OK, another post about Mike D’Antoni, this time taken from the opposite perspective...
Why would the Knicks want to invest $6M a year for a head coach? As I mentioned yesterday, the Knicks are two years away, at minimum, from cracking .500. The personnel doesn’t fit D’Antoni’s style. The team’s short-term goal is to play the next 164 games with the current roster before the entire team is turned over and they are out from under the weight of salary cap constraints. Is having a good head coach in place for a full two seasons (maybe longer) so important that you’d want to pay $12M for a babysitter before things can even begin to change for the better?
My advice to the Knicks would be to hire Tom Thibodeau away from the Boston Celtics. He’s the assistant coach who has been credited with making the C’s into a top defensive team. His defensive pedigree comes from having been an assistant to Jeff Van Gundy in New York and Houston and he’d certainly come with a cheaper price tag.
The Knicks should be thinking about turning their current young role players – David Lee, Renaldo Balkman, Mardy Collins, Nate Robinson, Wilson Chandler and Randolph Morris – into good defenders. After all, its today’s role players that are the only ones likely to survive the purge in 2010. Thibodeau could help lay the foundation and then the team can go hire a big-name guy if it wants to. D’Antoni’s going to be a giant waste of money. After all, a good coach can’t turn chicken shit into chicken salad.
UPDATE:
The Knicks got Mike D’Antoni to agree to a four year, $24M contract.
The more I think about it, the more I think both sides made a huge mistake. D’Antoni has chosen money over the possibility for a moderate level of success in Chicago and the Knicks have thrown money at a coach whose philosophy doesn’t fit their roster.
Instead of doing the sensible thing and hiring a solid, up-and-coming defensive-minded disciplinarian at a fraction of the cost, the Knicks have decided to make a splashy move with D’Antoni. Will he survive his four years in New York? Will they fire him before his contract is up? Will the team be close to turning the corner as his contract is expiring? I just don’t see why the Knicks chose him. It’s not like having a brand-name coach is going to improve the team’s horrendous situation.
The Phoenix Suns are absolute morons for letting D’Antoni leave. The Chicago Bulls are absolute morons for letting D’Antoni slip through their fingers. The New York Knicks are absolute morons for throwing money at a problem that requires discipline and outside-the-box thought. Finally, Mike D’Antoni is an absolute moron for taking a $24M contract that will make him richer than he could’ve imagined five years ago when he was coaching in Italy but will leave him exposed to arguably the worst team in NBA.
Why would the Knicks want to invest $6M a year for a head coach? As I mentioned yesterday, the Knicks are two years away, at minimum, from cracking .500. The personnel doesn’t fit D’Antoni’s style. The team’s short-term goal is to play the next 164 games with the current roster before the entire team is turned over and they are out from under the weight of salary cap constraints. Is having a good head coach in place for a full two seasons (maybe longer) so important that you’d want to pay $12M for a babysitter before things can even begin to change for the better?
My advice to the Knicks would be to hire Tom Thibodeau away from the Boston Celtics. He’s the assistant coach who has been credited with making the C’s into a top defensive team. His defensive pedigree comes from having been an assistant to Jeff Van Gundy in New York and Houston and he’d certainly come with a cheaper price tag.
The Knicks should be thinking about turning their current young role players – David Lee, Renaldo Balkman, Mardy Collins, Nate Robinson, Wilson Chandler and Randolph Morris – into good defenders. After all, its today’s role players that are the only ones likely to survive the purge in 2010. Thibodeau could help lay the foundation and then the team can go hire a big-name guy if it wants to. D’Antoni’s going to be a giant waste of money. After all, a good coach can’t turn chicken shit into chicken salad.
UPDATE:
The Knicks got Mike D’Antoni to agree to a four year, $24M contract.
The more I think about it, the more I think both sides made a huge mistake. D’Antoni has chosen money over the possibility for a moderate level of success in Chicago and the Knicks have thrown money at a coach whose philosophy doesn’t fit their roster.
Instead of doing the sensible thing and hiring a solid, up-and-coming defensive-minded disciplinarian at a fraction of the cost, the Knicks have decided to make a splashy move with D’Antoni. Will he survive his four years in New York? Will they fire him before his contract is up? Will the team be close to turning the corner as his contract is expiring? I just don’t see why the Knicks chose him. It’s not like having a brand-name coach is going to improve the team’s horrendous situation.
The Phoenix Suns are absolute morons for letting D’Antoni leave. The Chicago Bulls are absolute morons for letting D’Antoni slip through their fingers. The New York Knicks are absolute morons for throwing money at a problem that requires discipline and outside-the-box thought. Finally, Mike D’Antoni is an absolute moron for taking a $24M contract that will make him richer than he could’ve imagined five years ago when he was coaching in Italy but will leave him exposed to arguably the worst team in NBA.
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