Locker Room has no respect for Mike D'Antoni, Mike trying to use Melo as scapegoat

There are articles of this from Howard Beck, Chris Broussard, RealGM, and reports from Stephen A, but I like this article by Frank Isola who broke the news best. http://t.co/qwdrqN8b

The locker room has turned against Mike D'Antoni and some sources in the organization believe he is trying to use Carmelo as a scapegoat.

Isola talks about the time D'Antoni denied the report that Melo told him to out Lin in even though Lin and Carmelo both confirmed the report among other examples of Mike not protecting Carmelo.

He brought up a story about how the entire team was trashing Mike D'Antoni and Carmelo refused to join in and was silent the whole time.

Mike D'Antoni needs to be fired. He's a coward who can't coach or utilize the talent of his star players and he's a piece of shit for using Carmelo as a scapegoat. All of you who blame Carmelo need to know this. Carmelo has done nothing but defend D'Antoni and try his best to fit into this whacky retarded system, and all D'Antoni has done is play behind the scenes games and thrown Carmelo to the wolves in press conferences. Please defend Carmelo. Mile D'Antoni MUST be fired.
 

Forrest17

Rotation player
God this is a disaster

Honestly this teams better off without either of them. Every bit of drama and hardship we've had over the last few years has all involved them and it has lead to nothing except losses.
 

Rob Low

Rotation player
This is exactly what i've been saying this whole time. But people wanna act like Melo just went from the best scorer in the league to a scrub over the course of a few months. There's very few coaches in the league that could have this roster and not have them at least in the playoffs. There's really no need to trade anybody, just fire D'antoni and give P Jax as much money as he wants and we will win a championship
 

Wargames

Starter
What really has me annoyed and confused is they're trying to trade Melo now. It makes no sense you gave up half your team for him and it's a shortened season with a lameduck coach.

It's like eddy curry and zach all over again and they wanna keep the physicallt questionable center who plays no defense again. Melo has never had a six game losing streak in his career before coming to the Knicks. You send him to any team out there and they become better and the Knicks become bogged down with even more players for D'antoni to mismatch on the court.
 
What really has me annoyed and confused is they're trying to trade Melo now. It makes no sense you gave up half your team for him and it's a shortened season with a lameduck coach.

It's like eddy curry and zach all over again and they wanna keep the physicallt questionable center who plays no defense again. Melo has never had a six game losing streak in his career before coming to the Knicks. You send him to any team out there and they become better and the Knicks become bogged down with even more players for D'antoni to mismatch on the court.
That's funny because Denver got better the day he left and we got worse the day he arrived. We like every team in the league will be better of without him and his low career shooting g percentage
 

nuckles2k2

Superstar
That's funny because Denver got better the day he left and we got worse the day he arrived. We like every team in the league will be better of without him and his low career shooting g percentage

Denver also let Chauncey go, which opened up playing time for Ty Lawson, who runs the up-tempo style better than the 33+ year old Billups did.

Denver was already seated nicely in the playoffs when they had Melo, they just didn't skip a beat because when your offensive system is predicated on scoring points in the paint and getting to the free throw line....you're gonna be able to incorporate multiple skill sets in your offense, and let everyone play their game.

That's why Brewer scores inside, Afflalo can shoot from the perimeter or foray into the paint, Nene stays down load and is always top 5 in FG%, Gallo is still a perimeter shooter who's drives to the rim are more commonplace now. Ty Lawson is always penetrating and doing damage in the paint; Al Harrington plays outside-in, etc.

Melo comes to the Knicks and the "system" is to space the court, not get in the way, and wait your turn.

You establish yourself in the NBA, for close to a decade, with the skill set that you've cultivated since high school and college, have coaches at every level put you in position for success -- from high school, to Syracuse, to Denver, and even Team USA....then get to the Knicks and suddenly you have to fit the system? You have to stand away from the area where you've made a living, to space the court for a Pick-and-roll? This makes sense in what universe?

