D’Antoni Is A Bad Late Game Coach

New York Knicks head man Mike D’Antoni is not a bad coach. Not by any means. He can get your team to the playoffs, rack up plenty of wins in the regular season, and plays an exciting style of basketball. His only problem is that he’s a bad late game coach.

Watching the Knicks melt down in the first two games in the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Boston Celtics reminded me of when he was coaching the Phoenix Suns. Suns fans probably know what I’m talking about and were probably having flashbacks watching the Knicks give away the first two games to the Celtics.

For all the flash the Suns had, they constantly found ways to lose to the Spurs, among others, in the playoffs. The Suns were always there in the end but found ways to lose it. Credit D’Antoni for that. He wasn’t the greatest late game tactician. That flaw reared it’s ugly head in games 1 and 2.

In game 1 Amare’ Stoudamire was punishing Kevin Garnett in the fourth quarter, but for some reason he didn’t see the ball down the stretch. Now if Stoudamire is the hot hand you keep going to it, don’t you? I know I would, but I’m only a Playstation coach so how would I know. All plays should’ve been ran through Stoudamire, save for Toney Douglas’ three pointer. Then you let Carmelo Anthony settle for a 30 footer for the last shot. Take your chances for overtime. I didn’t watch much of game 2, but I saw enough to come to the realization that D’Antoni doesn’t make the best choices late in the game.

The Knocks will be a force in the Eastern Conference in the years to come, whether D’Antoni will be there to see it through I don’t know. I’m not calling for his job, but the Knicks are destined to become the new age version of the 1980’s Milwaukee Bucks. Win a lot of games, but won’t win big in the playoffs.    

Quote Of The Week: George Karl

In the aftermath of the Carmelo Anthony trade to the New York Knicks, coach George Karl seems to have a high opinion of his team, the Denver Nuggets.

“You guys must think I’m crazy but I think we’re good. I had one practice with them, and I’m going ‘whoa!’ What always kind of mystifies me about this world of basketball is there’s so many brilliant minds in basketball; there’s so many guys that believe in the zone or believe in the triangle-and-two, or believe in the slow-down offense, or believe in the fast passing game offense — there’s so many ways to build a philosophy and win. But it seems like in the NBA you can only win with super stars. And I don’t believe that. I’ve always coached kind of doing what everybody else does, I do different. When I went to Seattle, nobody trapped and nobody did anything, so we fronted the post, and we double-teamed post-ups, and we doubled 40 or 50 percent of possessions a game and that worked. I just think why can’t you build a team where you don’t have a top-five player, but maybe a top-20 player at every position. That’s kind of what I’m thinking what we’re going to be. We might not have an All Star, but at every position and maybe even have a bench that has more versatility and explosiveness than anybody else. So you have six or seven weapons, you might not have a superstar weapon, but you have good weapons. And then play hard, play defense, and be the most unselfish basketball team that you can be, because team wins more often than talent in this league anyways.”

Someone has to have confidence don’t they? I do think the Nuggets have a future after Carmelo if they make the right moves.

The Knicks Would Be Wise To Wait On Melo

I was talking with one of my co-workers yesterday and we were talking about the neverending Carmelo Anthony rumors. More specifically about the Lakers trade rumor. The question was why the New York Knicks were trying so hard to land Anthony. I can understand the Lakers trying to pry him out of Denver. They could bridge the gap between Kobe Bryant’s eventual decline and pass the torch to Melo. I can dig it. The Knicks, not so much.

I read a post from a fellow blogger whose site name escapes me right now where he put together a three team trade involving the Lakers, Nuggets, and Knicks where all three help themselves in the process. It’s too much to explain so please excuse me for not breaking it down. My problem rests with New York. Melo wants to be there and the Knicks want him. It’s a match. Everyone knows why Anthony wants to get out of Denver as soon as possible. It’s simple, he wants to get paid before the new CBA (collective bargaining agreement). I can understand that. He’ll only sign an extension with the Knicks. If I’m Donnie Walsh I just wait until the offseason to sign him and give up nothing. I know the Knicks want out of Eddy Curry’s contract and can get rid of it in a trade. But why give up Wilson Chandler or Danilo Gallinari? I know the Knicks would like to get rid of Anthony Randolph, which would be good because maybe they recoup a first round pick in the process. Getting rid of Randolph makes the most sense since there is a logjam at his current position. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to include Chandler or Gallinari. They’ve shown me something this year and if Melo comes to New York one of them would be a major player off the bench, something you always need in the NBA. The Knicks would also boast one of the better frontlines in the league.

