2 things,
1) I don't know why you keep putting a "K" on my screen name, I know that's how the word is spelled....but that's not my name dude.
2) Ok, I'll amend my statement to 2+ years of no adjustments until Melo forced adjustments by breaking the offense and taking the ball to the elbow. It happened in his debut game, and then it started happening with some regularity later on and players were standing around looking lost because....well it wasn't the offense they had installed. Which means that wasn't an adjustment by MDA, it was Melo just playing his game and making everyone else adjust to him...and it's working. Lately there have been some adjustments to incorporate what Melo is good at, into the offense, but that only came after Melo decidedly broke the installed offense on occasion.
Amar'e has been here all season, Amar'e has been defensively challenged all season, Melo got here and was the first superstar to show that he gives a shit on the defensive end and has played like it, Amar'e is still defensively challenged (I'm not talking about being a great post defender, I'm talking not boxing out, not going straight up to contest, and inexplicably sidestepping to let drivers and cutters attack the cup)....so where's the accountability from MDA? Coach Popovich holds everyone accountable, from Duncan to Neal, so if Manu shows some effort on the defensive end but Duncan or Parker doesn't...it's not enough, he gets on them, and they deliver. Melo has been giving the effort and delivering....how come I saw Phil Weber in STAT's face and not MDA?
Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be a great defensive player to play good defense. Good defense is a team effort...hands up, see your man and see the ball, use your feet to stay with someone, lead your man to the help, create tougher passing angles/lanes with your hands, create tougher driving angles (which ties into leading your man to the help), those are all technical things that every single player in the league can accomplish at a high level...if it's being taught and stressed. Would that cultivate a top-10 defense? Probably not, but would it create a sound defensive team that can consistently get stops? You ****ing bet it would.
It's like teaching a young kid to shoot. You stress to him/her to keep their shooting elbow inward. Everytime they don't...you remind them and stress it, you coach them up. If you have to stop the shooting drills to show them what they're doing wrong....you do it. That has nothing to do with talent, so I don't want to hear that we don't have talented defenders...who are apparently incapable of learning and focusing? Cause that would have to be the excuse.
I look at all of the fundamental things on the defensive end that the 2008-09 Knicks didn't show, I look at all of the same deficiencies shown in 2009-10, and then the same problems the team has had this season, and the only constant is MDA...I look at how the team was still losing leads and subsequently games when they had a lead in the 4th quarter because there was no in game adjustment to the opposing team and shot clock when playing with a lead late, this happened in 2008, 2009, 2010, and the first few months of 2011, always in the same fashion....and the only constant in all of these scenarios is MDA, so I don't know how I was wrong about the 2+ years of no adjustments...but....ok?
None of this is my opinion, these are things that happened. It's not my opinion that the team was horrid defensively at a fundamental level while under MDA...it just was. It's not my opinion that the Knicks would take leads into the 4th Q and play the game as if they were trailing in the 2nd...that's what happened. It's not my opinion that these trends were present from October 2008 until March 2011....they just were. Things seem to be changing slightly with Melo and Billups here and plenty of people said they would. Those who support MDA to the very end saw the changes as a bad thing, and those who don't, said the team would be better for it going forward.
So for 2+ years were there no adjustments? Yes. Are there adjustments now after Melo? Yes. Is 2008 to 2009 a year? Yup. How about 2009 to 2010? Uh huh. October of 2010 to March of 2011 is about what 4-5 months give or take? Yezzir. Does that constitute the use of the "+" symbol to symbolize those 5 months? Mmhmm. So since October of 2008, MDA didn't make any adjustments to his offense, instead he had to acquire guys that fit the system...but once Melo is acquired in Feb. of 2011...adjustments are subsequently made...and I was wrong somehow?
Dude...