Not knee jerk, just observation

[jbnewyork162]

Is Mike D'antoni losing touch with reality with real time coaching? No, I'm not asking him to be fired like the Garden crowd would but did we really need to lose in two overtimes?

Why isn't Mlicic in for defense but Jeffries in for defense? Why was Gallinari out of the game, up until the last few moments of the 4th, 1st and 2nd overtime?

Why is Gallo being used like a one trick pony and all he does is to look for a 3pt shot. Remember last year when he was more unpolished and had butterflies and was hurt he had a dribble, and a drive and knew little English and his game was raw but fresh?

The Bobcats are a horrible team period. They have potential like we do on paper but they are horrible overall. D'antoni i understand is trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit but please let me know why he seems to coach to half of his capabilities.

We have no go to guy, less leadership than last year, less direction than last year. Mike D doesn't want to hire an extra assistants, we have Herb who doesn't do anything, we have sub patterns that accomplish nothing, we are better with not starting Hughes but now are we any worse? Really are we? The Bobcats are the bar that you have to measure if you are a bottom feeding team or an up and coming one.

With Crawford and Z-bo we won the 6 of 7 games last year and only made 32 wins. We don't even have that momentum YET and unless these phantom leaders pop up on this lifeless squad or Walsh makes some lateral cap cutting yet real time roster positional updates, how the hell is D'antoni seeing us winning 40 games? Let alone 32 games.

I am glad i made the pre-regular season prediction thread because its play like this that would make u sell high on some of those generous win predictions, we gave.

Mike D needs to coach better period. I know its the players mostly but his coaching lately, and I don't think its knee jerk to say so yet, leaves something to be desired. Our assistants are among the worst in the league. Let's call it what it is. Our conditioning crew are sloppy too. Look at Q two nights ago and look how heavy Gallo and Curry look? C'mon.

Your thoughts on everything gentleman...........



-Jason

[irish2u2]

Jason

I had some of the same thoughts myself. D'Antoni is a guy (like Larry Brown) who trusts vets a lot more than young guys. It doesn't make sense to not play Gallo when the offense is struggling and he is warming up. So what if he has 5 fouls? Like Clyde said you have to learn how to play the game with 5 fouls.

It doesn't make sense to watch the starters struggle once more with their offensive execution and their defense.

Why was Harrington guarding Augustin down the stretch? Why do we telegraph our passes so transparently and not spread the floor.

Part of the issue we have some dumb guys. Apparently the coaches aren't too smart either because a lot of the stupidity I see is the same crap I saw last year. Nothing has been done to correct the basic problems. I did see some effort tonight. We came back from 21 down, we extended the Bobcats to 2 OTs on their court. We also made the sickest team in the NBA (59 points in their opener against the Celtics) well again. ; )

I like Harrington and my opinion of Jefferies is nowhere near as bad as a lot of the folks on this board but they should be coming off the bench. Lee, Milicic and Gallo should be starting. We will see if D'Antoni sees what we saw against Charlotte when we play Philly tonight.

[ironman95]

