CrushAlot wrote:Boris Diaw said he felt like the 'system' allowed him to score like he did in Phoenix. He also said a ton of positives about Nash. I really don't think it is the 'system' and the coach as much as it was the point guard. It certainly helped that the roster was stacked in Phoenix when Nash was there. From Wojo's article

Diaw had gone for 27 points and six assists to deliver the Knicks a 118-110 defeat. After one of the most embarrassing losses of D’Antoni’s uninspiring run as Knicks coach, Diaw reflected, “It makes me remember the way we played in Phoenix.”

Yes, they’ll always have Phoenix. They’ll always have those memories together. And they’ll always have this truth about their NBA careers: Without Steve Nash, nothing was ever the same again.

“There’s no two like Steve in the world,” Diaw said. “You’ve got to be able to adapt. The reactions are made in a tenth of a second – the reactions, the readings. It’s a lot of cuts, a lot of screens. You’ve got to read pretty quickly, and Steve Nash was the best at it.

“He still is, in my opinion.”

More from Wojo:

So, Boris Diaw’s belly jiggled, the ball amazingly kept falling into the basket, and Diaw owed it all to his old coach. This is your life, Mike D’Antoni. Steve Nash is gone, and nothing will ever be the same again.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-wojnarowski_mike_dantoni_knicks_bobcats_nba_010512

What is the point you're trying to make here? Is it that it was ALL NASH and not anything to do with D'Antoni? If that's you're point then tell me this how do the stats back up what you're saying?

Hollinger Stats - Offensive Efficiency
RK  TEAM	PACE	AST	TO	ORR	DRR	REBR	EFF FG%	TS%	OFF EFF	DEF EFF
1  Denver	97.9	15.4	23.2	23.9	75.4	50.4	52.6	57.4	109.5	104.8
2  San Antonio	94.6	15.9	22.7	24.9	74.6	50.4	52.7	56.7	109.4	102.8
3  Miami	93.2	14.6	23.8	25.2	75.5	51.8	52.4	57.3	109.3	100.7
4  Okl City	95.3	14.4	23.2	27.4	73.6	51.3	50.1	56.1	108.6	104.0
5  New York	98.1	14.9	22.4	24.2	71.9	47.9	51.3	56.1	108.3	106.9
6  Houston	96.9	16.2	22.0	27.4	72.7	50.0	50.3	55.0	108.0	106.2
7  LA Lakers	93.4	15.6	22.0	29.2	72.3	51.5	50.2	54.5	107.9	101.3
8  Dallas	93.4	17.0	23.9	24.1	74.8	50.4	52.5	56.5	107.6	102.3
9  Phoenix	96.8	16.2	23.3	23.7	71.6	47.6	52.2	55.9	107.0	107.4
10 Orlando	93.5	14.3	25.0	26.1	76.9	52.1	52.1	55.5	105.7	99.1

See you can spout garbage all day but in the end you have to back it up with something verifiable. The team is struggling early but once they get on the same page this team should be a tough team to deal with. It's not helping that we don't have single worthwhile PG right now. We have to hope that B. Diddy gets healthy cuz that's the one limiting factor in terms of the offense. The team struggled early last year too and yet ended up one of the top teams in the NBA in terms of offense. WITHOUT a Steve Nash level PG!!!

Coach should not have to motivate his professional players.

Nalod wrote:Didn't we do this "Motivation" thing with Larry?

Coach should not have to motivate his professional players.

franco12 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Nalod wrote:Didn't we do this "Motivation" thing with Larry?

Coach should not have to motivate his professional players.

But Dolan's specialty is acquiring players who need help with motivation!

motivation is something every nba player needs- Kobe needs it, MJ needed it- now, they were to a large degree, self motivated, but they still needed to be tweaked occasionally.

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Nalod wrote:Didn't we do this "Motivation" thing with Larry?

Coach should not have to motivate his professional players.

But Dolan's specialty is acquiring players who need help with motivation!

Tyson, STAT, Melo and Shump and even TD have not been players known to need motivation. Perhaps STAT and Melo on D, but overall they are not players that need motivating. We do need a floor leader tho. That's why they've taken a chance on Davis. They know that TD isn't that guy. You can't expect a team to thrive without having a coach on the floor. Right now the team doesn't have one at all. STAT and Tyson are finishers, not creators. Melo and Shump can get their own offense, but aren't really setup guys, tho they can do it, that's not their best trait.

A coach is there to try and light a fire under guys and you have your other coaches doing it too, but ultimately the PLAYERS have to pick it up. I will say that players can look tentative when they're unsure or lacking confidence and some of our guys are suffering from that. As a team no one is fully confident in what's going on yet. That chemistry just isn't there. Once everyone knows what they're doing and they can trust each other, knowing that the other player has his back then you'll see the team playing well. Clearly that hasn't happened yet.

