Posted by Bobby:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

so these big name coaches knew the players and zeke would be a bad fit but took dolan's money anyway

No, those big name coaches were lied to, sabotaged and thrown under the bus by Isiah.

do you think d'antoni is being lied to and will eventually get thrown under the bus if this fails

No, I think D'Antoni's system is going to fail by not coming close to getting us close to being a championship contender, thereby throwing Knicks fan under the bus again. We'll be looking at yet another roster that has to be blown up when it's time to get another coach because D'Antoni's players don't fit most coaches systems, which are typically built from the inside out with an emphasis on defense.

Posted by islesfan:

Great, a head coach whose ego needed to be stroked, in addition to more money than anybody was going to offer him, before he would accept this job.

Gotta love a GM who thinks it's more important to pander to a prospective head coach instead of asking about very legitimate concerns about his coaching style. Sure, stroke his ego and tell him that you'll do everything you can to get "his kind of players". If he needs "his kind of players", then why did they go to such great lengths to say that "D'Antoni can coach any style, especially with defense?

This is just another big name acquisition by the Knicks without regard to how the piece fits. Of course that depends on what the goal is. If the goal is building towards a championship, then it doesn't fit. If the goal is to be a playoff contender, be entertaining enough to pacify some of the apathetic fans and most importantly, to deflect criticism from ownership and management that are still intact, then this was the way to go.

Posted by Uptown:

Posted by islesfan:

Great, a head coach whose ego needed to be stroked, in addition to more money than anybody was going to offer him, before he would accept this job.

Gotta love a GM who thinks it's more important to pander to a prospective head coach instead of asking about very legitimate concerns about his coaching style. Sure, stroke his ego and tell him that you'll do everything you can to get "his kind of players". If he needs "his kind of players", then why did they go to such great lengths to say that "D'Antoni can coach any style, especially with defense?

This is just another big name acquisition by the Knicks without regard to how the piece fits. Of course that depends on what the goal is. If the goal is building towards a championship, then it doesn't fit. If the goal is to be a playoff contender, be entertaining enough to pacify some of the apathetic fans and most importantly, to deflect criticism from ownership and management that are still intact, then this was the way to go.

The only system that has proven to win championships over the last dozen years is the system employed by Phil Jackson, Popovich and Brown. Jackson and Pop weren't available. D'Antoni was the best coach on the market and he got the best out of his players and put them in a position to compete for a championship just about every year he was there.

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

so these big name coaches knew the players and zeke would be a bad fit but took dolan's money anyway

No, those big name coaches were lied to, sabotaged and thrown under the bus by Isiah.

do you think d'antoni is being lied to and will eventually get thrown under the bus if this fails

No, I think D'Antoni's system is going to fail by not coming close to getting us close to being a championship contender, thereby throwing Knicks fan under the bus again. We'll be looking at yet another roster that has to be blown up when it's time to get another coach because D'Antoni's players don't fit most coaches systems, which are typically built from the inside out with an emphasis on defense.

Islesfan, right from the moment Dolan dumped Checketts, there was nobody more negative about the Knicks than me. Having said that, I believe we owe it to Donnie Walsh to give him some time to at least show us what he plans to do with the roster. Too me, this is and and has always been ALL about the roster because you cannot win in this league if you don't have great players. Lets see how Donnie goes about acquiring the players. Lets see him put his money where his mouth is with regards to the salary cap. And if D'Antoni is not a good fit, there is no rule that says he cannot be fired before the free agency classes of 2010-2011.

At first I was against hiring D'Antoni because I feel it gives a fans a sense of false hope along with high expectations in the short term. I have rethought my position and feel that we were going to suck anyway, so at least with D'Antoni we might as well be "exciting" while we suck and build the team back up. With Jax, we would have been boring with no guarantees he understands how to coach. Also D'Antoni's style will raise the value of the losers on our team. With Jax, it would have been loserville and nobody wants to trade for losers.

Also because of Isiah, nobody knows if any of our players can be contributers to successful teams. With D'Antoni we will have a better idea on who is a keeper and who is a loser. They might all be losers, but at least we'll be able to get a better picture of what we're working with here. This is what I feel is the MOST important. What do we have on this team now? Are there any keepers??? Now we'll be able to find out because we have a real gm and a real coach.

