(Post of The Freakin' Week)

Uptown wrote:To say Melo didn't play hard at all until after MDA was fired is a joke. Not only did he try, but he tried on different outfits, whatever outfit he needed to wear to help the team win, and when the losses piled up, he along with his crew became disheartened with the Tailor. Melo realized that the Tailor, though a nice guy and the rep of putting together pretty outfits to look at, the main outfit he wanted Melo to suit up in, didn't fit. And the stubborn Tailor didn't want to adjust the outfit eventhough that should be a job requirement.

Coaches wear alot of hats. Coach, teacher, Psychologist, Saleasman, etc. The players are buying what Woodson is selling, and credit goes to Woodson for that.

Its not that Melo didn't try, he tried in a variety of ways to help the team win. Melo started the year playing point forward, a position he wasn't comfortable in but did it for the sake of the team. For the first time in his career, a usual scoring forward had to get his own and help everyone else get thiers too. He struggled in his new role, no doubt, but he tried.

Speaking of playing hard, Melo won the Boston game on Christmas. Nevermind that he dropped 37, but he made the key baskets down the stretch to bring us back and seal the deal. He had games of 30+ in 3 straight games. Difficult to do that when you dont play hard. Despite scoring the ball, we were still losing so he stepped back, tried to incorportate his teammates more, moved the ball, and decreased his shot attempts. Still the L's piled up. Why did they pile up? Because Stat wasn't in shape, Feilds coulnd't buy a jumper and was playing up and down like the 2nd rounder he is, Douglas was horrible, Shump is a rook and Bibby is a shell of himself. JR was still in China, Lin was on the end of the bench, Davis was rehabing and JJ2 was still in and out of the line up. Not to mention, our coach would start each post game conference with After Linsanity and Melo came back, I saw effort from Melo in Milwaukee, Boston (he made two potential game winners but our genius of a coach loss that game for us with the stupid timeout, then not fouling), in Chi, in San An, in Miami, etc. I will admit that Melo looked disheartened in the Dallas game after getting ignored by his teammates when he was in good scoring position.

To say that Melo is the sole reason why weren't winning before is short-sided, agenda-driven, ignorant to the nuances of the coaches job and just looking to absolve to coach. To blame Melo, solely for the lack of defense the team played before would mean you must give Melo all the credit for defensive surge the entire team is having now. Right? Of course not. Melo isn't single handedly holding teams to below 90 since MDA walked away. The team is. Woodsons team to be exact. Melo has looked better offensively because the Woodson has recognized when most of have been calling for all season. Melo isn't Shawne williams, so Woodson moved him from behind the 3 point line and put him in the post where he belongs. But on top of the that, the priorities have changed. No more in the post game conference do we here our coach say, "We need more floor spacing and ball movement," even if the other team scored over 100-110 pts.

No more eqaul opportunity offense, as Woodson is playing to his best players strenghts as it should be. And mainly, he's holding his players, including Melo, accountable. The team tried out what MDA was selling and it didn't work out. Woodson's brand has the whole team buying in and its beautiful to watch.

Two Thumbs Up

No Doubt.

Absolutely.

What He Said.

Speaking of playing to players strengths - if defense is the Special of The Day, look for Iman Shumpert to receive additional opportunities to flourish. Woodson saw the opportunity to go with the hot hand (direct from the Book Of Red Holzman) and feature Shump, and he responded with the best point output of his brief career.

Shump could become known as the Teacher's Pet.

misterearl wrote:Man Crush City

(Post of The Freakin' Week)

Uptown wrote:To say Melo didn't play hard at all until after MDA was fired is a joke. Not only did he try, but he tried on different outfits, whatever outfit he needed to wear to help the team win, and when the losses piled up, he along with his crew became disheartened with the Tailor. Melo realized that the Tailor, though a nice guy and the rep of putting together pretty outfits to look at, the main outfit he wanted Melo to suit up in, didn't fit. And the stubborn Tailor didn't want to adjust the outfit eventhough that should be a job requirement.

Coaches wear alot of hats. Coach, teacher, Psychologist, Saleasman, etc. The players are buying what Woodson is selling, and credit goes to Woodson for that.

Its not that Melo didn't try, he tried in a variety of ways to help the team win. Melo started the year playing point forward, a position he wasn't comfortable in but did it for the sake of the team. For the first time in his career, a usual scoring forward had to get his own and help everyone else get thiers too. He struggled in his new role, no doubt, but he tried.

