Posted by TMS:

Posted by TrueBlue:

Hmmmm Pat Riley are you kidding me,,,uuhhhhhh how many Championships and Finals appearances/games did he win and/or coach in before we hired him?

JVG uhhhhh how many head coaching gigs did he have before we hired him? None like Mark Jackson! Now JVG had tons of experience as an assistant but zero as a Professional Head Coach and JVG managed to coach a team to the Finals.

Give these two coaches D'Antoni's roster the past 4yrs and I'd wager any amount of money one of the two gets them to the Finals at least once. Defense wins championships!

Tom Coughlin uuhhhhh you mean the same Tom Coughlin who coached the Expansion Jacksonville Jaguars team to two AFC Championship games and won 50gms in the franchise's first 5yrs, which is probably harder to do than anything in regards to coaching on any kind of level, little league baseball to professional hockey. But then again if it's about wins Coughling finished 68-60 Regular Season and 4-4 in the Playoffs as head coach for the Jaguars so there was room for doubt and he was a breath away from being fired on several occasions as Giants head coach. But I can entertain this comparison... two sides to everything

We'll see if D'Antoni turns out to be Marty or Tom or Bust!

[Edited by - TrueBlue on 05-14-2008 6:43 PM]

i guess the point flew over your head as usual... the point i was making is that if championships is the only deciding factor in determining whether or not a hire is a good one or not, then you could technically call the Riley & VG years as a failure as well... the point is that D'Antoni is as well equipped as any coach out there that was attainable for us to lead this team to the Finals... after that it's anyone's guess what happens... none of you can project whether a certain coach is "capable" or not of leading a team to a championship so stop pretending that u do.

is there any evidence you can point to that would make Mark Jackson or Avery Johnson any better a choice at this point? (& let me just qualify that by saying i did favor bringing those guys here over Mike D, but unlike some of you i'm not jumping to any conclusions as to whether or not he's got the ability to lead us to a title)

does Mark Jackson have any kind of coaching track record to point to? he wasn't exactly the greatest defending G during his playing years... Avery Johnson preached defense so much it helped the Mavs, a team w/a roster of players that most experts & analysts in & around the NBA projected to be championship contenders, to disappointing 1st round eliminations the past 2 seasons... yes, he did make a Finals appearance (much in the same way JVG & Riles did) but he never one a title... does that make those guys' tenures a failure for their respective teams in the minds of all you who are killing this hire? it seems to me it could qualify as such considering some of the statements being made during these debates.

meanwhile D'Antoni had the Suns averaging 58 wins every season he coached there (except for the year he took over midseason) & helped bring 1 of the worst franchises in the league to back to back Conference Finals appearances & 2 other playoff appearances... does that also qualify as a failed tenure? what if he replicates the same in NYC? failure or no?

we hired the guy who had his team in the international leagues win multiple titles & making the playoffs every year he coached them, being voted COY twice over there... how is he such a clearcut bad choice to lead the team we currently have when establishing any kind of winning culture here has been seemingly impossible since JVG left? this is what i find so baffling about the logic some of you are using to justify your opposition to this hire.

Ok so then if George Karl, Flip Saunders, or Don Nelson were to be fired and we hired either one of them you would have been happy.

the difference is i'm waiting to see how D'Antoni pans out before making a judgement... it could be the best hire we've ever made or it could be the worst... i thought LB was the perfect choice for this franchise as did many others but he ended up being a complete disaster... i'm not jumping the gun & saying he's the best hire or not, just that he was the most qualified out of all the candidates that were realistically available... the rest is up to the players to assimilate themselves to the system he wants to run & execute on the court just like it would be if anyone else was chosen by Walsh... they didn't do it for LB & Isiah never had a system of any kind that he tried to really establish... my guess is it's gonna take a few roster moves to get the types of players that will succeed in D'Antoni's system just like it would have if we'd have hired anyone else... this isn't a final product obviously, there's still alot of work to do... at least it's a step in the right direction to bring in a coach w/a history of winning in this league... that's good enough for me for now.

Yes Riley and JVG ultimately didn't get the job done but you felt more comfortable with at least Riley's hire because he proved he could win a Chip.

& again, i'll direct ur own logic back at u by saying what other coaches out there could we have hired that had already proven they could win a title? Pop ain't coming here, Phil Jax is committed to LA... so there's only Pat Riley, who just got done leading a team to the worst record in the NBA & removed himself from his own coaching position... neither Mark Jackson nor Avery Johnson come w/the credentials you're looking for yet you're saying you would have preferred a coach who had a history of winning championships in the past... the only other one out there is Larry Brown & we've already been down that road.