What happened with this dude Douglas was the Knicks took a low-risk flyer out on him when they purchased the 29th pick from the Lakers and selected him a few drafts ago (or did the Lakers actually make the selection for us -- I don't remember). They knew he wasn't a real PG back then but with his highly thought-of defensive ability coming outta college (which has never transferred to the NBA like everyone thought it would) and the fact that he could shoot the ball, at 6'1", they figured he might be able to advance his PG/penetration skills to at least a passable level by now...Well it didn't happen and not only that, this yr in particular, these other elements to his game he was supposedly good at, namely the defense and his shooting, took a nose dive along with the rest of his game...This regression together with the shoulder injury from last yr which may still be lingering along with a lack of confidence which I feel has set in big-time has really spelled disaster for the poor guy...I can't really knock the Knicks too badly here though --- they liked TD at Florida State enough to take a chance on him to see if he could possibly turn out to be something more than what he was showing...It wasn't the worst gamble in the world at the time by Donnie -- unfortunately it hasn't really worked out and it looks like it's time to turn the page..
What I don't understand is why it took so long to identify that this guy wasn't a PG and that having a legit PG is the key to this system. Even by Mike---I mean WTF, it's his system!! I think a lot of it had to do with a misguided loyalty shown by Mike and possibly even mgmt toward Toney...Hard to knock Mike & the Knicks here too I guess (loyalty is generally a positive thing---he's a good kid, a good teammate and undoubtedly a very hard worker I'm sure---you know they appreciate all this and so do I as a fan of the team) but the bottom line is that we threw away a lot of games already this year, quite a few on TD specifically--hoping and praying that he'd turn out to be something more than what he is. No one guy should be put ahead of the team, esp. when that guy's struggling (along with the team as a whole because of those struggles), doing such a poor job playing agruably the most important position on the floor and with the season being a strike-shortened season to begin with...It's too important a position to be that complacent and that patient---I never understood it...TD should've been given much more of a shorter leash than he was, bottom line...It was clear to me the PG spot was a major problem, if not as far back as last yr when Chauncey went down (and TD was actually playing well in his absence statistically, although you can make a case that it was fool's gold -- I never for 1 sec. thought TD was the answer during that good stretch) or this yr's training camp, then defintely the first week or so of the season and without question during this bad losing streak we just went through...Hate to put it all on this kid's shoulders but I think that this lack of a true PG was really what killed us early on during this losing streak above anything else, including Melo and all his isos, STAT's drop in ferocity and even D'Antoni and his odd decision making at times. Thank God Lin looks like the goods -- truth of the matter is we got lucky with this kid, that he actually has some skill & smarts and that he's 100% up for the challenge..The Knicks never saw this type of success coming and if they tell us they did they'd be lying..Even now after an incredible 3-game stretch; yeah D'Antoni's saying the right things in the papers, that he believes in Lin, etc., but if you really listen to him in these post-game news conferences, he still sounds like an unbeliever, as if he's expecting Lin to fail soon or come back down to Earth in a big way...I'm kinda surprised by his attitude quite frankly -- this kid probably saved his job and all of his assistants' jobs. I'm not giving D'Antoni an oz. of credit here for Lin --- we should've found out a long time ago about him (or someone else if they truly felt he wasn't a solution)---10-15 games ago at least. Why the hell did it have to take so long?? The #1 thing has got to be winning ball games, minimizing losing streaks by doing whatever it takes to do so and fix problems/making the right adjustments, things D'Antoni is just not good at which scares me about him both short-term or possibly longer with a contract extension.