It seems like Chauncey Billups spoke for his whole team when he talked about the system he is still trying to learn.
"I'm familiar with the sets and things like that," Billups said. "But it is a different system, more different than I've played in any other system. It takes time to get to know it and the ins-and-outs."I've always pretty much been a fast learner," he said. "But this one, it is more difficult than any other system I've played in."
Jennings said he still holds a grudge against the Knicks for passing him up in last year's NBA Draft.
"[I] never forget it," he said. "But it's OK, though."
The last stretch of success we had was with this team, but under different circumstances. Back then, D'Antoni said he was tweaking his system in order to use the best abilities of his new stars. We played solid games even for a team that had just a couple of practices together.
Since then, it seems the focus has been on learning the system on the fly while using the last two months as a training camp. Seems like that strategy has backfired and now we may have to pray we can win enough to still make the playoffs. D'Antoni seems focused on making the playoffs any way they can, even if they end up with a losing season yet again.
We still aren't playing the system, but it seems its because of mistakes instead of a tweak to it. Was this the right choice, especially since we could've adopted the other style and go for it in the playoffs? Those games we played, while only a few, looked as close to playoff basketball as anything we've had under D'Antoni. Maybe it was just a fluke, but that play looked better for our positioning than this "learn a really difficult system on the fly".
And this makes me wonder: is this system so good and worth it that we can give ourselves the luxury of a really long period of adjustment? Considering the pre-trade Knicks, they didn't start playing the system the right way until like a month or two after training camp. And even then, we regressed at some point. Now, when D'Antoni's offense is working on all cylinders, its a thing of beauty. But it has only run that way for a few games in the season. Even then, things like defense, rebounding and the use of the big man have been issues with D'Antoni.
***Whole article here: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/billups_blames_his_porous_play_for_afF9dFOZWo1ew29A9SffDN#ixzz1HgFO8l9v
