What I'm hoping for is actually more effort from D'Antoni! Aside from that one stretch of effort when he slowed the team down and we went on a winning streak, I think he mailed it in for much of last season. Maybe this was because he knew he'd be rid of any player he didn't like so he didn't see why he should bother trying to coach them, and so just alienated them instead. His other problem is his much stated belief that a man or player at the age of 25 or whatever is pretty much is what he is, that you can't change grown men. This belief means that if there is a player he doesn't like, instead of COACHING them, and trying to get them out of their bad habits, he just abandons them. He needs to stop throwing players under a bus just so he can give an 'amusing' quip to a reporter- he needs to realise that when he insults a player to the press for the sake of a joke, it alienates them. I know he's burnt a lot of bridges but since we were stuck with his contract I wish he'd put more effort into coaching Eddy Curry.
The key thing is how he coaches Anthony Randolph in my opinion, because I hope he doesn't just get p***ed of with him and treat him like Don Nelson did. He needs to be patient with him.
That said, the players he did fall out with were basically all losers who I don't think you can win with anyways- Larry Hughes (wonder if anyone will sign him- maybe he'd end up with the Heat, but he has stated he only cares about winning if he's performing well and is a big part of it), Marbury, etc (they are already being erased from my memory!). Also everything was focused on this off season, so maybe that stopped him from trying to hard- he now no longer has that excuse.
So basically my message to D'Antoni is: lose the prima donna tendancies, be a bit more humble, put in more effort and please don't screw up the confidence of Anthony Randolph!
7/9/2010 3:45 PM