Seems like we have a bunch of people around here who need to be part of the conversation, but they don't really know the subject matter as well as they think they do.

LAL's offensive system is built around Kobe, Pau, and Bynum. OKC's offensive system is built around KD and Westbrook. Chicago's offensive system is built around Rose and the PG position. Philly's offense is built for it's wing players to have success.

The Knicks offense is built around an ideology and a particular play, regardless of where the strength of the team is.

But that's Melo's fault, right?

Of course MDA is gonna use this to his advantage and try to scapegoat Melo. The media and fans are giving him all the ammunition he needs.
 

NY17KNICKS

★Melo Mafia★
Damn bro your right, Denver got so much better!
Im thinkin Gallo SINGLE HANDEDLY carries them to West Finals and becomes a former top 5 scorer.

You make an account just to talk shit and cause trouble.

This place is so f*cked up nowadays
 

NY17KNICKS

★Melo Mafia★
There is a report the Knicks have offered Melo+Chandler for Howard+Hedo.
They say Dolan agreeing would heat the talk up big time.
 

nuckles2k2

Superstar
Carmelo Anthony has made his name in the NBA by scoring inside primarily.

Mike D'Antoni's offense is predicated on the PG and center doing the majority of the scoring inside, while every one else spaces and shoots when open.

STAT set a few screens, on the wing, for Melo in the Bulls game, for the first time all season. It took 41 games to see a 34 PnR, when those two players make a combined 32 million dollars.

But this is Carmelo's fault...somehow, right?
 

lookgrabpull

Benchwarmer
They aren't trying to trade Melo.

Whose in charge?



"He said he's not trading anyone," said the source, with direct contact with Dolan. "He said it's up to the coach to figure it out."

Via Frank Isola/New York Daily News


Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/219703/Dolan_Advisor_Pushing_For_Trade_Of_Anthony#ixzz1p4c2KYHG


* Talks about Melo trade are just fantasy talk. No point in discussing this seriously.

If this is indeed true, than we're fuked. Cuz Melo can and will bury the team just to blame it on the coach, Amare is out of shape completely.
And regardless, they don't need to hustle and give their best effort, since even if this team fails and they do get traded next offseason, then they keep their money and move to the next team, while blaming it on the "system". They'd be right in a lot of ways, but the team would eventually suffer.

IF there are no roster/coaching changes, then DAntoni needs to man up. Whenever the starts aren't hustling, he should sit their asses down. Let melo earn his max salary while shooting 11 pts a game and becoming the joke of the league. Let amare watch wear his towel like a monk, while Lin and Chandler play perfect PnR (like we've seen them do). He'll soon become that old over-the-top former star that the media is going to rape.

This alone would get more respect as a coach, and then he should sit his own ass down to do some homework on how to coach defense and come out with a plan for every situation he can think of.
 

nuckles2k2

Superstar
I wanna see if Payton Manning goes to a new team and is forced to use their terminology, succumb to the whims of his new offensive coordinator, not get off to a good start, and see if that fan base implodes on itself and call for Manning's head


OR

If Payton Manning's new team realizes that Payton has had success in the NFL for long enough to realize his strengths and weaknesses, and does it's best to appease him and let him run what he's comfortable with.


Which one seems more likely?

I mean....even Miami let LBJ become the primary ball-handler when he came to the Heat. Wade is playing more off the ball with the addition of James.

But yet, we need to make sure we run 1-5 PnRs all game, to the detriment of what Carmelo Anthony does well.

THAT MAKES NO SENSE.
 

