D'Antoni absurdly still in denial
It is hard to argue with Scipio.
Shumpert may not be a true PG. However, make that ten-fold for Toney Douglas. It is not clear if Douglas is even a worthwhile player at all (with the lowest PER on the team) but if he is anything, he is an occasionally streaky-shooting undersized SG, frankly something that Shumpert and Walker already do better.
Bibby may not have anything left, and Lin may not be ready or may never be more than a backup PG, but they are both better than Toney Douglas at PG, and neither has yet been given a legitimate chance to play real minutes (and maybe fail, but I doubt either would fail as spectacularly as Douglas has). The Knicks are better with no PG at all than with Toney Douglas at PG.
And D'Antoni keeps making the same mistake over and over again, and getting the same result over and over again, and praising and rewarding what is not praiseworthy and not worthy of reward - bad selfish play showing a total lack of understanding of the position. Douglas cannot even see the floor and keep his dribble - a basic high-school point guard skill. He stops dribbling, then looks around, usually just for one man (Carmelo), then telegraphs bad passes. It is frankly pathetic.
The garbage in several papers about Lin being ineffective in the first half (against the Celtics) is just that: garbage. And the garbage is clearly coming from D'Antoni and his apologists. Lin was much more effective than Douglas in everything that matters: penetrating, defending, and distributing. Granted his shot was off, but no more so than Douglas; and at least (unlike Douglas) they were better shot-selections, in terms of giving the Knicks a chance for an offensive rebound and a defensive recovery, not bad shots taken at a bad moment (which Douglas regularly does).
In addition, the "guy who will try anything" still has refused to give Balkman and Novak the minutes they deserve, has refused to give Jerome Jordan a legitimate try (even when the Knicks couldn't get a defensive rebound for four straight Celtics shots, even when the Knicks were getting carved up inside by Derrick Rose in the Bulls game). And the Knicks have failed to make a move for a Jamal Tinsley or an Aaron Miles or a Ramon Sessions early in the season, when it would have mattered (theoretically not the coach's decision - but failing to make the case that "Toney Douglas is not a PG so please go get me one" is his fault).
Dolan may be an idiot. Grunwald maybe has been asleep at the wheel during all this. I still think the Chandler deal was a master-stroke, but not lining up better PG options after that was frankly incompetent. However, in the end, the garbage notion to try Douglas as the starting or even backing PG rests with D'Antoni and should result in his firing. That is simply an unforgivable lapse of judgment. It would be bad for the coaching profession in general for Toney Douglas at PG [and Jeffries first sub off the bench - any bench] to not be universally recognized as a coach-killing decision.
For one game, let alone 23 games.