Donnie Walsh questions if MDA is right for Knicks; coach could bolt for Toronto

AmareForPresident

AmareForPresident

Starter
MIAMI - Donnie Walsh has never said he is looking to make a coaching move, but perhaps Mike D'Antoni will make one for him.
D'Antoni, entering the final year of his contract as Knicks coach, could emerge as a candidate in Toronto, where the Raptors announced Wednesday that coach Jay Triano will not return.
Toronto president Bryan Colangelo has a good history with D'Antoni from their time with the Phoenix Suns. Colangelo hired D'Antoni and together they transformed the Suns into one of the NBA's most successful and entertaining teams.
"I believe that bringing in a new voice as head coach will accelerate the progress we are looking to make in the coming years," Colangelo said in a release Wednesday.
Coincidentally, the one knock on D'Antoni's teams is that they don't focus enough on defense. During a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Colangelo said he wanted an experienced coach and one with a "defensive-minded" perspective.
Jeff Van Gundy would be an obvious choice but the former Knicks coach and current ABC/ESPN analyst is happy in his current role. According to a source, Van Gundy wants to wait at least another year before he returns to coaching.
As of Wednesday, Colangelo had not asked the Knicks for permission to speak with D'Antoni, who is hoping to remain in the New York area until his son graduates high school in two years.
However, the Knicks have given no indication that they are open to negotiating a new deal with D'Antoni. Sources close to Walsh claim that the team president has privately questioned whether D'Antoni's system is the right fit for the Knicks.
Walsh's most successful clubs with the Indiana Pacers were good halfcourt teams, both offensively and defensively. The News reported in April that Walsh may insist that D'Antoni revamp his staff to hire an assistant coach in charge of defense. In the past, D'Antoni has been reluctant to make such a hire. In Phoenix, he refused Steve Kerr's request to make current Bulls head man Tom Thibodeau his defensive coach.
After losing at least 50 games in his first two seasons, D'Antoni guided the Knicks to a 42-40 record this year. It was their first winning season in 10 years. However, the Knicks were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs and several veteran players began to question the coach.
The pending lockout suggests that D'Antoni will remain in New York for at least one more year. Also, Walsh may feel obligated to give D'Antoni a full training camp to prove what he can do with Amar'e Stoudemire and late-season pickups Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups.
Should D'Antoni leave for another job or get fired, there are viable candidates available to replace him, including Rick Adelman, Lawrence Frank and Mark Jackson, who is a finalist for the Golden State job. There is also a report that the Knicks may pursue
Kentucky coach John Calipari, who is represented by CAA, the same agency that represents Anthony and Hornets point guard Chris Paul, who can become a free agent in 13 months.
Click to expand...
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...ntoni_is_right_for_knicks_coach_could_bo.html
 
nuckles2k2

nuckles2k2

Superstar
oh-happy-day.jpg
 
Clyde & The Pearl

Clyde & The Pearl

Starter
Walsh knows keeping MOA isnt going to turn out well. Deep down he has to know.

Its like you know you gotta break up with you girlfriend. You know if you hook up with her one last time it aint going to go well.

Some men are strong enough not to do it, some arent. Walsh please let it go...
 
B

Blumatic

Rotation player
MDA is going no where. Donnie will not fire him. Secondly if Donnie fires MDA now, with Mike Brown just getting hired......I mean WHAT THE HELL?

Personally I dont like any other coach out there but Lawrence Frank. I would find an assistant coach who is under a great coach now. Get me someone from Popovich staff. I would interview Ewing. Check him out.

But MDA is staying one more year.
 
Clyde & The Pearl

Clyde & The Pearl

Starter
Blumatic said:
MDA is going no where. Donnie will not fire him. Secondly if Donnie fires MDA now, with Mike Brown just getting hired......I mean WHAT THE HELL?

Personally I dont like any other coach out there but Lawrence Frank. I would find an assistant coach who is under a great coach now. Get me someone from Popovich staff. I would interview Ewing. Check him out.

But MDA is staying one more year.
Click to expand...

Bill Laimbeer baby!!!
 
ducktales17

ducktales17

Benchwarmer
I'm still all for Marc Jackson.

He has a passion to coach.

He'll hire a very strong team of assistant's and he'll preach defense.

We'll have a small initial offensive playbook, however, that's completely fine with playmakers like Melo/Stat. As long as we have knock down shooters.
 
ronoranina

ronoranina

Fundamentally Sound
ducktales17 said:
I'm still all for Marc Jackson.

He has a passion to coach.

He'll hire a very strong team of assistant's and he'll preach defense.

We'll have a small initial offensive playbook, however, that's completely fine with playmakers like Melo/Stat. As long as we have knock down shooters.
Click to expand...

Why do you say that DT? I would think the opposite. Jackson should know a thing or two about offense seeing as he was a former floor general. I bet he's got some creative stuff in his bag of tricks.
 
ducktales17

ducktales17

Benchwarmer
ronoranina said:
Why do you say that DT? I would think the opposite. Jackson should know a thing or two about offense seeing as he was a former floor general. I bet he's got some creative stuff in his bag of tricks.
Click to expand...

