Category Archives: Mike D’Antoni
We hit on this a bit yesterday through tweets and recaps, but it’s clear to me that without question Shelden 
Williams needs to start for this team and be in the rotation come playoff time. He’s very good at reading the pick and roll, however if he’s guarding a jump shooting or pick and pop big man he could get into trouble because he often chooses to sag into the paint. But he did give the Knicks a valuable presence yesterday in the middle and, maybe just as important, offensively. He even canned a baseline jump.
Anthony Carter is another player whose must be included in the rotation as well. His experience will be in valuable, but more importantly, he is a good counter to either Toney Douglas or Chauncey Billups, should the team they are matched up against try to go small. I think Billy Walker is also making a strong case as he continues to hit timely three pointers. He’s 6 for his last 13.
Which brings up the ultimate question and why I may be getting ahead of myself. The playoffs are all about matchups. Right now it would appear that the Knicks will be facing either the heat or the Celtics. First, the heat are new at this playoff thing and have had difficulty this season closing down the stretch when the pressure is on. The Celtics have the big 4 and big baby, and also seem to have the Knicks’ number, but they are very thin up front especially sans Shaq and Krstic, who may be out for a little while.
If the Celtics go small, that plays into the Knicks’ hands, but it also will expose the match up of Rondo vs. Billups. That’s where you need Carter or Toney Douglas to guard Rondo and move Billups to guarding Allen. That means he’s going to chasing and getting a workout getting over screen after screen. So the backcourt may not be all that favorable. It just seems to me that the Celtics have holes and still haven’t completely jelled since the Perkins trade and may be vulnerable to a competitive series. But they are the Celtics.
The heat scare me in the sense that they are so good, maybe the best I’ve ever seen, defensively in terms of covering the court sideline to sideline. They are long, strong and athletic and contest every jump shot regardless of ball movement. The Knicks were able to win their last meeting because they didn’t rely on standard D’Antoni ball, they came back with transition baskets and isolations and got timely defensive stops. They heat, however, do have the ability to lock you down defensively and hurt you offensively. I think when you look at offense verses defense, the heat’s defense is the best of all 4 units when you talk Knicks offense/defense vs. heat offense/defense. But that could change if Lebron continues his solid back to the basket post play like he has showed especially last night in Newark. Still, you have to think that the Knicks matchup well and it will come down to bench play.
In the end, the playoffs are about the moment. The Knicks now have players who have lived this and know it. They will be competing against experience and teams that have made big plays in big moments.
It now comes down to will they face the team that has been relying on experience and getting it done together for a long time, or the one that hopes, like themselves, that they come together quickly.
Also, this is where the coach will earn praise or continue to be condemned by doubting fans. He and his staff will earn their keep through adjustments and rotations.
The Knicks have been dreadful in the fourth quarter.
Jeff Van Gundy was saying the other day, in addition to the fact that D’Antoni should still be the coach moving forward, is that the real key to Mike D’Antoni’s offense is putting pressure on the defense before they get set. It’s not about shooting early in the clock, it’s more about getting an open shot before the defense is set to defend it.
But what we’ve been saying here for some time is that the NBA game is about winning possession battles in the 4th quarter. The Knicks continue to try and commit to the “system” but in the end they find themselves unable to attack the defense in transition, then they don’t have chemistry and structured sets to have any rhythm to score.
Carmelo is a post player who forces doubles. He’s an end of the shot clock-type player, and those players close out games.
Chauncey Billups is having a real struggle figuring it all out and when you think things can’t get worse, what if he walked after this year and went back to Denver?
To me, they can be both. They can be a transition team and a grind it out possession team in the 4th quarter. You can’t have Shawne Williams on the floor last night in the fourth if the team isn’t scoring. You simply can’t.
That lack of adjustment on the fly is what is most maddening. You have to watch bad offense for 12 minutes while the game gruelingly slips away.
There is still a lot of time and ability to figure this out.
But they have to put 4 quarters of basketball together.
“The top four seeds are really important, and then you can play fantasy basketball, but you don’t know and you don’t try to get into any position unless somebody goes out with three players, then all of a sudden you say you want to get there because they don’t have three players,” D’Antoni said Sunday. “But if everybody is healthy and playing well, it doesn’t mean much. The biggest thing is just trying to play well and get in the playoffs. If you’re playing well at that point, no matter what, you’ve got to win on the road anyway sometimes.”
I actually agree with this in a sense seeing that they are going to start the post season on the road. You don’t want to drop from 6th to 8th. It may be this attitude that may be decreasing the sense of urgency in the team possibly resulting in games like last night.
You have to be playing your best basketball come playoff time.
I know this. Guys who constantly criticize, analyze and scrutinize, don’t have long shelf lives in one place in the NBA as head coaches. See Larry Brown. Let’s see how much longer Scott Skiles’ message gets across in Milwaukee. Motivational speeches should be saved for the playoffs. You simply can’t give 82 of them. It’s a message and a goal and the Knicks probably are fine with the idea of making the playoffs at this point.