So give it one season to determine the value of our players and to see if Walsh adheres to his promises of fiscal responsibility. I still want to finish in the lottery next season, but at least we'll have a better idea on how our youngin's fit in for the future, and in the process we will be able to raise the value of some of our veterans. (Zach Randolph I want gone ASAP) And as for D'Antoni, coaches come and go. If he sucks then he goes. But too me, it will always be about the roster.

To Me it gets down to at what cost?

Listening to what D'Antoni has to say already is kind of scary

May 16, 2008 -- The KnicksNew York Knicks have averaged 28 wins the past four seasons. Mike D'Antoni has averaged 58 wins in Phoenix the past four seasons. The new Knicks coach declared yesterday he'll be "very upset" if they don't make the playoffs in his first season.

D'Antoni, who will represent the Knicks on the Secaucus dais Tuesday, realizes 39 wins is all it might take in the downtrodden East.

"We have to compete for the playoffs," D'Antoni told The Post yesterday in a phone interview from Phoenix. "Hopefully the East stays that way and it doesn't go where teams are winning games all over the place. We need to try to get in. If it doesn't happen, I'd be disappointed. There's no guarantees, but me personally, I would be very upset."

He's already begging and whining so-to-speak. Uhhhhhh ok so if we get in Mr. Pringles let's put your coaching skills on the back burner for a moment and focus on the landscape in the Least hoping to catch some breaks. IMO this shows why the guy never won, weak mental approach to accomplishing his personal goals. Mr. Pringles all it takes is about 37-39wins and you have the nerve to already be begging for W's. You can't get 39 wins guaranteed when I SAY UGH was on pace to get 38 2yrs ago? He couldn't have it easier.





[Edited by - TrueBlue on 05-16-2008 4:22 PM]

Posted by nyk4ever:

Wow, who woulda thought a coach would want his team to win as many games as possible.

Do you guys know if any coach has ever tried to do this before?

Posted by TrueBlue:

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

so these big name coaches knew the players and zeke would be a bad fit but took dolan's money anyway

No, those big name coaches were lied to, sabotaged and thrown under the bus by Isiah.

do you think d'antoni is being lied to and will eventually get thrown under the bus if this fails

No, I think D'Antoni's system is going to fail by not coming close to getting us close to being a championship contender, thereby throwing Knicks fan under the bus again. We'll be looking at yet another roster that has to be blown up when it's time to get another coach because D'Antoni's players don't fit most coaches systems, which are typically built from the inside out with an emphasis on defense.

Islesfan, right from the moment Dolan dumped Checketts, there was nobody more negative about the Knicks than me. Having said that, I believe we owe it to Donnie Walsh to give him some time to at least show us what he plans to do with the roster. Too me, this is and and has always been ALL about the roster because you cannot win in this league if you don't have great players. Lets see how Donnie goes about acquiring the players. Lets see him put his money where his mouth is with regards to the salary cap. And if D'Antoni is not a good fit, there is no rule that says he cannot be fired before the free agency classes of 2010-2011.

At first I was against hiring D'Antoni because I feel it gives a fans a sense of false hope along with high expectations in the short term. I have rethought my position and feel that we were going to suck anyway, so at least with D'Antoni we might as well be "exciting" while we suck and build the team back up. With Jax, we would have been boring with no guarantees he understands how to coach. Also D'Antoni's style will raise the value of the losers on our team. With Jax, it would have been loserville and nobody wants to trade for losers.

Also because of Isiah, nobody knows if any of our players can be contributers to successful teams. With D'Antoni we will have a better idea on who is a keeper and who is a loser. They might all be losers, but at least we'll be able to get a better picture of what we're working with here. This is what I feel is the MOST important. What do we have on this team now? Are there any keepers??? Now we'll be able to find out because we have a real gm and a real coach.