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Nalod wrote:Didn't we do this "Motivation" thing with Larry?

Coach should not have to motivate his professional players.

But Dolan's specialty is acquiring players who need help with motivation!

Tyson, STAT, Melo and Shump and even TD have not been players known to need motivation. Perhaps STAT and Melo on D, but overall they are not players that need motivating. We do need a floor leader tho. That's why they've taken a chance on Davis. They know that TD isn't that guy. You can't expect a team to thrive without having a coach on the floor. Right now the team doesn't have one at all. STAT and Tyson are finishers, not creators. Melo and Shump can get their own offense, but aren't really setup guys, tho they can do it, that's not their best trait.

A coach is there to try and light a fire under guys and you have your other coaches doing it too, but ultimately the PLAYERS have to pick it up. I will say that players can look tentative when they're unsure or lacking confidence and some of our guys are suffering from that. As a team no one is fully confident in what's going on yet. That chemistry just isn't there. Once everyone knows what they're doing and they can trust each other, knowing that the other player has his back then you'll see the team playing well. Clearly that hasn't happened yet.

OK, to clarify, Dolan's specialty is acquiring players who need help with motivation to play defense and team-oriented offense. I agree that many of the players he's acquired do not need help finding motivation to pump up their individual scoring stats.

I'll tell you this much, you'll be eating major crow if MDA ever gets a good PG! Up to this point he's never had a good PG that got a chance to stay in this system for a few years, master the system and be his coach on the floor. ALL THE CRAP people lay on the guy and he's been working with both hands tied behind his back. SIXTY FIVE F'n players, awful to decent PG's none of which were pure passers, none of them staying long and people are judging this guy like he's had it good here. Bull!!! SHOW ME ANOTHER COACH THAT HAS BEEN IN A SIMILAR SITUATION AND DONE WELL!

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Nalod wrote:Didn't we do this "Motivation" thing with Larry?

Coach should not have to motivate his professional players.

But Dolan's specialty is acquiring players who need help with motivation!

Tyson, STAT, Melo and Shump and even TD have not been players known to need motivation. Perhaps STAT and Melo on D, but overall they are not players that need motivating. We do need a floor leader tho. That's why they've taken a chance on Davis. They know that TD isn't that guy. You can't expect a team to thrive without having a coach on the floor. Right now the team doesn't have one at all. STAT and Tyson are finishers, not creators. Melo and Shump can get their own offense, but aren't really setup guys, tho they can do it, that's not their best trait.

A coach is there to try and light a fire under guys and you have your other coaches doing it too, but ultimately the PLAYERS have to pick it up. I will say that players can look tentative when they're unsure or lacking confidence and some of our guys are suffering from that. As a team no one is fully confident in what's going on yet. That chemistry just isn't there. Once everyone knows what they're doing and they can trust each other, knowing that the other player has his back then you'll see the team playing well. Clearly that hasn't happened yet.

OK, to clarify, Dolan's specialty is acquiring players who need help with motivation to play defense and team-oriented offense. I agree that many of the players he's acquired do not need help finding motivation to pump up their individual scoring stats.

I'll tell you this much, you'll be eating major crow if MDA ever gets a good PG! Up to this point he's never had a good PG that got a chance to stay in this system for a few years, master the system and be his coach on the floor. ALL THE CRAP people lay on the guy and he's been working with both hands tied behind his back. SIXTY FIVE F'n players, awful to decent PG's none of which were pure passers, none of them staying long and people are judging this guy like he's had it good here. Bull!!! SHOW ME ANOTHER COACH THAT HAS BEEN IN A SIMILAR SITUATION AND DONE WELL!

What about MDA's Defense? He's been coaching 8 season's and has never put out a defense that isn't ranked better than 23 in points allowed. Infact except for two season's his defenses have been ranked 25 or worst in points allowed. Being dead last in Phx one season and dead last here. What's your excuse for that? nixluva you are by far the biggest MDA fan boy on this site. What's your response for his horrible D's? "He needs time and consistency" ? I want to hear what your excuse is?

nixluva wrote:

colombian0725 wrote:Dude we are never going to win with MDA. We need to find another coach. Same ole song with MDA. "gel and blah blah blah" This team has not shown any improvement. We have gotten blown out in all the games we lost expect for one to Lottery teams. With our line up we shouldn't be a bottom team. We look like a lottery team. Forget the gel and chemistry. This team is a poorly coached team plain and simple. The sooner we make a coaching change the sooner this team will gel and have chemistry. This is a bad relationship no matter how many times you try to make excuses and make things work. It's a bad relationship. We have all been in some of those.

So have you just started watching Knicks games or did you not see the team get off to a slow start last year and still become a playoff team? The potential of this team is higher than last years team. Just cuz they're looking out of synch early doesn't mean that they won't get their act together and be one of the top teams in the East. Or perhaps you'd prefer we just go with even more changes and fire D'Antoni and start over again?

