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Mike D'Antoni is the best coach in the NBA!
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DrAlphaeus
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6/2/2009  1:53 PM
Congratulations Knicks fans! We have the best Xs and Os coach in the NBA!

According to Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com:
If you send an e-mail about the brilliance of Jackson, or Van Gundy, or even Mike Brown or George Karl, sure, I'll read that. But I might giggle, because there is no great coaching in the NBA. There is no great coach, unless it's Mike D'Antoni. He's the only coach today who innovates, who takes good players and makes them great. Look at Steve Nash before D'Antoni, and Steve Nash after D'Antoni: nice player. Look at Steve Nash with D'Antoni: two-time MVP.

Whether you agree or not, frankly, I don't care. Coaches I know, coaches I trust -- college coaches -- believe D'Antoni is the best X-and-O guy in the game. And that's good enough for me.

Excerpt from "Pointless profession? Coaching in NBA fits bill quite well"
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/11812726

Interesting article... basically says that NBA is the only major league where coaching (seems he's talking about head coaches in particular) matters the least. He says the best basketball minds are in the college game. Yet, he takes time to shout out D'Antoni. What say you UK?!?

[Edited by - DrAlphaeus on 06-02-2009 1:54 PM]
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nixluva
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6/2/2009  2:11 PM
Well I do think that coaching is often overrated. Phil is great at managing Superstars and merging different personality types and so even tho he's clearly had some of the best talent in his title seasons, still he's an overall great coach. Riley showed me the most flexibility in terms of being able to win with different types of teams, so to me I feel he's the best coach i've ever seen. MDA may be the best at getting more out of less. I think he's proven that he can get players to perform at higher levels. He's no magician and like every coach he too needs top talent to win, but he has a skill for raising the level of play of his players. Give him some talent like Phil has had and I think he wins titles.
Bippity10
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6/2/2009  2:37 PM
Geno Auriemma of Uconn has sat with D'Antoni to review his offense and uses it for his teams. Auriemma who is an amazing X's and O's coach thinks D'Antoni is unbeleivable. That being said, can he teach defense?

You don't win 50-60 games a year with one team without being a great coach. The question is, is he a championship coach? Only he can prove that.
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orangeblobman
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Nauru
6/2/2009  2:39 PM
he is a championship coach it took larry brown 20+ years to win his first, too, so whatever.

it's obvious that we should feel very good about having MDA.
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King1
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6/2/2009  2:42 PM
So Don Coryell was a great NFL coach because he was innovative? Paul Westhead was a great college coach because he was innovative?
Bippity10
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6/2/2009  2:43 PM
Posted by orangeblobman:

he is a championship coach it took larry brown 20+ years to win his first, too, so whatever.

it's obvious that we should feel very good about having MDA.

He's not a championship coach. Until he wins one he is not. That being said, I feel fine with MDA. I also understand that coaches learn and develop and improve through the years just like players do. If we get to the point where we are competing, have a championship roster and this guy can't succeed then you replace him. At this point in time he has done nothing to make me worry about him as a coach.
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djsunyc
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6/2/2009  2:45 PM
i think mda allows his players to score. he gets players that can score and allows them to do so. but imho, the jury is still out in terms of x's and o's b/c without nash running a team, he hasn't won more than 35 games.
DrAlphaeus
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6/2/2009  3:26 PM
Posted by djsunyc:

i think mda allows his players to score. he gets players that can score and allows them to do so. but imho, the jury is still out in terms of x's and o's b/c without nash running a team, he hasn't won more than 35 games.

End-of-career Nash + D'Antoni + youths: perfect together?
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nixluva
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6/2/2009  3:32 PM
MDA hasn't had much of an NBA history without Nash and clearly he's had an impact on players who weren't previously known for doing very much. Besides we all know that it makes a huge diff. when you have a great PG to be the coach on the floor. We're trying to draft just such a player now. Let's not belittle what MDA has done by trying to say that he doesn't coach any D and only coaches offense.

For one thing you win games by outscoring your opponent and unless you play D, you can't outscore your opponent consistently enough to win. So to me when your team has a point differential of +5.1, +7.3, +5.6 & +7.1 in successive years, that team had to be playing some D!!! Those point Diff's were among the tops in the league. Don't confuse the fact that the pace was deliberately kept high with poor D. The idea isn't to try to block or prevent every single shot in MDA's system. The idea is the keep the pace up which is to his teams advantage.

If the Knick's had a real center who could deter penetrators and keep the shots mostly on the perimeter we would likely have won a lot more games this year. Obviously we also have a lot of other needs, but with no C, it really put too much pressure on the team to try to defend the basket.
EnySpree
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6/2/2009  3:34 PM
Posted by djsunyc:

i think mda allows his players to score. he gets players that can score and allows them to do so. but imho, the jury is still out in terms of x's and o's b/c without nash running a team, he hasn't won more than 35 games.

Phil hasn't won without some of the greatest players to ever play the game either.

The point about Brown is valid too.....

Thing is the team has to come together around a coachs blueprint....that's the bottom line.....not just any team either, they have to fit in almost perfectly and the coach has to make it work.

