D’Antoni Right Fit? May 9, 2008
Posted by njsportstalk in Basketball.trackback
The big rumor going around is that the New York Knicks are preparing a 30 million dollar multi year offer to Mike D’Antoni to becme their next head coach. As a Knicks fan, its nice just to say that our head coach and our GM are not Isiah Thomas. However, that leaves the question of whether D’Antoni is a good fit for the Knicks? I believe he is and for several reasons.
First, he is a proven winner. Yes I know he never won a championship in Phoenix. But if the Suns owner wouldnt of been so cheap, selling draft picks for a few million dollars for 4-5 years the Suns probably would of won a championship. Just a few of those players that got chosen with the Suns draft picks are Luol Deng and Nate Robinson. Add those players to the Suns and look out. Second, he brings an exciting brand of basketball to New York. With D’Antoni running the show, you know the Knicks at the very least would be very exciting to watch.
There are some potential downfalls, most notably being that the Knicks current roster doesnt fit his system in the very least. Curry and Randolph do not fit the mobile big men mold needed in D’Antoni’s offense. They don’t have a point guard who can distribute the ball effectively and run the show. And they dont have the shooters needed either. But if D’Antoni is willing to be bad for a few years, they can acquire the necessary pieces through the draft, trades, and free agency. And this time he has an owner who isnt afraid of dishing out the money for an opportunity to win.
Dan
Dan the question here isn’t if D’Antoni is willing to be bad for a few years the question is are the Knicks and NYC willing to let the team be bad for a few more years. The Knicks have been bad for so long that you would think the fans would be used to it. But either way the fan base and the upper management have to be patient and let D’Antoni build his team and this may take a couple years to get the right people in place because as it stands now this whole team has to be shipped out. They can’t run him out of town after one losing season like they did with Larry Brown. Or maybe if the Knicks really want to win again they should draft Ewing 2.0 and hire Van Gundy’s little brother to maybe restore some magic back on to that team
I don’t believe D’Antoni will be a good fit with the current Knicks situation. They are admittedly still a few years away from being a quality team because of the mess Isiah has left the franchise in. They need to completely rebuild through the draft and wait for some contracts to expire. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching the Knicks lose but I honestly don’t feel D’Antoni is the right choice. I think hiring a young coach like Mark Jackson would be a better fit. This way he can grow with the organization and help build it from scratch. D’Antoni teaches a “European” style of basketball which is exciting to watch and has made him a very successful REGULAR season coach. This particular style needs specific players and to try and rebuild the franchise and try to cater to his style at the same time will be too tall of a task. Instead of overpaying for a coach, they should hire Mark Jackson, allow him 3 years to help build a winning team again then go from there.
Mach
I agree that Marc Jackson would be an excellent choice as well. I just dont think they can go wrong either way. It cant get any worse.