Good Riddance, Mike D'Antoni

And so the national nightmare is over. Mike D. has stepped down as head coach of the Knicks and we here at PTU are pretty happy about it. Our conversations via e-mail and in person and text have been dominated by the West Virginian with the goofy moustache for the last few weeks. He's of course not totally to blame for this fiasco of a season (everyone has underachieved aside from Lin, Chandler, Novak and yes, Jared Jeffries) but it is extremely unlikely that we would have been able to ship any of our other big name problems out of town. Who gets the axe then? Of course the head coach, and I am glad to see him go. We will no longer have to watch another post game press conference that goes like this: "Aw shucks, that other team was purty good, huh? We'll be fiiine, just need to keep the energy up, hyuk!". So ends a disastrous 3 and a half season era of Knicks basketball, marked by a few weeks of excitement, some high scores, putrid defense, lots of unhappy players and lots of losing. There's been talk of the team not respecting the coach for a couple days now, and D'Antoni butted heads with both his star players and his boss. It was only a matter of time before he had to go.

Whoever takes over now will have a tall order but hopefully it will be someone that can adapt their coaching philosophies to their expensive talent, motivate their players to work on the defensive end AS WELL as the offensive, hold players accountable and be respected in the locker room, and not have a moustache. Basically, everything that D'Antoni was not. Well, unless that one guy wants to grow a moustache again.....

Stay tuned, Knicks fans.

It Was All Good Just A Week Ago

Remember when the Knicks were given a punchers shot at stealing a series from the sluggish and seemingly disinterested Celtics? Remember last Sunday, when the Knicks showed a defensive effort, and played like they belonged there....for 47:23?

Well, as is usual with the Knicks, an opportunity for total disappointment is never missed. One of the ugliest 37 second stretches I've seen in a while was followed by another inspired effort. Without Stat, Melo carried the team and Jared Jeffries added to his legacy by providing a Charles Smith-like memory in what would be another painful loss. Then there was Good Friday. The Celtics where left more open than they were in their own shoot around. The C's hit 14 of 24 three pointers with Ray Allen going 8/11. Sometimes, great shooters will beat you regardless of what you do. However, leaving the most prolific three point shooter in the league's history about 6 feet open isn't ever going to help the cause. The defense was pathetic. The lack of energy was total disrespect to all Knicks fans who've waited so long for a playoff game.

The Knicks can't possibly be as bad as they were Friday night (at least I hope so), but it doesn't matter. I'm disappointed with this team. A loss tonight makes this entire season a failure. Losing this series is something all Knicks fans somewhat expected. No one expected them to provide us reminders of how awful things got throughout the season. We were provided with numerous frustrating examples of how solid this team can be defensively, and then seemingly forget how to play defense on other nights. How they just sort of show up on nights they need wins, and just sit around playing with a "so what" attitude.

This team obviously needs some pieces to compete. Pieces like a center who can rebound or a point guard who can play point guard (Toney Douglas is painful to watch). This team also needs a new coach. I've called for D'Antoni's head a few weeks ago and again a few days ago. There is no excuse for a lack of intensity, a lack of consistency, or a lack of urgency. It's not totally his fault, but he has a lot of blame in the matter. If you can't get your team to show up every night, if you can't get them to focus every night, and if you can't inspire them to get out of a mid game funk...you have to go.

The Knicks may sneak a win tonight, they probably won't...but does any of it matter? I'll be watching, but I'll have a quick remote control trigger finger.

Happy Easter PTU readers.

Is A Day Enough To Get It Together?

Thank you, David Stern. Somehow thinking it’s appropriate and necessary to have playoff games span over multiple nights, even though the games will be played in the same gym may help my New York Knicks tonight.

After Sunday’s depressing loss, a day off in Boston may actually help the Knicks in game 2 in a series I refuse to accept is over. Playing back to back nights after allowing an alley-oop inbound score, committing a bullcrap offensive foul, allowing a great three point shot, and missing a miserable 3 point attempt (all in about 37 seconds of hoops), a night off may actually help the Knicks.

The extra day off may allow just enough time for the Knicks to get over mourning the loss and focus on doing what built that lead on Sunday. It will also give Mike D'Antoni time to fix some of the holes that lead to Sunday's collapse.

The defense was fantastic. Blocked shots, hard fouls, and hands up defense were all things I doubted this team would ever do under D’Antoni. The problem was the offense. Melo shot like crap, but I’ll let Jalen Rose give you his insightful, “For the New York Knicks to win tonight, Carmelo Anthony needs to have a better offensive game,” sometime before the game. The offense was at its worse when they went into isolation basketball with someone (namely Melo and Billups) holding the ball for 6 seconds and heaving up a bad looking or difficult shot while everyone else just stood around and looking at each other. It looked like the times Kobe goes into “number 8” mode and makes amazing shots at times but the offense as a whole does not seem cohesive. The offense seemed to be its best when Stat was movin' and groovin' (thanks Clyde) and was drawing defenders and getting him the ball.

Mike D’Antoni is considered to be an offensive genius. He’s had an extra day to look at tape and an extra day to get his team in line. I have to think he saw all of that. Now the question lies in whether he can convince his team to listen and start moving, especially with that extra day to prepare. I have some faith he can and say the Knicks win it tonight by 5. If not, Mike D has to go.

Mike D'Antoni Has To Go

I like Mike D’Antoni. In a dark time of Knicks’ basketball, he brought his mustache along with an entertaining style of basketball to the Garden. It all made a very bad Knicks team at least a little fun to watch…but Mike’s time is up. As Mikey D’s track record has proven, entertainment usually translates to a bunch of points and a bunch of disappointing losses.

With the recent losses, the Knicks have shown a lack of offensive continuity. They have also continued their futility on the defensive end of the ball and seem to forget all things intangible (rebound anyone). The result has been a string of bad losses (much like the beginning of the season). If the Knicks want to compete for more than a playoff spot, there needs to be a change in the offense and a change in the "offense comes second to nothing".

The addition of Melo means you have to create an offense where both he and Amare can coexist. Melo’s strength isn’t in playing the move and spacing game D’Antoni preaches. His game can be likened to Kobe and the role Kobe plays in the Triangle. He can be on the ball, dish when the defense collapses or shoot when he’s alone in the post or has space to shoot facing the basket. With that considered, there also needs to be at least a basic commitment to some defense. Every team/player goes through stretches where baskets are hard to come by. What keeps great teams in those games is their ability to play some defense and keep things a little close (all things the Knicks have struggled to do recently making these loses look so bad). D’Antoni seems either incapable or unwilling of making those offensive/defensive adjustments, meaning he has to go. Maybe this Melo move was a secret sneaky move to get him out of his job by The Snake (Isaiah Thomas) and James Dolan.

I suggested Ewing as a possibility in a recent post. Another option mentioned by Bill Simmons is have Phil come back to where it started and try and win a ring like his old coach/idol Red (a move I would endorse but seems unlikely). Anyone have any other names to throw in the hat?