gallinari suffering from d'antoni sandbagging

[dk7th]

i am willing to withhold judgement of d'antoni and walsh for about 10 more games. i am of the mind that there is some intentional sacrificing of 25% of the season in order to showcase players for trades, ie. allow the veteran bums to be given enough rope to hang themselves. yes it seems delusional but i refuse to believe-- at the moment-- that d'antoni and his cronies are this stupid and inept.

not once has d'antoni put a lineup out there that makes any real sense. not once have i seen decent substitution patterns. i excuse isiah thomas because he is just a dumb coach, but i haven't reached the sam conclusion-- yet-- with md. has anybody seen duhon out there with gallinari chandler, lee, and milicic? or douglas (now that duhon looks terrible) with gallinari, chandler, lee, and milicic? or douglas, gallinari, lee, chandler, and hill?

nope. not once not even for one fukkin minute ion 2400 minutes of play. this is what happens when you are in "rebuild but be competitive" mode. you have to showcase stupid ballplayers and risk losing and a sense of togetherness and spirit and fight. tis is what seems to be happening. now even david lee seems to be playing for himself.

i hope soon to see that robinson, harrington, hughes, and duhon are kept far away from gallinari. why: because they are freezing him out. and if i have to think of the one player on this squad who has the potential to make others better it is gallinari. it is simply the case that he has not been given that opportunity and being on the floor at the same time with any two of these four players simply obfuscates his effectiveness in this sense of making others better.

i also have a problem with his being put into a 3rd or 4th option role in this offense. on offense he is always drifting down to the corners. has d'antoni played gallinari at the shooting guard position for even one minute this season? nope, not a single minute. in d'antoni's offense the point guard and the power forward are the first and second options, followed by the shooting guard and then only the small forward. this is so totally backwards for the knicks that it boggles the mind.

gallinari should soon be put into a position where he can be the second option and where he can touch the ball early on in every offensive possession. he should be allowed to be in the backcourt with douglas.

i came into the season with the expectations that the knicks are capable of .500 ball. i still feel that way but i now will have to adjust my expectations and say that the knicks are capable of playing .500 ball from game 21 to game 82.

walsh and d'antoni have taken the "in-season-rollover purge" approach and are willing to cede utah that lottery pick. this means that trades are imminent.

i'm okay with that, provided that gallinari is allowed to emerge as one of the captains on this team along with douglas. i have to believe that lee will be packaged with jeffries, and hence jordan hill will slip into the power forward slot. i have to believe that somehow harrington and robinson are also gone.

i look forward to seeing hill mlicic and chandler out there with douglas and gallinari one day.

we'll be stuck with eddy curry unless he performs miraculously well.

again i refuse to believe that walsh and md are not in fact going through with some larger plan. if they are this stupid and inept, then as ironman has said-- mea culpa.

[ironman95]

Yes DK, it appears to me that they are freezing out Gallinari. Is it a coaching decision or teammate jealousy? I am not sure about that. Maybe it is just teammate stupidity. We need to see that smart players out there, who play hard also. That would be Douglas, Lee, Hill, Gallinari and ?. Maybe Darko or Curry. Of the rest, some play hard and some play stupid, none of them play hard and smart. Between Darko and Curry, I'd venture to say that Curry will play hard but stupid, and Darko will play smart, but not so hard. If neither Darko or Curry can cut it, then switch Hill to center and start Landry at SF.

[daglazer]

We should use Gallo like Orlando used Turkoglu, as a point forward. Let Gall handle the ball up high and create shots for either himself or others. That would lessen the need for TD to be a playmaker and let him do what he does best, which is score in traffic.

[ironman95]

Sounds good to me. Put Darko and Lee out there for garbage buckets, and a defensive presence too.

[irish2u2]

As an aside let me say I have enjoyed DK's contributions of late. As always he is thoughtful, astute and he thinks out of the box. I may not always agree with him but I sure do enjoy his perspective.

Further we have been blessed with a lot of posters here (too many to list) lending their knowledge, expertise, experience and eloquence to this board. Thank you to one and all. I single out DK only because he tends to write mini-novels like someone else I know. ; )

[ReneNYG1]

I totally agree with you guys Iron and DK7,I thought the same thing with Brown that we where showcasing and I mention to Phil Ford when I saw him and of cousre his smile made me think I was right but Brown wasn't doing that,but I believe that Jeffries starting has to do with the showcase factor and Curry playing will be increased so we can showcase him aswell it only makes sense then you can justify the loses and suffering but Chandler and Duhon decline has made things worse,we have to move players like Al that hog the ball and give you too many turnovers,I think we will make moves soon.

[mercury]

Already a quater and a half gone and Danillo still hasent taken a shot. Maybe he will put one up before the half.

[whensly]

Interesting that we won a game last night led mostly by NBA veterans ,
Harrington, old man Hughes were fierce last night. I think the young players
need some quality old player to learn how to be winners, that's part of development.

I think Gallo will continue to grow, literally and figuratively in his game, when they surround him
with some quality players and he will grow better.