So give it one season to determine the value of our players and to see if Walsh adheres to his promises of fiscal responsibility. I still want to finish in the lottery next season, but at least we'll have a better idea on how our youngin's fit in for the future, and in the process we will be able to raise the value of some of our veterans. (Zach Randolph I want gone ASAP) And as for D'Antoni, coaches come and go. If he sucks then he goes. But too me, it will always be about the roster.

To Me it gets down to at what cost?

Listening to what D'Antoni has to say already is kind of scary

May 16, 2008 -- The KnicksNew York Knicks have averaged 28 wins the past four seasons. Mike D'Antoni has averaged 58 wins in Phoenix the past four seasons. The new Knicks coach declared yesterday he'll be "very upset" if they don't make the playoffs in his first season.

D'Antoni, who will represent the Knicks on the Secaucus dais Tuesday, realizes 39 wins is all it might take in the downtrodden East.

"We have to compete for the playoffs," D'Antoni told The Post yesterday in a phone interview from Phoenix. "Hopefully the East stays that way and it doesn't go where teams are winning games all over the place. We need to try to get in. If it doesn't happen, I'd be disappointed. There's no guarantees, but me personally, I would be very upset."

WHAT IS HE SUPPOSED TO SAY?!?!?!?!?!? Would you have preferred he said this... No, my preference is to suck very bad so we can get another lottery pick in '09. The players we have now are all horrible and I feel we have no shot at the playoffs so this season is unimportant and all of us including the fans should forget about '08 and just look towards 2009.

Is that what you wanted to hear? Because if thats what you wanted to hear, then you can forget about D'Antoni ever raising the value of our present day losers and you can also forget about really really really good players wanting to sign here in 2010 because the franchise will still be all about losing.

D'Antoni is a coach, coaches only talk about one thing and thats WINNING. He is not the GM. He gets paid to WIN GAMES. And with whatever roster he has, even if he's given 8 Zach Randolphs, 5 Eddy Curry's and 2 Stephon Marbury's, he is still going to try and WIN EVERY GAME! Why? Because he's a coach and thats what coaches get paid to do!!! Name me one coach that has ever said in public when asked do you think you are a playoff team, said no, our goal is not make the playoffs because I don't feel I have the ability to turn these losers into winners. Name me the coach?

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by TrueBlue:

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

so these big name coaches knew the players and zeke would be a bad fit but took dolan's money anyway

No, those big name coaches were lied to, sabotaged and thrown under the bus by Isiah.

do you think d'antoni is being lied to and will eventually get thrown under the bus if this fails

No, I think D'Antoni's system is going to fail by not coming close to getting us close to being a championship contender, thereby throwing Knicks fan under the bus again. We'll be looking at yet another roster that has to be blown up when it's time to get another coach because D'Antoni's players don't fit most coaches systems, which are typically built from the inside out with an emphasis on defense.

Islesfan, right from the moment Dolan dumped Checketts, there was nobody more negative about the Knicks than me. Having said that, I believe we owe it to Donnie Walsh to give him some time to at least show us what he plans to do with the roster. Too me, this is and and has always been ALL about the roster because you cannot win in this league if you don't have great players. Lets see how Donnie goes about acquiring the players. Lets see him put his money where his mouth is with regards to the salary cap. And if D'Antoni is not a good fit, there is no rule that says he cannot be fired before the free agency classes of 2010-2011.

At first I was against hiring D'Antoni because I feel it gives a fans a sense of false hope along with high expectations in the short term. I have rethought my position and feel that we were going to suck anyway, so at least with D'Antoni we might as well be "exciting" while we suck and build the team back up. With Jax, we would have been boring with no guarantees he understands how to coach. Also D'Antoni's style will raise the value of the losers on our team. With Jax, it would have been loserville and nobody wants to trade for losers.

Also because of Isiah, nobody knows if any of our players can be contributers to successful teams. With D'Antoni we will have a better idea on who is a keeper and who is a loser. They might all be losers, but at least we'll be able to get a better picture of what we're working with here. This is what I feel is the MOST important. What do we have on this team now? Are there any keepers??? Now we'll be able to find out because we have a real gm and a real coach.