With the Knicks, who do they have? Duhon at point? Jared at starting center? Q-rich at shooting guard most of the season? Even if Nash was on the team they miss the playoffs.

MDA succeeded in implementing his style. Then Donnie traded everyone and he was able to adjust....Knicks have the right coach and GM for that matter.
It will be interesting how they put things together this off-season....but for once the Knicks are actualy on the right path.
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arkrud
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6/2/2009  3:56 PM
I am a bit surprised with this article.
To me Sloan and Pop are the best x's and o's coaches of today’s NBA.
Pop won a lot and Utah was all the time in running. And in small markets they are...
I think both of them will be great if no greatest college coaches if they will go there.
MikeD is not a coach for kids - he is a coach for man. I mean real man athletes.
Knicks is yet to get them. We have kids and retards that will be like little babies for all their life.
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nixluva
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6/2/2009  4:07 PM
Posted by arkrud:

I am a bit surprised with this article.
To me Sloan and Pop are the best x's and o's coaches of today’s NBA.
Pop won a lot and Utah was all the time in running. And in small markets they are...
I think both of them will be great if no greatest college coaches if they will go there.
MikeD is not a coach for kids - he is a coach for man. I mean real man athletes.
Knicks is yet to get them. We have kids and retards that will be like little babies for all their life.

I agree that Sloan and Pop do tend to get overlooked.

In regard to MDA being a coach for older players and not young ones, I disagree. He's shown a very nurturing hand with our young guys and they played well under him. Even in PHX he got a good deal out of his young players. I'm not sure where this rumor got started, but It's baseless IMO.

We're GOING to have a young team since we can expect to lose so many vets at the end of this year. It looks like Walsh is looking to ad another pick so clearly they want to get younger and more talented. If MDA had a problem with this he'd be asking for vets and not another pick.

nyk4ever
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6/2/2009  4:28 PM
Pop and Sloan are also the GMs of their teams (maybe not in terms of having that title, but they call the shots) and get only guys they want who will fit into their exact style and are willing to be coached.. big difference there.
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holfresh
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6/2/2009  4:28 PM

Before we put him in the Hall of Fame...Isiah won more games his first year...Maybe the reason MDA was pushing the throttle at the end of the year...
arkrud
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6/2/2009  4:35 PM
Posted by nyk4ever:

Pop and Sloan are also the GMs of their teams (maybe not in terms of having that title, but they call the shots) and get only guys they want who will fit into their exact style and are willing to be coached.. big difference there.

Isiah also was GM... So what?
If coach is not getting players he wants to play with, there is nothing to talk about. Remember LB fiasco?
And about young players I am not talking about age but about maturity. Al and Nate will never be anything close to what some 19-years rookies are from get go.
Mike will not work on fixing or adjusting to those kinds of players.
If he will get right material, than it's another story.
He is not a mentor, he is a specialist. Great specialist but it is all he is.



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s3231
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6/2/2009  5:06 PM
Posted by holfresh:


Before we put him in the Hall of Fame...Isiah won more games his first year...Maybe the reason MDA was pushing the throttle at the end of the year...

To be fair, Isiah also had more talent on his team. D'Antoni's roster was essentially depleted once Crawford and Randolph were traded.
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Bippity10
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6/2/2009  5:20 PM
Posted by djsunyc:

i think mda allows his players to score. he gets players that can score and allows them to do so. but imho, the jury is still out in terms of x's and o's b/c without nash running a team, he hasn't won more than 35 games.
You can't win 50-60 games regularly without talent on the court. But you also can't win 50-60 games regularly without being a good coach.
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holfresh
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6/2/2009  5:30 PM
Posted by Bippity10:
Posted by djsunyc:

i think mda allows his players to score. he gets players that can score and allows them to do so. but imho, the jury is still out in terms of x's and o's b/c without nash running a team, he hasn't won more than 35 games.
You can't win 50-60 games regularly without talent on the court. But you also can't win 50-60 games regularly without being a good coach.

And you don't win championships without playing defense...

CrushAlot
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6/2/2009  5:33 PM
He is right in saying that alot of coaches do not coach in games on the bench. I hate when they go to a coach who is miked up and you hear, "we gotta get some stops"' or "we have to play our game" during a timeout. When JVG coached the Knicks the timeouts were about play calling, mismatches, double teams, number of fouls etc. I am sure guys like Pop and Sloan still coach during the game. I don't recall ever hearing alot of in game strategy being spoken by D' during a timeout but I also am not a fan and may have missed this occuring once in awhile. I don't see D' as anywhere near the best coach in the NBA. He might be the most fun to play for and his players do have success offensively when they play for him.
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Bippity10
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6/2/2009  5:41 PM
Posted by holfresh:
Posted by Bippity10:
Posted by djsunyc:

i think mda allows his players to score. he gets players that can score and allows them to do so. but imho, the jury is still out in terms of x's and o's b/c without nash running a team, he hasn't won more than 35 games.
You can't win 50-60 games regularly without talent on the court. But you also can't win 50-60 games regularly without being a good coach.

And you don't win championships without playing defense...


We already went through this. please read above.
I just hope that people will like me
Mike D'Antoni is the best coach in the NBA!

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