Uptown wrote:When I see other teams run the same PNR over and over, and our coach makes no in game asjustments, or try to trap high and force Parker to give up the ball, I say "Damn, we might need a new coach!"

When I see the Phoenix Suns come to the garden and exploit our middle-school-esque switch every pick down the stretch to beat us, I question the coach. Nash called for PNR everytime during the last 3-4 mins of the game and Douglas switched to guard Lopez/Gorcin in the paint while Chandler switched to guard Nash. Two mismatches for the Suns to exploit and not one timeout, not one change of gameplan to try and 'Win the Game'. Instances like that make me question the coach.

When I see the Celts run PNR and exploit our guards Lin and Shump switching to guard him and Pierce scores every single time while our caoch does nothing to change this, then I question the coach.

When we grab a rebound vs. the Celts up by 1 with 19 seconds left and we call timeout, while the Celts dont have any timeouts, I question the coach. Calling that timeout gave the Celts a chance to set up that last play to free Pierce for the 3 (They knew the Knicks would switch and Pierce would get a clean look vs a smaller defender.) Thus, I question the coach. Dont even get me started on fouling before Pierce can get the shot off. But as MDA says, "Thats not how we do things." Really?! Things like what? Playing to win instead of being stubborn.

When other teams adjust to Lin and begin trapping him and forcing him left, and still we run the same exact play with no minor tweaks, or counters I question the coach.

On the rare ocasions when we dont run pick-n-roll and guys stand around, i question the coach.....

Theres more, but thats it for now....

I'll add another one. When you pound our $100 million power forward into the ground and then let him play in the playoff with a bad back....Management gets the blame for that one also.

Nalod wrote:

smackeddog wrote:My problem with D'antoni is that he inspires absolutely no confidence in a crisis- essentially every interview during a losing streak, he just seems to shrug his shoulders and hopes for a better performance next time. It just seems like we have a winning streak, followed by a losing streak and he has no control over any of it.

So you don't like his post game interview attitude?

I don't even watch them. Team loses, I saw what happend. I don't need a coach to explain and make me feel good about it.

I don't watch post game interview or press conf. either after a win.

Im only interested in what happens on the court.

I'd have to say the guy is most definitly stand off-ish and not very endearing to the media. I can see how many dislike him from what little I have seen.

That said, I'm 99% into the product on the court.

Hey the man doesn't have a contract extension. He's got a MSG KGB Agent standing there listening to everything he's saying and there's no vote of confidence from Dolan or the Knicks top brass. What benefit would there be to MDA throwing his star players under the bus to the press? Dolan is solely responsible for Melo being here. Do you think he'd take kindly to MDA trashing him in the press.

No MDA smartly keeps everything cliche and generic in his interviews. It's pure garbage to make any kind of judgment based on what he doesn't say in those press conferences.

All I know is that MDA has shown he can win with teams that aren't necessarily loaded with talent. The team he lead to the WCF's minus STAT or any Center over 6-9 was proof of that. He has at times gotten his team into a great place only to have it disrupted by trades, injuries or an influx of players that may or may not fit, but certainly changed the way the team was flowing. When we added Melo, Baron, JR back into the Mix that changed the dynamic of the team, but clearly he had to play these guys. Now he needs time to figure out a new way to make this all work.

smackeddog wrote:I probably didn't explain myself well- its not just the interviews, even in games it seems like we go through a terrible patch, then we go on a run, and it seems like D'antoni had no impact on either- he just seems to say 'let's go let's go let's go'- no adjustments, no motivating speeches or actions- he just seems to try and build up the players confidence by saying 'good job' outside of the games and leaves the rest up to them.

I just prefer coaches who are a bit more interventional. (ha! might not even be a word!)

I'm not a D'antoni hater but I'm not a fan of his either

What number are you? I didn't know you were on the team!

Good job=Paycheck and playing time.

What should he do, hand out gold stars?

ChuckBuck wrote:

nixluva wrote:

ChuckBuck wrote:Mike D'Antoni's entire playbook on offense and defense as well as motivational speak summed up here:

Do you know the plays? Would you be able to tell the difference if you saw what looked like the same PnR play but in fact it was a different set? People make fun of his defense, but when it is played by good defensive players it's highly effective and the same goes for his offense. You have to be willing to execute the plays and stick with TEAM BALL.

The essence of what Mike teaches is TEAM BALL. It works even when you don't have great players as we saw when STAT and Melo were out and when he went to the WCF's with Diaw as his starting Center and no Amar'e. That team won because they played excellent TEAM BB. That team had no interior defense or size as they started a 6-8 PF who had never done anything in the NBA. Still that team got to the WCF's. Stop talking like this guy can't coach cuz it's not true. Not to mention that he's a legend in Europe and he was with the Olympic team for a reason.

Good Article on Bleacher Report:

It seems so long ago now, but just two months ago, before anyone even knew who Jeremy Lin was, Knicks fans were calling for Mike D’Antoni’s job as the Knicks struggled to open the season. I even wrote an article about how awful D’Antoni had been, noting that he needs to start taking responsibility when the Knicks play poorly.