Speaking of playing hard, Melo won the Boston game on Christmas. Nevermind that he dropped 37, but he made the key baskets down the stretch to bring us back and seal the deal. He had games of 30+ in 3 straight games. Difficult to do that when you dont play hard. Despite scoring the ball, we were still losing so he stepped back, tried to incorportate his teammates more, moved the ball, and decreased his shot attempts. Still the L's piled up. Why did they pile up? Because Stat wasn't in shape, Feilds coulnd't buy a jumper and was playing up and down like the 2nd rounder he is, Douglas was horrible, Shump is a rook and Bibby is a shell of himself. JR was still in China, Lin was on the end of the bench, Davis was rehabing and JJ2 was still in and out of the line up. Not to mention, our coach would start each post game conference with After Linsanity and Melo came back, I saw effort from Melo in Milwaukee, Boston (he made two potential game winners but our genius of a coach loss that game for us with the stupid timeout, then not fouling), in Chi, in San An, in Miami, etc. I will admit that Melo looked disheartened in the Dallas game after getting ignored by his teammates when he was in good scoring position.

To say that Melo is the sole reason why weren't winning before is short-sided, agenda-driven, ignorant to the nuances of the coaches job and just looking to absolve to coach. To blame Melo, solely for the lack of defense the team played before would mean you must give Melo all the credit for defensive surge the entire team is having now. Right? Of course not. Melo isn't single handedly holding teams to below 90 since MDA walked away. The team is. Woodsons team to be exact. Melo has looked better offensively because the Woodson has recognized when most of have been calling for all season. Melo isn't Shawne williams, so Woodson moved him from behind the 3 point line and put him in the post where he belongs. But on top of the that, the priorities have changed. No more in the post game conference do we here our coach say, "We need more floor spacing and ball movement," even if the other team scored over 100-110 pts.

No more eqaul opportunity offense, as Woodson is playing to his best players strenghts as it should be. And mainly, he's holding his players, including Melo, accountable. The team tried out what MDA was selling and it didn't work out. Woodson's brand has the whole team buying in and its beautiful to watch.

Two Thumbs Up

No Doubt.

Absolutely.

What He Said.

Speaking of playing to players strengths - if defense is the Special of The Day, look for Iman Shumpert to receive additional opportunities to flourish. Woodson saw the opportunity to go with the hot hand (direct from the Book Of Red Holzman) and feature Shump, and he responded with the best point output of his brief career.

Shump could become known as the Teacher's Pet.

THEONE723 wrote:Post of the week is a bit steep lol. i agree with some of his point but i think he still a little biased about melo. I think melo did try at times but he should have put more effort

TheOne723 - if there are any elements of Uptown's thesis that you disagree with, you better come stronger than that with a rebuttal of exact passages that you find flawed. If you determine there is bias towards Melo, point it out.

"Some of his point" is about as weak as it gets.

Just saying.

misterearl wrote:bippity - your one-size-fits-all blanket statements are patently false.

Using words like "many of you" or calling people fools is not only sloppy, it's tacky.

For the record, "everyone" did NOT turn on D'Antoni.

He quit.

Misterearl: You've been posting with me long enough to know that my one-size-fits-all blanket statements are part of my persona and will never go away. All of you people know this by now, but none of you have figured it out yet.

And for the record, I am correct, and all of you fools will turn on Woodson soon enough. Book it.

Now that Woody is in place I'm hoping that or front office supports him to the end. Get him the players he wants!! If a new GM tomorrow comes in and guts this team and replaces them with players that Woodson doesn't want, our attitude should not be "make it work", it should be, why does our front office hate our coaches so much. Let's get this together finally and make it work.

Oh and for the record, nothing has changed, ALL OF YOU fools will turn on Woodson. I give it 2 years tops before I'm called a Woodson lover and ALL OF YOU GUYS are chanting Fire Woody!

Bippity10 wrote:Now, back to the issue at hand. I do not like D'antoni and never did. He did quit on us, just like Earl said. I hated his style and am relieved to be moving on. That being said he came here under difficult circumstances, with horrible rosters and worked hard for us. Despite hating his coaching and his style I could recognize that. I also recognize that he has had a philosophy since birth. He has never changed. By trading away his players and forcing Carmelo on him we undermined his power. He was a goner. If we were planning on doing that we should have fired him and moved on before the season instead of trying to force him to "make it work". This "make it work" approach cost us half a season and possibly a playoff series later on due to the record.

