His teams continually, come out unprepared for games which results in 1st half holes that we need to dig ourselves out of. But thats not MDA's fault either because the layers are supposed to motivate themselves eventhough this has been a problem whihc each of the three sets of teams he's had since being here.

Lastly, MDA is losing a grip on his last crutch. MDA is supposed to be an offensive guru, yet, his team can longer score in the 4th quarter. But agian, its not the job a coach to adjust to the players he has, the players are supposed to adjust to him. So teflon MDA escapes again.

So to sum it all up, we play no defense (we are the get well hallmark card for all sick offensive teams, see Mil, Charl etc), we come out unprepared seemingly for every game, The players dont seem to be buying in and our offense spurters in the crucial 4th quater. Much better coaches than MDA have lost their jobs for only 1 of the above mentioned evils. So again, why should he keep his job beyond this season?

Uptown wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:He canceled another practice so I am not sure how he is going to get his team back. I think there is alot more wrong with this team than being tired. By this time of the season all teams are banged up and tired but I can't think of any coach on a 6 game losing streak that would cancel three practices in a row.

Canceling these practices seem to tie into not being prepared to play. When you have so many new parts to integrate, you need take advantage of the little bit of practice time you get this time of year. I dont get it.

CrushAlot wrote:I think there is alot more wrong with this team than being tired.

Agreed.

There have been comments from Amare and Billups that indicate there is much internal strife on the team.

No doubt they are lacking in talent, but they had enough talent to win 7 games, some against good teams. It's not dearth of talent alone that has us in free fall.

but how does that explain his winning before the trade deadline?

you guys make no sense.

this is the cycle, the nightmare cycle. blame a coach fire a coach trade for video game players, fire a coach. nightmare.

CrushAlot wrote:

orangeblobman wrote:so the argument is that mda is a bad coach because he can't win with melo and amar'e, two "superstars".

but how does that explain his winning before the trade deadline?

you guys make no sense.

this is the cycle, the nightmare cycle. blame a coach fire a coach trade for video game players, fire a coach. nightmare.

He has lost 141 games here in less than three full seasons. He has coached this current group for only a month. The losing has been happening for a long time. I think D'Antoni has been the luckiest head coach in the league. He had two years of making mistakes, creating drama and not doing alot that 'didn't count'. Now his ways are being brought to the forefront and it is obvious that he is a rigid coach that doesn't want to change or work that hard in my opinion.

Lets fire him... We need some hope to win now.
No hope with ... His system is too complicated to work after 3 weeks. We need something simple. We need Isiah back...

arkrud wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

orangeblobman wrote:so the argument is that mda is a bad coach because he can't win with melo and amar'e, two "superstars".

but how does that explain his winning before the trade deadline?

you guys make no sense.

this is the cycle, the nightmare cycle. blame a coach fire a coach trade for video game players, fire a coach. nightmare.

He has lost 141 games here in less than three full seasons. He has coached this current group for only a month. The losing has been happening for a long time. I think D'Antoni has been the luckiest head coach in the league. He had two years of making mistakes, creating drama and not doing alot that 'didn't count'. Now his ways are being brought to the forefront and it is obvious that he is a rigid coach that doesn't want to change or work that hard in my opinion.

Lets fire him... We need some hope to win now.
No hope with ... His system is too complicated to work after 3 weeks. We need something simple. We need Isiah back...

SupremeCommander wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

orangeblobman wrote:so the argument is that mda is a bad coach because he can't win with melo and amar'e, two "superstars".

but how does that explain his winning before the trade deadline?

you guys make no sense.

this is the cycle, the nightmare cycle. blame a coach fire a coach trade for video game players, fire a coach. nightmare.

He has lost 141 games here in less than three full seasons. He has coached this current group for only a month. The losing has been happening for a long time. I think D'Antoni has been the luckiest head coach in the league. He had two years of making mistakes, creating drama and not doing alot that 'didn't count'. Now his ways are being brought to the forefront and it is obvious that he is a rigid coach that doesn't want to change or work that hard in my opinion.

I think he works hard, but only at very specific aspects of the game. Glosses over the rest. But that almost seems like I'm nitpicking with the rhetoric, because I agree with your overall premise.

