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New coach D'Antoni sees Knicks fall spot in draft lottery

Mike D'Antoni On The Knicks' Draft Position
SECAUCUS, N.J. -- If Mike D'Antoni had taken the Chicago Bulls' job, he would have a chance to coach the No. 1 draft pick.

Instead, he came to New York and did what the Knicks have done too often lately: Took a step backward.

The Knicks fell one spot in the NBA draft lottery and will have the No. 6 pick on June 26. They had a 7.6 percent chance of moving up to the top spot and a chance to take Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley.

Once they didn't, D'Antoni said there wasn't much separation after the top couple of players.

"To be honest, there is not a whole lot of difference from three, four, five, six, eight, 10," D'Antoni said. "They are all good players. Now you have to figure out which is the best one and take the one you feel is the best one."

If they keep the pick, the Knicks will try to find someone who can play D'Antoni's style. The former Phoenix coach decided to bring his entertaining offensive system to New York, choosing the Knicks instead of the Bulls, who still haven't hired a coach.

Before the draft, D'Antoni wouldn't say who the Knicks would pick if they won, saying that was ultimately up to new president Donnie Walsh. But it would have been hard to pass up Rose, since the Knicks will need a point guard with Stephon Marbury's contract expiring after this season.


"We would have liked to get a top pick, like a top two, but it didn't work out like that," D'Antoni said. "We don't want to be here next year, that's for sure. We'll try to make it count this year."

Still, at least the Knicks can do something with their pick this year. They had to hand it over to Chicago the last two years, payment for the trade for Eddy Curry in 2005.

New York would have chosen second in 2006 and ninth last year, picks that became LaMarcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah.

D'Antoni isn't sure the Knicks can get a player at No. 6 who can contribute immediately.

"It's hard to say yes. It's not a science," he said. "There are some good players and players who will contribute that might be a definite option. We also have to look at deals and see what comes up. I don't think we are set on anything. We will explore every option."

Despite the disappointment in the lottery, it's been a good spring for the Knicks. Coming off a 23-59 finish in their seventh straight losing season, they have earned praise for the first time in ages for the changes they've already made in replacing Isiah Thomas as coach and president.

Walsh was one of the league's most respected executives in Indiana, and D'Antoni was Coach of the Year in Phoenix three years ago. So far, the Knicks seem to be coming through on commissioner David Stern's prediction that they would undergo a transformation.

"It's a good down payment on the transformation, isn't it?" Stern said of those hirings.

"I think that the Knicks have brought in what I said was a tried and true basketball professional in Donnie Walsh. I'd call him an elder statesman, but he's only a year older than I am so I'm not about to do that. And they brought in a demonstrated winning coach, and so I think you can't do any better than that, than those two things."

It's Official we aren't rebuilding if D'Antoni has his way. Kiss next yr's draft pick being a good one goodbye. His hire continues to be suckier by the minute.

[Edited by - TrueBlue on 05-21-2008 01:40 AM]

so??

Walsh is still gonna go under the cap

isiah sure has fans burned out.

he can't come in and say 'can't wait to see you guys next year'.

he needs to try to do better if only to make some of our contracts more moveable.

I am more concerned with his statement that he doesn't know if pick 6 can come in and contribute right away. sure, that might be political- but let's be realistic- this team won 23 games last season for a reason.

Posted by blueNorange:

so??

Walsh is still gonna go under the cap

The point is that some fans want us to tank all of next year to try to get the top pick in the 09 draft.

It upsets them that the team will actually try to win games, in a sport where the idea is to win games, and it will mess up the draft position.

Therefore, that comment by DAntoni, crushes their desire to tank. Now they'll hope we win 30-35 games so they can "tell us they knew it all along" or whatever new flavor of negativity they come up with.

Posted by franco12:

isiah sure has fans burned out.

he can't come in and say 'can't wait to see you guys next year'.

he needs to try to do better if only to make some of our contracts more moveable.

I am more concerned with his statement that he doesn't know if pick 6 can come in and contribute right away. sure, that might be political- but let's be realistic- this team won 23 games last season for a reason.

To me that signals a few things. Maybe we do try to recycle Marbury and/or Malik for a player who will be in the rotation - thus cutting chances a rookie will get minutes.

Secondly, maybe we select a pick that is considered raw - and in that - won't be ready for solid rotation minutes right out of the gate.

What he...and Walsh...are doing is the anti-Isiah. They're basically saying they're going to try to improve the team - but they aren't making ANY promises at the same time. That's a good thing, really, and it's also living in reality.

I wouldn't make much more of it than that....and rather just wait until the draft unfolds. Until then, we're #6, and there's been good players picked at 6 and beyond in the past contrary to some beliefs.

Besides, the Knicks are far and away more than landing gold in a single draft from getting out of this rut and really competing. Long road ahead....this is just one stop along the way. If it were the ONLY stop then well, yeah, we'd have cause for more concern. Since it's not I don't see any reason to get too engrossed in all of this.

You guys have to stop thinking that NBA coaches want to win basketball games. I don't know where you guys got this idea from, but it's really baffling. NBA Coaches do not want to win basketball games, they'd rather lose everyone and be in the lotto every year. That's how you get good players isn't it? ..........

This is stupid Trueblue, keep hanging onto this idea... when and if Walsh says that bolded part that you keep vehemently bringing up, then you're onto something, until then, this is a coach saying EXACTLY what he should say.