Next year won't change a bit if we can't add top tier talent. Why would we lay blame on MDA if the talent doesn't improve appreciably? It's not a well balanced team now and only if we can get more balance will there be a chance for success. MDA is not our problem!!! The challenge isn't to see how great of a coach MDA is at making a bad team better, it's to put a team together that any good coach could win with. He'll get a lot out of that kind of team much like Phil Jackson does with good teams. Some coaches are best suited to that than others. Mike Brown IMO doesn't make a good team even better in that same way. He is criticized for actually holding his team back and not being up to the task. If we get a team good enough to win, I doubt that MDA will be as overwhelmed. IF not for the Beaten up Nash and subsequent suspensions, MDA might have gone to the finals.

Mike knew all along that it was going to be a rough first two years. So did Donnie. I think Donnie is a 4 year contract with a 5th year option.

I bet they as professionals view 2010-2011 as their first "real" year in power.

SupremeCommander wrote:PCP

I see MDA as more of a wino than a crackhead if things go south for him. Maybe prescription med abuse?

Cosmic wrote:Isn't his contract for only 3 years? Maybe a 4th year option? He'll finish out the year and depending on what Donnie could do with Jeffries and Curry expirings or with the 2011 draft and free agency then he'll decide to stay or bolt.

Mike knew all along that it was going to be a rough first two years. So did Donnie. I think Donnie is a 4 year contract with a 5th year option.

I bet they as professionals view 2010-2011 as their first "real" year in power.

+1 to that. MDA and DW are professionals and they came into this with eyes wide open. They have a chance to do something really special here, but it's contingent on acquisitions and there are no guarantees there. But if gut feelings ever have any validity, mine are feeling really good about landing Lebron and startingthe run we have all dreamed about since the decline of the Ewing era. Een if we don't get a chip, I would be super psyched to revel in amazing hoops for the next ten years (a la the Ewing era). That was some of the most exciting sports viewing in my life (not quite Giants in 2007 or Yankees in 1996, but damn close).

BRIGGS wrote:

Cosmic wrote:Isn't his contract for only 3 years? Maybe a 4th year option? He'll finish out the year and depending on what Donnie could do with Jeffries and Curry expirings or with the 2011 draft and free agency then he'll decide to stay or bolt.

Mike knew all along that it was going to be a rough first two years. So did Donnie. I think Donnie is a 4 year contract with a 5th year option.

I bet they as professionals view 2010-2011 as their first "real" year in power.

I think that as a team we had enough talent to seriously vie for a lower playoff seed and too much sloppy play and a defense that has slacked off has been a major cause of the problem. We could've had a coach who played Hill and Douglas for 2.5mm a year and create the same record.

MDA did what he did to try and salvage a lost season. Who expected so many key guys to come out slumping so badly? Almost everyone was performing well below their career avg's. So he changed things up and the team played better. I believe MDA did the right thing trying to win games. If Duhon somehow got his game turned around this team may have stayed in the race cuz even with the minor injuries the team has lost some close games.

When we get better talent you guys are gonna be glad we have a coach like MDA. He may not be a JVG type but he's great with decent to very good talent. Even now if you gave him a good PG he'd have this team in the playoffs. It's really not about the coach. It's about the players and we have too many holes, especially at the key spot, PG.

TMS wrote:

nixluva wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:

Cosmic wrote:Isn't his contract for only 3 years? Maybe a 4th year option? He'll finish out the year and depending on what Donnie could do with Jeffries and Curry expirings or with the 2011 draft and free agency then he'll decide to stay or bolt.

Mike knew all along that it was going to be a rough first two years. So did Donnie. I think Donnie is a 4 year contract with a 5th year option.

I bet they as professionals view 2010-2011 as their first "real" year in power.

I think that as a team we had enough talent to seriously vie for a lower playoff seed and too much sloppy play and a defense that has slacked off has been a major cause of the problem. We could've had a coach who played Hill and Douglas for 2.5mm a year and create the same record.