Not to mention, I would hardly call 23-21 "winning" basketball. A .523 winning percentage would have the Knicks on the outside looking in if they were in the Western Conference. And while this has been some truly terrible basketball, the pre-trade Knicks were capable of losing streaks too.

The pre-trade Knicks had only won 6 of their last 19 I believe. Not to mention losses at home to the Clips, Kings, Suns and were down by 30 to the Mavs.

martin wrote:

Uptown wrote:MDA excuses need to stop. This team has been horrendous on the defensive end since he's been here. But people will tell you its not his fault because he doesn't have a big man to plug up the middle. Well, where is the big man holding down the middle in Miami, one of the top 3 defensive teams in the league? Another excuse is that he only has offensive players. Well, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, too prolific offensive players, are intrical parts of the best defensive system in the league over the last 3 years. But again, our problmes on defensive have nothing to do with the coach, but everything to do with the players.

His teams continually, come out unprepared for games which results in 1st half holes that we need to dig ourselves out of. But thats not MDA's fault either because the layers are supposed to motivate themselves eventhough this has been a problem whihc each of the three sets of teams he's had since being here.

Lastly, MDA is losing a grip on his last crutch. MDA is supposed to be an offensive guru, yet, his team can longer score in the 4th quarter. But agian, its not the job a coach to adjust to the players he has, the players are supposed to adjust to him. So teflon MDA escapes again.

So to sum it all up, we play no defense (we are the get well hallmark card for all sick offensive teams, see Mil, Charl etc), we come out unprepared seemingly for every game, The players dont seem to be buying in and our offense spurters in the crucial 4th quater. Much better coaches than MDA have lost their jobs for only 1 of the above mentioned evils. So again, why should he keep his job beyond this season?

Boston. Miami.

You just asked why NY can't be as good at defense as Boston and Miami. 2 teams that start 2 all-defense first team'ers. LeBron, Wade. KG, Rondo.

I don't think you can say that the Knicks have a stater that is even near average at defense at his respective position.

I think its all about system and team defense. Like I mentioned in my post, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, two prolific offensive players are intrical pieces to one of the best defensive teams in the league. The same coach that instilled that defensive system, now has his new team (Bulls) playing just as well as the Celts. The fact that we lack a big man or an average defensive player as you say is a poor excuse IMO.

Take a look at the Sixers. They lost their shot blocker in Dalembert, yet with a new coach/system they improve this year by giving up about 6 pts less and the opponents FG% has dropped by about 3-4 % pts.

The point of this thread was not only to point out our defensive short-commings, but the fact that we are struggling all around. Offense is supposed to be his specialty, yet we struggle to score in the 4th Q. We come out unprepared and fall behind every game. It seems as if the players aren't buying in or listening to the coach. So, my question for those who keep making excuses for him, which of the following does he take the blame for? Or is he exempt from all?

CrushAlot wrote:

orangeblobman wrote:so the argument is that mda is a bad coach because he can't win with melo and amar'e, two "superstars".

but how does that explain his winning before the trade deadline?

you guys make no sense.

this is the cycle, the nightmare cycle. blame a coach fire a coach trade for video game players, fire a coach. nightmare.

He has lost 141 games here in less than three full seasons. He has coached this current group for only a month. The losing has been happening for a long time. I think D'Antoni has been the luckiest head coach in the league. He had two years of making mistakes, creating drama and not doing alot that 'didn't count'. Now his ways are being brought to the forefront and it is obvious that he is a rigid coach that doesn't want to change or work that hard in my opinion.

I not totally happy with MDA. But you've captured a big part of the problem:
"He has coached this current group for only a month"

You can't succeed when the personal is changing as often has it has changed here. Going into the season I predicted 40 wins with the team we had and they were ahead of that pace. To me that was acceptable. Then you totally turn over the roster mid-year and guess what you lose all the progress you made. To me that's understandable.

This team was weak defensively not only because of MDA but because it has players who were weak defensively. Now, we've down graded our defense at PG and SF and shortened our bench - not surprising to me we're worse defensively.

Good to hear that Antoni cancelled another practice. Lack of effort in games is really tiring and deserves a day off.