BachaCho

Benchwarmer
Trade Melo? Are you ****ing serious fire this ****ing piece of shit D antoni!!!!!!!! What a ****ing disgrace its not ****ing Melo why would you trade Melo, the face of your franchise and a ****ing prolific scorer under a right coach not speed ball dick head D antoni man we have to send a petition to the GM of the Knicks saying to fire D antoni asap!!! What a ****ing asshole!... My bad im just pissed off that they want to do Melo away dirty and not know how to ****ing use him
 

lookgrabpull

Benchwarmer
Trade Melo? Are you ****ing serious fire this ****ing piece of shit D antoni!!!!!!!! What a ****ing disgrace its not ****ing Melo why would you trade Melo, the face of your franchise and a ****ing prolific scorer under a right coach not speed ball dick head D antoni man we have to send a petition to the GM of the Knicks saying to fire D antoni asap!!! What a ****ing asshole!... My bad im just pissed off that they want to do Melo away dirty and not know how to ****ing use him

I'm not saying we should trade melo. All I'm sayin is that this situation is poisonous. Because this trio of Melo-Amare-Dantoni is not working on AND off court. This is bad for the entire team, and if management doesn't want to change anything, than we are ****ed.
Fire Dantoni and bring a new coach that would sort this mess out = great.
Trade Amare to unclog the post and provide more defense and hustle - and melo will become the superstar that we know he is = great.

But to leave it as it is will kill us, and Melo and Amare's frustration will destroy whatever basketball coaching abilities our bullheaded coach has.

Management has to intervene.
 

nuckles2k2

Superstar
I'm not saying we should trade melo. All I'm sayin is that this situation is poisonous. Because this trio of Melo-Amare-Dantoni is not working on AND off court. This is bad for the entire team, and if management doesn't want to change anything, than we are ****ed.
Fire Dantoni and bring a new coach that would sort this mess out = great.
Trade Amare to unclog the post and provide more defense and hustle - and melo will become the superstar that we know he is = great.

But to leave it as it is will kill us, and Melo and Amare's frustration will destroy whatever basketball coaching abilities our bullheaded coach has.

Management has to intervene.

MDA won't be back tho, he already requested an extension prior to the season, and was denied. If he had a shot at getting a new deal and coming back, he would have had it already.

But you're right. Something needs to be done. I say just remove MDA now to make the situation less volatile.
 

mafra

Legend
Good post Knuckles.

DEN also got waxed in the first round. The regular season & post season are two different games. Through the grind of 82 games, playing across USA, here and there & day or night; spunky teams w/ energy that buy into a coach's system will overachieve. Only a few stars (Kobe) have the pride to bring their A+ game (and play hard through injuries), so NATURALLY when you play a teans sans major stars, on a Sun afternoon, or Tuesday night, on the road, you let your guard down.

These are NBA players. Give them a window, some confidence, and away they go.

HOWEVER, once you get into the playoffs, that all flies out the window. Spunky gets you nowhere. The better teams wins in a 7-game series. If you don't have a superstar to get you buckets down the stretch in crunch time... You in trouble.

Our team w/out Carmelo would win NOTHING. Not w/ MIA & CHI in the East. MAYBE, over the course of 2-5 seasons... We could've won a series. But never would we do much of anything, let alone compete for an NBA title.

Felton? Dude went south quickly in NY. ALmost as quickly as Duhon. By Feb last eyar, his play grew worse & worse. Not to mention, while in CHA, ORL or ATL ran circles around in in the playoffs. DEN traded him, & he was recently benched in POR. If we had Felton, we would never had given LIN a shot, & w/out Carmelo we probably don't sign B Davis.

I would take Lin & Davis over Felton.

Let's also remember, if we don't make this trade we don't have C Billups. If we didn't have the ability to cut CB, we don't have the cap space to add Tyson Chandler. Maybe if he's in NY, we resign Wilson & he stays away from China. I doubt it, he probably still is looking for his cash.

Still, let's just say that I prefer Tyson Chandler over Wilson Chandler.

Are we really hyping T Mozgov? Is he a starting center in the NBA? A promising prospect? Is he a career grinder, like Foster of Nazir Muhammed? MOZ was a case of "well, we really should draw the line somewhere in the deal so we should not throw in this final piece, but then again are we really gonna let this guy block the deal to get a HOF player" ... Tough call. If we had the MOZ, we probably don't draft Josh Harrellson. We probably don't bring back Jared Jeffries? Who knows. We probably even have to overpay for a compliment C, like Kwame Brown or something.

