Will Toney Douglas Get Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni Fired? Fan’s View
By Joe Dorish, Yahoo! Contributor Network
2 hours, 30 minutes ago

The New York Knicks are a reeling NBA team. The Knicks opened the 2012 NBA season by going 6-4 over their first 10 games. The team has since gone just 2-11, and going into tonight's Saturday, February 4, 2012 game vs the New Jersey Nets, the Knicks are just 8-15 overall.

Mike D'Antoni Called Knicks Top-Tier Team in 2012

After the Knicks signed free agent center Tyson Chandler before the season began, head coach Mike D'Antoni said in a radio interview that the Knicks now had the ability to win a championship. D'Antoni also said that the Knicks were one of the top-tier teams in the NBA.

New York Knicks are 8-15 in 2012

On Thursday night, February 2, 2012, the Knicks dropped a tough game to the Chicago Bulls, 105-102. Last night, Friday, February 3, 2012, the Knicks lost another tough game to the Boston Celtics, 91-89. Over the two losses, Toney Douglas made just two of the 10 shots he took, while playing 23 total minutes.

Tony Douglas is Shooting 31.9% from the Field in 2012

For the season, Toney Douglas had made 74 of the 232 shots he's taken. That is just 31.9%. From three-point range, Douglas has made just 24 of 96 shots, for a shooting percentage of 25%. Douglas has played in all 23 of the Knicks games this season.

Over the 23 games, Toney Douglas is averaging 22.5 minutes played, while taking just over 10 shots per game, and four threes. The New York Knicks have had other problems this season, most notably injuries to Carmelo Anthony, who is my favorite NBA player since he led my favorite college basketball team, the Syracuse Orange to the 2003 NCAA Championship. Melo is why I follow the Knicks.

Without much doubt though, a great deal of the New York Knicks woes this season have been caused by the horrendous shooting performance of Toney Douglas. The Knicks came into the season with idea that Toney Douglas would be their starting point guard in 2012. Toney Douglas is not a point guard. He's averaging 2.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game in his NBA career.

Over his first two NBA seasons, Toney Douglas was a decent shooter of the basketball. He made 43% of his shots from the field, and a pretty good 37.8% of his three-point shots. For whatever reason, Douglas had shoulder surgery in May of 2011, Tony Douglas just cannot shoot the ball in 2012.

Why Has Mike D'Antoni Played Toney Douglas So Much in 2012?

Despite his terrible shooting in 2012, New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni has played Toney Douglas an average of 22.5 minutes per game this season. The only question to ask is why? How can you keep running a player out there who can't make a shot? By playing someone who can't shoot the ball that many minutes in a game you are really helping out the opposition, while hurting your own team's chances in a major way.

No team in the NBA is going to be successful with a player getting 22.5 minutes per game who takes 10 shots per game and can only make three of them. Rumors are flying that the Knicks might fire Mike D'Antoni and replace him as head coach.

Toney Douglas Shooting Woes Will Be Responsible if Mike D'Antoni Gets Fired

If D'Antoni does get fired, Toney Douglas and his horrendous shooting performance this season deserves most of the blame. More accurately, Mike D'Antoni's decision to keep giving Toney Douglas playing time despite his shooting woes is what will likely get Mike D'Antoni fired this season.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor.

CrushAlot wrote:You can't blame Douglas he is just one of the most recent symptoms that have been the problems during D'Antoni's tenure in NY. D'Antoni should have been fired after 09-10 in my opinion. Things were bad enough that Walsh even traveled with the team to evaluate the players and coaching staff that year. He has a flawed approach and I think the current management team moved on when they acquired Tyson. He is a roster specific coach as Mark Warkenstein called him and management didn't give him that roster this time. He was supposed to attract big name free agents in '10. He was supposed to bring back winning to NY. He hasn't done either and had to have a meeting to clear the air with the one big name free agent the Knicks got.

I do blame MDA forgiven some of our roles players too much of a green light, but as a player in this league, you have to be responsible for your role, TD is bringing down the entire team, he makes, Amare worse, he make TYSON worse, and this is on both sides of the court..

Again you can blame mike for leaving him in (and im sure his going to get a benching just like duhon, just takes a while for him) but he doesn't have options, and when you don't have options, thats never ever a good thing.