Bu we know low expectations are impossible to manage in New York, and I think the sooner the coach gets that, the better off it will be for him.
I’ve always agreed with the concept of hiring a “defensive coordinator” and that seems the logical next step with a guy like Mike Brown hanging around. But how much cred does Brown have with Amar’e or Melo considering his fallout with Lebron may remain to be seen.
NBA players have to motivate themselves as much as be motivated, and 3 losses to the Cavs and Pacers should be incentive enough.
Mike Salfino may very well have been on the front end the other day in talking about the struggles of Chauncey Billups and Toney Douglas. The duo have only been together for a short control group, but the results haven’t been great. I think it’s a combination of pace, Douglas likes fast, Billups a little slower, and the idea that Billups was out of the lineup for some time. Both played terrible, as did the whole team.
“I don’t know, my leg feels good,” Billups said. “I’m not going to continue to address that. I don’t make excuses. I was good enough to play, so it’s not an issue. I just didn’t shoot the ball well. No excuse.”
Douglas had his worst shooting night of the season, going 1-for-12 from the field, including 1-for-8 on three-pointers. He had three points, five rebounds, three assists and one turnover in 26:41. Douglas had averaged 16.6 points and 6.6 assists in the previous six games.
The Knicks, who have had a very efficient offense since the big trade that brought in Carmelo Anthony and Billups, totaled only 11 assists on 30 made field goals and shot only 36.6 percent from the field.
I think this duo will be fine. Billups needs to get back in the swing. He wasn’t himself last night. To me the issue is instilling this notion that players can’t have success against the Knicks by just playing hard. It’s like the whole league is saying to themselves, “just play hard and we’ll be fine.”
That has to stop immediately.
Chauncey’s the guy with the ball in his hands, and the guy who’s got a ring on his finger,” D’Antoni said. “So Chauncey’s the one who’s going to decide who gets to win the game for us in that situation.”
A combination of pick and roll and traditional half court offense featuring isolation and post ups will be a recipe for success for the Knicks in my opinion. If D’Antoni allows his championship point guard to run the show like he did down the stretch in Miami, the Knicks will be a handful come playoff time. They also have to get the same defensive will from Carmelo and Amar’e, obviously.
Mike D’Antoni knows the pressure is on him to make this work. Which is hopefully why last night he listened to his veteran point guard and allowed him to control the game.
Chauncey Billups admitted in a post game interview that the heat did such a great job in aggressively trapping pick and rolls that he had to basically ditch the idea of getting deep into the defense off the pick in order to make plays. It’s why he isn’t the perfect D’Antoni point guard, but even the coach realized you adjust to your veterans and let them play. That adjustment earned the team a victory.
The result is what I want to continue to see more and more of. This includes posting Carmelo either on the box or face up on the wing and playing off that allowing for dives from Stoudemire. Certainly, the Knicks did have their pick and roll chances, including a clutch runner from Billups to cut the lead to 2 with just under 2 minutes to play. But for the most part in the 4th quarter it was about slow down/isolation half court execution. If the coach continues to let Billups rest by using both Toney Douglas and Anthony Carter, allowing him to be fresh down the stretch, then this will be a VERY difficult team to beat. Should the team add a Jared Jeffries and maybe one more big and learn the value of rebounding and limiting second chances, something they most definitely did following a long film session and preparation, they will have the Garden rocking come Spring time.
By the way, Carter asked into the game, and the coach said “show me you can guard Wade.”
In the wake of the disaster that’s going on between players and coaches in Detroit, D’Antoni was asked his reaction:
“You hope that when you have disagreements with players, they’re professional enough to understand that it’s never personal, it’s never an attack on them, it’s you doing what you think is best as a coach,” D’Antoni said yesterday morning, as the Knicks prepared for a walk-through a few hours before they’d take on the Heat at American Airlines Arena.
“But it’s a terrible thing to happen when the communication breaks down that completely. It’s not a good situation for anybody.”
People have constantly berated D’Antoni’s rotation. I would rather see Brewer play over Balkman. And for two years he was forced to address back-talk from players like Larry Hughes, who shockingly is no longer in the league. You need pros. And you need to be able to manage them. That’s what the NBA is about. If there is a disconnect, you can have a mutiny.
As long as he communicates with his point guard, his leader, he’ll be fine. If he tries to force his system and pick and rolls down a championship point guard’s throat, especially if they are playing a team that aggressively traps it, then there will be problems. Any good coach knows that the PG is his extension. And you have to trust him completely. If there is a disconnect between Billups and the coach that’s when Donnie Walsh may have little choice than to go coach hunting for a more traditional sideline leader.