Gallinari was in foul trouble, one of his main problems. In addition because of his back and like Nash he has to lie down when not on the court, so he gets cold, making shuffling him in and out counter-productive. D'Antoni, down the stretch went with seven players, cutting out Douglas and Milicic, neither played in the 2nd half or overtime. It was a horrible game, I almost deleted it before the end(TIVO) but I watched it til the end, when it got interesting, but the lack of a go-to guy eventually got to the Knicks. Two years ago, I wanted a trade-down to take Augustin, and from what I can see, we would have struck gold. He kept his team in the game the 2nd half, when no one else could or did, as the Knicks made a game out of it. Jeffries hit some shots, but also threw up some bricks, and guarded Felton very stupidly, not overplaying him to his right, as pointed out by Clyde in crunch time. That is either bad thinking or bad coaching. At the end D'Antoni was rotating Jeffries, Nate or Gallinari depending on whether he needed defense, ball handling or 3 point shooting, but Gallinari can't play that game that way. Chandler and Jeffries threw up a lot of bricks. Harrington tried driving, but didn't get many calls that he might have on other occasions. Duhon played OK, Nate was Nate, not too bad, not great. Only David Lee had a good game. I saw a lot of effort on defense and some good results(on defense). 17 and 18 is also a good night, he played hard, looks like he is trying to be the leader now, cause Harrington just aint a leader. Milicic looked lost in his brief stint and so did Douglas, I am sad to say. I still don't get Jeffries. The little guards like Felton and Augustin drove right past him. The big players overpower him. ON offense he's like Tim Thomas light..............he can't score inside, and doesn't have much will to try, so he jacks up threes. He hit one three last year. I am getting dis-enamored of D'Antoni's coaching style. Only Lee is willing to take a 12-18 foot jump shot. That is what they should all be looking for first, then the drive or pick and roll and then the open three. Need to learn how to hit two's before three's. That is the problem. All in all, it was one very ugly game, that got interesting, but still ugly towards the end. We need less Jeffries and more Milicic, and dare I say it, some Curry. Barring that Jordan Hill has to play, because this Jeffries thing isn't working at all. Chandler isn't elevating, or is as fluid as last year, looks like the bone spur surgery is still affecting him. He hit one good elevated jumper, but also threw up a lot of bricks, airballs, side of the basket shots etc. He does not look like last year's Chandler. Milicic, as I have pointed out before has one BIG flaw of not rebounding with TWO hands, trying to tap the ball to a teammate. That doesn't work in the NBA. He needs to take lessons from Lee. Even Gallinari has rebounding down like Lee, just not as explosively, and Lee is a master of position, even though sometimes he forgets to box out. But the the rest of the knicks don't know what boxing out is. This game should start with a defensive rebound and an outlet pass, but only Duhon and Lee seem to be in on that, the rest are trying to catch up. Nate and Harrington are looking to make one on one moves, and Gallinari and Jeffries(ugh) are setting up for threes most of the time. I don't think that is supposed to be the plan. Move the ball around, get a miss-match or a pick and roll, if that doesn't work a two point jumper, then look for a three. Should be last resort, unless wide open. To me they playing are the game offensively backwards. At least defensively they look more capable and determined with better effort. Duhon played 55 plus minutes, that is a really bad sign, especially with the home opener tomorrow, and the bench shortened to 7 players in the 2nd half. This team will implode, under that workload. I was optimistic two games ago..............may have to go back to the dark side. Certainly there are role problems on this team, but that is a coaching problem. In football if you have the personnel to play a 4-3 but not a 3-4, you play a 4-3. I think D'Antoni is falling into the trap of trying to get ill-fitting pieces to fit his system. Only Gallinari is a 3 point shooter of any consistency, the rest are 2 point shooters masquerading as 3 point shooters. Duhon can hit an open three, but Nate, Chandler and Harrington are slashers and pull-up two point jump shooters, and who knows what Jeffries is. Lets just put it this way..................Lee is the only one who knows better than to hoist up a three because he is in touch with his limitations. The others still think they are Gladiators or Comic Book Heros. This has to stop. It's like the whole team has turned into a bunch of Jamal Crawford clones. In addition they stop to admire their shot or argue with the referees about the non-call, instead of getting back on defense. On defense they should either box out their man or release down to the offense end. Most of them do neither. Expecially Harrington and Jeffries, and Milicic is slow to do it, although he does box out. The gotta get back to fundamental basketball, and forget about 3 point shots unless they are wide open. Any way we can get Augustin or Arroyo in the next two years? We just saw two substitute point guards, that are better than Duhon.

[greatgates]

Duhon validly complained about team joking around and not being ready to play. OK but then he just reeked. He looked like gerald henderson sr light. The middle says wide open but Zohan can't get to the rim. It's truly a shame that this offense has such a slug at the point. If only steph hadn't scorched the earth everywhere. Oh well.
And D'antoni whew. Of course everyone wanted gallo to play more but Numbnuts puts him late in overtome ON DEFENSE and Joey F*ckin graham blows by him.
BTW do we ever take away a players strong hand. We cover a bunch of guys that can't go left and we force them to go right.
Taking away the strong hand ( unless the baseline is involved) would have to save us 6 to 8 pts a game.

[rxmeister]

Yeah, Duhon is definitely the wrong guy to be delivering the message. Considering the way he played, maybe he should lighten up and join the guys that are having fun! Going back to Jason's comments, I found all to be accurate except for his comment about Quentin Richardson. That wasn't a Knicks' lack of conditioning thing, that was a lazy fat cat athlete who didn't want to get into shape until his contract year. He's trying to sucker another long term deal out of someone but I don't think anyone is fooled. Perhaps the weight loss is also due to all the traveling he did this offseason as he bounced from city to city.

[pearl]

I am totally disgusted with D'Antoni after two games. Not a knee jerk observation, my feelings are based on the layup drills every team performs on the Knicks.

1. No guard defense: duhon never blocks or attempts to block and entry pass. Try keeping your hands up on defense throughout the entire posession. You will find that you can get more deflections (Duhon, Nate, Jeffries, Chandler). Basic fundamentals, this team has no philosophy on defense, NONE.

I am sickened and glad i did not order NBA league pass. D'Antoni takes the heat my friends. The Knicks are not focued defensively, their definitley not an intelligent team and lets face the cold facts. D'Antoni will never emphasisze defense and as a result, we are going nowhere in this league.