So give it one season to determine the value of our players and to see if Walsh adheres to his promises of fiscal responsibility. I still want to finish in the lottery next season, but at least we'll have a better idea on how our youngin's fit in for the future, and in the process we will be able to raise the value of some of our veterans. (Zach Randolph I want gone ASAP) And as for D'Antoni, coaches come and go. If he sucks then he goes. But too me, it will always be about the roster.

To Me it gets down to at what cost?

Listening to what D'Antoni has to say already is kind of scary

May 16, 2008 -- The KnicksNew York Knicks have averaged 28 wins the past four seasons. Mike D'Antoni has averaged 58 wins in Phoenix the past four seasons. The new Knicks coach declared yesterday he'll be "very upset" if they don't make the playoffs in his first season.

D'Antoni, who will represent the Knicks on the Secaucus dais Tuesday, realizes 39 wins is all it might take in the downtrodden East.

"We have to compete for the playoffs," D'Antoni told The Post yesterday in a phone interview from Phoenix. "Hopefully the East stays that way and it doesn't go where teams are winning games all over the place. We need to try to get in. If it doesn't happen, I'd be disappointed. There's no guarantees, but me personally, I would be very upset."

WHAT IS HE SUPPOSED TO SAY?!?!?!?!?!? Would you have preferred he said this... No, my preference is to suck very bad so we can get another lottery pick in '09. The players we have now are all horrible and I feel we have no shot at the playoffs so this season is unimportant and all of us including the fans should forget about '08 and just look towards 2009.

Is that what you wanted to hear? Because if thats what you wanted to hear, then you can forget about D'Antoni ever raising the value of our present day losers and you can also forget about really really really good players wanting to sign here in 2010 because the franchise will still be all about losing.

D'Antoni is a coach, coaches only talk about one thing and thats WINNING. He is not the GM. He gets paid to WIN GAMES. And with whatever roster he has, even if he's given 8 Zach Randolphs, 5 Eddy Curry's and 2 Stephon Marbury's, he is still going to try and WIN EVERY GAME! Why? Because he's a coach and thats what coaches get paid to do!!! Name me one coach that has ever said in public when asked do you think you are a playoff team, said no, our goal is not make the playoffs because I don't feel I have the ability to turn these losers into winners. Name me the coach?

I don't expect him to say anything other than he'll try to make the most of what he has to work with. If he gets to the playoffs that would be great but not the end of the world if we don't. At the same time let the fans know expectations need to be tempered with reality. Certainly don't start looking at what other teams may or may not do before anything is done on our end or to be counting on the misfortunes of others. Don't give the media too much and don't hype the fans up too much. What his statements can lead to is in the event the team fails and let's say they fail more than expected do we start hearing rumblings after his first season he's a failure of his own plans? I'm on record as of now thinking D'Antoni at least has a 1 gm edge over I SAY UGH coached Knicks from 2 yrs ago.

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by TrueBlue:

May 16, 2008 -- The KnicksNew York Knicks have averaged 28 wins the past four seasons. Mike D'Antoni has averaged 58 wins in Phoenix the past four seasons. The new Knicks coach declared yesterday he'll be "very upset" if they don't make the playoffs in his first season.

D'Antoni, who will represent the Knicks on the Secaucus dais Tuesday, realizes 39 wins is all it might take in the downtrodden East.

"We have to compete for the playoffs," D'Antoni told The Post yesterday in a phone interview from Phoenix. "Hopefully the East stays that way and it doesn't go where teams are winning games all over the place. We need to try to get in. If it doesn't happen, I'd be disappointed. There's no guarantees, but me personally, I would be very upset."