Raymond Felton loved the system. But he couldn’t make critical jump shots consistently, nor could he expertly recognize when a team was aggressively trapping. If he did, he only had guys standing around the perimeter waiting to shoot. He didn’t have the luxury of throwing the ball to Carmelo on the block.
Like Billups’ shot making ability, Carmelo’s post and Iso skills are a luxury and need to be leveraged.
Defensively, it was only one game, but the Knicks have shown their fans they can be win-at-all-cost defenders. Why would anyone think that Carmelo CAN’T be a great defensive player. He is a STAR and he WANTS TO WIN.
The next step is not just playing like that against the league’s best but bringing that intensity every night. Ewing never took a night off. He knew that if he did it would have ramifications on their seedings. They wanted home court.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Last night, for a ton of reasons, was a step in the right direction.
Maybe two.
Although the staple of Seven Seconds or Less is the pick and roll, its core is rapid ball movement and quick decisions. I don’t have any numbers to back this up but I know from what I’ve seen since the day I started to watch him that Carmelo Anthony is far more comfortable in situations where he is in sets and can take his time and get to his spot on the floor. Now he has to learn how to do both, and it appears that he’s struggling to do so.
In the first quarter, Melo was having a complete offensive game. Towards the end of the half Melo was featured completely on the perimeter and was forced to use his dribble. He could only manage two shot attempts in the quarter and was called for a charged where he forced action off the dribble too far from the basket.
As the game progressed, Melo was rarely featured in that left mid-post area, and was forced out closer to the perimeter, in face up situations, where he either had to use his dribble to get to his spots, and missed, or was forced to catch and shoot off of quick ball movement. Either way it’s difficult to create foul shooting situations that far from the basket. After 5 FTs in the 1st quarter, Melo could only create 4 for the rest of the game. Now, 9 FTA for the game is great, but when you get off for 5 in the first 12 minutes, you’d expect a higher outcome. Obviously, his rhythm was bothered after that quick start.
Conversely, Amar’e missed all of his first quarter shots and had a much better second quarter when Carmelo stepped aside. He was utilizing his mid-range jump shot and making it in the foul line extended area. His strength is diving on pick and rolls (as you can see by the number of floaters he missed in the paint below), but he’s shown a tremendous ability to consistently hit the mid range jump shot.
There has to be more attention to Carmelo on the block and Amar’e at mid post forcing Amar’e's defender to help on Anthony. With Billups’ 3 point catch and shoot ability, he has to be the entry pass maker so if his player helps it’s an easy kick out that can lead into an Amar’e pick and pop as another option.
The game really turned during a critical stretch at the end of the 3rd quarter after Chauncey Billups’ 3 cut the lead to 2 at 77-75 the Knicks got a steal and tried to play a 2-man game with Stoudemire in the post. It was a nice give and go and Anthony appeared to get fouled and missed a short jumper. The Knicks got consecutive stops and Anthony missed another makeable look as did Stoudemire, both in set plays. They were good looks that he normally makes that just didn’t fall. Sure enough, Jamison comes down and hits a 3 then a second opportunity allowed for Alonzo Gee to hit a three to stretch the lead to 8 to close the quarter.
The point is it will take time to combine the two. Right now, to me, Anthony is still trying to find his way, which is no surprise considering he’s new to the offense.
Defensively, as Billups said, has a ways to go. Billups himself got caught going under a pick and roll leading to a critical closing 3 by Daniel Gibson. Carmelo struggled giving up key baskets to Jamison down the stretch and also gave up an unlucky second chance with 1:40 to go down two when Gibson managed to nick the rim on a half court chuck at the end of the clock.
Amar’e, who missed all his first quarter shots while Melo went off for 16 in the first quarter. Even with strong first half play from both, the two still had difficulty meshing. It has been the biggest theme thus far. The Knicks were fortunate to get a solid game from Toney Douglas from the field against the Bucks, but Douglas has struggled with consistency.
No real reason to panic, but not much time to get on the same page either. In all fairness, I do agree with the idea that it took time in Miami.
The Knicks will start their new era tonight with a starting lineup, seemingly, of Billups, Fields, Melo, Stoudemire and Turiaf, a group that I really like. But are they ready to challenge the league’s best right away? No. I watched the Celtics last night and the amazing thing about them is how they get their B players to dominate the league’s subpar teams in stretches. Big Baby Davis was impossible to stop in stretches in the post against the Warriors.
Seriously, he only had 12 points but he was the focal point in the post for stretches during the second half. This allows the Big 3 plus Rondo to rest.
That comes from confidence and team chemistry, something the Knicks will have to quickly build.
“We think we moved the rock ahead a little bit, but let’s don’t get carried away and think now we’re challenging Miami, Boston and all these teams. We’re just not there yet,” said Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, noting the Knicks’ biggest needs are size and shooting to replace the departed Timofey Mozgov, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler.
This is awesome stuff from @starksmissed
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