I don't care how much of a player's coach they say D'Antoni is, he is the wrong guy for the Knicks. We don't have the talent of the Phoenix teams he coached, who got away with little defense, until they hit the playoffs and then were EXPOSED for a lower level defense.

Walsh, you have a tough decision to make here. You cannot be happy with the Philosophy of the team defensively, what makes you think this will change. get a hard assed Hubie-Brown type guy in here, the New York fans will eat up the defensive philosophy and effort and possibly, we can attract a couple of free- agents next year.

I don't mean to be negative here guys, simply realistic. A D'Antoni led team is not winning any championships in New york anytime soon. We have young impressionable players, Chandler, Gallo, Douglas and Hill, they need to be taught DEFENSE Now. The clock is runn----g.

Pearl

[jbnewyork162]

How did it happen that we seem to have regressed from last year?


I mean think about it for a second. We can go on a 3 game winning streak and I'll still feel the same way. The aura, or essence or the feeling or whatever you want to call it with this team this year, is stale. Gallo because he is stronger and heavier seems slower and out of shape to me. He's healthy but not quicker than last year. Not hungry to drive and slash like last year.

I know Iron and some others were all against what i felt with Chandler starting at the 2 and that being one of our many holes. Chandler is forced to shoot like a sg and to me he is regressing in this role. He is not a pure shooter and that is what that 2 spot consists of. He needs to be the starter but as the SF and unfortunately since the alternative is Hughes who is crap at the 2 instead, whatever logic would state, Chandler WILL still be the 2.

Jared Jeffries starting in overtime over Mlicic or Gallo(I get where your coming from Iron with what you said) doesnt make any sense. Jeffries is not a high IQ players. Tyson was on the bench for most of the two extra sessions, so David Lee, Darko and Al or Gallo should have been in more during this time.

What is the plan with D'antoni. I created this posting/thread because it doesnt take me that long to see that while Walsh may have one our coaching isnt that much better than Isiah's.

Mike D and this team, talk a good game and I dont want him fired, but our coaches are on the hot seat for this one. As much as our players suck a$$ more often than not, how do you get rid of the problems players like steph and Q and Jerome and even the scaprgoat Malik Rose and Tim Thomas and start off with regressing players like Chandler and Gallo not playing them to their strengths. There is no excuse JUST having Gallo jack up threes JUST cause he can. He drove and slashed and looked like a younger more spry Dirk lite, with what little he was on the court.

Hill is out of shape but played in a offense that was uptempo and always kept himself in shapee and now you cant help him to be rotational yet Blair has no knees in similars minutes and was taken by the Spurs at the end of the round and he looks solid and ready

I can nitpick about every aspect of the way our team has not improved even a little. Moral victory patience is over with me. I didnt expect us to be all that great this year but damn i didnt expect us to be this bland and uninspired.

WE need WAY more than Lebron or Wade. These cats will listen but these too stallions will not touch us with a two foot pole if there is no culture or swagger about us before we they get here. spin it how you want but Mike D has to COACH. This is not the way build a winning team. I hope to God I will eat crow in May about all of what i saying but I doubt it.

I hate being negative guys but i might be the official 1st member of team darkside ON THIS BOARD ANYWAY, if I'm not convinced otherwise as the games play on.

This decade to forget cant be over soon enough. The only team with cap room next summer that needs to fill ALL positions with it, lol. Jeez!

[jbaer10314]

Here's something else. Why do the Knicks insist on shooting so many threes? They've jacked up an alarming number and missed most of them.

Is this a thing with D'Antoni? The whole team seemed to shoot threes last season too.

[ironman95]

I was never against Chandler starting at the 2, you've got me confused with someone else. Tonight Harrington did what I have always said he has to do. Stop shooting threes and drive to the basket, and get to the foul line. Until he stupidly fouled himself out of the game. Yes they jack up way too many threes. Only Gallinari should be given the green light on threes. The rest should be looking to drive, run the pick and roll, and if open hit a 2. Hughes did that tonight for the most part, and Nate did that somewhat along with Chandler. They made a glorious comeback, D'Antoni never made one substitution the whole time until Harrington fouled out. Lee was on the bench with 4 fouls the whole time. Was that right or was that wrong? I am not sure. I can see both sides of the argument. Momentum vs. Fatigue. Another disheartening loss. Take away 1st quarters and the Knicks are at least 2 and 1. Harrington played his ass off, and Hughes was good. At the end, maybe Harrington got a little too pumped up, to where he lost composure on defense, but still an excellent game. Hughes proved he can defend, but is a little careless with the ball. We're still a point guard and a big man away from the playoffs. Someone better step up real soon.