He's already begging and whining so-to-speak. Uhhhhhh ok so if we get in Mr. Pringles let's put your coaching skills on the back burner for a moment and focus on the landscape in the Least hoping to catch some breaks. IMO this shows why the guy never won, weak mental approach to accomplishing his personal goals. Mr. Pringles all it takes is about 37-39wins and you have the nerve to already be begging for W's. You can't get 39 wins guaranteed when I SAY UGH was on pace to get 38 2yrs ago? He couldn't have it easier.
[Edited by - TrueBlue on 05-16-2008 4:22 PM]

How is he begging and whining? If anything he is being honest about the shape of our roster by saying if the East plays great, there really will be no shot of us making the playoffs. But what I like is that he came out and said he would be VERY UPSET if he didn't make the playoffs. Too me, that shows he gives a F!ucking sh!t and is embarrassed by failure, unlike Isiah who always said it's our goal to make the playoffs. Then when the team plays like sh!t, he always says "I like where we are, I like where we're heading." With D'Antoni, you get the feeling HEADS WILL ROLL if this team is not playing well. He will kick their asses and publicly embarrass these losers.

Lets see what happens when Curry lazily jogs up and down the court. Lets see what happens when half the roster shows up to camp out of shape. These are the things I want to see. I don't give 2 sh!ts about this interview because a coach will never say before the season begins our main goal is to continue losing. Who says that?!?!?!?!?

Posted by TrueBlue:

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by TrueBlue:

May 16, 2008 -- The KnicksNew York Knicks have averaged 28 wins the past four seasons. Mike D'Antoni has averaged 58 wins in Phoenix the past four seasons. The new Knicks coach declared yesterday he'll be "very upset" if they don't make the playoffs in his first season.

D'Antoni, who will represent the Knicks on the Secaucus dais Tuesday, realizes 39 wins is all it might take in the downtrodden East.

"We have to compete for the playoffs," D'Antoni told The Post yesterday in a phone interview from Phoenix. "Hopefully the East stays that way and it doesn't go where teams are winning games all over the place. We need to try to get in. If it doesn't happen, I'd be disappointed. There's no guarantees, but me personally, I would be very upset."

He's already begging and whining so-to-speak. Uhhhhhh ok so if we get in Mr. Pringles let's put your coaching skills on the back burner for a moment and focus on the landscape in the Least hoping to catch some breaks. IMO this shows why the guy never won, weak mental approach to accomplishing his personal goals. Mr. Pringles all it takes is about 37-39wins and you have the nerve to already be begging for W's. You can't get 39 wins guaranteed when I SAY UGH was on pace to get 38 2yrs ago? He couldn't have it easier.
[Edited by - TrueBlue on 05-16-2008 4:22 PM]

How is he begging and whining? If anything he is being honest about the shape of our roster by saying if the East plays great, there really will be no shot of us making the playoffs. But what I like is that he came out and said he would be VERY UPSET if he didn't make the playoffs. Too me, that shows he gives a F!ucking sh!t and is embarrassed by failure, unlike Isiah who always said it's our goal to make the playoffs. Then when the team plays like sh!t, he always says "I like where we are, I like where we're heading." With D'Antoni, you get the feeling HEADS WILL ROLL if this team is not playing well. He will kick their asses and publicly embarrass these losers.

Lets see what happens when Curry lazily jogs up and down the court. Lets see what happens when half the roster shows up to camp out of shape. These are the things I want to see. I don't give 2 sh!ts about this interview because a coach will never say before the season begins our main goal is to continue losing. Who says that?!?!?!?!?

Uhhhh I SAY UGH has said the past season the Playoffs were necessary, he made trades that showed he cared although for selfish reasons, which proved to be bad. He saw some moves in the East and made the trade for Zach. Very dumb trade but no doubt I SAY UGH wanted to make the playoffs. Here's another way of looking at what D'Antoni said and maybe taking a slightly different approach. D'Antoni could have said Playoffs always should be every team's goal but more importantly for our Knicks we need to show we can win just as much if not more so than we lose which we haven't done the past 7yrs or so. We need a winning culture. I've seen teams make progression yr-to-yr that leads to playoff contention yr after yr, although in their first yr they may have cfell short. I would like for us to be .500 at least, which would be a 17gm win improvement. If 40wins or so can get us in the playoffs, which I believe we can do with this roster, then that would be great and icing on the cake for a first yr result. Leave the Eastern Landscape out of the picture, by bringing them up he's subliminally telling DW this roster as is probably won't be won't be enough, which isn't a bad thing in of itself but will this encourage a panic move to make the playoffs this season? Such as trading our pick or next yr's pick.