You could be right. I wrongly assumed that he wouldn't have a lot of plays because he's never coached before (which may be true). It probably will be condensed regardless if he's got a whole bag of tricks just because it's a completely new coach with a completely new offensive system. The team will have to learn it. Only way to learn it is with game time.

I do agree in your thoughts that he knows a thing or two about offense. Great PG's usually are great coaches.

Again, I'm ALL FOR Marc Jackson.
 
S

SSj4Wingzero

All Star
Mark Jackson and Chauncey Billups together could coach circles around Mike D'Antoni. As much as D'Antoni's Phoenix teams were successful it's the half-court offense that dominates the East and I recall reading (somewhere) that a Knicks player said that Chauncey, especially when he was injured, was doing far more coaching than D'Antoni was

That being said I want absolutely no piece of John Calipari on this team. He's yet to prove he's anything better than someone who can wine and dine a bunch of thugs with no brains
 
Crazy⑧s

Crazy⑧s

Evacuee
If you look at our roster now, and the fact that it will have insignificant changes made to it this season, it wouldn't be banner waving to say that MD is not the best coach for this team.

I, clearly, would be ecstatic if he were to be shown the door.

1 season (with a good roster 2010 - 2011) of witless substitutions, non-utilisation of the offence within the arc, isolated stars, favouritism and personal conflicting, 4th quarter debacles, not calling time outs, and - for the billionth time -, the league's most predictable and disappointing offence, was enough for me.

How many failures will be afforded to him?

I'll have to quote the infamous Red here, by saying:

REDUCE THE EXCUSE.

The growing hostility of the Eastern Conference leaves us in a position where mistakes - the likes of Mike's many and varied - are something that we can't afford.

☆ Having said all that, I strongly believe that MD will be here for the entirety of the next season. Almost makes me hope for a prolonged lockout
facepalm2.gif
 
RunningJumper

RunningJumper

Super Moderator
People want the best players, well, we can go for the best coach available without having to worry about cap since, coaches don't go against the cap.

I thought about giving D'Antoni a chance, not keep changing everything, but really, the roster has changed so much since he's been here that it probably wouldn't make much of a difference, except maybe on the positive side.

I don't know about coaching, however D'Antoni is stubborn and I don't have confidence in him to stop the three pointer coaching.

Rick Adelman seems like he'd be great for us. With no Yao for most of the last two seasons, the Rockets won 42 games, then 43 games. They had a better record than us.

^Reduce The Excuse
 
S

SSj4Wingzero

All Star
Yeah. I've grown more anti-D'Antoni as time has comes. But not for the "oh snap he can't coach defense cause he gives up 100 points!!!" rule.

He doesn't emphasize rebounding. He shoots too many 3's. He did a terrible job at developing our young players (AR, who in his first game with Minnesota proved that he was far better than D'Antoni thought). He doesn't make good use of big men. And he can't really coach in the half-court.

Basically - he doesn't seem to be able to coach without Steve Nash

Yeah Rick Adelman seems like an intriguing option as well. It was Tommy Dee of theknicksblog.com who mentioned a couple years back (IIRC it was D'Antoni's second year) that the Rockets' roster was about as bad as ours was and yet Adelman was playing them to the tune of a .500 record. I'm a fan of Mark Jackson myself. Ewing's an option but I don't know if he's ready to be a head coach yet. There's also the idea of trying to lure Jeff Van Gundy back into coaching, and of course there's dark horse Rick Pitino who might be inclined to leave Louisville after the embarrassing way his team was crushed by Morehead State
 
Last edited:
R

Rob Low

Rotation player
Honestly I don't believe Adelman is the right choice either, he's not exactly a defensive coach. I say we go after van gundy, phil jackson, or marc jackson in that order.
 
Red

Red

TYPE-A
RunningJumper said:
People want the best players, well, we can go for the best coach available without having to worry about cap since, coaches don't go against the cap.

I thought about giving D'Antoni a chance, not keep changing everything, but really, the roster has changed so much since he's been here that it probably wouldn't make much of a difference, except maybe on the positive side.

I don't know about coaching, however D'Antoni is stubborn and I don't have confidence in him to stop the three pointer coaching.

Rick Adelman seems like he'd be great for us. With no Yao for most of the last two seasons, the Rockets won 42 games, then 43 games. They had a better record than us.

^Reduce The Excuse
Click to expand...


I peep that!

Reduce the excuse.:beer:
 
DontForgetDerekHarper

DontForgetDerekHarper

Starter
Clyde & The Pearl said:
Walsh knows keeping MOA isnt going to turn out well. Deep down he has to know.

Its like you know you gotta break up with you girlfriend. You know if you hook up with her one last time it aint going to go well.

Some men are strong enough not to do it, some arent. Walsh please let it go...
Click to expand...


you mean you dont believe in a farewell hit that ?

im a strong man, and if my girls hot enough, even if i dont wanna be with her ill hook up with her until something better comes along.

think about that in terms of dantoni

unless something better is there to replace him, you gotta let this year ride out, because truthfully; every name coach out there is either under contract or unavailable, and I DO NOT

want to test the waters with mark jackson.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top