Well, nothing has changed on his part.

Yes, the Knicks started winning games, but that’s only because of the emergence of a true point guard in Jeremy Lin. D’Antoni really shouldn’t be given any credit for this. He did decide to play Lin in the first place, but it was just a last resort move since Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby couldn’t hit a shot if their lives depended on it and not because he anticipated Lin was going to break out like this.

The Knicks clearly have an immense amount of talent on their roster, but lack any sort of direction on the court. None of the players know what their specific role and responsibilities are. Just telling the team to run the fast break as much as possible and give the ball to Lin clearly isn’t cutting it.

Since Lin became the starting point guard, you can easily see he’s the one in charge of the offense, not D’Antoni. He calls all his own screens, deciding whether he wants Stoudemire or Chandler to come up and pick for him that play, or gets the ball to Carmelo Anthony to isolate his defender. Very rarely do you see any player set an off-the-ball screen or make a backdoor cut and D’Antoni has never said one word to the players to change that.

This style of play is just not working for the Knicks. A coach is supposed to produce a system that plays to his team’s strengths, not watch his team struggle to run the system he likes to use.

I really believe the Knicks need a new head coach who will discipline his players and build a system this team can succeed in if they want to have any chance at making a title run in the near future.

You can't compare Euro League success to the NBA.

Coach K was the head coach of Team USA.

Mike D'Antoni's record with NY Knicks - 121 Wins / 164 Losses = 42% Win Percentage plus 0 - 4 in the playoffs in 4 years of coaching = lousy coach

That Bleacher Report Article is PURE garbage. You really shouldn't use them to try and support your arguments. Try to at least use reputable sources when you post an article to try and support what you're saying. You want to discount Euro League Success and then Success in the NBA with a team that was always the smallest in the west up against the best competition in the league.

Then you list the win/loss record as if it's been under normal circumstances. Name one other coach that has had to try and blend 69 different players in 3.5 years? Do you even realize how difficult that is. Even this year we have had major roster turnover and late additions. Many players with no camp and not chance for the coach and staff to figure out how to use the players we have. The coaches we talk about with bigtime respect have had a lot more stability. Doc, Jax, Pop all have a core of guys that have been together for a while and have an established chemistry and understanding of what to do.

Uptown wrote:

martin wrote:

Uptown wrote:When I see other teams run the same PNR over and over, and our coach makes no in game asjustments, or try to trap high and force Parker to give up the ball, I say "Damn, we might need a new coach!"

here's the counter-argument: do you think MDA has NOT told Amare and others that they need to help on defense? Or is the expectation that Amare can watch and help pave a path to the rim for Tony Parker?

Cause I KNOW Tyson wouldn't let Tony go free, nor JJ2. So your assumption is that the coach is NOT making adjustment or telling Amare to cover, rather than assuming Amare is just not doing it in the face of being told repeatedly.

Now, sitting that player is another story. Coach can certainly do that.

But thats just it Martin, we never trap off of the pick-n-rolls, we switch everything, in all games. I highly doubt Amare was told to trap Parker because as MDA would say "Thats not how we do things." And if was told to trap-high, (which I doubt) and he didn't do it, then he needs to sit.

Tyson doesn't trap either, he switches like everyone else. Only difference is Tyson would have made a better effort to help-defend but we still would have gotten slaughtered either in the paint by the big rolling on the small who switched or on the perimeter by the PG who would have the advantage on the big who switched out to guard him.

This is conjecture on your part cuz you don't know what MDA tells them to do on D. This team is still one of the better teams in the league defensively. When we have our better defensive unit in, teams don't score against us at anywhere near the same rate. During the streak we allowed teams a league leading 93 pts per 100 possessions.

Uptown wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Uptown wrote:

martin wrote:

Uptown wrote:When I see other teams run the same PNR over and over, and our coach makes no in game asjustments, or try to trap high and force Parker to give up the ball, I say "Damn, we might need a new coach!"

here's the counter-argument: do you think MDA has NOT told Amare and others that they need to help on defense? Or is the expectation that Amare can watch and help pave a path to the rim for Tony Parker?

Cause I KNOW Tyson wouldn't let Tony go free, nor JJ2. So your assumption is that the coach is NOT making adjustment or telling Amare to cover, rather than assuming Amare is just not doing it in the face of being told repeatedly.

Now, sitting that player is another story. Coach can certainly do that.

But thats just it Martin, we never trap off of the pick-n-rolls, we switch everything, in all games. I highly doubt Amare was told to trap Parker because as MDA would say "Thats not how we do things." And if was told to trap-high, (which I doubt) and he didn't do it, then he needs to sit.

Tyson doesn't trap either, he switches like everyone else. Only difference is Tyson would have made a better effort to help-defend but we still would have gotten slaughtered either in the paint by the big rolling on the small who switched or on the perimeter by the PG who would have the advantage on the big who switched out to guard him.

