Posted by CrushAlot:
I think there is an obvious reason why some people are upset. Nothing has changed other than Isiah has a different position in the organization. In hiring D'Antoni the team is taking a different direction than rebuilding. This has been the same direction they have taken for the last 4.5 years. In hiring D'Antoni the team has gotten the big name that doesn't fit with the team again. If you include this with keeping Thomas employed and not changing the media poliocy it is very apparent that Dolan is playing a big role in all basketball decisions being made. Players cannot be taught athleticism, and smarts. Players can be taught defense. The current roster needs a teacher and motivator. They have had a guy already who holds twenty minute practices. I also think by committing to D'Antoni Walsh has put himself in a compromised position in regards to making moves with the roster. There are alot of flawed but talented players on the Knicks who are at their lowest value right now. Some these guys do not fit at all with D'Antoni so Walsh will have to give them away. I also think that Walsh knows how to fix the Knicks the right way but again had his hand forced in hiring D'Antoni. Dolan is the fool of the league. He bailed out Phoenix and helped Chicago by not taking one of the canidates who would have been successful in a rebuild with the Knicks.
Well, I too wanted a rebuilding which included a tear down, and I believe hiring DAntoni largely means that we aren't going that route.
Yet, Walsh has said he will try to improve the team now, he said that before he hired mike, yet Walsh also said he is committed to get the team cap flexibility by June 2010 and would not make a trade that would jepardize that. Nobody really stays true to their word as things evolve but he seemed sincere.
Dolan got up during Walshs intro and said that the media policy would be Walsh's to change - so I don't know why people have said the media policy is still the same. It's going to change. We have a whole summer where Walsh will spend time changing things so I don't think we should rush to judge just a few weeks into this that he hasn't or won't do so.
Dolan also said that Walsh had autonomy. There's no Mills looking over his shoulder. He's free to operate as he please. Like any corporation you do have to run a final decision by your boss so it's natural that Dolan will of course be involved in some way. Isiah had free reign so I don't see why Walsh won't. I'm not worried about Dolan at all. Again, as an owner, it's his choice to tell the incoming hired employees what he wants to see and ask them to do it. So there's not much you can do with that but Dolan did come across as a guy that answered those questions and was willing to change how he operated.
Again, not everything is going to change over night, there's a lot of work to be done and some things are more important than others. It will take time before we see the effects of any changes as well. That's kind of the whole basis of my topic is that there's a huge knee-jerk on both sides of the Knick fan base and I don't understand why when you look at the situation.
There will be no overnight success nor any overnight failure. This won't be the same regime as Layden nor Isiah it will take it's own course. It will take time for us to see what that course will eventually be - ESPECIALLY - given that it's a two-part course.
1. Try to improve in the short term, yet, not jepardize the June 2010 desire to be cap flexible.
2. Eventually be a contending team (which is of course not going to happen until starting with the 2010-2011 season at the earliest).
So...give it time...the elated, the angry, the fence sitters like myself, give it time. You're not going to see anything substantial for quite some time
no matter who was hired and no matter the direction they would have taken the teamA minimum of 18 months....we're just too far locked into Isiah's disaster to see any REAL results - or at the very least a recognizable future plan unfolding - for 18 months.
Which is why I'm just going to sit on the fence and watch for quite some time before trying to hitch a ride on either band wagon that's surfaced in the past few hours.
5/11/2008 10:06 PM