Now that Woody is in place I'm hoping that or front office supports him to the end. Get him the players he wants!! If a new GM tomorrow comes in and guts this team and replaces them with players that Woodson doesn't want, our attitude should not be "make it work", it should be, why does our front office hate our coaches so much. Let's get this together finally and make it work.

Oh and for the record, nothing has changed, ALL OF YOU fools will turn on Woodson. I give it 2 years tops before I'm called a Woodson lover and ALL OF YOU GUYS are chanting Fire Woody!

A man need to be judged for his current work. If he was doing a good job and in 2 years the players tune him out, he's got to go!

As far as MDA, saying that this is his way and he can't change because he was sort of born that way is just making excuses for him. He needed to change just like Pat Riley changed and he did not and would not. That is his fault and not the front offices fault. Coaches need to be held accountable as well. That is like saying that its not Amare's fault that he does not play defense because he has never played defense and no coach ever taught him how to play defense or held him accountable for it.

MDA is now gone.

And, Amare actually busted his ass defensively since.

"This is the way he is" logic does not work in NY. You need to be a chameleon.

Uptown wrote:To say Melo didn't play hard at all until after MDA was fired is a joke. Not only did he try, but he tried on different outfits, whatever outfit he needed to wear to help the team win, and when the losses piled up, he along with his crew became disheartened with the Tailor. Melo realized that the Tailor, though a nice guy and the rep of putting together pretty outfits to look at, the main outfit he wanted Melo to suit up in, didn't fit. And the stubborn Tailor didn't want to adjust the outfit eventhough that should be a job requirement.

Coaches wear alot of hats. Coach, teacher, Psychologist, Saleasman, etc. The players are buying what Woodson is selling, and credit goes to Woodson for that.

Its not that Melo didn't try, he tried in a variety of ways to help the team win. Melo started the year playing point forward, a position he wasn't comfortable in but did it for the sake of the team. For the first time in his career, a usual scoring forward had to get his own and help everyone else get thiers too. He struggled in his new role, no doubt, but he tried.

Speaking of playing hard, Melo won the Boston game on Christmas. Nevermind that he dropped 37, but he made the key baskets down the stretch to bring us back and seal the deal. He had games of 30+ in 3 straight games. Difficult to do that when you dont play hard. Despite scoring the ball, we were still losing so he stepped back, tried to incorportate his teammates more, moved the ball, and decreased his shot attempts. Still the L's piled up. Why did they pile up? Because Stat wasn't in shape, Feilds coulnd't buy a jumper and was playing up and down like the 2nd rounder he is, Douglas was horrible, Shump is a rook and Bibby is a shell of himself. JR was still in China, Lin was on the end of the bench, Davis was rehabing and JJ2 was still in and out of the line up. Not to mention, our coach would start each post game conference with After Linsanity and Melo came back, I saw effort from Melo in Milwaukee, Boston (he made two potential game winners but our genius of a coach loss that game for us with the stupid timeout, then not fouling), in Chi, in San An, in Miami, etc. I will admit that Melo looked disheartened in the Dallas game after getting ignored by his teammates when he was in good scoring position.

To say that Melo is the sole reason why weren't winning before is short-sided, agenda-driven, ignorant to the nuances of the coaches job and just looking to absolve to coach. To blame Melo, solely for the lack of defense the team played before would mean you must give Melo all the credit for defensive surge the entire team is having now. Right? Of course not. Melo isn't single handedly holding teams to below 90 since MDA walked away. The team is. Woodsons team to be exact. Melo has looked better offensively because the Woodson has recognized when most of have been calling for all season. Melo isn't Shawne williams, so Woodson moved him from behind the 3 point line and put him in hte post where he belongs. But ontop of the that, the priorities have changed. No more in the post game conference do we here our coach say, "We need more floor spacing and ball movement," even if the other team scored over 100-110 pts.

No more eqaul opportunity offense, as Woodson is playing to his best players strenghts as it should be. And mainly, he's holding his players, including Melo, accountable. The team tried out what MDA was selling and it didn't work out. Woodson's brand has the whole team buying in and its beautiful to watch.

