smackeddog wrote:

nixluva wrote:

martin wrote:

smackeddog wrote:My problem with D'Antoni is that when push comes to shove and your battling it out in a 7 game series in the playoffs- the game always slows down, becomes half-court based, and the best defensive team wins- none of these are D'antoni's strong points, which is why I've never liked having him around.

However he does seem to have these players motivated and loving his system- he's good at getting a lot out of his players when they buy into the system- a lot of players seem to play their best under him.

I never favoured firing him during the season, but come the offseason you really need to weigh up whether his pro's outweigh the cons.

2 things. MDA offense has been shown to work in the half court.

Also, as with any system, you need the players and talent to execute a system. This year the Knicks have the makings of a defensive team. So check and check.

I know people get mad at me for saying it, but I still believe that you have to have Defensive talent just like you need offensive talent. In the past they've bashed MDA for not coaching D, but it was really a lack of size and defensive talent. Nash and STAT is a horrible defensive core. Now he has Lin, Shump, Jared and Tyson in the mix and you can see the difference. Same defense, better players!!! OH and MDA picked Shump and wanted Jared back. Also on a side note MDA pushed for Lin too. Yeah he didn't play him right away but he liked his talent from his predraft workout. I think MDA and Grunwald have done a good job of working together to put together a better defensive team. Grunwald adding Tyson was a major step.

Fair points, but I do think D'Antoni has only recently actually seen defense as important (and i think thats due to being in New York)- even his own assistant admitted that when with Pheonix, because they were winning and doing so well offensively, he didn't used to bother with defense or see it as important.

He's never stressed D, but he also never had good defensive players up the middle of his team. Name the bigtime defensive Center that he had. The best defenders were Raja and Marion. Nash and STAT who played a ton of minutes were horrible on D. Still despite that his teams were no worse than avg. on D. They were never a bad defensive team. You have to have some defensive talent to really excel on D.

Coach has NOT lost the team
He DOES coach defense
He can call time outs
He does NOT need a HOF PG to make his system work

Go ahead----

New Yorkers are always about the quick fix and sometimes they don't realize doing that can set you back even more....

Say what you want, but no other coach in the NBA right now could win the 4 straight games that we have won with this personnel. D'Antoni's system is absolutely maximizing the talent of every guy on this team right now.

Its one thing to argue that D'Antoni hasn't had the talent to make a legit run. That's more than clear. Its also clear that there have been times when his players weren't bringing it and neither was the head coach.

Jeremy Lin does not wash away every mistake D'Antoni has made as coach as hard as some of you may try. The only thing Lin validates is that D'Antoni's system runs better with an above average PG. Nothing else.

Besides, most of these "hater" thread aren't coming from "haters". There are very few people on this board who actually want D'Antoni fired on the spot.

Right low eyeque???

We are riding high right now and team is very much energized. Things are very easy right now, but that isn't when you define a head coach. When things things get tough, energy begins to dull from the players, Ill wonder the same thing about this 1/4th of a coach. Just like I worry now, will he actually adjust or will he still just roll the ball and pray that his point guard can carry him.

s3231 wrote:It's ridiculous how people criticize D'Antoni for being a system guy not willing to adapt and then they come out and say they want Phil Jackson as coach (also a system guy who never deviates from the Triangle). Note, that both systems (the triangle and SSOL) emphasize ball movement, proper spacing, and spontaneity. Those that want D'Antoni gone don't realize that we will probably end up with a much worse coach if that happens.

New Yorkers are always about the quick fix and sometimes they don't realize doing that can set you back even more....

Say what you want, but no other coach in the NBA right now could win the 4 straight games that we have won with this personnel. D'Antoni's system is absolutely maximizing the talent of every guy on this team right now.

agree 1000%

nyk4ever wrote:

holfresh wrote:This is all Jeremy Lin...Come on lovers..U can't high jack this current run..

i dont think anyone is disagreeing, but some credit has to be given to dantoni for 1. playing the kid and 2. having a system that maximizes lin's talent.

http://knicksnow.com/videos/473

Kid sparkles in this system and he's only going to get better! How many PG's have to improve playing in this system before we start to give MDA some credit. Plus all this talk like Lin hasn't been coached isn't true. They spent time working with him to learn the system. They just didn't have as much time to do it like they would if he was in camp and there were more practice days, but they had him practice on game days and his stint in the D League, which was for the sole purpose of accelerating his development, really helped him get more comfortable with the system. If he never practiced how did his teammates know he was good? Trust me Lin and Tyson and the rest of the guys got to see what he could do and so did the coaching staff. It just came late due to the circumstances.

franco12 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

nyk4ever wrote:

holfresh wrote:This is all Jeremy Lin...Come on lovers..U can't high jack this current run..

i dont think anyone is disagreeing, but some credit has to be given to dantoni for 1. playing the kid and 2. having a system that maximizes lin's talent.

Like Nash, Lin didn't play nearly as well in other systems before joining D'Antoni.

Lin was nearly released by us. Had Baron Davis been able to play, Lin may very well have been released.

Yeah good fortune plays a big part in any success story. Nash never wins 2 MVP's if he isn't let go by the Mavs. It's hard to say if they never give Lin any opportunity at all, cuz they clearly wanted to see what he could do before deciding. Remember that neither TD nor Bibby showed anything. So when they sent Lin down to get him some reps, that was part of the evaluation process too. Then they had him go against Baron in practice several times and Lin was killing it. Even if Baron doesn't have a setback, he wasn't going to outplay Lin with his early level of fitness and rust. My contention is that Lin was going to stick regardless of Baron's setback.

GustavBahler wrote:I've watched too many games over the last 3 seasons where this team played with zero intensity and effort. I watched this coach run players into the ground, let players continue to start regardless of how poorly they played. Poor substitutions, poor clock management at crunch time. Now I'm supposed to forget all that and act like every bit of it was from the lack of a good PG. Riiiight.

Its one thing to argue that D'Antoni hasn't had the talent to make a legit run. That's more than clear. Its also clear that there have been times when his players weren't bringing it and neither was the head coach.

Jeremy Lin does not wash away every mistake D'Antoni has made as coach as hard as some of you may try. The only thing Lin validates is that D'Antoni's system runs better with an above average PG. Nothing else.

Besides, most of these "hater" thread aren't coming from "haters". There are very few people on this board who actually want D'Antoni fired on the spot.

Surely, MDA is not without fault. Not even close. But there's enough people here who want him fired because of some flavor of the week POS. but MDA has never had a starting unit worth more than 33 games before last season. When your best player is Avi Lee you ain't winning sheeit.

holfresh wrote:Hey, everyone should be happy now...MDA has two PG(when BD gets healthy) that could run his system...He has talent up front...No more excuses...I wanna see him mesh this talented group...No more Melo is not buying in excuse because that's crap...You saw Kobe last night, that's a ball stopper...No more Amare explosion crap...My belief is MDA is a guy with a system that he really isn't a good coach...I want to be proven wrong...He does one thing and that's run his system...He has pieces now...The ball is in court and he is on center stage...No more rebuilding stories...We are were we wanted to go...LET HIM COACH...He has the rest of the season...

MDA is "a guy with a system, not a coach"?

What do you think a coach is hired to do if not implement some way he wants his team to play (a system)?