Why you think I'm implying he should say we won't be that good and probably will lose a lot is mind boggling.

Posted by TrueBlue:

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by TrueBlue:

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by TrueBlue:

Posted by majorleads:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by Bobby:

so these big name coaches knew the players and zeke would be a bad fit but took dolan's money anyway

No, those big name coaches were lied to, sabotaged and thrown under the bus by Isiah.

do you think d'antoni is being lied to and will eventually get thrown under the bus if this fails

No, I think D'Antoni's system is going to fail by not coming close to getting us close to being a championship contender, thereby throwing Knicks fan under the bus again. We'll be looking at yet another roster that has to be blown up when it's time to get another coach because D'Antoni's players don't fit most coaches systems, which are typically built from the inside out with an emphasis on defense.

Islesfan, right from the moment Dolan dumped Checketts, there was nobody more negative about the Knicks than me. Having said that, I believe we owe it to Donnie Walsh to give him some time to at least show us what he plans to do with the roster. Too me, this is and and has always been ALL about the roster because you cannot win in this league if you don't have great players. Lets see how Donnie goes about acquiring the players. Lets see him put his money where his mouth is with regards to the salary cap. And if D'Antoni is not a good fit, there is no rule that says he cannot be fired before the free agency classes of 2010-2011.

At first I was against hiring D'Antoni because I feel it gives a fans a sense of false hope along with high expectations in the short term. I have rethought my position and feel that we were going to suck anyway, so at least with D'Antoni we might as well be "exciting" while we suck and build the team back up. With Jax, we would have been boring with no guarantees he understands how to coach. Also D'Antoni's style will raise the value of the losers on our team. With Jax, it would have been loserville and nobody wants to trade for losers.

Also because of Isiah, nobody knows if any of our players can be contributers to successful teams. With D'Antoni we will have a better idea on who is a keeper and who is a loser. They might all be losers, but at least we'll be able to get a better picture of what we're working with here. This is what I feel is the MOST important. What do we have on this team now? Are there any keepers??? Now we'll be able to find out because we have a real gm and a real coach.

So give it one season to determine the value of our players and to see if Walsh adheres to his promises of fiscal responsibility. I still want to finish in the lottery next season, but at least we'll have a better idea on how our youngin's fit in for the future, and in the process we will be able to raise the value of some of our veterans. (Zach Randolph I want gone ASAP) And as for D'Antoni, coaches come and go. If he sucks then he goes. But too me, it will always be about the roster.

To Me it gets down to at what cost?

Listening to what D'Antoni has to say already is kind of scary

May 16, 2008 -- The KnicksNew York Knicks have averaged 28 wins the past four seasons. Mike D'Antoni has averaged 58 wins in Phoenix the past four seasons. The new Knicks coach declared yesterday he'll be "very upset" if they don't make the playoffs in his first season.

D'Antoni, who will represent the Knicks on the Secaucus dais Tuesday, realizes 39 wins is all it might take in the downtrodden East.

"We have to compete for the playoffs," D'Antoni told The Post yesterday in a phone interview from Phoenix. "Hopefully the East stays that way and it doesn't go where teams are winning games all over the place. We need to try to get in. If it doesn't happen, I'd be disappointed. There's no guarantees, but me personally, I would be very upset."

WHAT IS HE SUPPOSED TO SAY?!?!?!?!?!? Would you have preferred he said this... No, my preference is to suck very bad so we can get another lottery pick in '09. The players we have now are all horrible and I feel we have no shot at the playoffs so this season is unimportant and all of us including the fans should forget about '08 and just look towards 2009.

Is that what you wanted to hear? Because if thats what you wanted to hear, then you can forget about D'Antoni ever raising the value of our present day losers and you can also forget about really really really good players wanting to sign here in 2010 because the franchise will still be all about losing.

D'Antoni is a coach, coaches only talk about one thing and thats WINNING. He is not the GM. He gets paid to WIN GAMES. And with whatever roster he has, even if he's given 8 Zach Randolphs, 5 Eddy Curry's and 2 Stephon Marbury's, he is still going to try and WIN EVERY GAME! Why? Because he's a coach and thats what coaches get paid to do!!! Name me one coach that has ever said in public when asked do you think you are a playoff team, said no, our goal is not make the playoffs because I don't feel I have the ability to turn these losers into winners. Name me the coach?

