sidsanders wrote:it would have been nice for him to get in more meaningful minutes earlier in the season. that doesnt have to imply starts, just coming off the bench in non-garbage time.

yup... just seeing regular run, 15-20+ a night to start the season like he was seeing in late November until he was ready to take over the starting role... we were losing games so MDA chose to go w/the vets at that point, but in the long run i think we would have been better off had TD & Hill been integrated into more key roles in the gameplan.

TMS wrote:

martin wrote:

TMS wrote:

Marv wrote:Martin, I went to the garden on November 9th for the utah game. Toney Douglas got 23 minutes of PT, shot 9-14, including 3-7 3’s. he had 21 points, 2 boards, an assist and 2 steals.

I went back 2 nights later for the game against Atlanta. He got 36 minutes, scored 23 points on 10-19 including 2-6 3’s, had 4 boards and an assist.

In both games he was by far the most impactful player in a knick uniform. he was a beast on defense, threw his body on the floor for every loose ball, pushed the pace and was very aggressive on offense. His teammates were all visibly galvanized by his time on the floor. And the garden was up and buzzing at his play.

It was the middle of a 4 game span where d’antoni gave him an average of 26 minutes per game. He responded with 19 ppg on 55% shooting and 45% of 3’s (9-20).

This was immediately followed by diminished PT that included 25 – that’s right 25 – DNP’s.

I agree that he’s playing the point much better now than he was earlier in the season.

I totally disagree that he shouldn’t have been a major part of the rotation the entire season. I see zero justification for d’antoni not playing a guy who was possibly your best player and certainly your best guard. Not to mention your first or second best 3-point shooter when you want to feature that part of your offense. I think his learning curve would have been that much higher had he been playing and I think that d’antoini wouldn’t have wasted an asset all year and featured absolutely horrible guard play.

that's what i'm sayin... these cats are allergic to any criticisms thrown at our head coach... doesn't matter what he does, people have it set in their minds this guy has managed this rotation & roster correctly from jump... my eyes tell me different... when your team is sorely lacking in defense it makes sense to play your best defensive player regularly in the rotation... when you invest $4 million & a #8 lottery pick into drafting 2 kids we obviously believed in on draft night, it makes sense to play those kids especially when our expectations coming into this season should have been tempered by the lack of talent on this roster... people trying to justify throwing the season away by giving Chris Duhon & Jefferies 40+ a night even after we were completely out of the playoff hunt... didn't hear any objections to the "play the kids" plan at the beginning of the season, but i guess everyone has different points of view of how they wanted to see this team handled this season... i wanted the kids to get run, #1 priority coming into this season... in my eyes, that should have been the plan from the get go... took MDA long enough to realize it.

I hope you don't lump me in with "these cats" who think that MDA has done everything perfectly. In fact, I don't think ANYONE would say that or has said that, so I don't know why you would think otherwise.

Doesn't mean I think Toney should have started the whole year either though. He just wasn't ready. Could he have benefited from starting the whole year? Perhaps.

when u post an article contradicting my "he should have been playing all year" mantra, it leads me to believe you disagree w/me... i said this before the season even began, i wanted to see our young kids getting regular minutes in the rotation... at absolute best w/the veterans playing i didn't see any more than 35 wins... when u pretty much know ur team won't be contending for playoffs this season u naturally want to see your rookies getting playing time... to me, developing the youth should take #1 priority on a rebuilding team.

all I put was that "it was another angle"... right before I posted the article. Don't take that for more than it's worth. And then a couple of posts later I responded to Marv: "I am not trying to put up an excuse for MDA, just forwarding what a guy who professionally offers his opinion to everyone said."

Gotta read more carefully man and don't make too many assumptions. It was just another article with a different viewpoint, not mine.

My usual defense of MDA was that he was seeing things in practice that none of use were able to see, but Douglas seemed to cut it when given actual game time, so I was confused.

There was a point in the season where the possibility of making the playoffs became a mirage, Duhon was playing terrible, so there was nothing to keep MDA from experimenting with Douglas, and that was the point when I really became confused with MDA's decision making.

Hell, you can make a case that if Hill had gotten more minutes and shown something, we might have kept him, and found another way to rid ourselves of Jeffries (or just accepted that we would have him and his contract next year), or we might not have had to give up a #1 in the Houston trade because Hill's value would have been pumped up.

You look at MDA now and he seems more relaxed and willing to play around with playing time now that he has come to terms with the idea that we are not making the playoffs. I wish that we had a chance to see Hill develop, but it is great that we have a nice chunk of games to see what Douglas can do.