless he’s trying to get the drop on me! Haha!