WOW! Seems like a homeboy hookup. Dolan sure does love Isiah. We've got Isiah in the background, Grunwald and Woody, all old Indiana pals conveniently running the Knicks. I guess the only way he wasn't going to get the job is if the team missed the playoffs. They already made up their minds on this one. This team had runs this year and so I would've been cautious about reading too much into the good stretch to end the season after a coaching change. Historically teams seem to have a burst of good energy after coaching changes. You have to look deeper to really tell how much of it was the new coach. IMO this team started playing harder immediately! before he even had a chance to run them thru a single practice or put in any kind of changes. That to me is a sign of the coaching change bump. Later he did show he could keep them focused, so i'll give him credit for that. Most of all I think he was very fortunate to have the teams best player finally giving 110%. It doesn't take a great coaching move to show improvement if your best player is suddenly going ape-nuts every game to prove he's not the problem. They didn't change the offense at 1st. They didn't change the defense. The big diff was effort and Woody wasn't the reason the effort picked up starting with that very 1st day. The teams likes him and that's half the battle. He's a good leader and has their respect. Those things are all in his favor.
I thought Woody looked lost the 1st 3 games of the series. He had a few good moments in game 4, but i'm still concerned about his ability to help the team prepare to adjust to what MIA has been doing. Maybe he'll figure out what needs to be done, but it didn't look good early on. I could see this coming based on how he was handling the offense at the end of the year. The offense looked like he wasn't paying any attention to it at all. It slowly devolved into a pick up game level by the end of the year. So no surprise they looked bad against a top defense in the playoffs!!!
It's a bit premature, but in the end I think Woody fits well with Dolan and the City. I think Woody fits the team overall tho I have some concerns with how he's gonna develop Lin. I think Grunwald and Woody will make a very good team as they move forward. My question about Woody is can he rise to the level of the situation in the playoffs. That's where the big boys shine and I haven't been too impressed so far. He's still got life and a chance to make up for the poor start and prove himself in the playoffs. So far he's been a complete bust in his career as a coach in the postseason. Let's hope he can turn that around.
5/8/2012 12:09 PM