MDA did what he did to try and salvage a lost season. Who expected so many key guys to come out slumping so badly? Almost everyone was performing well below their career avg's. So he changed things up and the team played better. I believe MDA did the right thing trying to win games. If Duhon somehow got his game turned around this team may have stayed in the race cuz even with the minor injuries the team has lost some close games.

When we get better talent you guys are gonna be glad we have a coach like MDA. He may not be a JVG type but he's great with decent to very good talent. Even now if you gave him a good PG he'd have this team in the playoffs. It's really not about the coach. It's about the players and we have too many holes, especially at the key spot, PG.

just curious, is MDA absolved completely of any blame for guys coming into the season out of shape & not ready to play? isn't it a coach's job to make sure his guys are prepared in training camp, summer leagues & pre-season to win games once the season begins? u can't reasonably say the 1-9 start had nothing to do with MDA's coaching but when the team goes 9-6 or whatever it is the coach gets accolades... to me, that's hypocritical reasoning.

YOu talking about Eddy this season? Who else?

I don't think any coach is responsable for players being in or out of shape. each team has a trainer and an off season program. If the don't know whats expected they can ask.

These are professonal athletes. Most have personal trainers and know what to do.

Want to blame the coach for this, the record, what ever. But you really thing another coach could have done better?

What about his implimenting JJ as defensive specialist and maybe him being a trade asset instead of bench fodder? Or Gallo after a lost rookie season getting worked into the lineup and now on the Sophmore team and the league leader in 3s? Or Wilsons emergence as a much better player? Or Dlee being on the doorstep of being an allstar?

The pieces don't all fit cuz there are too many holes.

We like the winning if it happens but lets be real, this has never been a playoff team.

Most nites they are in the game and attendance is good. This city finally accepts rebuilding!!!!

They better deliver a different roster this summer though.

Before making his pitch to LeBron James on July 1, Knicks president Donnie Walsh wanted to make the playoffs.

Making the playoffs, which the Knicks haven't reached in six years, might have helped in recruiting James as a free agent this summer.

But Walsh has seen anything but a playoff-quality team in the last few weeks, as the Knicks lost nine of their last 12 games in January to fall into 10th place in the East, 5-1/2 games behind struggling Miami for eighth place.

Walsh was especially troubled by the team's back-to-back losses in Washington and Minnesota last weekend. Those defeats to teams headed to the lottery dropped the Knicks to 18-29 - the first time since early December that they have been 11 games under .500.

"I don't like the way we played, it was a disappointment," Walsh said after practice in Greenburgh Tuesday. "I didn't see the intensity, which you have to have at this point. That has to pick up."

It already might be too late, in terms of recovering for the Knicks' first playoff berth since 2004. Over the final three months, the schedule is brutal, with two games each against Cleveland, Boston and Toronto, and games against Dallas, Denver, San Antonio, Orlando, Atlanta, Utah, Portland, Phoenix, Houston, Oklahoma City, Memphis and Miami. After the Feb.12-15 All-Star break, the Knicks will have 13 home games left, as opposed to 18 on the road.

"I didn't expect this," said Walsh, whose team hosts the Wizards tonight at the Garden. "If we want to compete for a playoff spot, we've got to play with more purpose, more force and more commitment."

While Walsh is talking to other teams about trades, he gave no indication anything is imminent. As for the rotation, Mike D'Antoni is not planning any major shakeups.

"I don't love to do that, because you better know what you're shaking it up to," D'Antoni said. "You could shake it up for the worse. And that doesn't help anything."

The change D'Antoni wants to see is on defense, with his team having allowed an average of 112points while losing five of its last six games.

"We don't have the right energy and the right determination to play," D'Antoni said. "Whether you're playing in the summer time or now, you should play hard and with heart and soul and we're searching for that a little bit."

so let's take a step back & analyze this situation... neither MDA nor Walsh are happy w/the way the team has played this season... but somehow in the minds of some Knicks fans, none of that can be laid at the foot of our head coach? that's complete nonsense... when both your GM & your head coach are saying that the team isn't playing w/the effort they should be playing with, there's a serious problem... & when your team is struggling to find an answer on defense in recent games but your head coach refuses to play 1 of his best defensive players, there's also a problem that needs to be addressed.