franco12 wrote:

Allanfan20 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:I think a more interesting comparison is D'Antoni's coaching record with Steve Nash versus his record without.

I can't go by this the way others can. What would Pat Riley be without all of his HOFers? Phil Jackson and MJ and Kobe? Greg Popovic without Tim Duncan?

To be a great coach for a great team, you need the great players. Before this season, we had NONE, and it's no secret that the type of great player MDA especially needed was a PG. Whether that PG has to be a HOFer or not, remains to be seen, but it's silly to compare his two eras when MDA hasn't even had a team the past two years.

It looks like he does now though, so we'll see how much they buy into playing defense and working together to make his offense work.

Pat Riley changed up his style when he got to the Knicks and took a roster with a 2nd tier star (Ewing) and a bunch of role players and made it to the finals and repeatedly challenged the best player in a generation. All playing a different style of basketball from what he won with Showtime.

D'Antoni has yet to really make any changes to his style or system.

Will he go 9 deep, or lean on 7 guys?

Why did Duhon start over Douglas, when it was clear that Duhon was finished and some bum off the street could do a better job?

D'Antoni has shown he has his favorites, and if he doesn't like them, he doesn't bother trying to get them to buy in to what he is trying to do.

Just so you know where I am coming from on this- I loved D'Antoni in Phoenix, loved when we got him and I love his tell it like it is personality.

However, I don't like his inflexibility, and his failure to adapt to personnel.

I hope he changes up a bit, and gets this team to perform. I would like nothing more.

Well to start, I don't even think Tony Douglas was ready to play until the end of the season, last season, and he did, and if you remember, Duhon was benched a lot until it was obvious that Sergio Rodriguez just sucked. TD did get playing time though.

In terms of style of play and adjustment, who's he going to adjust to? He had a bunch of guys who don't play hard on defense, 1 rookie that wasn't quite ready to play until the end, another rookie who I don't feel gave it his all (Until we traded him for a gimpy McGrady) and a bunch of other mediocre players who gave it their all but were mediocre, like Duhon and Jefferies. Harrington was our best scorer, but he's a one on one scorer and he wouldn't even be a second option on most other teams.

It's not like MDA had much to work with, nor a cast of characters that shared a common identity, like how Ewing, Oakley, Starks and Mason did. People seem to forget that one little thing. Fishmike is right about one thing though. This season will definitely test him out. We don't have a hall of famer PG, but a pretty good one, and we have a team that can definitely gel together and work hard together, or supposedly at least. THIS is the team he has to adjust to now.

EwingsGlass wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:I think a more interesting comparison is D'Antoni's coaching record with Steve Nash versus his record without.

Cause the Suns with Steve Nash were comparable to the Knicks the last two years in terms of talent?

CrushAlot wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:I think a more interesting comparison is D'Antoni's coaching record with Steve Nash versus his record without.

Cause the Suns with Steve Nash were comparable to the Knicks the last two years in terms of talent?

I never said that the Knicks compared to the Suns with Nash. However, I did say that it appears D'Antoni only wins with a mvp, hof point guard and two or three perennial all stars that are able to overcome the lack of preperation, game planning and lack of emphasis on defense. If you saw anything the last two years that convinces you that D'Antoni is a marquee coach please tell me. I think preperation, communication, leadership and adaptability to different players are important qualities that a coach needs to possess if he is going to be successful. A coach can have all of these qualities with a limited roster and still impact, and improve your team and build for the future. D'Antoni had the opportunity to do that last year and didn't do any of it. I am not sure if he mailed it in or is just not capable.

You also have to give the man some credit cuz he didn't need 3 HOF level players to win his Div. and get the WCF's. He only had Nash, Marion, Bell, Diaw & KT for part of the season and still won big. Marion is good, but he's no HOF candidate. The only great player he had was Nash. Diaw was NOTHING when he got him and he gave that guy a role and made it work. He even got good use out of TT. Don't tell me that was anything less than a great coaching job. The guy had a 6-9 and under league team and still kicked a**.

franco12 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:I think a more interesting comparison is D'Antoni's coaching record with Steve Nash versus his record without.

Cause the Suns with Steve Nash were comparable to the Knicks the last two years in terms of talent?

I never said that the Knicks compared to the Suns with Nash. However, I did say that it appears D'Antoni only wins with a mvp, hof point guard and two or three perennial all stars that are able to overcome the lack of preperation, game planning and lack of emphasis on defense. If you saw anything the last two years that convinces you that D'Antoni is a marquee coach please tell me. I think preperation, communication, leadership and adaptability to different players are important qualities that a coach needs to possess if he is going to be successful. A coach can have all of these qualities with a limited roster and still impact, and improve your team and build for the future. D'Antoni had the opportunity to do that last year and didn't do any of it. I am not sure if he mailed it in or is just not capable.

You think both the Top Players who've played under him and the coaches who all speak glowingly of his mental capabilities are all just faking it? The guy can coach. It's gonna be much more evident with some real players that actually want to be here and aren't selfish pigs. You can't expect a coach to just pull miracles out of his butt under the worst circumstances. This is why they changed out almost the entire team.