This is conjecture on your part cuz you don't know what MDA tells them to do on D. This team is still one of the better teams in the league defensively. When we have our better defensive unit in, teams don't score against us at anywhere near the same rate. During the streak we allowed teams a league leading 93 pts per 100 possessions.

Of course I dont know what he says, I can only go by what I see on the court. Either they are doing what they are told, or they aren't but not being held accountable.

Nix, beyond the numbers, off the top of my head, this switch everything philosphy has lost us 3 games down the stretch and possibly more. We got exploited by the Suns (Nash) last 2-3 mins of the game because we switched every PNR leaving us with the disadvantage of having Tyson trying to cover Nash and Douglas covering Grocin/Lopez. We lost to the Celts by switching Lin and Shump on a bigger Pierce down the stretch. Not to mention we switched on the last 3 point shot by Pierce in reglation. And the Bobcats switched us to death and we allowed Diaw to explode for his season high when they beat us at the garden.

MDA already said that they don't instruct the players to switch everything. Nor do they tell STAT not to aggressively defend the guard on the PnR and just let him stride to the hole. This team has the capability to play some very good D and they do when they have the right guys on the court.

You can't watch the games and not notice that this team has come back from 15 and 20 point deficits in almost every game we lost! You have to play D in order to do that, but with the rotations we often lose that defensive intensity. We can't seem to get a consistent defensive effort and play everyone we're playing. During the streak we really only played guys that do defend, which is why the team only allowed 93 pts per 100 possessions, which was excellent.

Uptown wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Uptown wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Uptown wrote:

martin wrote:

Uptown wrote:When I see other teams run the same PNR over and over, and our coach makes no in game asjustments, or try to trap high and force Parker to give up the ball, I say "Damn, we might need a new coach!"

here's the counter-argument: do you think MDA has NOT told Amare and others that they need to help on defense? Or is the expectation that Amare can watch and help pave a path to the rim for Tony Parker?

Cause I KNOW Tyson wouldn't let Tony go free, nor JJ2. So your assumption is that the coach is NOT making adjustment or telling Amare to cover, rather than assuming Amare is just not doing it in the face of being told repeatedly.

Now, sitting that player is another story. Coach can certainly do that.

But thats just it Martin, we never trap off of the pick-n-rolls, we switch everything, in all games. I highly doubt Amare was told to trap Parker because as MDA would say "Thats not how we do things." And if was told to trap-high, (which I doubt) and he didn't do it, then he needs to sit.

Tyson doesn't trap either, he switches like everyone else. Only difference is Tyson would have made a better effort to help-defend but we still would have gotten slaughtered either in the paint by the big rolling on the small who switched or on the perimeter by the PG who would have the advantage on the big who switched out to guard him.

This is conjecture on your part cuz you don't know what MDA tells them to do on D. This team is still one of the better teams in the league defensively. When we have our better defensive unit in, teams don't score against us at anywhere near the same rate. During the streak we allowed teams a league leading 93 pts per 100 possessions.

Of course I dont know what he says, I can only go by what I see on the court. Either they are doing what they are told, or they aren't but not being held accountable.

Nix, beyond the numbers, off the top of my head, this switch everything philosphy has lost us 3 games down the stretch and possibly more. We got exploited by the Suns (Nash) last 2-3 mins of the game because we switched every PNR leaving us with the disadvantage of having Tyson trying to cover Nash and Douglas covering Grocin/Lopez. We lost to the Celts by switching Lin and Shump on a bigger Pierce down the stretch. Not to mention we switched on the last 3 point shot by Pierce in reglation. And the Bobcats switched us to death and we allowed Diaw to explode for his season high when they beat us at the garden.

MDA already said that they don't instruct the players to switch everything. Nor do they tell STAT not to aggressively defend the guard on the PnR and just let him stride to the hole. This team has the capability to play some very good D and they do when they have the right guys on the court.

You can't watch the games and not notice that this team has come back from 15 and 20 point deficits in almost every game we lost! You have to play D in order to do that, but with the rotations we often lose that defensive intensity. We can't seem to get a consistent defensive effort and play everyone we're playing. During the streak we really only played guys that do defend, which is why the team only allowed 93 pts per 100 possessions, which was excellent.

Saying 'We dont instruct the players to switch,' sounds passive. Either you condone it or you dont. The message needs to be clear, either way. I understand sometimes it will happen in a game and you get caught on a switch. But it seems like we switch on 90% of all pick and rolls.

The philosophy should be in the hands of the coach and set forth before they hit the floor. Too much freedom is allowed. Players need and want direction, familiarity, and defined roles. Ever heard a player say "Where do I stand?"

You really think that with all the coaches this team has including Woodson that they don't fully instruct these guys on defensive principles and what they want from them? We've got some players that literally spaceout and don't do anything like STAT! It's hard to change someone when they don't want to change.

Some guys are just really learning how to defend on this level and they make poor decisions, but still they need to learn what not to do and you want them to learn how to make the right decision. You can't just ignore it by saying don't switch. The entire game is about learning how to make good decisions on both sides of the floor.