I don’t see why the Knicks are in such a to make this trade. I would wait to sign him and not give up a thing. I just don’t see why they would want to give up a few core young players to get one in return. It’s not like they would be a threat to win the title this year with him.The only way I make this trade is if this is the first step in some kind of master plan where the Knicks somehow get Chris Paul out of the Bayou or some other major player. Other than that, save your chips and play them elsewhere. It may get you more than you think.

Anthony: Chauncey Belongs In Denver

Who’s running the Denver Nuggets? Carmelo Anthony or Josh Kroenke. Just when it seems the Nuggets are close to making a deal Carmelo Anthony starts wavering about signing a contract extension with the New Jersey Nets. Then he says that he doesn’t want Chauncey Billups to be traded with him and that Billups belongs in Denver, where he’s a local hero of sorts. That was after Billups went as far as saying he wouldn’t want to play for the Nets and seek a buyout.

The Nuggets are assassinating their franchise. They’re blowing it up without really needing to. Personally I think their window of opportunity is shut, but Kobe Bryant is due to go away and there will be a new king in the Western Conference. But since Anthony doesn’t want to stick around they want to take some dynamite to their team and start over. If I were in the front office I’d make the best deal possible. Damn where he wants to go. Management holds the cards and they have to assure themselves they are getting fair value in return. Speaking of management, I won’t let them off the hook either. They keep coming up with outrageous trade demands, like asking for five first round picks or trying to get rid of Al Harrington’s bad contract. Anthony and his agent are driving this whole thing and the Nuggets brass is doing everything to accomodate them.

The Nuggets need to end this saga soon. Word is there is a trade to New Jersey close to being done. Deep down Anthony doesn’t want to go there. He wants to go with the New York Knicks and form his own superteam with Amare Stoudemire and whatever third wheel that will agree to play with them. If I’m the Nuggets I hold him hostage until I got the best deal, not the other way around. 

Dumars Was Wise Not To Buy Into This Deal

In another episode of  ‘As The Melo Turns’ , Carmelo Anthony’s agent Leon Rose has been trying to drag the Detroit Pistons into the discussion.

Everyone knows Anthony wants out of Denver and is trying to get to the New York Knicks or the New Jersey Nets. Everyone knows that both the Knicks and Nets are desperately trying to get the deal done. Also everyone knows the Detroit Pistons want to get rid of Richard Hamilton  and their 2 year , $25 million they have committed to him for the next two years. That’s where Rose comes in. Rose also represents Hamilton. Rose somehow talked Nets general manager Billy King into asking about Hamilton. The result was that New Jersey proposed sending Troy Murphy and his expiring deal and Johan Petro for Detroit’s 2011 first round draft pick and Hamilton. Dumars shot that one down, not wanting to part with the draft pick.

Kudos to Dumars. When i first read that, I thought why would he want Petro. Murphy maybe but I wouldn’t give up the pick either. Dumars’ draft record isn’t pretty, but he does know the art of the trade. Witness the Rasheed Wallace deal back in 2004 to get the Pistons over the hump. Or how he turned Mateen Cleaves and Rodney White into Jon Barry and a first round pick respectively. Dumars will trade Hamilton. Just because the Pistons are in a bad spot doesn’t mean that Dumars will trade for the sake of trading. He’ll wait for the right deal to come along and not give Hamilton away for a bobsled and a bag of basketballs.

Personally, I can’t wait to see if the Pistons will be part of this deal or not. The rebuilding of the Pistons is overdue.