And I can say that I like somethings MDA did. Lin who have been a harder find if he was not playing for MDA or JJ2 who he stuck with for what ever reason, is now playing good this year. But overall too ridged to be an "offensive genius" or a good coach.

mrKnickShot wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:Now, back to the issue at hand. I do not like D'antoni and never did. He did quit on us, just like Earl said. I hated his style and am relieved to be moving on. That being said he came here under difficult circumstances, with horrible rosters and worked hard for us. Despite hating his coaching and his style I could recognize that. I also recognize that he has had a philosophy since birth. He has never changed. By trading away his players and forcing Carmelo on him we undermined his power. He was a goner. If we were planning on doing that we should have fired him and moved on before the season instead of trying to force him to "make it work". This "make it work" approach cost us half a season and possibly a playoff series later on due to the record.

Now that Woody is in place I'm hoping that or front office supports him to the end. Get him the players he wants!! If a new GM tomorrow comes in and guts this team and replaces them with players that Woodson doesn't want, our attitude should not be "make it work", it should be, why does our front office hate our coaches so much. Let's get this together finally and make it work.

Oh and for the record, nothing has changed, ALL OF YOU fools will turn on Woodson. I give it 2 years tops before I'm called a Woodson lover and ALL OF YOU GUYS are chanting Fire Woody!

A man need to be judged for his current work. If he was doing a good job and in 2 years the players tune him out, he's got to go!

As far as MDA, saying that this is his way and he can't change because he was sort of born that way is just making excuses for him. He needed to change just like Pat Riley changed and he did not and would not. That is his fault and not the front offices fault. Coaches need to be held accountable as well. That is like saying that its not Amare's fault that he does not play defense because he has never played defense and no coach ever taught him how to play defense or held him accountable for it.

MDA is now gone.

And, Amare actually busted his ass defensively since.

"This is the way he is" logic does not work in NY. You need to be a chameleon.

You are missing the point. Yes a coach should be able to adapt to his players and the great ones do. But let's look at two counter arguments.

1.) A great player should be able to adapt to any coach and any style as well. No different than the coach. Outside of physical constraints like a big man getting up and down the floor, or a small guy playing a post up game, basketball is basketball. You should be able to handle any style.

2.) We hired a coach that had a specific systme that he believed in. We knew that his style would not change. At least the fans on this website knew it. The front office apparently didn't. You either don't hire him, or you get players that fit his style, like Walsh did. You don't hire a guy for his philosophy and then bring in players that don't fit. The Anthony/D'Antoni pairing was a match made in hell. We all knew it. To me, when situations like that arise the accountability falls on the front office. It's there job to help build a cohesive team, not jam players in to a coaches face. I do not place this blame on D'Antoni or Carmelo. They were both placed in a tough spot.

3.) Why do all of you guys continue to bring Pat Riley in to this argument? D'Antoni is not Pat Riley and should not be compared to Pat Riley. He is what he is, and that's who we hired. If we wanted Pat Riley we should have hired Pat Riley.

4.) Lastly, you say a man is judged by his work. Does this not also include the players?? Or is it always the coaches responsibility? Michael Jordan never needed a coach to get him to play hard on defense or hustle back after he turned the ball over. He just did it, because that's what he does. It's innate. A few of our guys need the situation to be perfect for them in order to give the maximum effort. they need to be pushed in order to hustle on defense and/or give their all. That's fragile ground and never leads to a championship. That attitude has to change if you ever want a title.

Bippity10 wrote:Allan Houston example:

In Detroit Allan Houston's game was shooting on the move, whether it was off the dribble or off the pick his entire game was centered around that. He signs a free agent contract with us and all of a sudden he's in this iso game. Where he stood in one spot and waited for the occassional once in a blue moon pass from Patrick. I remember him talking about it during an interview. Never once did he complain about Van Gundy's style and how it's not sutied for his talents. Instead he said "I'm not used to taking stand still jumpers, I need to learn to take them in order to open the floor for Patrick". Half a year later he's hitting standstill jumpers like he invented them. The adaptation should go both ways. In a team game, there are no scapegoats. It's everyone's responsibility to make it work.

right now we are making it work. Everyone is responding to Woodson. Hope it lasts for ever. But there is a certain fragility to the Woodson situation that I'm not sure everyone realizes exists.

Only fragility resides in Amare's back, Lin's knee, and Melo's balls. Everyone is pouring their heart out for this guy, something that was missing with MDA even during Linsanity.