Anyway, let's call this a draw. I think Knicks are happy they have TC starting at center instead of Mozgov though. Sure, I prefer Mozgov over Jeffries or Harrellson.

Corey Brewer & Anthony Randolph? Let's not even go there. Neither was a D'anotni player. Both would have walked anyway last Summer.

The meat of the deal comes down to Danillo Gallinari or Carmelo Anthony. And don't cop out & say that you would take Danillo plus the other guys over just Carmelo. The truth is exaclty the opposite.

I would take Tyson Chandler, Jeremy Lin, Baron Davis, Josh Harrellson, Jared Jeffries over Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Mozgov, Randolph & Brewer.

I honestly felt that to be truly all-in for an NBA title this season, we needed to find a way to get Carmelo, while holding on to both Amar'e & Gallo. Gallinari would have been the perfect 6th man. He would close out games. He would be our H-Turkoglu. A point fwd and deep threat shooter.

In a perfect world, Carmelo goes to free agency, and we have both. But Knicks have no luck, and it happened that we had to contend w/ the lockout mess. If there was no impending work stoppage, does Melo not call out bluff? Does he let it known through back channels that he'll wait?

Again, I refer to what I just said... I would still prefer Tyson Chandler, Lin, Davis and that over having even Felton, Wilson & Gallo.

Guess who is injured again this year? THAT's right, the young kid Gallo. Always hurt. Gallo is also not a Center. Lebron and MIA would eat him alive on offense in the playoffs.

So, let's stop talking about this trade, & how bad it was for us or how good we were before the deal. We were still a .500 team at the time, and only b/c of a fluke 14-1 run or something, were we even in the picture of respectability.

This isn't to say I love Carmelo. I'm 50/50 on him. I approved of the deal, even though I hated that Dolan balked and gave in too early. It still was a necessary trade.

I also admit that Carmelo shoulders the burden here. Had he waited & signed w/ us, there would have been an out here... I would give him a pass. BUt, since he pushed for the deal, he is under the pressure here. I wanted to get here, at any cost, feeling that he was good enough. If he made us sacrifice some depth or role players, then he must carry the burden.

Win or he's a failure.

What if we didn't make the deal though? Wilson is in China, Gallo is hurt, Mozogv in & out of lineup b/c of injuries, Felton flopping. Are we better? Maybe we are the same, like we would have been last year (either squad gets swept by BOS). BUt w/out Melo, Davis, Tyson... would we have any shot in the first round against CHI or MIA?
 

BachaCho

Benchwarmer
I'm not saying we should trade melo. All I'm sayin is that this situation is poisonous. Because this trio of Melo-Amare-Dantoni is not working on AND off court. This is bad for the entire team, and if management doesn't want to change anything, than we are ****ed.
Fire Dantoni and bring a new coach that would sort this mess out = great.
Trade Amare to unclog the post and provide more defense and hustle - and melo will become the superstar that we know he is = great.

But to leave it as it is will kill us, and Melo and Amare's frustration will destroy whatever basketball coaching abilities our bullheaded coach has.

Management has to intervene.

Any decent coach would utilize Stat and Melo to their full strengths not camp Melo at the 3 line where he has never done that before thats not his game... If we were to fire D antoni and get Phil Jackson today we would win more games and go further in the playoffs even if the players know 2 plays from Phil Jackson man its so obvious its the coach you dont go from being called top 5-10 player in the league for years to a slumping star it doesnt work like that
 

wynton

Rookie
Best article so far is from Broussard.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/sto...new-york-knicks-locker-room-according-sources

This is the part I found most interesting.