You also have to give the man some credit cuz he didn't need 3 HOF level players to win his Div. and get the WCF's. He only had Nash, Marion, Bell, Diaw & KT for part of the season and still won big. Marion is good, but he's no HOF candidate. The only great player he had was Nash. Diaw was NOTHING when he got him and he gave that guy a role and made it work. He even got good use out of TT. Don't tell me that was anything less than a great coaching job. The guy had a 6-9 and under league team and still kicked a**.

I have two words for everyone who defends the job that MDA did here the past two years, especially last season:

Don Chaney!

I thought this guy was the worst coach ever, with the least imaginable offense, but the guy got the most out of his players. We can argue the degree to which his team's talent was better than what MDA's had the last two years, but the guy coached effort, and if anyone wants to disagree, you clearly don't remember watching the games.

I don't think anyone criticizing MDA is arguing he should have had more wins - in fact, maybe we could have had less the year prior and we would have gotten Stephen Curry.

To those saying neither Hill nor Douglas were ready, answer me this- what were they supposed to be ready for? We won 29 freakin games, and I think it was obvious to most that we weren't going to sniff play offs. Why not through the rookies out there LIKE EVERY OTHER LOTTERY TEAM DOES????????

Because D'Antoni only likes good rookies? Oh, so sorry, coach, but maybe if you hadn't won a bunch of meaningless games the year prior, you would have had a very good rookie you could have played.

I think most people will agree that if D'Antoni doesn't produce in a big way this year, he could very well be gone at the end of the season.

He actually did play TD for the last month % half, hill sucks, and TD is not a PG, what more do you have to say....

People keep saying we should have gotten Steph Curry (true)but I don't think Hill was a bad choice considering we only had David lee as our one and only Big,The problem came when Hill played scared, lost, and confused...back to the bench.

My biggest gripe with MDA is his lack of communication.

knicks1248 wrote:

franco12 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:I think a more interesting comparison is D'Antoni's coaching record with Steve Nash versus his record without.

Cause the Suns with Steve Nash were comparable to the Knicks the last two years in terms of talent?

I never said that the Knicks compared to the Suns with Nash. However, I did say that it appears D'Antoni only wins with a mvp, hof point guard and two or three perennial all stars that are able to overcome the lack of preperation, game planning and lack of emphasis on defense. If you saw anything the last two years that convinces you that D'Antoni is a marquee coach please tell me. I think preperation, communication, leadership and adaptability to different players are important qualities that a coach needs to possess if he is going to be successful. A coach can have all of these qualities with a limited roster and still impact, and improve your team and build for the future. D'Antoni had the opportunity to do that last year and didn't do any of it. I am not sure if he mailed it in or is just not capable.

You think both the Top Players who've played under him and the coaches who all speak glowingly of his mental capabilities are all just faking it? The guy can coach. It's gonna be much more evident with some real players that actually want to be here and aren't selfish pigs. You can't expect a coach to just pull miracles out of his butt under the worst circumstances. This is why they changed out almost the entire team.

You also have to give the man some credit cuz he didn't need 3 HOF level players to win his Div. and get the WCF's. He only had Nash, Marion, Bell, Diaw & KT for part of the season and still won big. Marion is good, but he's no HOF candidate. The only great player he had was Nash. Diaw was NOTHING when he got him and he gave that guy a role and made it work. He even got good use out of TT. Don't tell me that was anything less than a great coaching job. The guy had a 6-9 and under league team and still kicked a**.

I have two words for everyone who defends the job that MDA did here the past two years, especially last season:

Don Chaney!

I thought this guy was the worst coach ever, with the least imaginable offense, but the guy got the most out of his players. We can argue the degree to which his team's talent was better than what MDA's had the last two years, but the guy coached effort, and if anyone wants to disagree, you clearly don't remember watching the games.

I don't think anyone criticizing MDA is arguing he should have had more wins - in fact, maybe we could have had less the year prior and we would have gotten Stephen Curry.

To those saying neither Hill nor Douglas were ready, answer me this- what were they supposed to be ready for? We won 29 freakin games, and I think it was obvious to most that we weren't going to sniff play offs. Why not through the rookies out there LIKE EVERY OTHER LOTTERY TEAM DOES????????

Because D'Antoni only likes good rookies? Oh, so sorry, coach, but maybe if you hadn't won a bunch of meaningless games the year prior, you would have had a very good rookie you could have played.

I think most people will agree that if D'Antoni doesn't produce in a big way this year, he could very well be gone at the end of the season.

He actually did play TD for the last month % half, hill sucks, and TD is not a PG, what more do you have to say....

People keep saying we should have gotten Steph Curry (true)but I don't think Hill was a bad choice considering we only had David lee as our one and only Big,The problem came when Hill played scared, lost, and confused...back to the bench.

My biggest gripe with MDA is his lack of communication.