Having said that I do think getting Lin was a lucky break and I am not willing to give MDA too much credit for it. But it is clear that for the first time since Nash he has a PG smart enough to understand the offense and skilled enough to execute it. So the idiots that kept posting MDA must have a HOF PG to win and it was more Nash than MDA can eat ****. Tyson Chandler, two rookies and a sophomore coming off a huge slump along with assorted scrubs and rejects no one else wanted just beat the LA ****ing Lakers in a game Kobe scored 32 points. F### YEAH.

But they are just sitting and waiting to rationalize this away as a fluke the next time we lose three games in a row. The knives are being sharpened. They ONLY post when the results reflect their belieifs in the short term. Unfair weather fans survive on doomer porn.

AnubisADL wrote:Dude is still going to get fired. I don't care hate or love the guy.

crzymdups wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Dude is still going to get fired. I don't care hate or love the guy.

before last night i might have agreed that he wouldn't be brought back... but now, i don't know.

beating the lakers at home is big. that's the sort of thing dolan actually cares about. you think he doesn't realize the marketing potential of jeremy lin? and everyone gets that jeremy doesn't happen without mda. you realize that next year, if lin is starting he's going to be fan-voted to the all-star game (the craze may calm down here, but prob not in asia). that makes melo and lin as pretty near locks to rep the knicks in the ASG. and those are things dolan cares about.

from a basketball sense, if mda can get melo and lin to mesh on the floor they'll have two amazing weapons and a fantastic group of defenders... and amar'e (who lin can make a third amazing weapon). i think you have to see how that looks. if it looks real - if it works, i mean this team is going to be dangerous and hard to stop. so there is potential here, too, for this year and the next three or four.

right now they're defending, scoring, they're playing like a team. i'm happy for MDA - he finally has his PG here and it seems like some sort of sports movie miracle. like jeremy lin found the secret of nimh in landry's couch.

anyway, i think there are plenty of reasons to bring mda back. since i started watching the post game interviews more often, i admit mda has grown on me. he's a smart dude, feels down to earth. bring back MDA.

Well look around this board after our first three games skid you'll see plenty of people who think MDA had nothing to do with coaching Lin. And Dolan doesn't "get" anything (period).

JrZyHuStLa wrote:You get love for having winning season after winning season while having guys play tough, gritty, and intense playoff basketball.

Not for a 4 game winning streak where Jeremy Lin has to bail you out.

Fire Dantoni.

If not for the drama of trades last year and injuries this team probably has a better record and a much longer 1st rd series with the Celtics last year. The team looked good at the start of the Celtic Series and then STAT and CB got hurt. I think overall when you see MDA with a good core of talent and a PG he's proven that he can be a top coach in this league.

Lin went on and on about MDA as a coach and how he has been giving them new plays between games and showing Lin more and more about the game. He said that MDA made the game easy and how MDA was a genius. All MDA's players seem to love him. I think he's been very loyal to the team and has never given up despite all the chants and media bashing and losing. MDA is probably the most misunderstood coach in the league. They swear he never cared about D, but then they bash him for loving Jared!

nixluva wrote:

martin wrote:

smackeddog wrote:My problem with D'Antoni is that when push comes to shove and your battling it out in a 7 game series in the playoffs- the game always slows down, becomes half-court based, and the best defensive team wins- none of these are D'antoni's strong points, which is why I've never liked having him around.

However he does seem to have these players motivated and loving his system- he's good at getting a lot out of his players when they buy into the system- a lot of players seem to play their best under him.

I never favoured firing him during the season, but come the offseason you really need to weigh up whether his pro's outweigh the cons.

2 things. MDA offense has been shown to work in the half court.

Also, as with any system, you need the players and talent to execute a system. This year the Knicks have the makings of a defensive team. So check and check.

I know people get mad at me for saying it, but I still believe that you have to have Defensive talent just like you need offensive talent. In the past they've bashed MDA for not coaching D, but it was really a lack of size and defensive talent. Nash and STAT is a horrible defensive core. Now he has Lin, Shump, Jared and Tyson in the mix and you can see the difference. Same defense, better players!!! OH and MDA picked Shump and wanted Jared back. Also on a side note MDA pushed for Lin too. Yeah he didn't play him right away but he liked his talent from his predraft workout. I think MDA and Grunwald have done a good job of working together to put together a better defensive team. Grunwald adding Tyson was a major step.

Fair points, but I do think D'Antoni has only recently actually seen defense as important (and i think thats due to being in New York)- even his own assistant admitted that when with Pheonix, because they were winning and doing so well offensively, he didn't used to bother with defense or see it as important.

I think D'Antoni has disproved a few things this season- he's destroyed that old notion that he doesn't play young players/ rookies (though I never really believed that- he was speaking the truth when he clarified he didn't play BAD rookies (Jordan Hill)! He also has put to rest the notion that his system is basically just people chucking up 3's. He's also shown that he is much more adaptable with his system- he has changed things to suit the players he has.

He has had to coach in very difficult circumstances here in NY, but come the playoffs, I'll still have my doubts