what do you think of the job he's done this year? Pretty good considering the roster overhauls that have occurred throughout the season.

do you think he established a system? Yes but that seems to have reverted back to 1 on 1 style basketball after Al Harrington & Nate took a more leading role in the offense, which is more of the same we saw when Isiah was coaching this team.

do you think he's developed players? Yes, I believe Wilson Chandler has improved drastically from last season, becoming a lot more confident & more aggressive taking it to the rim... his jumper still needs more consistency but he's taking much better shots in the flow of the offense... Nate & D Lee have also much improved in their offensive games this year & that's not just a result of the system, both players have improved their skills as well.

how much of an impact do you think he's had on the team this season? In terms of their approach I think he's done wonders... the players are much more upbeat, there are no longer any unnecessary distractions off the court, everyone is being professional about accepting their roles whereas last year there'd be players chirping to the papers after a single DNP w/o fail, & everyone is pulling for everyone on the team, there aren't any people sitting in the corner w/a towel over their head & a cloud of negativity to bring other guys down, which is a breath of fresh air.

In terms of quality of play, offensively they look better, playing more team oriented basketball earlier in the season but that seems to have regressed as the season has gone on, not surprisingly coincidental w/the wearing down of Chris Duhon... they still are a horrible defensive team, nothing new there... MDA needs to bring in more defensive minded players, but getting Hughes was a nice start.

did the team overachieve? underacheive? Pretty much met my expectations... I expected a 35 win type season.

with their recent play, does he catch any flack? I'm sure he will from the usual suspects, but not from me... I never expected this team to make the playoffs... we can't expect much improvement until we fix this highly flawed roster no matter who's coaching this team.

on a scale from 1-10 (10 being the best), how would you rank his performance this season? I'd give him a solid 7... lots of room for improvement but overall a better than average job considering the ridiculous situation he walked into after Isiah left, Marbury was still on the roster, Donnie had traded away 2 of his best players in Zach & Jamal early in the season, playing short manned for several games, & not much contribution from their lottery pick all year.

Posted by GKFv2:

Nice time to create this topic.

i should've started it after the 6-3 start.

Posted by GKFv2:

End of the season is more appropriate. Starting one after a 30 point blowout to a terrible team kinda seems like you want to get some overblown reactions.

2 responses w/o overblown reactions. you see, have faith in uk...

Posted by djsunyc:

Posted by GKFv2:

End of the season is more appropriate. Starting one after a 30 point blowout to a terrible team kinda seems like you want to get some overblown reactions.

2 responses w/o overblown reactions. you see, have faith in uk...

just wanna preface my earlier comments by saying i didn't watch tonight's game... & judging from the boxscore i'm damn glad i didn't

I think the biggest thing that D' has done is bring an end to the dysfunction, and unprofessionalism. He is a coach,and he is an authority figure. He has character, class and he is not a sociopath. I don't like his system, or his coaching style but I have enjoyed watching the Knicks this year for the first time in awhile. I also find myself watching more of the game. I like the way things have changed but they were really bad. I like to watch teams that focus on defense like the 90's Knicks and every team that has won a championship over the past 20 years. I will always be waiting for the Knicks to decide that they want to win something significant and replace D' but I don't feel as passoinate about his needing to be replaced as I did about Nelson, Chaney, Herb, and especially Isiah. As a fan my expectations have been lowered. I am happy to have a coach who does not embarass the organization and displays a level of professionalism.

GKF is going Gianna Michaels crazy.

This is year one of a multi-year plan. Necessary lip service aside, nobody (on the coaching staff or GM's staff) ever expected to win anything this year. Any type of good results that happened this year was just gonna be gravy. Going in Walsh and Danto knew they had a **** team, with a losing culture, maybe a few guys who would be salvagable. This year was for A) cleaning up the roster as much as possible to create cap space (nice job by Walsh), and B) seeing who's who on the roster, and what they might be able to contribute on a non-**** team going forward. IOW, who might be a keeper. So just because you and me got excited for a minute because the Knicks won a few games, don't get crazy. This is how it was going to be this year.
Now, to Danto, in my opinion he's been experimenting, trying to accomplish B) above. We know he is not a great end of game coach. He doesn't give a **** about defense. He does help guys enjoy competing and playing hard, which is IMPORTANT. It keeps guys loose and confident, both of which lead to wins. But there are flaws to the approach. HOWEVER, given that the bigger goal is to "figure out" the roster so that a "legit" team might be in place by 2010, the win-loss stats suffer this year. Bla-bla ****ing bla.
Final thoughts: hopefully we have figured out that 15 pts and 12 rebounds on a sucky team doesn't make you a building block. Please turn Mr. Double-double into draft picks and/or a sound defensive presence. Don't talk to me about his offense being anything close to special. Goodbye! Please!
Also, coaches, fouls exist for a reason. Obligate your players to commit at least 4 or 5 fouls by the end of the game, and each foul should prevent a field goal. Also learn about this whole concept of "a foul to give". A sucky team cannot afford not to use every minute advantage it has at its disposal.

To me it's not about what MDA has done or not done this year. It's about What Walsh & MDA do this summer and next. MDA is a very good coach and he's proven that he can win with good talent. We need to add and develop that kind of talent. I mean really. Doc Rivers was being roasted before the Big Boston trades and now after a title no one really talks about him. When a good coach has talent everything is so much easier.

Fire D'Antoni

No sense spending the next 3 years pretending that this system works. How many other good players are we going to pass on so D'Antoni can have "his type of players"? Does anybody want to wake up 3 years from now and realize that the Knicks have to blow up the roster again because it's full of D'Antoni type players?