Donnie Walsh is skipping the Big East Tournament to keep a trained eye on the Big Wreck that is his basketball team.

The Knicks' president was expected to accompany the club on its five-game trip with the growing sense within the organization that the entire basketball staff is on high alert. The Knicks (22-41) enter Wednesday's game against the Spurs on pace to lose 50 games for the second straight season. The roster will be overhauled, especially with Walsh having enough salary-cap space to sign two "max" free agents.

Walsh is still deliberating which Knicks to re-sign, including David Lee, and he may also be contemplating changes to the support staff, particularly since the team has struggled defensively.

In typical Walsh fashion, he's downplaying his presence on the trip, saying, "This gives me a chance to be around the team. It's really the last chance this season for me to do this." Still, Walsh's scheduling change comes days after an ugly home loss to the Nets and after he accepted responsibility for the Knicks' wretched season and deflected blame from his head coach, Mike D'Antoni.

From all indications, D'Antoni - under contract for two more years - is not in danger of losing his job. In fact, the front office believes D'Antoni could recruit free agents, even though he failed to get Jason Kidd and Grant Hill to come last summer. However, even with D'Antoni safe, there could be a shakeup on his staff, which includes his brother Dan as well as Herb Williams, Phil Weber and Kenny Atkinson.

Walsh has always given his head coach the freedom to choose his assistants, and D'Antoni may still have veto power. But Walsh could make suggestions, and that is where things could get interesting.

D'Antoni's departure from Phoenix was hastened when Suns GM Steve Kerr told him to focus more on defense while proposing that he hire a defensive coach. D'Antoni resisted, and by the following season, he and the Suns parted ways. If Walsh also asks D'Antoni to consider changes on the bench, does D'Antoni decline or will he feel obligated to go outside his inner circle following two straight losing seasons?

Unfortunately for D'Antoni, his Knicks are not nearly as efficient as his Steve Nash-led Suns teams, and when left to rely on defense they've repeatedly come up small - so much so that Walsh is scouting his own team this week and not college games at the Garden.

Hope this is true but it'll certainly be interesting since D'Antoni was mad when he got that suggestion from Kerr. One thing is for sure: Knicks should fire Herb Williams. This guy is completely useless and I'm not sure why he has a job. Can we hire some capable assistants, please? Sometimes it doesn't even look like any of these guys do anything. Fire D'Antoni's brother too. Had enough of Mike just hiring his lackeys and them doing nothing. Oh and bring in a new scouting staff + athletic trainers.

MDA needs to get a top-end defensive coach and then Walsh needs to go get a defensive center and a backup PF that can play defense. Only Gallo, Chandler, and Douglas are sufficiently competent at defense on this team.

franco12 wrote:if Dolan were smart, he'd have Walsh bring Ewing - that way, when MDA gets sacked, he can have a coach in place that will preach defense first.

very good point. and then you get to give patrick a head coach try-out without having to invest untold millions to do it.

Marv wrote:

franco12 wrote:if Dolan were smart, he'd have Walsh bring Ewing - that way, when MDA gets sacked, he can have a coach in place that will preach defense first.

very good point. and then you get to give patrick a head coach try-out without having to invest untold millions to do it.

EWING..what would give you the impression Ewing would be a better coach then say....Walt, or Mark jckson..I honestly see EWING being a career ast coach.

knicks1248 wrote:

Marv wrote:

franco12 wrote:if Dolan were smart, he'd have Walsh bring Ewing - that way, when MDA gets sacked, he can have a coach in place that will preach defense first.

very good point. and then you get to give patrick a head coach try-out without having to invest untold millions to do it.

EWING..what would give you the impression Ewing would be a better coach then say....Walt, or Mark jckson..I honestly see EWING being a career ast coach.

he's put 6 years into being an assistant coach, versus walt or jax who have put in zero. he's certainly had success with his assignments, developing yao and howard.

skeng wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Bye Bye D'Antoni?

This could be an interesting summer. I'm sure if we released him some team would pick him up.

I don't think Mike D is gone this summer. That wouldn't make sense. I also think Mike D doesn't have the same leverage as he did in Phoenix - his team are severely struggling right now, shytty roster or not. I think Mike D with a defensive assistant is very plausible at the moment.

D'Antoni has a big ego and he already stated he feels his defense is fine. The man doesnt even play the guys Walsh acquires so what leads you to believe he will listen to a defensive assistant coach that is not of his choosing?

Herb Williams.

skeng wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:

skeng wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Bye Bye D'Antoni?

This could be an interesting summer. I'm sure if we released him some team would pick him up.

I don't think Mike D is gone this summer. That wouldn't make sense. I also think Mike D doesn't have the same leverage as he did in Phoenix - his team are severely struggling right now, shytty roster or not. I think Mike D with a defensive assistant is very plausible at the moment.

D'Antoni has a big ego and he already stated he feels his defense is fine. The man doesnt even play the guys Walsh acquires so what leads you to believe he will listen to a defensive assistant coach that is not of his choosing?

I didn't claim he would listen to the guy, just that it is plausible that an assistant of Walsh's choosing could be a reality..

Watching the Hawks game you saw a knick team defending and even tho they lacked any real size inside you saw effort and team D. I can understand why MDA would take offense to someone trying to force a defensive coach on him. He's a prideful man and no one wants to be basically embarrassed like that. Not when you think you can handle it. It's never a bad idea to add a helpful assistant to your staff but maybe Kerr just rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe the Shaq situation had something to do with it too. Kerr was trying to completely change the style of play. Funny that they abandoned that plan and have gone back to the MDA approach.

Anyway we don't need some guru. We need better players and better balance on the roster. You get a group of guys that are all good man defenders at their position and you'll see a better defensive team. We only have a couple of guys that can stay with their man and that forces us to play a switching defense that gets killed. The last game I saw more effort and help from the knicks. The help came fast and hard whenever a Hawk put the ball on the floor.

of course, I thought Herb played defense back in the day.