D'Antoni Gone

Story just broke.

 

Wow.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ApvgtCdxTOSLyUO86uJug5U5nYcB?slug=aw-wojnarowski_mike_dantoni_knicks_resigns_031412

 

Stephen A. was carping in his usual manner about this possibility on ESPN the other day. Guess he was right.

 

It was a no brainer that should've happened weeks ago. He saved himself some time when Lin came on and got hot. After he cooled and Anthony returned to the team, the team looked awful.

 

Woodson is a good coach who should get a shot at the job permanently.

 

Wow. I figured he'd last the year.

I was never a fan of D'Antoni's style in Phoenix and even less so when he took over my favorite team, but I will offer this limited defense of him:

Before they hired him, the Knicks dumped all their "talent" to clear cap space to pursue LeBron and left him with a pretty barren roster for two years.

They acquired Anthony in midseason last year and he wasn't able to gel with the team in the half-season, but there was an assumption that time together in training camp this year would help solve some of those issues.

No training camp meant the Knicks were still left trying to figure out things on the fly. This year, they got wracked by injuries early and Lin went nuts, but when Stoudemire and Melo returned, they were again forced to adjust. Stoudemire has had to play with basically three different rotations in a season and a half.

D'Antoni is a system coach who has not been able to install his system with a group of players and let them learn it, execute it and improve on it.

That said, he sucks and I'm glad he's gone.

 

He might have, too, but I know that Chris Broussard reported the other day that D'Antoni had basically lost control of the team and that - specifically - Carmelo Anthony had tuned him out and was doing his own thing. What a mess.

 

The Knicks have just given the keys to the franchise to a selfish crybaby. Carmelo will destroy what enthusiasm/chemistry any of the other players have left, then leave to go somewhere else with burning wreckage left behind. The Knicks should light the fuse - rehire Isiah and get it all over with now. The franchise is doomed.

 

I would happily take Linball from 3 weeks ago without Carmelo. Team did not have the goods to go all the way but they were a lot more fun to watch.

It's clear to anyone watching since return of Carmelo that he is the problem. Please leave now and take La La with you.

 

I wonder if they'll do anything about that during the off-season. I've watched the Knicks probably six times this year all since Lin started playing and that team was so much better without Anthony than they were with him.