I don't expect him to say anything other than he'll try to make the most of what he has to work with. If he gets to the playoffs that would be great but not the end of the world if we don't. At the same time let the fans know expectations need to be tempered with reality. Certainly don't start looking at what other teams may or may not do before anything is done on our end or to be counting on the misfortunes of others. Don't give the media too much and don't hype the fans up too much. What his statements can lead to is in the event the team fails and let's say they fail more than expected do we start hearing rumblings after his first season he's a failure of his own plans? I'm on record as of now thinking D'Antoni at least has a 1 gm edge over I SAY UGH coached Knicks from 2 yrs ago.

Oh my gaaawwwdddd, you can't be serious. Basically by you saying that the coach should have openly talked about lowered expectations, you are giving our players CARTE BLANCHE to fail. Ehh so what, you come into camp in shape great, if not so be it, we really don't have high expectations in 2009 any way.

You are directing your ire towards the wrong person. You should be criticizing Donnie Walsh, not D'Antoni. D'Antoni is not the gm, and like I said, he gets paid to talk about winning games, EVERY game!

But what I like about Donnie Walsh is that he doesn't give a flying f!uck what the fans think. Let them have higher expectations, let them have unrealistic expectations in the short term because I hired Mike. Donnie Walsh does not care because he knows that in the end, how he will get viewed by all fans is whether or not 3-4 years down the road, are we building towards a championship. So all you short-term thinking fans can get your panties in a bunch because I'm still going to do what I told you all I'm going to do...and that is, in 3 years we will have salary cap flexibility along with a roster that has a solid foundation to build upon. And along the way, if we can create a culture that has accountability with a commitment towards winning every game, that will make our situation all the better when we're trying to attract free agents in 2010-2011.

How is promoting winning more games than you lose enabling? I don't think a goal of trying to be a .500 team is lowered expectation, at least not for this bunch who hasn't come near as a 10ft pole to achieving this the past 5yrs end results wise. Golden State won 48gms this yr 6 more than last yr and missed the playoffs by a game or so, I wouldn't call their season an overall failure because they missed the playoffs. All I'm saying is we've been through the make the/we're making the playoffs mantra well in advance before the season starts. Heck half our roster guaranteed we'd make it this past yr, yet you heard fans telling them to STFU and prove it. Why we're not these players setting goals? All I'm saying is curb the playoff talk and promote more about winning games, establishing a style of play, and maybe touching on specifics like improving our Home Record and not playing from behind to start games all the time. Stop with the swinging for the fences talk right out the gate.


BTW Major it ain't personal with you. I know how you've felt through the yrs. I don't like the hire but I'm still as skeptical as they come, nothing has changed with me. The only thing I will say is DW did prove his last couple yrs in Indiana if he was still involved in the decision making process of not making any major knee-jerk moves.

[Edited by - TrueBlue on 05-16-2008 5:22 PM]

Well if you know me by posting style, then you know I don't take anything personal. It's just you responding to my take and vice versa. And I know that in the end we both want the same things which is to put a team on the floor ALL OF US enjoy watching. Having said that...

My whole point is, don't worry about what the coach says in public. The only thing you have to concern yourself with is the moves Donnie makes to get rid of all the losers on this roster. Thats it. Talk is just talk, action is another thing. Isiah was all talk and couldn't back it up with his actions. And by actions I mean putting together a roster that could compete for a championship. Heck Isiah couldn't even put together a solid foundation of young players even though we finished in the lottery 3 out of the 4 years he was here. He did absolutely nothing but destroy us.

And as Donnie talked about, he was looking for a partner who not only understands how to get the most out of players he has, but also someone who is highly intelligent that can help him build a foundation for future success. I'd much rather have Donnie partnered up with someone whose been a highly successful coach all over the world, then someone inexperienced like Mark Jackson who will really won't offer up much because he will be learning on the job.