Making The Call: It's Time For The Coach To Step Up

2009_11_danton.jpg No one was expecting the Knicks to be good this year, but their 1-9 start has exceeded even the most pessimistic projections. They don’t play defense, allowing opponents to shoot 50.7% from the field and they don’t look like they are even trying for long stretches of the game. Yet somehow, Mike D’Antoni escapes criticism.

When the Knicks handed D’Antoni a four-year/$24 million contract, they made him the third-highest paid coach in the league, despite the fact he had never lead a team to a NBA championship. To be fair, the roster that D’Antoni took over was deeply flawed and still is in many ways, but D’Antoni was given all that money to overcome those obstacles.

Again, nobody expected D’Antoni to turn the Knicks into a playoff team, but it is fair to expect them to be competitive. They aren’t and while the front office can keep dreaming about LeBron coming to the rescue in 2010, the fans are not going to put up with this level of ineptitude. The coach needs to earn his paycheck and make this team competitive. Otherwise, the Knicks should add a new coach to their shopping list next summer.

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Comments (3) [rss]

The reality about the plight of the Knicks is that you can lead a millionaire loafer to water but you can't make him shoot a freethrow (or something like that). D'Antoni is a good man and a good coach but what is the reality of this team? Are they dogging it? Are they just unlucky? Or is it that the talent is not as talented as the organization thought?

A coach or a manager can only do so much if players refuse to play. By they time they reach the NBA, these "elite" players should know how to play the game of basketball including being able to adhere to the fundamentals of the game. I suspect the problem is a combination of the aforementioned loafing and the fact that they are just not that good.

They knew Mike 'Antoni coaching doesn't involve the D when they hired him, why are people actually complaining about the defenses? Take a look at the roster, the team IS not overarchieving or underachieving, it is what it is.

still one more win than the nets. that's good!

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