Management, the coaching staff and the players know Anthony is hurting the offense and in turn, the defensive morale, according to the sources. While D'Antoni's offense calls for Anthony to plant himself on the wing at the 3-point line, he often creeps in to his favorite spot in the floor -- the area between the elbow, the arc and the post. That kills the Knicks' ability to run the high pick-and-roll and ruins the spacing that is so critical to D'Antoni's offense.
"That's at the very core of our problem," one person close to the situation said. "That messes up the fluidity of the offense. Melo could do it, but he's got to trust the offense."
When Anthony first returned -- and it still appears to be the case -- Lin would bring the ball upcourt and try to run D'Antoni's system. When Anthony would abandon the offense, Lin would not pass him the ball, which irritated Anthony, sources said. So when Lin tried to talk to Anthony on the court, Anthony would turn his back to the point guard and tune him out. The two never had heated exchanges, though, and the players tried to come to a compromise, agreeing to run D'Antoni's system while also mixing in post-ups for Anthony.
"But it's just a mess because D'Antoni's system is not designed for that," one source said.
Despite his often poor body language, many of the players believe Anthony is trying to adjust and sincerely wants to win. He has told people close to him that he is being asked to do things he's never done, saying that throughout his career he has always had plenty of post-up opportunities and that he is uncomfortable standing on the wing spacing the floor.
"Half the team is trying to do what coach says and the other half is doing something different," one source said. "Then it spills over to the defensive end because players are (ticked) off about somebody taking a bad shot."
With Anthony sapping the energy from the offense, the players often lose their incentive to play defense. But even when he's trying to play defense, Amare Stoudemire struggles. Having spent almost his entire career in D'Antoni's non-defensive system, Stoudemire has trouble making defensive reads and rotations. Anthony knows what to do defensively, but simply refuses to do it consistently, the sources said.
Some players believe D'Antoni had the leverage to force Anthony to adjust to his system when he first returned from injury. The Knicks were rolling, showing they could win without Anthony, and their fan base was believing in D'Antoni's system. If D'Antoni had checked Anthony, perhaps even benching him, when he strayed from the offense, the players and fans would have been behind the coach and Anthony would have had no choice but to conform. But D'Antoni, ever the one to avoid confrontation with his players, would not do it, and now it's too late. That's when he lost the locker room for good.
Now, the players believe they need a coach who will hold players, especially the stars like Anthony and Stoudemire, accountable, the sources said. They do not believe D'Antoni is willing or able to do it.
On top of that, Baron Davis, who just returned from a back injury, is unhappy with his limited role as Lin's backup. Davis, averaging just 17 minutes a game, has already spoken to D'Antoni about giving him more playing time, according to the sources. While Lin wants to run D'Antoni's system, Davis is more in line with running the offense through Anthony and Stoudemire, the sources said.
"The only way this is going to work is if we have a coach that will hold Melo accountable and teach Melo, Amare and Jeremy how to play winning basketball," a source said.
 

mafra

Legend
What about this part:


"It is lost on no one that the Knicks' free-fall coincides precisely with the return of Anthony. While Anthony was out with a groin injury, the Knicks won 6 of 7 games, including victories over the Los Angeles Lakers and defending champion Dallas Mavericks. With Lin leading D'Antoni's offense, the Knicks played fast and free, spacing the floor, hitting the open man, and even improving defensively.
But the day Anthony returned, the Knicks lost to the struggling New Jersey Nets, starting a sorry stretch that has washed away all the feel-good emotions of Lin's emergence and left them on the verge of missing the playoffs."
 

Den318

Benchwarmer
What about this part:


"It is lost on no one that the Knicks' free-fall coincides precisely with the return of Anthony. While Anthony was out with a groin injury, the Knicks won 6 of 7 games, including victories over the Los Angeles Lakers and defending champion Dallas Mavericks. With Lin leading D'Antoni's offense, the Knicks played fast and free, spacing the floor, hitting the open man, and even improving defensively.
But the day Anthony returned, the Knicks lost to the struggling New Jersey Nets, starting a sorry stretch that has washed away all the feel-good emotions of Lin's emergence and left them on the verge of missing the playoffs."


Melo is the scapegoat!!! Mike is right :peace:
 
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