The slow start is being used to justify MDA? Unbeleivable. Slow starts and MDA are due to disorganization, no scouting and no plan. Slow starts are a BAD thing. I would love to change that and the whole no defense and rebounding thing. There are teams with alot of turnnover in the league and not all of them start out like crap.

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Nalod wrote:Didn't we do this "Motivation" thing with Larry?

Coach should not have to motivate his professional players.

But Dolan's specialty is acquiring players who need help with motivation!

Tyson, STAT, Melo and Shump and even TD have not been players known to need motivation. Perhaps STAT and Melo on D, but overall they are not players that need motivating. We do need a floor leader tho. That's why they've taken a chance on Davis. They know that TD isn't that guy. You can't expect a team to thrive without having a coach on the floor. Right now the team doesn't have one at all. STAT and Tyson are finishers, not creators. Melo and Shump can get their own offense, but aren't really setup guys, tho they can do it, that's not their best trait.

A coach is there to try and light a fire under guys and you have your other coaches doing it too, but ultimately the PLAYERS have to pick it up. I will say that players can look tentative when they're unsure or lacking confidence and some of our guys are suffering from that. As a team no one is fully confident in what's going on yet. That chemistry just isn't there. Once everyone knows what they're doing and they can trust each other, knowing that the other player has his back then you'll see the team playing well. Clearly that hasn't happened yet.

OK, to clarify, Dolan's specialty is acquiring players who need help with motivation to play defense and team-oriented offense. I agree that many of the players he's acquired do not need help finding motivation to pump up their individual scoring stats.

I'll tell you this much, you'll be eating major crow if MDA ever gets a good PG! Up to this point he's never had a good PG that got a chance to stay in this system for a few years, master the system and be his coach on the floor. ALL THE CRAP people lay on the guy and he's been working with both hands tied behind his back. SIXTY FIVE F'n players, awful to decent PG's none of which were pure passers, none of them staying long and people are judging this guy like he's had it good here. Bull!!! SHOW ME ANOTHER COACH THAT HAS BEEN IN A SIMILAR SITUATION AND DONE WELL!

nixluva wrote:

nykshaknbake wrote:The minimum expectations with this roster is 2nd round of playoffs lose in a competitive series. Most NBA coaches should achieve that with this roster. So unless you think MDA will have us over the Bulls or Heat I'm not sure how much crow there is to feed. Every NBA team is different and has its challenges. MDA has not been handed a ****ty roster! I'm sorry but he defeintly doesn't have the biggest challenge in the NBA. There are teams with new rosters every year that come out and do very well. Sometimes even better than the old rosters(gasp!)

No one said that MDA has a bad roster. All that anyone has said is that we don't have a PG right now. With this roster a good PG is EXTREMELY important. Most of the players we have rely on a PG to set them up. Some teams have more players that can create their own shots. Early on the team lacks chemistry on Defense and Offense. Some teams will jump out to a good start and then falter and some teams will start slow and be very good at the end.

My main point is that things will eventually stabilize and with a bit of luck Davis will be able to get healthy and then it's a different team if he can regain his normal level of play. 60 more games to go and I'm saying that the coach will be able to get this team going and playing at a higher level.

So how many games do we wait? If the next 20-25 games the knicks stink, what do we do? I know you believe in MDA and I respect that but nobody is safe when a team is faltering.

Bonn1997 wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:

nixluva wrote:

nykshaknbake wrote:The minimum expectations with this roster is 2nd round of playoffs lose in a competitive series. Most NBA coaches should achieve that with this roster. So unless you think MDA will have us over the Bulls or Heat I'm not sure how much crow there is to feed. Every NBA team is different and has its challenges. MDA has not been handed a ****ty roster! I'm sorry but he defeintly doesn't have the biggest challenge in the NBA. There are teams with new rosters every year that come out and do very well. Sometimes even better than the old rosters(gasp!)

No one said that MDA has a bad roster. All that anyone has said is that we don't have a PG right now. With this roster a good PG is EXTREMELY important. Most of the players we have rely on a PG to set them up. Some teams have more players that can create their own shots. Early on the team lacks chemistry on Defense and Offense. Some teams will jump out to a good start and then falter and some teams will start slow and be very good at the end.

My main point is that things will eventually stabilize and with a bit of luck Davis will be able to get healthy and then it's a different team if he can regain his normal level of play. 60 more games to go and I'm saying that the coach will be able to get this team going and playing at a higher level.

So how many games do we wait? If the next 20-25 games the knicks stink, what do we do? I know you believe in MDA and I respect that but nobody is safe when a team is faltering.

According to the apologists, you have to give it at least one to two seasons after every major change - which is another way of saying that you have to wait forever.

Then we shoulda kept Isiah and Larry brown forever