Posted by Uptown:

Posted by JayNYC:

Posted by Uptown:[br


If making it to two western conference finals, (one of them without arguably their best player Stoudemire, if not the best, then 1a)and the other time missing out on a trip to finals due to Stoudemire getting suspended a game due to a bogus call by the league (the infamous Horry play) is failing miserably, then you, my friend, aren't paying attention.

I beg to differ, I am paying attention.. fully aware of what took place. They never made it to the finals... never won a chip w/ that allstar trio. Its funny how people talk about the Western Conference finals. Yeah its an achievement, no doubt.. but what about last years exit from the playoffs in the 1st rd? Im not attempting to discredit D'Antoni's system by citing the fact that "you need a different style of play in the playoffs". All I merely wanted to point out was this, D'Antoni has not won with the good players that were in Phoenix, so why should we expect him to do better w/ mediocre ones at best. I am being a realest! This collection of Knicks will not flourish in the post season, period! We need not be fooled into thinking that this team is on the cusp of winning, as they likely will be disbanded in 2 years.

I dont think you are being realistic when you say he failed miserably. 2 western conference final apparences is not failing miserably.

Speaking of realism, winning a championship is extremely hard. The stars have to align perfectly to pull off a 'Chip'. To say he didn't win a championship with good players isn't the whole story. Those same players haven't won a 'Chip' without him either (yes, I know Shaq won his share but he is way past his prime, not to mention Mike didn't have long to work with him.) This is a players league, and you need the right horses to win.

By your logic, Rick Adelman didn't win with good players either when he was in Portland and Sac-town. Did he fail miserably? or did he just happen to lose to better teams (Bulls, the badboys, and the Lake-show)?

How about Jerry Sloan. Did he fail miserably? or did he just run into the greatest player to ever lace up a pair of hightops?

I think MDA gets the most out of his players and takes them as far as they are going to go. Those Phoenix teams lost to a team that features, perhaps the best player in the league for the past 7 or so years. Ultimately, the best players usually walk away with the chip. From Bird to Magic to Isiah to Jordan to Hakeem to Shaq to Duncan etc. With the exception of Isiah, all of those guys were the MVP of the league at one time or another.....None of those guys played for MDA but he did compete against one of them (Duncan)and lost. No shame in that. Van Gundy, Adelman, Sloan, and other great coaches lost to those MVP's aswell. So I guess they all failed miserably.

Watching the broadcast of the Kings v Knicks game the other night...both Kings announcers Jerry Reynolds and Grant Napear (both with over 20 years of experience in the NBA) strongly supported D'Antoni. Reynolds scoffed at those people who felt D'Antoni never won in Phoenix. He said without the Joe Johnson injury and the off-the bench suspensions during the Robert Horry foul situation he felt the Suns would have won both series and he felt they would have gone on and won the championship. They both thought that D'Antoni was outstanding and I agree.

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by TMS:

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by TMS:

Posted by Bippity10:

We want our young guys to be good. If they are good it means they win games. At the same time we want them to lose games so we can get a high draft pick. But if they lose, it means that they aren't good. Tough to have it both ways.

Our entire starting line-up(with Nate) is under 28 years of age. Things aren't as bad as we make them out to be. Some of these guys are playing their way into being future Knicks. Not sure Al can keep this up, but if he does who would you replace him with? How many guys but up 26 and 7 in any system?

i completely agree... we do all want our young guys to be good, & a lot of us definitely wouldn't mind losing games so we can end up w/a higher pick at the same time... i think the only way to achieve both ends is to trade Lee to a team that's currently struggling for a high pick like we tried to do w/MEM on draft night... i think Donnie's got the plan on point & he's trying his best to follow through on it... that along w/the fact that this team is starting to really gel is giving me tons of hope for the future... Donnie having the foresight to bring in Al Harrington & dumping Zach's contract for shorter length ones even tho he knew he was giving up the best player in that trade w/the Clips can't be understated & those are the moves we've been hoping would happen for the longest.

I wonder if Donnie is shopping guys as we go through the season. It's a good situation and bad at the same time. Both approaches make sense. If you keep the young guys together they grow and learn to win together. But if you don't trade some of them you may lose them to free agency. If you trade them you may acquire some legit players or really high picks. But if you do trade one or more you run the risk of shattering team morale. So far Donnie and Mike have been on their games. Donnie has made very good moves and Mike has coached his asse off. I am going to trust that the right decisions will be made into the future. It appears our guys are fighting to remain Knicks as well.

On Al, what are the chances he accepts less money to stay in the perfect situation for him?

i don't think Donnie will be done making moves until he believes this team is capable of winning a title, bottomline... whether he views D Lee as a guy he thinks will be part of that championship winning formula is anyone's guess, but signs point to the fact that he doesn't if u consider why he tried to trade him last year & why he hasn't signed him to a contract extension yet... his opinion might have changed after seeing how well Lee's been playing w/Duhon ever since Zach was traded tho... but i know for sure that Donnie loves Al Harrington & i personally feel like Al is the guy that Donnie & MDA envision being here after 2010 & beyond if anything because he's a much more versatile player w/much better range offensively, & is a better defender besides... i dunno how many players out there can rebound & finish the way D Lee can but his game is still very limited & i think if Donnie finds an opportunity to trade him & get a high lottery pick for this draft he's going to take it.

I love DLee but........My guess is that one of the guys we obtain is going to be a PF/Center. My guess is this makes D.Lee more valuable in trade than on the roster with the salary he is going to be asking for. The timing on that one is going to be huge.

TMS wrote:we shoulda traded Lee & Nate last year when we had a pick like i said.

Yeah, definitely should have traded Nate. We still should trade him.

I thought the east would be tougher this year and it actually looks worse. That should give us the break we need to get back in this and get a spot this time.

Someone has to bring that pic back if we make a run at the playoffs.

Ira wrote:

s3231 wrote:A little off topic but does anyone remember that "Back to the Playoffs" pic that had Larry Brown, Isiah, and Steph in it? It was a spoof of "Back to the Future" and was probably one of the funniest pictures I've ever seen posted on this site.

Someone has to bring that pic back if we make a run at the playoffs.

I don't remember it, but I'd like to see it. Who came up with that one?

I honestly have no idea who made it. I was looking for it the other day though and couldn't find it. I remember at one point I used it as a wallpaper on my old laptop, haha.