I understand that Mike D’Antoni was the trendy choice to be hired as the head coach for the Knicks, but his system does not fit their players.
D’Antoni’s offense is based around a frenetic pace with a point guard who is unselfish and is able to change the pace of the game to his likings and not give up the dribble.
AKA Steve Nash
Others fitting that description: Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Deron Williams
The Knicks point guards: Stephon Marbury and Nate Robinson.
Neither fit that role. They both are extremely selfish, both on and off the court. They look to produce shots for themselves, they cause tension and problems in the locker room, and can’t control the game with their dribble.
D’Antoni’s offense needs mobile, athletic, big men who can run the floor.
AKA Amare Stoudemire
The Knicks have: 285 lb, defective hearted, Eddy Curry, and 260 lb, lazy Zach Randolph.
They just don’t fit the system. They don’t play hard, don’t run the floor and can’t out-finesse opposing big men. Just not going to work.
In Phoenix, D’Antoni had a relatively deep bench with players that had as much athletic talent, but were a little less skillful than the starters, who were able to fill in admirably when called upon.
AKA Boris Diaw, Leandro Barbosa
The Knicks bench is garbage, they are not deep and they are all over paid.
Quentin Richardson, successfully starred for D’Antoni in Phoenix, but even he wasn’t the elite talent on the floor for the Suns. He could shoot and was given wide open opportunities set up by Nash and the double-teaming of Stoudemire.
There is no Shawn Marion in New York, there is no defender like Raja Bell, no big man like Amare, and definately no Steve Nash. Arguably the Knicks best player, David Lee, is a mudder who crashes the boards and plays a methodical beat’em up style of basketball. That happens to be the opposite of what D’Antoni brings to the table.
In my opinion, which doesn’t matter too much, but D’Antoni is another inflated contract in NY, ala James Jones, Allan Houston, Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, Larry Brown, and nameless others that will not and have not fulfilled their expectations and cost James Dolan in the wallet and on the court.
absolutely, D’Antoni is absolutely, D’Antoni is the the answer to the Knicks problems. he’s going to be frustrated without the luxury of having Nash and Amare.
I don’t think a good match either better with Bulls. The Knicks will improve under him, but this is all about the $$$
- Freddie Footballer
Notes of agreement Nothing wrong with your opinion here. I do believe a couple players like Jamaal Crawford and Marbury will improve under D’Antoni, but these guys aren’t that good anyway. Clearly, management told him the team will be completely retooled sooner rather than later. For D’Antoni’s sake, I hope the Knicks replace 40-60% of their players in the offseason. Looking at their roster on line right now… man they’re terrible.
re: The Knicks offered quite a bit more money than the Bulls, D’Antoni’s other suitor, that’s why he signed there.
Plus it’s pretty obvious that anybody who took the Knicks job wouldn’t be “cut out for it.” Donnie Walsh is not “cut out” for this team either, but he’s in it for the challenge. So is D’Antoni. It’s the challenge of a lifetime.
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LB23
This is going to be hilarious The Knicks have almost no players that can really play with the style that D’Antoni brought to Phoenix. The players that might be able to play are David Lee because he can hustle up and down the court and plays with energy, Jamal Crawford (only because he loves to shoot that 3 ball), Quentin Richardson (only because he played in Phoenix before), and MAYBE Renaldo Balkman (I’ve never seen him ever attempt a shot). Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph and lets not forget Mr. Jerome James are the complete opposite of the big man that fits D’Antoni’s style. Like somebody mentioned before, Stephon Marbury and Nate Robinson are the point guards on this roster. They can’t overhaul this roster to fit his style either because of the legend that is Isiah Thomas. I can not imagine any way that this will work out. If it does, Mike D’Antoni should be a first ballot Hall of Famer. If it fails like I think it will fail, I will be watching Knicks games on League Pass just to see D’Antoni yelling at his players with his hands in his pockets.
hahaha I agree with SFWarrior. This is a horrible pickup for the Knicks, and a horrible choice for D’Antoni.
Watching the Bulls games earlier this year, I always thought all they had to do was “run it.” Get the rebound, give it to Henrich, run it. Exploit the matchups. Instead, the Bulls get the rebound, give it to Henrich, and they set up a half-court play that takes a majority of the shot clock, and it ends up a 18 foot jumper by Ben Gordon anyway. It’s ridiculous. D’Antoni would have been the PERFECT fit. 10/10. Run the ball, Henrich finds the open guy, Gordon drives into the lane for the buckle. They’re all athletic people, even Luol Deng is athletic for a big guy. Henrich to me has just as much passing talent as Steve Nash; he’s just in the wrong system.
O well, we’ll never know now. D’Antoni made a horrible decision, and honestly lost a lot of respect for taking the job with the most money.