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Newsday.com
Mike D'Antoni mulling over Knicks' offense
BY ALAN HAHN

alan.hahn@newsday.com

10:19 PM EST, December 27, 2008

GREENBURGH, N.Y.

Mike D'Antoni doesn't necessarily want to pull back the throttle on the Knicks' offense, but that perpetual green light he's been known to give his players has turned to yellow.

Why? Because the way these Knicks have been running his system has turned D'Antoni's face red.

"I let this go, but I'm really -- -- because we jack up too many quick shots. That's not how we should play," D'Antoni said after the Knicks practiced yesterday at the MSG Training Center following their most embarrassing loss of the season -- 120-107 to the Timberwolves, who had entered the game at 4-23, Friday night at the Garden.

"This is a crisis, without a doubt," D'Antoni said of the five-game losing streak the Knicks (11-17) take into today's home game against the Denver Nuggets.

D'Antoni's philosophy -- the mantra in Phoenix was "Seven Seconds or Less" -- encourages a high volume of shot attempts. But the Knicks lately have turned that into a chuck-and-duck routine.

Since he joined the Knicks a month ago, Al Harrington has jacked up 288 shots in 15 games (19.2 per game), which leads the team by a wide margin. Harrington, who is shooting just 43.3 percent from the field, has acknowledged that he is attempting too many three-pointers and that he needs to emphasize the inside dimension of his game. But it's still not as much the number of shots or where they're from as the quality of the shots, which in his case hasn't been good.

Nate Robinson also has become somewhat shot-happy. He attempted a team-high 22 shots in Friday's game and made nine. Like Harrington, some of Robinson's shots are not in the flow of the offense but are forced or contested, which goes against the principles of the system.

"It should be whenever the good shot comes, you take it," said D'Antoni, who would not single out any specific players but acknowledged that shot selection is a major issue with his team. "Whether it's in the first three seconds, we'll do that. But it's got to be a good shot. We're just taking too many bad shots quickly."

They're also not running nearly as hard as they did earlier in the season. Could it be fatigue, a residual effect of D'Antoni's miniscule seven-man rotation? Or is it something else?

"You know what's happening, if we're not directly involved, we don't give our bodies up and run . . . they're loping up the floor, because, in their mind, why do I have to run?" D'Antoni said. "They're not understanding that you run for the team, not for yourself. That's something we did well in training camp and we did well the first few games, but since the trade and we've had so few practices, that's something that has regressed. We've got to get back to that."

It is possible that D'Antoni will consider shaking up the lineup to inject some energy into the starting five. But with Quentin Richardson out with a sprained right ankle (he did not practice yesterday), there aren't many options.

I hope nobody is expecting Mike to work miracles with the garbage known as Isiah Thomas' roster. These guys will never be winners. Not for Mike, not for Phil Jackson, not even for Red Auerbach. Can not wait until most of them are out the door in 2010.

Posted by GKFv2:

I hope nobody is expecting Mike to work miracles with the garbage known as Isiah Thomas' roster. These guys will never be winners. Not for Mike, not for Phil Jackson, not even for Red Auerbach. Can not wait until most of them are out the door in 2010.

this is why you keep hearing names like Diaw and bell to NY... mike knows these guys run his system correctly. we man not like any deal involving one or both, but you can now see why he would be looking at getting guys, who "Get it"..

I would start duhon, wilson, thomas Jeffires and Lee. It will help us defensively and maybe we can share the ball more on offense. You also have Nate coming off the bench where he belongs.

Since he joined the Knicks a month ago, Al Harrington has jacked up 288 shots in 15 games (19.2 per game)

That is why players want to play with Mike--they have free reign to play wild without repercussion. In the early part of the season the team was making the extra pass. Zach was playing well. Since the trade passing has gone down hill---degree of difficulty in the shot process has gone way up--we dont have that guy who can get us 20-10 and do it close to 50% and we have match up problems at the 2 guard with JC gone. This team had a chance to do some things before that trade and we can have different views on it but the bottom line is the actual play from the guys who are here is lousy and undisciplined. How this helps the team long term--I don't get it. Maybe we need a few 4 hour practices and some players should be given a yellow light with directions to move the ball for the best shot--not necessarily the fastest one. Our 3 point differential is off the wall--were taking too many. And by taking too many it puts us in bad position to go to the offensive glass and is a conduit to the fast break the other way. We need a C to slow things down a bit and get more efficiency in terms of clogging the lane on D and getting some inside outside play on the O The problem is doesn't believe in the 5 position.

d'antoni: "hey guys, clarence weatherspoon is not walking through that door. shandon anderson is not walking through that door. felton spencer is not walking through that door."

The one year this roster was asked to play defense we told them it was okay to quit on their coach if they didn't like him. Personally I save myself a lot of aggravation by accepting the fact that this line-up is never going to play defense. And in NY we won't see it until changes are made.

Imagine if the Knicks roster was literally made up of 12, 8th graders. YOu would feel silly yelling at D'Antoni for not turning the team around. You would feel silly wondering why that team plays no defense and jacks up shots with no logical flow to the offense. And yet we don't feel silly demanding the same thing from a team that not only won 23, 33 and 23 games the last 3 years. But one that won 23, 33, and 23 games and had 2 starters traded partway through the season. You will feel less pain if you just realize, certain things aren't changing until the roster changes. Been singing this mantra since the LB days, I wasn't wrong then and I'm not wrong now. There are no magic coaches.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 29-12-2008 09:48 AM]

Posted by Bippity10:

The one year this roster was asked to play defense we told them it was okay to quit on their coach if they didn't like him...

Was that wrong?

Imagine if the Knicks roster was literally made up of 12, 8th graders. YOu would feel silly yelling at D'Antoni for not turning the team around. You would feel silly wondering why that team plays no defense and jacks up shots with no logical flow to the offense. And yet we don't feel silly demanding the same thing from a team that not only won 23, 33 and 23 games the last 3 years. But one that won 23, 33, and 23 games and had 2 starters traded partway through the season. You will feel less pain if you just realize, certain things aren't changing until the roster changes. Been singing this mantra since the LB days, I wasn't wrong then and I'm not wrong now. There are no magic coaches.

You're right. Walsh should trade the entire roster for a bunch of 8th graders.




[Edited by - basketballjones on 12-29-2008 10:59]

Posted by TheGame:

I will continue to say that we should not have traded Randolph, who appeared to be learning to control his blackhole mentality. How much better would this team be if we had Duhon, Chandler, Harrington, Randolph, and Lee starting, with Nate and Q off the bench? MDA is right. We are jacking up too many shots. Harrington needs to get his game under control.

Walsh wouldn't have traded Crawford for Harrington if he didn't also plan to ship Zach out- Mobely was supposed to be here playing.

Still, I would have been happy with Zach in 2010- of course, you would still have had to trade Crawford and Curry.